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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, Nov. 5) - UNESCO has awarded a German firm, Maar Denkmalpflege, a contract to preserve the world-famous but decaying Moai head sculptures on Easter Island.

According to Reuters news agency, the company plans to begin treating the statues with chemicals in early 2005 in a project estimated to cost about US$11 million.

The chemicals should prevent moisture passing through the stone and stabilize it, stopping the growth of large cracks now forming rapidly.

The Moai statues are between 400 and 1,000 years old and average 4 meters in height, weighing up to 82 tons.

November 5, 2003

Radio New Zealand International: http://www.rnzi.com/

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Nov. 4) - A major American corporation, Affiliated Computer Services, is the latest company to choose Fiji as a processing center for business support operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Texas-based ACS has announced it will be employing up to 300 people in its new Suva office by January.

ACS provides support services for companies in areas such as finance, accounting, sales and marketing.

In a statement released from its headquarters in Dallas, the company says its new Suva office will support out-sourced services for its clients in the retail and transport industries around the Pacific Rim.

One of its clients is Air New Zealand whose Vice President of Revenue Accounting, Andrew McCurdie, says the airline is delighted ACS has followed up its suggestion to consider Fiji as an operational location.

The new center occupies two floors of a seven story building in Suva.

ACS says among factors...

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Nov. 4) - Australia's Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the militant Islamic group, Hamas, and a Pakistani organization.

The government wants to list the two groups, which are not classified as terrorist organizations by the United Nations.

The move comes amid a government review of the powers of Australia's security intelligence organization, ASIO, after the deportation of French terror suspect Willie Brigitte.

The 35-year-old suspect, who is now being held in France on terrorism-related charges, is allegedly linked to the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Attorney general Philip Ruddock has told parliament, that the organization has links with Australia.

Mr Ruddock will introduce a bill on Wednesday allowing the government to list Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Islamic military group, Hamas, as terrorist organizations.

The Opposition Labor Party says it will support...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, Nov. 5) –Human rights organization Transparency International has listed Papua New Guinea among the most corrupt of 133 nations in a recent survey of world business leaders.

The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2003 ranked PNG at 121 — the 13th most corrupt among the countries surveyed.

The listing puts PNG in a cluster with Libya, Indonesia, Kenya and Angola. 

The index ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is alleged to exist among public officials and politicians.

Transparency International (PNG) spokeswoman Annie McPherson said PNG had many cases of corruption not only in government departments but in business houses as well. 

The index does not give the actual levels of corruption, rather it highlights a general perception from data such as court and media reports in exposing corruption. 

Speaking at the launch of the index recently,...