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Australia Has ‘Total Respect’ For Indonesia’s Sovereignty: PM Abbott talks about human trafficking with Yudhoyono in Jakarta

By Samantha Hawley

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Oct. 1, 2013) – Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has guaranteed he will respect Indonesia's sovereignty when implementing his asylum seeker policies, while Indonesia has agreed greater bilateral cooperation is needed.

Mr. Abbott says he had a "very frank" and "constructive" discussion about people smuggling during a bilateral meeting with Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta last night.

Mr. Abbott told a joint press conference after the meeting that he was committed to working with Mr. Yudhoyono to address the matter.

"We had a very frank discussion about issues of sovereignty... and about issues of people smugglers," he said.

"Australia's got total respect for Indonesia's sovereignty.

"We are determined to end this scourge,...

Annulment of loans a ‘one-off’ assistance: Tikoitoga

By Daniel Naidu

SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, Oct. 1, 2013) – Forty-seven families heaved a sigh of relief yesterday after the Housing Authority of Fiji wrote off their loans totaling FJ$395,000 [US$211,708] to ensure they retained their homes.

Since 2011 when the authority began writing off home loans of families who were deemed unable to make repayments, under the housing social policy within the authority, CEO Alipate Naiorosui said it had so far assisted 393 families to the tune of about FJ$4 million [US$2.1 million].

As for the 47 loan accounts amounting to FJ$395,000, it has been confirmed that FJ$285,000 [US$] was drawn from a government grant alongside FJ$110,000 [US$58,956] from Housing Authority provisions.

Authority board chairperson Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga said during their assessment of those accounts, it was evident that those homeowners did not have the ability to repay their loan....

Doctor urges women to seek treatment after early detection

NUKUALOFA, Tonga (Matangi Tonga, Oct. 1, 2013) – Breast cancer remains the leading cancer among women in Tonga, where four have died this year due to a disease that is treatable if caught early, Dr. 'Ana 'Akau'ola said today.

Launching 'Pink October' for public awareness on October 1, she encouraged women to come forward with their symptoms when they appear.

Dr. ‘Akau’ola was speaking on this year's theme ‘Early detection early treatment – Talk to me', at the function attended by HRH Princess Pilolevu Tuita, the Patron of the Tonga Breast Cancer Society Inc. and its President Hon. Frederica Tuita-Filipe, at the Black Pearl Suites in Sopu.

She emphasised that breast cancer is treatable if caught early enough and that it will not go away without proper treatment. "We have women living as long as 20-30 years after treatment and, of course, there are few that despite our best efforts cannot be saved...

Inos: no telling how federal grants will be affected

By Haidee V. Eugenio

SAIPAN, CNMI (Saipan Tribune, Oct. 2, 2013) – Some federally funded programs in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, including those at the Commonwealth Health Center (CHC), will be impacted by the first U.S. government shutdown in 17 years but the full extent and duration of these effects will not be known until the next few days.

Some federal employees stationed here have also started receiving furlough notices.

The CNMI is ahead of Washington, D.C. by one day so some federal agencies here were also still waiting for specific notices from their main offices as of yesterday afternoon.

Roxanne Diaz, CHC Division of Public Health director, confirmed with Saipan Tribune yesterday that some of their programs, including the Women, Infant and Children, or WIC, program, are impacted by the shutdown.

"But we do have contingency plans in place to ensure that our...