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By Haidee V. Eugenio

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (January 4, 2000 - Marianas Variety/PINA Nius Online)---Tanapag residents are demanding another round of blood testing to assess the level of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination in their bodies.

The residents said there might be a "conspiracy" among federal and local agencies in deliberately conducting wrong PCB tests since May.

"Health Agencies have no other choice but to do it again. We will demand another round of testing. They made a mistake and they knew it beforehand," said Juan I. Tenorio, Chairman of the Tanapag Action Group.

(PCBs are cancer-causing man-made chemicals. There has been continuing controversy over their presence in the Tanapag area and their effects on local people. The United States Department of Defense used PCBs in a radar station in the area in the 1960s.)

Tanapag Action Group officials have given the Attorney General’s Office authorization to access over 1,...

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (January 4, 2001 - Saipan Tribune/PINA Nius Online)---Northern Marianas police officers will conduct an island-wide information campaign for owners of establishments selling pornographic materials. They will be fully informed about the recently signed law that prohibits the selling of such items to minors.

The law states that it is now illegal to display or show any graphic reproduction of genitalia or sexual contact -- unless such material is used for medical reference or for educational purposes -- without prominently posting a notice in English, Chamorro, Carolinian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Tagalog. The establishment also must prohibit admittance to persons who are below the age of 18.

Some Japanese groups have complained to tourism officials that the display of pornographic materials in the stores affects the image of Saipan as an ideal tourist destination for Japanese families.

For additional reports from The Island...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (January 4, 2001 - The National/PINA Nius Online)---A Papua New Guinean has made it a first for his country by winning the post of Population Specialist with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), based in Nouméa, New Caledonia.

He is Arthur Jorari, the Deputy National Statistician - Statistical Services, with the National Statistical Office.

He received the offer last April but had to delay accepting the job because of the 2000 National Population Census.

His contract with the SPC is for a term of three years, and he has the option to renew it after the third year.

The SPC is an inter-governmental technical advice, assistance, training and research agency serving 22 Pacific Island countries and territories in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

The SPC demography/population program has provided population assistance to member countries since 1967.

The program's general objective is to support...

By Zacery Per

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (January 4, 2001 -The National/PINA Nius Online)---Members of the Okiufa tribe in Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands have stormed the University of Goroka campus and shut it down.

The Okiufa tribe, customary landowners of the area on which the University of Goroka is located, is demanding the immediate payment of K 2.7 million (US$ 888,300) before the university can reopen for 2001.

The Lands Title Commission last year awarded K 2.7 million to the Okiufa tribe after a hearing in Goroka. But no payments have yet been made even though negotiations for compensation began some 15 years ago.

The tribal group also has claims on land occupied by Goroka Business College, Goroka District Administration Services, Eastern Highlands Capital Authority Works Unit and other related institutions.

A ward councilor with the tribe, Robin Enka, told The National newspaper that the Okiufa people had lost patience over the...