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HONIARA, Solomon Islands (October 5, 2000 - Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation/PINA Nius Online)---Fears of an electricity shutdown in the capital, Honiara, are over. General Manager of the Solomon Islands Electricity Authority, Mike Mason, said instead a full supply of electricity to Honiara and surrounding areas will be back to normal soon.

The Solomon Islands Electricity Authority was forced to ration the supply of electricity to different parts of the capital over the past few days because of a two million dollar unpaid bill with fuel supplier Mobil.

Solomon Islands Electricity Authority Management then requested that the government assist in paying the bill before its storage tanks ran out, as expected, today.

The authority said it was having problems collecting more than sixteen million dollars of unpaid bills from customers.

(Background: A cease-fire in the Solomon Islands follows ethnic conflict which engulfed Guadalcanal, the island on...

By Keni Ramese Lesa

APIA, Samoa (October 4, 2000 - Samoa Observer/PINA Nius Online)---Samoa's sole supplier of petroleum products, Mobil Oil, is confident it has sufficient supply to meet the local demand.

Despite reports from Asian and European countries about "panic buying," Mobil Oil Australia gave assurances that it is "not anticipating" a similar problem in Samoa, let alone the Pacific.

The company was asked for a comment on reports that the petrol supply was low around the world. This has resulted in panic buying, rocketing prices to a 10-year high. Mobil Oil Australia’s Senior Public Affairs Advisor, Mr. Alan J. Bailey, told the Samoa Observer the situation in Asia and Europe did not apply to the Pacific.

"In regard to Samoa, we do not anticipate any oil supply problems or shortages as a result of what is happening in Europe," he said.

In a written correspondence, Mr. Bailey wrote: "World oil prices are high at present due to a combination...

NOUMEA, New Caledonia (October 4, 2000 – Oceania Flash/SPC)---Marie-France Dezarnaulds on Tuesday became New Caledonia's first Mediator, a position widely known in the Pacific Islands region as Ombudsman, the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reports.

Dezarnaulds was chosen and installed in office by France's Mediator of the Republic, former French overseas minister Bernard Stasi, who was in the French territory for the past six days.

An educator, Dezarnaulds was chosen for "her experience in administration and her listening skills," Stasi said.

"She has all the required skills to be the first Mediator of the French Republic in New Caledonia - experience in the life of associations and great listening skills. And throughout her career, she demonstrated accessibility," Stasi said on Tuesday after Dezarnaulds was officially sworn in.

The Mediator's role is to "settle conflicts between individual citizens and the state administration. If a...

PORT VILA, Vanuatu (October 5, 2000 - Vanuatu Weekly/PINA Nius Online)---Live Work is something Rosa Tao, Mary Tony, Patricia Fred and Jenny Galibert know all about. The young women are AusAID-funded Equity Scholarship awardees at the Institut National de Technologie de Vanuatu (INTV). Mary Tony and Patricia Fred have already found work and Rosa and Jenny have been attached to businesses for the last two weeks putting the theory they have learned at INTV into practice.

In the past, girls at INTV studied traditional subjects like typing or business studies or hospitality. The seven-year INTV Strengthening Project, funded by the Australian Government and now in Phase II, has tried to change that situation.

While many girls at INTV still pursue careers in traditional areas at INTV, there is now a growing number of young women undertaking non-traditional subjects. AusAID has offered Equity Scholarships to encourage young women to study in more unusual areas such as...