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ALOFI, Niue (March 4, 2002 -- Niue Economic Review/PINA Nius Online)---Tiny Niue has asked the powerful Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to get its own house in order at the same time it pressures small island states.

Niue has decided to ditch its offshore banking business, after pressure from OECD, a grouping of some of the world' richest nations. But Niue will retain the lucrative registry of international business companies.

Niue has joined other Pacific Islands calling for rich countries like Switzerland and Luxembourg to comply with the OECD anti-money laundering and tax evasion regulatory regimes.

The Pacific islands want "a level playing field" and have accused the OECD of taking "a neo colonial attitude" towards island states.

Niue gains about NZ$ 20,000 (US$ 8,458) a year from offshore banking license fees and NZ$ 2 million (US$ 845,800) from registry fees paid by international business companies.

Niue has...

SUVA, Fiji Islands (March 2, 2002 - Fiji Sun/Pasifik Nius)---The Fiji Sun newspaper today alleged a clan of Fijian landowners was extorting and terrorizing Indo-Fijian farmers, and that a cabinet minister had tried to suppress the story.

In a front-page banner headline, "Censored: The story we weren’t supposed to tell," the paper exposed the plight of 85 Indian farmer families in the Sigatoka River Valley.

And it condemned Health Minister Pita Nacuva, the parliamentary representative for indigenous Fijian voters in the area, over warning the Sun not to publish anything about how the farmers were being terrorized.

The Sun appealed to Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s government to deal with the problem -- "single out the culprits and let justice takes its course."

The newspaper said that in spite of claims by the minister in Parliament two weeks ago that the eight-year-old dispute had been settled, landowners were continuing to blockade the Sigatoka Valley...

By Michael Field

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (March 5, 2002 – Agence France-Presse)---The Kingdom of Tonga will hold general elections Thursday. These are some key facts:

+ The kingdom covers a land area of 718 square kilometers (287 square miles) over 170 islands. Only 36 are permanently inhabited by the country’s 104,000 Polynesians.

+ Most political power is held by the 83-year-old constitutional monarch, King Taufa‘hau Tupou IV.

+ Bachelor Crown Prince Tupouto‘a, 53, is the designated successor but his younger brother, Prime Minister Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka ‘Ata, 43, is being tipped as the possible next king.

+ Sixth in line Princess Salote Pilolevu Tuita, 50, the king’s only daughter, is reputedly the richest person in the kingdom through her control of a lucrative state asset, satellite slot leasing.

+ The king’s life-appointed cabinet hold 12 of Parliament’s 30 seats while the 33 nobles hold another nine seats. Commoners elect nine...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (March 4, 2002 - The National/PINA Nius Online)---Papua New Guinea has taken one more step towards recognizing French-speaking New Caledonia as a growing Melanesian power. It signed a fishing agreement to develop the marine resources in each other's exclusive economic zones (EEZ).

The "framework agreement" has taken almost three years to negotiate with New Caledonia and metropolitan France.

France has expanded its deep-sea fishing fleet in the South Pacific in recent years in competition with Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese fleets.

The agreement -- signed in Madang between Fisheries and Marine Resources Minister Ron Ganarafo and New Caledonia Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Maurice Pongia -- provides for:

Negotiations over the agreement were concluded last July during the Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders' meeting in the New Caledonia capital, Nouméa.

Mr. Ganarafo said last week that the agreement follows on from...