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TAKING ITS TOLL

By Michael Field

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (August 1, 2002 – Agence France-Presse)---It is barely conceivable that a rich nation would give cash aid to a multinational tobacco firm so that it could build a cigarette factory in a Third World country.

The fact that New Zealand did just that continues to cause red faces 24 years on.

Wellington School of Medicine researcher George Thomson believes the result of the aid was simple: "Hundreds of early deaths seems a conservative estimate."

Two of the key players are dead and another is not talking, but long after other New Zealand aid projects have faded from the Pacific its cigarette factory continues to churn out its product.

In 1976 New Zealand launched a series of dawn raids and random street arrests on Pacific Island immigration overstayers, outraging the worst affected, Tonga and Samoa.

As a consolation New Zealand began an aid project designed to encourage industries to...

NOUMÉA, New Caledonia (August 1, 2002 - Oceania Flash)---The world's top Pacific archaeologists are meeting this week in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first discovery of Lapita pottery, which is the foundation for current Pacific early migration theories, the daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reports.

The conference, titled "Pacific Archaeology: Taking Stock and Future Prospects," is being held in Koné village (Northern Province of New Caledonia), where the first Lapita pottery were unearthed in July 1952, on Foué Beach (west coast of the main island of New Caledonia) by a team led by American archaeologist Richard Shutler.

It was also the first time that the Carbon 14 datation system was used in this field.

Fifty years later, Shutler is back in New Caledonia as the main guest of the conference, which is co-organized by New Caledonia's territorial government, its cultural affairs department...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (August 2, 2002 – Post-Courier)---Fresh elections will be held in Southern Highlands Province as soon practicable, election boss Reuben Kaiulo announced yesterday.

Mr. Kaiulo said new nominations would be called when the timetable for the new Southern Highlands election was worked out and money was found.

"No fresh elections can be held without guaranteed protection for election workers and the general public. Police, candidates, their supporters and community leaders must guarantee that the fresh elections will be held — without lawlessness, trouble, threats gun-fighting and killings — for voters to freely elect their choice of leaders," Mr. Kaiulo stressed.

In a three-page statement, Mr. Kaiulo said only six of the nine electorates in Southern Highlands would have fresh elections because the other three — Mendi, Ialibu-Pangia and Nipa-Kutubu — had been declared.

He also announced the declarations of the six seats in Enga...

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (August 1, 2002 – Radio Australia)---Solomon Islands police are guarding the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance building in Honiara, following continuous threats from people seeking payments.

Police at the scene told the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation that they have been instructed to provide security for the two offices, because staff have been unable to do their work following threats from members of the public.

The government Treasury has been closed indefinitely because of the threats.

Police say only people working within the Office of the Prime Minister and the Finance Ministry will be allowed through police lines. The security cordon will be maintained for an indefinite period.

The Solomon Islands economy is near collapse after years of civil war.

Loans from Taiwan are keeping the government afloat.

For additional reports from Radio Australia, go to PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT News/...