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PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, July 31) - A
high school student suspected of stealing wet cocoa beans was stripped naked and
paraded in two public places in Kokopo on Tuesday after five of his fingers were
cut.

It is the cocoa flush period and the theft of wet beans is on
the increase in cocoa-producing provinces — angering cocoa farmers who
highlighted it as a major problem in the industry during last fortnight’s
cocoa workshop in Kokopo.

Kokopo Police Chief Inspector Benjamin Mangkeju said yesterday
police attended to the incident on Tuesday but could not interview the student
as he was still in shock.

He said investigations into the incident have not started as the
student was yet to file a formal complaint about the attack.

The boy attends Kokopo Secondary School whose headmaster Patrick
Jerome yesterday condemned the attack on the Grade 10 student.

An eyewitness...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, Aug. 1) - The director of Tonga’s
Human Rights and Democracy Movement, Lopeti Senituli, has condemned a new
measure aimed at controlling the media in Tonga.

He said the Newspaper Bill would go further than the Media
Operator’s Act, passed earlier this week, which restricts foreign media
ownership to twenty percent.

Senituli said the new bill would give the Government the right
to shut down any newspaper regardless of its origin.

He said the Government could make decisions based on content,
the paper’s intepretation of Tongan culture and national identity, and other
matters as determined by the Minister.

It virtually gives the minister and the cabinet a blank check as
to what standards they can impose, and lays down how that can be imposed."

He said the pro-establishment papers could also be threatened by
the measure, as they have also recently questioned the new...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (RNZI, July 31) - A contingent of 15
Samoan police officers are expected to leave for Solomon Islands in two weeks.

Samoa had offered to send 40 officers to be part of the
Australian-led intervention force but the new police commissioner,
Papali‘itele Lorenese Neru, says only 15 officers were requested at this time.

The commissioner says he thinks the Samoan contingent will be
based in Honiara, with normal policing duties.

"They will have to display a high level of integrity, high
level of discipline, and treat everyone fairly, going into these island
nations... we are going in to help them, to assist them to bring their
livelihoods and their lives up to a standard where it's acceptable to normal
human life".

The commissioner says the Samoa police officers will be the
first of the Pacific island contingents to be sent to Solomon Islands.

He says police from Fiji, Tonga...

By Theresa Merto

HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Aug. 1) - A former Guam Power
Authority cashier was indicted yesterday for allegedly stealing more than
$11,000 from the agency during a month-and-a-half long scheme.

Jesusa Salas Muna, 44, faces charges of theft of property as a
second-degree felony and official misconduct as a misdemeanor, according to
court documents.

Muna allegedly took an estimated $11,075.75 worth of payments
made to about 42 GPA customer accounts, according to Attorney General Douglas
Moylan.

Superior Court of Guam Presiding Judge Alberto Lamorena issued a
warrant of arrest yesterday afternoon for Muna and set a cash bail of $25,000,
Moylan said.

"The Office of the Attorney General wishes to emphasize
that the crime being charged arises from a position of trust, which we contend
was violated by this former employee while working for the government of Guam as...