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MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Nov. 5) - Members of Solomon Islands' House of Chiefs have expressed concern over the way dolphins are being treated in pens in Central Province.

The chiefs want the mammal keepers to set them free because the pens in Gavutu have become too shallow.

Members of the Gela House of Chiefs say the dolphins will die from overcrowding and a lack of food.

The first consignment of dolphins captured in the Solomons was sent to an amusement part in Mexico earlier this year. One of the dolphins died shortly thereafter.

This created a controversy among environmentalists worldwide.

November 5, 2003

Radio Australia: www.abc.net.au/ra

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Nov. 4) - Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has offered the United Nations rent-free accommodation in Canberra to avoid it closing down in Australia.

The UN's information office for the Asia Pacific region was facing closure because of funding concerns.

Spokesman, Juan Carlos Brant, says high commercial rent in Sydney was a problem and many other UN offices across the world are being shut down.

He has welcomed the Government's offer to move the headquarters from Sydney to rent-free premises in the Australian Capital Territory.

"Other offices of the UN system in the developed world are being closed - nine of them in Europe - before the end of this year," he said.

November 5, 2003

Radio Australia: www.abc.net.au/ra

Editorial

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Nov. 4) - We only wish it was as simple as the New Zealand Deputy High Commissioner would have us all believe.

Let us make our position clear from the outset.

The National has since its inception 10 years ago fought tooth and nail for the equality of women, whether in the work place, the village or the family unit.

We have striven to show that domestic violence is akin to animal behavior.

We have applauded all those who have stood up to be counted in this struggle, and we will go on doing so.

There is a future for Papua New Guinean women.

It does not lie exclusively in the kitchen, the bed, or the garden.

It lies in establishing a nationally recognized equality of opportunity with their male counterparts.

New Zealand's Ms Tessa Tamata means nothing but well when she outlines the strides the women of her own country have taken towards that desirable goal of equality...

Editorial

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, Nov. 5) - The break-in at the Migration Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs resulting in the theft of Papua New Guinea passports is an extremely serious matter.

It is a matter that demands a high level inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the mysterious break and enter and the removal of new passports as well as computers and documents of a highly sensitive nature.

The break-in goes to show that corrupt individuals are still in the Government system and they must be held responsible for this criminal act, which places this country’s security at great risk. These individuals must be hunted down and prosecuted before they cause any more damage to the security of PNG.

The Government should shoulder full responsibility for what has happened because of its failure to act on the so-called passport scam report, which it has taken possession of ever since coming into office more than 12...