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By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, June 30) - More than a hundred rounds of unexploded World War II munitions were found by the police in different residential areas and at a construction site yesterday morning.

The ordnance came from Papago, Capitol Hill, Kagman, Chalan Piao, San Jose and a construction site along Beach Road in Garapan.

The munitions, which included bombs and grenades, have been secured in a safe place in Marpi along with other unexploded ordnance earlier recovered

Department of Public Safety spokesman Eric David said they received a call at around 8:30 a.m. regarding the ordnance.

Police Sgt. Juan Diaz said they are still conducting an inventory on the number of World War II munitions that have been collected so far, but he added that it could be over a hundred already.

"We have to weigh (some of them) to determine if they reach 500 pounds, if they reach 500 pounds then we will call the (...

SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, July 1) – The granting of amnesty to convicts serving prison terms is constitutional and should be an integral part of the justice system, the ruling Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party says.

In its submission on the government’s Reconciliation and Unity Bill yesterday, party director Jale Baba said the amnesty provision of the Bill would "allow the people of Fiji to hear and come to terms with the truth of the events that led to and followed the May 2000 crisis. Only then can the nation develop meaningful strategies for long-term peace and stability," he said.

Mr Baba said allegations the Bill was developed to keep the Coalition government intact could not be further from the truth.

"We heard the Fiji Labour Party offered amnesty and Cabinet positions in 2001 to entice Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua members to join them in government," he said. "If that was the truth then why does FLP find the Bill so unacceptable as part of...

TAHITI ‘GIP FORCE’ DEMANDS CONTRACT RENEWALS

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, June 30) – The GIP [Groupe d'intervention de la Polynésie], a special security force in French Polynesia that blockaded the territory’s main port twice this year, says it wants to see the contracts of more than 200 of its members renewed by the end of August.

A spokesman for the GIP, Rere Puputauki, has told local television that if there is no agreement with the government, there will be unprecedented strikes and blockades.

The GIP, which was formed as a disaster relief unit in the 1990’s, was expanded to almost 1,300 members by the former government of Gaston Flosse late last year.

It rebelled against the new government of Oscar Temaru and closed the main port in Tahiti after he had appointed an advisor, Robert Maker, as the new GIP boss.

Under a deal brokered and guaranteed by the French state in April, Mr Puputauki’s deputy became the interim...

HONOLULU (Pacific Islands Report, July 1) – The Marshall Islands Environmental Protection Agency has rejected the location of a floating drydock at Uliga, an island in Majuro Atoll.

But the agency, which cited environmental concerns about the industrial operation near urban areas, said it would consider another location for the facility.

The project was proposed by Taiwan-based Ching Fu Shipyard Co. Ltd.

"The RMI EPA Board is not prepared to grant the project approval due to the conflict of competing uses and land use at the preferred Uliga site," the agency said in a news release. "It is the opinion of the Board that the location for the proposed project does not allow that all significant adverse environmental effects that may be avoided have been eliminated or substantially lessened."

According to the company’s website, Ching Fu launched a 101-meter floating dry-dock intended to serve as a repair facility in the Marshalls on April 30.

Uliga is...