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SYDNEY, Australia (ABC News Online, Dec. 28) – Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the decision by the Solomons Islands to declare its Australian Police Commissioner persona non grata is a sign of the appalling levels of governance in the country.

The Solomons Government has declared Shane Castles an "undesirable immigrant" in a bid to keep him from returning to the Pacific nation. Mr Castles is currently in Australia on extended leave.

Mr Downer says Australian officials will meet the Solomons Acting Prime Minister to discuss the matter in the next few days.

"All the Solomon Islands police have been trying to do is uphold the law; all the Government has been trying to do is circumvent the law," he said. "The Solomon Islands Government has behaved disgracefully."

The Solomons Foreign Minister says Mr Castles' presence in the Pacific nation is prejudicial to peace, defence, public safety and good governance.

Relations have been tense...

By Daniel Korimbao

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Dec. 29) – Some Members of Parliament who had threatened to block the 2007 Budget received their electoral funds despite failing to meet requirements, including submitting acquittals for the expenditure of funds for the previous year, sources have revealed.

This is in direct violation of a direction from the Ombudsman Commission, and could lead to the prosecution of various public office holders, including the Ministers for Treasury and Finance and Planning and their departmental heads, under the Leadership Code.

The passage of the 2007 Budget last month had to be delayed on a number of occasions because Members of Parliament, many of them Government back benchers, had demanded that they be given their district development funds, in its various forms, before they support the budget.

A source in Vulupindi Haus told The National that cheques were raised for a number of MPs, addressed to their...

SANG NAMES NEW FRENCH POLYNESIA CABINET

SUVA, Fiji (Oceania Flash, Dec. 31) - French Polynesia's newly-elected President, Gaston Tong Sang, yesterday announced his cabinet lineup, local media report.

Tong Sang's 15-member cabinet includes significant portfolios for three outer islands members of the local legislative assembly (Louis Frébault, Michel Yip and Temauri Foster) who had crossed the floor to oust former President Oscar Temaru in a motion of no confidence on December 13.

Temauri Foster, who claims to lead the group, has been made Vice-President, minister for municipalities' development.

Frébault is the new minister for public works, ports and airports.

Yip has taken charge of posts and telecommunications and black pearl farming industries.

All three also held ministerial portfolios under the ousted Temaru administration.

Tong Sang sad he had also offered portfolios to members of the "civil society".

Other political...

By Fili Sagapolutele

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (Samoa News, Dec. 30) - The board of the American Samoa Government Employees Retirement Fund [ASGERF] told a Senate committee yesterday that it will not release documents subpoenaed by the legislative group until the High Court rules on their complaint.

The ASGERF petitioned the High Court this week to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction suspending or quashing subpoenas the Senate committee issued to its board members and executive director. The ASGERF is asking the Court to rule on the scope of oversight authority the Senate committee has over affairs of the ASGERF.

ASGERF board chairman Aleki Sene Sr., and later ASGERF's attorney Marie Lafaele, informed the Senate committee about their position of not handing over the documents until a court ruling is made. (Lafaele and attorney Charles Alailima, who is behind the ASGERF's complaint and is currently off island, are with the lawfirm of...