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HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, May 1) – Starting today, the price of gas at Shell Guam stations will be 6 cents higher.

The adjustment, which took effect at midnight, is the third price increase in the past month for the island.

With the increase, the price of regular unleaded is now US$3.23 per gallon, premium grade is US$3.38 per gallon and diesel is US$3.35 per gallon.

"Shell Guam must again increase our retail price of regular, premium unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel effective close of business April 30," Shell Guam President Ruben Domingo said in a press release yesterday. "Since our last price movement our cost of supply has continued to increase, requiring today's movement."

The last two price increases were by 8 cents per gallon.

It is not known whether SPPC 76 stations or Mobil Oil Guam will also change their prices. Once one oil company shifts its prices, the island's other fuel retailers usually adjust theirs as well.

SYDNEY, Australia (Australian Broadcasting Corp, April 30) - The Australian Government is being asked to review sanctions imposed against Fiji in the wake of the December coup.

The Foreign Affairs Department has issued bans on anyone involved in the coup from traveling to Australia.

But the Fiji Australia Business Council says the bans have gradually expanded to such an extent that business leaders are being dissuaded from taking up government appointments.

The council's Suva-based president Caz Tebbutt Dennis says it is leaving a hole in the decision making process and preventing the country moving forward.

"What we are finding is that we are missing that opportunity for some of Fiji's best and brightest to stand up and lead the way, back to really the same place that Australia would like to see us be - [under] democratic rule, as quickly as possible," she said.

"We all want the same thing and the Fiji business community should have a right to...

SUVA, Fiji (Fiji Times, April 30) – Work has resumed on the multi-million dollar Momi Bay Resort project in Fiji after a row between the developers and the Fiji Islands Customs and Revenue Authority was resolved.

[PIR editor’s note: Momi Bay is located on the southwest coast of Fiji’s Viti Levu island. Back in 2005, landowners voiced concern over how project deals were made, saying that there was little in the bargain to benefit landowners. Ratu [chief] Osea Gavidi told landowners highlighted the plight of owners of the land where the Momi Bay Resort was to be built, saying landowners were paid only US$23,820, which equated to about US$4.76 per landowner even though they were losing a rich fishing ground.]

Fiji Mariott developers yesterday confirmed work at the Momi Bay resort resumed last week, but refused to discuss the taxation issue.

Work on the project came to a halt after the Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority ordered the project developers Matapo...

APIA, Samoa (Samoa Observer, April 28) – For the first time, an Asian Pacific American is heading the Asia, Pacific, and Global Environment Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The ascent of Samoan American Rep Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin (D-AS), chair of the twelve-member subcommittee, was exemplified by his recent trip to China where he, Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) met with China’s second highest leader, National People’s Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.

This month, Faleomavaega went to Palo Alto, Calif., where he talked with Asian Pacific Americans supporting Rep. Mike Honda’s (D-CA) resolution demanding that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologize for atrocities committed against Asian sex slaves during World War II.

AUDIENCE

Among the audience were the parents of the late Rape of Nanking author Iris Chang. Faleomavaega held the first-ever committee hearings on the issue of Asian...