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By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, Jan. 2) – Despite their divergent loyalties and cultural identities, Chamorros of Guam and of the Northern Marianas have a common point to which these divergent identities converge — music.

Guam ethnomusicologist and music teacher Mike Clement, who has delved into the history of Chamorro music as recorded by the Jesuits, found that Chamorros share a common cultural legacy — music — that distinguishes them from other cultures in the region.

Clement who underwent hip replacement surgery and is recovering in Hawaii, was able to prepare a lecture read by Guam Territorial Band conductor Maximo Ronquillo at the Visitors Center of the American Memorial Park recently.

Ronquillo, who accompanied the Guam Territorial Band to Saipan for their band clinic and performances for Mt. Carmel Drama Theatre’s staging of Disney’s "Beauty and the Beast," said Clement was supposed to lecture on ancient Chamorro...

SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, Jan. 2) – The insertion of extra ballot papers in 10 or so crucial urban seats with the help of police and others helped the SDL [party] win the May 2006 general election, says an executive of Fiji's ousted ruling Soqosoqo Duavata Ni Lewenivanua (SDL).

In a video footage from its covert 'Operation Free Fiji' between December 17- 24, 2006, the military shows what appears to be SDL election candidates committee chairman Navitalai Naisoro in conversation with international fraudster Peter Foster, admitting that the party rigged the 2006 General Election to ensure a win for the party.

Naisoro, who was chairman of the SDL candidates' selection and strategy committee, admits in the concealed video that extra ballot papers were used to win the marginal urban seats during the May elections.

Naisoro is seen in the video footage saying ''the police got involved … police opened boxes they were supposed to seal. The police were involved in the rigging...

Editorial

PNG Post-Courier

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (Jan. 2) – Papua New Guinea enters the New Year 2007 with mixed hopes about what the year will bring. Despite record Government revenue and two supplementary budgets, life for the great majority of Papua New Guineans who live in the rural areas is not likely to change much.

For a start, the general elections will be held over the next six months and the public service machinery which is supposed to deliver the basic services to the people will be diverted to supporting the general elections.

What then will become of the services the supplementary budgets are supposed to deliver?

Parliament will sit for the last time next month before rising for the elections. It will go down as the most ineffective Parliament in the history of Papua New Guinea.

The ruling coalition government dictated what Parliament should and should not do and ensured the Opposition was shut out from making any...

By Baeau Tai

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Jan. 2) – The Papua New Guinea kina has performed strongly against the U.S. dollar and Australian dollar in the first nine months to September last year.

In the past nine months, the kina appreciated by 2.9% and 3.4% against the US dollar and the Australian dollar respectively.

Treasury Economic Monitors for September 2006, a publication by the Treasury Department, said the continuity in appreciation of the kina reflected both an increase in the terms of trade from higher international prices of PNG’s major commodity exports and lower inflation reflecting better management of the budget by the National Government.

Since late 2004, the terms of trade have increased by more than the exchange rate.

In 2005, while the export price index increased by 19.7%, the US dollar exchange rate only appreciated by 3.9%.

ANZ Bank said the kina came under a "bit of pressure" and closed the year...