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The convicted Cook Islands MP, Teina Bishop, says hearing the guilty verdict handed down by a jury two weeks ago was like an electric shock. Bishop was convicted of corruption.

The trial ended three years of waiting for police to prepare their case involving a deal made by Bishop with a foreign fishing company in his role as minister of marine resources.

The military's training plans for the region would devastate the Northern Mariana Islands of Tinian and Pagan, according to opponents, who have sued in federal court to stop the pending military buildup.

Although environmental advocacy group Earthjustice is specifically concerned about the military's impact in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, it has asked the federal court to throw out the records of decision for the buildup, which could stop the military's plans for Guam as well. It wants the court to, “vacate and set aside the 2010 and 2015 Records of Decision regarding the relocation of Marines from Okinawa to the Mariana Islands.”

A political activist group in Solomon Islands says it will not accept a security deal reportedly being brokered with Australia. This comes after Australia's Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, said the end of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands should be seen as a vote of confidence in the country.

The President of the Malaita Maasina Forum Charles Dausabea has called on the Australian minister to withdraw her statement

For over 20 years the costs taxpayers have to carry for travel by politicians have been kept secret by successive administrations, both the Cook Islands Party and the Democrats.

Now the Democrats are demanding from the CIP that same information they refused to make when in government:  just how much civil list travel is costing the public purse each year.  Deputy opposition coalition leader Tamaiva Tuavera says an Official Information Act request has been lodged with the Ombudsman office, asking for disclosure of the travel costs of Prime Minister Henry Puna and Finance Minister.