Submitted by PIR Editor on Wed, 04/05/2017 - 15:01
"With the end of the RAMSI intervention and restoration of full sovereignty comes more difficult diplomatic balancing." Solomon Islands seeks to retain good relations with Indonesia while continuing to strongly support self-determination for the majority Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.
Submitted by PIR Editor on Thu, 03/30/2017 - 09:31
"Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Micronesian President Peter M. Christian at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. ... President Xi said China sees Micronesia as a good friend and partner among Pacific island nations. He added that China is willing to maintain close exchanges at all levels with the country."
Submitted by PIR Editor on Wed, 03/29/2017 - 09:49
Feared extinct, a seemingly thriving population of the New Guinea highland wild dog has been confirmed living in a remote part of the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea. Researchers used trail cameras to document the animals and DNA analysis of biological sample to confirm that they are indeed the ancient breed of canids.
Submitted by PIR Editor on Tue, 03/28/2017 - 16:06
22 ni-Vanuatu men participating in Australia's Seasonal Workers scheme worked for little or no wages for months in a case about which Australian Federal Circuit Court Justice said he 'struggled to imagine a "more egregious" case of worker exploitation.'
Submitted by PIR Editor on Tue, 03/14/2017 - 09:48
Two villages in South Sorong, West Papua province have become the first in Papua to be granted hutan desa (village forest) permits. The permits grant the villagers customary ownership rights to their land and allow the villages to manage the land to improve their own welfare. 'Greenpeace Indonesia heralded the acknowledgment as a landmark decision.'
Submitted by PIR Editor on Mon, 03/13/2017 - 13:50
Australian National University doctoral student Michael Main has conducted years of research in the highlands of Papua New Guinea surrounding the huge ExxonMobile natural gas development project. This commentary links the frustration at the failure of the national government to deliver on promises made in benefit sharing agreements to increasing unrest the government is struggling to contain.
Submitted by PIR Editor on Tue, 02/28/2017 - 14:34
NOAA's 2017 American Samoa expedition is revealing amazing images of sea creatures including a jellyfish that looks like a UFO and a venus flytrap like anemone.
Submitted by PIR Editor on Mon, 02/27/2017 - 13:39
"Pacific Island governments, nonprofits and a new group of entrepreneurs are trying to solve those problems. They are working to modernize kava cultivation in the hope that the drink’s budding popularity in the United States and Europe can be sustained."
Submitted by PIR Editor on Wed, 02/22/2017 - 14:01
Dr. Craig Santos Perez, a native Chamorro from Guam who is an associate professor in the English department at University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, has become the first native Pacific Islander to win the Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship for Poetry.
Submitted by PIR Editor on Sun, 02/19/2017 - 09:58
New York Times "video journalist Megan Specia explains how she connected with and captured the harrowing ordeal of a Kurdish dissident from Iran who has been held for three years in an Australian-funded refugee camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island."
