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Four babies died in the past three weeks at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital after the second outbreak this year of acinetobacter baumanii — a drug resistant bacterium — labelled by the World Health Organization as top on the world's list of 12 deadliest bacteria. The babies reportedly died between May 24 and June 15.

The role of immigration on labour is the focus of a Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (P.I.F.S) workshop at this week’s Secretariat of the Pacific Immigration Directors Conference (P.I.D.C) in Samoa. The conference theme is “Our Waka: Advancing Approaches to Regional Migration Challenges for a Safe and Prosperous Pacific”.  The workshop will be an information-sharing opportunity for both the Forum Secretariat and P.I.D.C delegates.

The Tongan Parliament has only 10 days to go before it must certify whether or not Tonga will host the 2019 Pacific Games. It must also pass the national budget for the 2017-2018 financial year due to start on 1 July 2017. On top of these pressing issues, are a Motion, a Petition and Bills that parliament have to deal with within its remaining five normal working days.

The descendants of Solomon Islands' slave labourers living in Fiji say they hope dual citizenship legislation being proposed in the Solomons will help them reconnect with long lost relatives. In the mid-nineteenth century more than 60,000 Pacific Islanders from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Niue were coerced to work on canefields in Australia and Fiji through trickery and kidnapping, a practice known as Blackbirding.