36-year-old had been snorkelling alone near resort on main island, Viti Levu A 36-year-old Australian man has died while snorkelling off Fiji's coral coast. The man was staying with a friend at a five-star resort on the west coast of the main island, Viti Levu, when he went snorkelling alone on Saturday. Continue reading... ...
Star of Australian TV's Offspring weds artist Vincent Fantauzzo in ceremony on Turtle island Asher Keddie, the star of TV's Offspring, has married her artist boyfriend, Vincent Fantauzzo, in a secret ceremony in Fiji. According to Woman's Day, the couple were married in a ceremony attended by Fantauzzo's four-year-old son Luca at Turtle island on 7 April. Continue reading... ...
Australasia's biggest food company says it will not meet profit expectations, causing its share price to plummet Australasia's biggest food company, Goodman Fielder, is bringing forward its plans for 300 job cuts in response to a weaker than expected financial performance. The owner of the Helga's, Vogel's, Meadow Fresh, MeadowLea and Olive Grove brands said trading conditions in Australia and New...
Frank' Bainimarama resigns as military commander-in-chief in order to stand for presidency The leader of Fiji's military junta officially resigned his position in the armed forces on Wednesday before national elections he is widely expected to win. Commodore Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama, who took power in a bloodless 2006 coup, announced earlier this year that he would resign as commander-in-chief in...
Rupert Murdoch's Australian publishing division, News Limited, has sold the Fiji Times newspaper group to a Fijian company. In announcing the enforced sale to the Motibhai company, News Limited's chief executive John Hartigan said: "We are reluctant sellers of the Fiji Times, but I am delighted that we have been able to find a buyer who will take over the business as a going concern." ...
Melanesian grouping of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands reconsider their regional links They've come a long way from trading fish and coconuts. There's discord in the Melanesian Spearhead Group over the accession of Fiji to the chairmanship, a battle that reflects recognition of the growing importance of Melanesia as global demand for resources heats up. That wasn't always the case....
Despite earlier pledging support for West Papuan independence, regional bloc agrees not to interfere in Indonesia’s rule Marni Cordell ...
s population, we believe we have the right to be heard and have a say in everything that concerns us. That is what I am fighting for. In my community girls are seen as fragile and we do not have a say in village meetings. When we speak, we are growled at for speaking up and told to be a "girl" and to sit quietly and listen to elders. Also when a teenage girl is pregnant she is pointed at and not the...
corruption crisis' meeting in Malawi US: federal employees put out of work by government shutdown On Friday 4 October the US shutdown entered its fourth day . The budget standoff between the Republicans and Democrats led to the first partial shutdown of the US government in two decades , taking effect at midnight on Monday 31 September. On Tuesday hundreds of thousands of federal government employees...
Fijian foreign minister accuses Australia of dumping its problem on Pacific nations, in a scathing attack ...
s eastern region, the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation , to join the Pacific Islands region's power bloc, known as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). The membership bid was widely anticipated before a recent MSG leaders' summit in Noumea, the capital city of the French special collectivity of New Caledonia. A decision on the matter by the group's five members – Papua New Guinea, Fiji,...
s harder line Since then, the EU executive has taken a harder line. In 2011, it proposed suspending the agreement if the countries did not ratify the EPA by January 2014. The parliament voted in a strong majority to extend the deadline to October 2014, in a second reading . Botswana, Namibia, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Swaziland have not completed the agreement. They, along with the Pacific...
Half a mile away, where the same reef is badly damaged, he can only pick up the sound of waves and a few snapping shrimp ...
Musician and naturalist Bernie Krause drops his microphones into the pristine coral reef waters of Fiji ...
s last democratically elected leader was sentenced on Friday to one year in prison after being convicted on corruption charges that his supporters say were politically motivated. Laisenia Qarase was found guilty on Tuesday of abusing his office and failing to perform his duties. Court documents say the 71-year-old former prime minister failed to disclose a private investment interest in three companies...
s military regime may have lifted emergency rule after three years but press freedom has not been restored. According to the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), a media decree passed in June 2010 remains in force. Last month, the government led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama also introduced a decree that exempts him and ministers from defamation suits - but not other people. The PFF said: "A leadership which...
s military government has said it will lift the state of emergency imposed in 2009 by next Saturday as the regime prepares to open consultation on a new constitution. The Fijian prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, said in a new year's message that the emergency regulations would be repealed. These gave police and the military extended powers, imposed tough censorship on the media and tightly controlled...
s leadership of the group There aren't many international summits where the leaders sit down to a round of sedatives before settling into formal talks. But getting together around the kava bowl in laid-back Pacific style is their way of reaching consensus. So it was at the 18th Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) summit in Fiji, the beginning of a new era for the sub-regional grouping under the direction...
s enthusiasm for mature students at Sussex University, she enrolled for and obtained a music degree. She travelled with me to Fiji and Papua New Guinea. She maintained her infectious enthusiasm for music and, in Papua New Guinea, carried out three years of fieldwork on Melanesian music, researching conch-shell bands used for playing church music, and obtained her master's degree. She also formed and...
s travels, but also the story of their discovery. In 1909 Father Otto Meyer picked up a shard of pottery decorated with angular patterns on a Papua New Guinea beach. Then, in 1950 a French geologist compared Meyer's shards with recent finds from the Isle of Pines, south of New Caledonia , and realised that they belonged to the same tradition. The term "Lapita" was coined in 1952: an American, Edwin...