Pacific Beat

Papua New Guinea's government has announced plans to build a privately run maximum security prison on Manus Island.

A weekend demonstration about violence against women in Papua New Guinea in the Australian city of Brisbane attracted around 300 people.

One of Fiji's main fishing companies has rejected claims by conservationists that Fiji is becoming a hub for shark finning in the Pacific region.

A call for children in American Samoa to be educated in both Samoan and English has been backed up by a New Zealand Samoan academic.

Fiji has recently launched its first National Awareness Campaign on mangroves .

French Polynesia has been re-listed by the United Nations as a colony to be decolonised.

A leading member of the Samoan opposition says the latest Finance Ministry figures show the country is in recession.

The Marshall Islands government has told the US it needs to consult more instead of delivering ultimatums about funding.

Sydney is playing host this week to two international conferences aimed at bringing more transparency and accountability into the resource industry, particularly in developing countries where local communities have often missed out on receiving a fair share of the economic returns from resource extraction.

The Kiribati government is today sending a second team to survey the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, or PIPA.

In Samoa, turkey tails are back.

Vanuatu is to get two plants to manufacture medical oxygen to replace oxygen imported from the Philippines.

Auckland City will represent the Oceania region at the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco this year following its OFC Championship win against Waitakere United last night.

Former rugby league international Israel Folau has been included in the preliminary Wallabies squad for the British and Irish Lions series.

An appeal has gone out to athletes in Oceania to apply for a scholarship to study in the United States.

Fiji's sugar cane farmers are hailing this year's high payout as a sign their industry has a bright future.

An Australian youth worker has repeated a call for an urgent trans Tasman summit on the subject of gangs.

The CNMI looks likely to open its first tourism office in Russia, possibly by the end of the year.

The head of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese, says Australia will continue to encourage the return to a democratic government in Fiji.