Pacific Beat

New Zealand's Opposition Labor Party says cuts to the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs funding will hurt Pasifika people already suffering high unemployment, low incomes and growing inequality.

The Salvation Army says the New Zealand government needs to take action to help Pacific Islander communities.

Thousands of people in New Caledonia have taken part in a general strike to protest at the high cost of living.

Fiji's acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has used the opening of the Melanesian Spearhead Group Trade Ministers Meeting in Nadi to call for greater economic integration in the Pacific.

American Samoa's Department of Education is calling for school classes to be tought in both English and Samoan.

Kiribati has been granted accession to the Ramsar convention on wetlands.

Australian Olympian Annie La Fleur is in Solomon Islands this week as part of a program to improve participation in basketball.

Australia is putting itself at the forefront of the global campaign to reduce the negative impact of extractive industries in developing countries.

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.