Pacific Beat

A women's advocacy group, "Vois Blong Mere Solomons", has been awarded 84 thousand American dollars by the Asia Foundation and the US ambassador to Solomon Islands.

The Tongan government has been given until 5pm tonight to reverse its re-imposed ban on the Times of Tonga newspaper, or face court action.

With the South Pacific Games in Fiji fast approaching, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Plant Protection Service has just launched a campaign called "Quarantine: Make it your business".

Papua New Guinea's politicians have sounded an ominous warning which may have implications for the country's constitutional right to free speech.

A Maori New Year festival is to be held in the New Zealand town of Wairoa in mid-June this year.

Solomon Islands capital Honiara, is to host a major International workshop on National Security, Conflict Resolution and Peace Building.

The United Nations is beginning a three-year program in the Pacific to promote greater involvement of women in peace building.

Within the space of less than an hour on Friday, Tonga's main pro-democracy newspaper was unbanned by the Court of Appeal, and then banned again by the government.

This afternoon's programmes of Pacific Beat are being broadcast live from Suva Fiji to mark the opening of Radio Australia's FM92.

Is there such a thing as a particularly "Pacific" style of art? Wood carving is partricularly popular in the region, but more artists are trying out painting, which some still percieve as a "western" form.

The city of Suva is thriving at the moment, with more and more organisations are choosing to set up shop in Suva recently, including the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific, which moved its regional secretariat from Vanuatu to Fiji.

A Cook Islands resident says he probably won't live long enough to finish his database of the country's flora and fauna.

One of Micronesia's major cultural event, the "Flame Tree Arts Festival" kicks off on Friday in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands.

The Australian Stock Exchange is hoping to clean-up the way Australian companies do business.

A number of Pacific Island states and territories seem to be moving to embrace the technology of Ocean Thermal Power Conversion, known as OTEC, to solve their power generation needs.

With the Iraqi war now underway, the concern of the moment is security.

Since 1997, the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture has been promoting all sorts of arts and culture programs.

The South Pacific Games are to be held in Fiji from the 28th of June to the 12th of July, and already there's a lot of excitement about them, with festoons dominating the city streetscape, and reminders everywhere that the games are on their way.

In Fiji, no industry is as important as sugar.