Pacific Beat

A recent study indicates there are more than 500 million small arms around the world, enough for one in every 10 people on earth.

Indonesia's announcement that it is revising its controversial transmigration policy which has brought hundreds of thousands of Muslims to the mainly Christian province of Papua may not mean an end to large-scale immigration.

Nauruans are being asked to tell authorities more about what they would like their island to look like.

Nauru's Parliament is expected to sit today to pass the country's budget with a new President, Bernard Dowiyogo.

Nauru's Supreme court has ruled that president Rene Harris is the country's legitimate leader, ending a week of confusion about who was the Pacific nation's head of state.

The political crisis which has seen the Micronesian island-state of Nauru governed by two presidents for the past week appears to be over.

Fiji's national broadcaster, Radio Fiji, has launched a nationwide appeal for victims of Cyclone Ami, which ravaged the northern and southern part of the country this week.

150 delegates representing a wide variety of activist groups from 27 countries around the Pacific will converge on Tonga this weekend for the opening of the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Movement conference.

The main border crossings between the Indonesian province of Papua and PNG have been shut down because of an Indonesian military operation against Papuan seperatist rebels.

Six people have been confirmed dead and nine others are still missing in the northern island of Fiji Vanua Levu - following the devastation by cyclone Ami.

In the Solomon Islands, there are reports of human rights abuses by members of the police task force searching for Harold Keke on the Weather Coast of the island of Guadalcanal.

In Fiji, education is set to become the most recent battlefield of a policy fight over affirmative action.

Cook Islands authorities have urged the country's residents to stop the illegal trade in black pearls.

Two Pacific legal experts are candidates for the position of judge with the new International Criminal Court.

Tonga has escaped the full force of Cyclone Ami which ravaged Fiji at the beginning of the week.

Teachers in Papua New Guinea are threatening to go on a three day strike and disrupt the start of the school year, which begins on 27 January, over a pay dispute.

The Tongan government insists it has done all it can to disassociate itself from terrorism, following a report in the Washington Post newspaper quoting US intelligence officials as saying a fleet of 15 ships owned by the terrorist group Al Qaeda have been flying the Tongan flag.

More than a thousand Australian cattle were off loaded recently in the Samoan Capital, Apia.

Kiribati President Teburoro Tito is being accused of using the police to harrass his political opponents.