Pacific Beat

And for more on the funeral of Fred Soaki, we hear from our reporter in Honiara, Dorothy Wickham, who attended the ceremony.

Recent media reports around the region that Japan had rejected a shipment of sugar because of poor quality have been dismissed by the Fiji Sugar Corporation.

Tonga's first vocational training institute is due to open next month.

In Solomon Islands, the body of Sir Frederick Soaki was laid to rest this afternoon following a funeral ceremony at St Barnabas cathedral in Honiara.

Papua New Guinea's Finance Minister Bart Philemon has told business leaders in Sydney that he will meet the tough budget deficit target he set in his 2003 budget.

The September 11, 2001 events, the Bali bombings and the current threat of war in Iraq has most countries around the world on high security alert.

If you are a vagrant or jobless in any city in Papua New Guinea, chances are you will be sent packing to your village.

In Solomon Islands, the police investigation into the assassination on Monday evening of National Peace Council member, Sir Frederick Soaki continues.

The Australian city of Townsville has been suggested as a base for a regional rescue force to provide a quick response to natural disasters in the South Pacific.

Fingerprinting is once again the centre of debate on Norfolk Island, almost 12 months after the population of the small Australian Pacific territory awoke to its first homicide in 150 years.

Marie-Therese Danielsson, a well-known anti-nuclear activist and writer died last week in French Polynesia.

In Papua New Guinea, the MP for North Bougainville is urging the national government to urgently address the serious health service problems in the province.

Leaders from Guam, Palau, Yap and the Northern Marianas are planning to get together in the first week of March for a summit of West Micronesian leaders.

On Monday evening, a leading figure of the Solomon islands National Peace Council, Sir Frederick Soaki, was shot dead as he dined with friends and colleagues in the Malaitain capital, Auki.

Tonga's pro-Monarchist political group, the Kotoa Movement, is supporting a plan to export bananas.

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, told a business seminar in Brisbane today that signs were emerging of a recovery in the PNG economy.

An up and coming young New Zealand born artist of Cook Islands descent, Teariki Engu, has not let failing arts in his last year at High School stop him.

The Pacific's problems with corruption in government and weaknesses in the police and criminal justice systems, have been highlighted by Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2003.

The opening of the Papua New Guinea to Queensland gas pipeline might be delayed until 2007, according to a PNG politician.