Pacific Beat

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.

An official in the President's office has denied allegations of political motivation in a police search for drugs at the home of an advisor to a prominent opposition figure.

The Governor of Central Bank of Solomon Islands, Ric Hou, has advised the cash strapped government not to accept a huge grant of $350 million US dollars from a questionable organisation.

In Fiji, two children are feared dead after a powerful cyclone swept through the country last night.

A fast money scheme that was shut-down in Papua New Guinea after thousands of people lost their savings now appears to be operating in Solomon Islands.

This week's scheduled departure of 65 people from Nauru and 85 from Manus Island in PNG will reduce the numbers of asylum seekers detained in the Pacific.

Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority has warned Papua New Guinea air travel between the two countries will be suspended at the end of the month if international air safety standards are not met.