A gathering of Pacific leaders in New Caledonia will this week decide whether to admit a pro-independence group from Indonesian province of West Papua to the body.

Veteran politician Baron Waqa has been named as the new president of the Pacific Island nation of Nauru.

Private businesses and charities will be able to open schools in New Zealand from next year under a controversial law change.

An Australian economist says Australia has been secretly vetoing loans to Fiji from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank since the military coup in 2006.

An elite counter-terrorist police unit in Indonesia has been accused of carrying out a mass killing in a village in the disputed Papua province. Activists says 11 people were killed and 20 more are missing after a combined military and police crackdown on support for the Free Papua separatist movement in April. It is not possible to verify the claims, but the names of victims and several grisly photographs have been provided to ABC by the armed wing of the movement.

PNG's PM says he will shut down the country's finance department if he has to while improper payment allegations are investigated.

The United Nations has approved former French Polynesian President Oscar Temaru's appeal for the territory to be re-listed for decolonisation.

Vanuatu's new prime minister says his first hundred days in office will bring significant change to the country's foreign relations.