A weekly wrap-up of news, issues and current affairs from the Pacific. The programme is broadcast nationwide every Saturday evening on Radio New Zealand National and is produced by the newsroom of Radio New Zealand International. The following rundown is supplied from the broadcaster’s news system:
1. Papua New Guinea's former military commander [i.e. Major General Jerry Singirok] says the country's police force is broken and incompentent and unable to carry out its constitutional duty.
2. Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, launched his policy statement this week promising to stamp out corruption, initiate reforms and make more customary land available for development.
3. Human rights groups and independence activists say Indonesia's President, Joko Widodo, has done nothing to suggest he plans to follow through on promises to address human rights problems and open up West Papua.
4. Fiji's Police Commissioner [i.e. Ben Groenewald] says the police have a zero tolerance policy on offences against children and he has issued a plea to the community to report child abuse.
5. Non-government organisations and regional bodies are trying to curb the alarming rate of secondary school drop outs in Tonga as it climbs to around an average of 1,000 a year since 2008.
6. The Cook Islands and Niue are the only Pacific Island countries on track to achieve all of the Millennium Development Goals by the end of the year.
7. People wanting to retire in the Cook Islands, Niue or Tokelau will be able to leave New Zealand ten years earlier under new laws expected to come into force this year.
8. New Caledonia will this year again host some of the greats of the 1990s Real Madrid football team.