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. The parliamentary opposition in Fiji has slammed the plan for a new national flag as undemocratic.
2. The chairman [i.e. Victor Yeimo] of the West Papua National Committee, or KNPB, says people across Melanesia are supportive of the West Papuan bid for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
3. Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister [i.e. Peter O'Neill] says the time has come for his government to speak out about oppression of West Papuans in neighbouring Indonesia.
4. Tuvalu's Prime Minister [i.e. Enele Sopoaga] says he expects his country, and Tuvaluans living in New Zealand, to benefit significantly from the opening of a High Commission in Wellington.
5. A new study led by the University of Michigan suggests that the Pacific's premium yellow fin tuna may be inedible in 50 years time. The report which used findings from reports published in 1971, 1998 and 2008 concludes that mercury concentrations in the highly migratory yellow fin tuna species caught near Hawaii were increasing by nearly four percent a year. Co author of the report Associate Professor Carl Lamborg from the University of California at Santa Cruz spoke to Koroi Hawkins about what is wrong with the fish.
6. Tonga has been hit by a dengue outbreak which has triggered frantic action from authorities in the kingdom.
7. The fallout from the Fiji Government's dispute with Fiji TV and World Rugby has continued, with the sacked executives filing a complaint with the police against the Attorney General.
8. The Niue government has confirmed it will host baby elephants in a new quarantine facility while they transit from Sri Lanka to New Zealand's Auckland Zoo.
9. A Solomon Islands documentary [i.e. The Test; producer Anouk Ride] has premiered at the Pacific International Documentary Film Festival, or FIFO, in Tahiti.