Breaking News 5

Nauru
The deputy secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum will attend a meeting in Tuvalu this week to discuss the repatriation of foreign nationals stranded on Nauru. Iosefa Maiava will examine the future of hundreds of Tuvaluan and I-Kiribati nationals, who are still on Nauru with their families and have been unable to return home. Many have been in Nauru for more than twenty years.
Nauru
Pacific Beat

French Polynesia
Newly elected president Oscar Temaru received a shock late last week, when he was denied entry to one of the territory's main government buildings. He was locked out by a team of emergency workers, known as the Presidential Intervention Group, or GIP. French Polynesia's former President Gaston Flosse established the GIP to maintain public facilities and other duties both in Tahiti and outer Islands as directed by the President. The lock-out occurred when President Temaru accompanied the newly appointed GIP chief, Robert Maker, on a visit to the building. GIP members reportedly opposed Mr Maker's appointment. And as the stand-off continues, local observers say a court may now be obliged to step in.
Pacific Beat

Marshall Islands
The government of the Marshall Islands is moving to tackle what has become known as the 'great malaise' in government. The action has been, in part, prompted by the visit of an eight-member delegation from the Asian Development Bank, including the Head of the Pacific desk, Indu Bushan. That was followed, last week, by an informal retreat held in Honolulu for Marshall Island Cabinet Ministers, the chief secretary and other senior civil servants and business leaders. During the retreat, participants brainstormed the way forward with US Interior Department officials and the ADB delegation.
Pacific Beat

Prince Tuipelehake
The nephew of the King of Tonga, Prince Tuipelehake, won't be returning to the Kingdom's parliament, following today's nobles' vote. Tonga's 33 nobles have today cast their vote for their nine MPs, in the 30-seat parliament today. That's a day ahead of the commoners' vote, in which 65-thousand people are eligible to vote.
Pacific Beat
Pacific Islands Forum
The head of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat says the region accepts a stronger role for Australia, as long as that robust policy is measured and proper. Greg Urwin was speaking in Canberra, where he's been having talks on the draft of the Pacific Plan to guide the Forum over the next decade. Mr Urwin - a former Australian diplomat - says Australia's intervention in Solomon Islands two years ago means that more of the Canberra bureaucracy has a Pacific focus, and Australia is less likely to step-back from the region.

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