Fiji Education
The teaching of languages in schools is back on the agenda in Fiji, although it appears this time the government's latest initiative has broad support. The government is considering at plans to make it compulsory for the Fijian and Hindi languages to be taught in schools, from grade one to form seven. The ministries of education, along with that of culture and heritage, are now studying the policy which will be tabled in parliament by the end of the year.
Languages
Australian Police in PNG
Australia's A$800 million police intervention program in Papua New Guinea is effectively dead, according to a leading observer in Port Moresby. Last week, officials from PNG and Australia began negotiations to salvage the police deployment, ruled unconstitutional by the PNG Supreme Court just over two weeks ago. The 160 Australian police have been withdrawn from PNG, and the head of political studies at the University of Papua New Guinea says it's hard to see any deal to have them return.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/pacbeat/stories/s1380046.htm">Police
Australian Police in PNG II
Papua New Guinea says Australian police may be able to return to the country as soon as August, without any need to change the country's constitution. The optimistic view is being put by two ministers, who've just returned from talks in Australia over the future of the billion-dollar Enhanced Co-operation Program. The ECP is on tenterhooks after PNG's Supreme Court ruled the legal immunity granted to Australian personnel under the program as unconstitutional. After talks last week between the Police and Foreign Ministers of the two countries, PNG says it's 'cautiously optimistic' the deal can be resurrected.
Police 2
Marshall Islands
A US Congressional committee has heard evidence that the Marshall Islands faces more than 500 excess cancers as a result of exposure to fallout from US nuclear tests in the 1940s and 50s. After a five-year delay, a committee of the US House of Representatives has held hearings on the Marshall Islands' Changed Circumstances Petition, which was first lodged in 2000. The petition to Congress seeks extra funding for the Marshalls' Nuclear Claims Tribunal, to pay compensation for damage caused by nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak atolls.
Marshall Islands
New Pacific Volcano
When a group of scientists last month got their first look at a new volcano off the coast of Samoa, they expected to find primitive life forms, like giant worms, clams and shrimps. Instead, the scientists - from Australia, the United States and Britain found an ecosystem housing thousands of eels which, they believe, are a new type of fish, living on a thick mat of bacteria. The scientists say it's the first time such a complex life-form has been found living in an underwater volcano. - found an ecosystem housing thousands of eels which, they believe, are a new type of fish, living on a thick mat of bacteria. The scientists say it's the first time such a complex life-form has been found living in an underwater volcano.
