A police landcruiser patrols the streets of the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby. Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins
Papua New Guinea - weapons
Police in Papua New Guinea have seized a weapons cache and made several arrests as part of a crackdown on illegal weapons trafficking.
In a statement on Tuesday police commissioner David Manning said the operation in Mt Hagen, conducted jointly with the PNG Defence Force, has disrupted a major trafficking network in the Highlands region.
Manning said the criminal group they targeted had been channelling firearms, ammunition and explosives to combatants involved in tribal fighting and domestic terrorism.
As a precautionary measure Manning said he has deployed additional security personnel to protect law and justice officials and the broader public and business community.
He said any attempt by affiliates of the men who have been arrested to retaliate will be met with a swift and harsh response.
Pictures of the weapons cache provided with the release show hunting rifles, shotguns and what appears to be an assault rifle along with assorted ammunition types and incendiary devices.
Timor Leste - ASEAN
It is Dili's "destiny" to be part of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), said Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta on Monday, following his Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão's previous statement claiming that the nation might reconsider its membership application.
Expecting ASEAN to have fully resolved the complicated Myanmar crisis by now was "unfair", Ramos-Horta added. For over a decade,
Dili has attempted to get itself included as an official member of the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc, an undertaking that finally bore fruit late last year when ASEAN members agreed in principle to admit Timor-Leste as their 11th member.
Papua New Guinea has observer status with ASEAN.
Solomon Islands - resilience
Solomon Islands Ministry of Rural Development and Save the Children are teaming up for a scheme to improve rural resilience.
The Solomon Islands Knowledge, Action, Sustainability for Resilient Villages, SOLKAS project, is funded by the Green Energy Fund.
The ministry's permanent secretary Samson Viulu said a strong and effective partnership is a way forward for any project success.
It aims, among other things, to raise understanding of climate change and natural resource management and to build capacity for adaptation management and implementation in communities and schools.
Samoa - parliament
The next sitting of the Samoa Parliament has been deferred.
In a public notice released on Tuesday, the Head of State, Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, said the sitting scheduled for August 22 has now been deferred until 24 October.
The notice said the order is made under Article 52 of the Constitution and Standing Order 170(2)(g)(ii).
RNZ Pacific Samoa correspondent said no further information was given in the notice as to why it has been deferred.
Meanwhile, the opposition Human Rights Protection Party leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and party secretary Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, were expected back in the House after the Appeal Court overturned a parliamentary two-year ban without benefits against the pair.
Samoa - court
A Samoa court has handed down a four-year jail sentence to two people for negligence driving causing death.
Benjamin Faafetai Va'afusuaga and Faga Savaii appeared before senior Justice Vui Clarence Nelson.
The court heard that alcohol played a significant role in the accident.
The victim, 27-year-old man Nili Faauma Aloi, died at the scene of the car crash.
Northern Marianas - shooting
A CNMI police probe into an accidental shooting incident, involving two minors, has revealed that someone may have tampered with the evidence.
The Department of Public Safety said a police officer's service-firearm is believed to have been the gun used in the shooting.
It also said evidence found at the scene points to someone tampering with the gun which was found in a laundry basket and covered with clothes while another gun was found on the floor near the 7-year-old who had been shot.
According to the complaint, DPS dispatch received a call from off-duty officer Saralu at around 9:06pm last May 21, asking that an ambulance be sent to his residence.
When first responders arrived, they found a 7-year-old boy lying in a pool of blood. He was rushed to the Commonwealth Health Center but was later transported to Guam Memorial Hospital for surgery.
Although he is recovering, the boy has reportedly lost vision in his left eye and has lost muscle control on one side of his face.
Court documents state that in the ambulance, the boy allegedly told his mother that his minor uncle took a gun from Saralu's work belt, which was on a chair in his bedroom. When the victim took the gun to give it back to Saralu, the gun went off on his face. The boy reiterated this statement in a follow up interview last June 14.
