Baby's body found on a Nouméa beach
Gendarmes vehicle in New Caledonia Photo: Supplied
The body of a newborn baby was found earlier this week on a Nouméa beach, police said.
The body was found near Nouméa's industrial zone of Ducos by neighbourhood residents who then alerted emergency services, local media reported.
Medical services said the baby was born a few hours earlier.
As part of the investigation, police have appealed to the public to come forward if they had any information related to the case.
Qantas resumes flights to Nouméa
Qantas-Airbus-A330-300 Photo: Qantas Airways
Australia's Qantas has earlier this week resumed its flights to Nouméa.
The first Sydney-Nouméa flight since violent unrest broke out in New Caledonia took place on 3 August, the company said.
From now on, Qantas will operate two flights a week, one on Saturdays and another one on Wednesdays, starting from 18 August.
Qantas's resumption of connections to New Caledonia will be implemented gradually, and flights from Brisbane could resume later.
In June 2022, Qantas resumed its post-Covid flights to New Caledonia from Sydney and Brisbane.
A new connection was later established out of Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand said the suspension of all flights to New Caledonia has been extended to mid-December this year.
Insecurity and "protection" offer in Nouméa
Funeral vehicle Photo: Supplied
New Caledonia's business owners are reporting a worrying trend in the capital Nouméa where individuals or newly formed entities are offering more and more "protection" services.
The "protection fee" targets businesses that have not yet been destroyed by fire or looted by rioters, local public broadcaster NC la Première reports.
Several company owners, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they have accepted some of these offers and, in some cases, have paid up to 25,000 Euros over the past three months.
According to current estimates, over 800 businesses have been targeted, burnt down, and looted since violent unrest broke out in New Caledonia, on May 13.
Some business leaders, especially in Nouméa's industrial zone of Ducos, are comparing those "offers" as "sheer racket" and "intimidation" but said they did not have a choice.
In another development, last weekend, a vehicle belonging to a funeral company was reportedly stopped at a roadblock in the village of Saint Louis, near Nouméa.
The rioters demanded to search the vehicle and the transported body be also inspected.
They then took the employees' money, before allowing the funeral truck to go.
New Armed forces commander for French Polynesia takes up post
Commodore Guillaume Pinget is the new commander of French Armed Forces in French Polynesia Photo: Haut-commissariat de la république en Polynésie française
The new commander of French Armed Forces in French Polynesia, Commodore Guillaume Pinget, took up his position on Thursday, replacing Commodore Geoffroy d'Andigné.
51-year-old Captain Pinget is a former Commander (2019) of the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
The position of Commander of the French Armed Forces in French Polynesia, based in Papeete, is also de facto in charge of the French Naval forces for the whole Pacific.
Commodore Geoffroy d'Andigné, who has held the position since 2022, said for the past two years, he has been working on reinforcing French Polynesia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) protection in the face of growing threats in the region.
"We have seen Iranian or Chinese vessels approaching. And these are things we had never seen before," he told Tahiti Nui Television.
He said the French Navy in the Pacific aimed at "defending international law."
Tahiti's judge's tower will be dismantled
Teahupoo's surfing events judges tower to be dismantled after Olympics Photo: Radio 1
Tahiti's once controversial judges tower that was built for the Olympic Games surfing events is now about to be dismantled.
The Paris 2024 surfing events ended on Monday in Teahupo'o with the historic win of homeboy Kauli Vaast, who became the first French and Polynesian surfer to ever win a gold medal.
Contractors will now spend the next few days removing electrical wiring and other fittings, which will be reinstalled for the next international competition, the Tahiti Pro, in 2025.
At the end of 2023, the construction of this new tower was criticised by local and international groups, who said it would cause significant environmental damage to the reef.
The construction did go ahead, as the old wooden tower no longer met international safety requirements.
