Pacific Beat

Hundreds of police deployed to PNG's highlands as part of a major security operation ahead of next month's election. A focus on PNG's burgeoning population.

As the Regional Assistance Mission prepares to leave Solomon Islands, the government launches a second weapons amnesty and Papua New Guinea investigates how new technology could help impoverished villagers connect with the banking system.

Angry locals target candidates and MPs on the campaign trail in PNG, lashing out over a lack of service delivery in their electorates. Concerns for four Nepalese refugees in Micronesia who have been forced to live on a leaky boat for almost one year.

Campaigners for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians hopeful that a national gathering in Uluru this week will move the issue closer to reality and predictions of a 50/50 chance of an El Nino weather pattern developing in the western Pacific this year could bring a return to drought conditions in Melanesia.

A firearms amnesty begins in the Solomon Islands. How genetics rather than what you eat might make Pacific Islanders more prone to getting gout.

Calls for an independent investigation into the deadly prison jail break in PNG that left 17 escapees dead. And, Vanuatu soccer fans wait to see if the national broadcaster can finally deliver live World Cup coverage of their Under20 team.

Calls for an independent investigation into what's been described as the massacre of 17 inmates during a recent mass jailbreak in PNG. Fallout continues in Vanuatu from the national broadcaster's failure to televise the country's historic debut at the under 20 World Cup.

Tough economic times are affecting Papua New Guinea's normally colourful election campaign, we'll hear from our PNG correspondent Eric Tlozek from the Highlands how festivities are subdued this time around. Palau on drought alert as the dry conditions related to the El Nino weather event again threaten communities across the Pacific.

Australia's immigration department admits it got the details wrong about a violent incident at the Manus Island detention centre last month, that involved gun fire and left nine people injured. Tonga's former finance minister insists no one in cabinet raised any concerns about the cost of hosting the Pacific Games

Claims there's a climate of fear among public servants in Fiji. Fears Tonga's government is losing out on a major marketing opportunity by pulling out of the 2019 Pacific Games.