Pacific Beat

Optimism the 2019 Pacific Games in Tonga can be saved. And, should science and religion mix when it comes to climate change preparation in the Pacific?

Papua New Guinea's police commissioner defends a decision to deploy armed expatriates on the streets of Port Moresby as part of a training programme for his officers and in a huge boost to Vanuatu's tourism industry, Australia's national airline Qantas is to resume flights into Port Vila under a code sharing arrangement with Air Vanuatu.

PNG's Police Commissioner stands down foreign nationals he'd engaged for firearms training. Fiji's Education Minister under fire over comment. The Solomon Islands declares its first protected marine park.

PNG's police commissioner defends a decision to have armed expatriates on the streets of Port Moresby. The South Pacific island that should be a tropical paradise but is instead the world's dumping ground for plastic waste.

PNG's Mortlock Islanders reveal their bold plan to catch tuna, farm them inside the atoll and then sell them overseas to fund for their fight against rising sea levels. And, poultry producers in Papua New Guinea call for consumers to be on the lookout for frozen raw chicken smuggled from South East Asia that could carry Human Bird Flu.

Questions in PNG about the state of the country's corrections services as 17 prison escapees are shot dead and dozens more still on the run. Help finally arrives to Vanuatu's remote northern islands but the rebuilding effort won't be easy.

A positive development for Vanuatu today with the signing this morning of a contract to rebuild the runway at Bauerfield Airport and also work on the airports on Santo and Tanna. And, a television news crew in Port Moresby say they were attacked by a large group as they were shooting election footage.

Emergency authorities in Vanuatu confident that relief supplies will soon reach islands worst hit by Cyclone Donna. Accusations of sorcery against women in PNG are not part of traditional culture according to one woman leader.

The cyclone season goes into overtime in the Pacific, with Cyclone Ella forming off Samoa, while emergency managers in Vanuatu and New Caledonia are still struggling to deal with the impact of Cyclone Donna and we hear from the Australian judge appointed to lead PNG's new anti-corruption commission but who can't start work because he is still waiting for his visa.

Police in PNG launch an investigation into the torture and murder of a woman accused of witchcraft. Australia's foreign aid spending to be frozen next year.