The resignation of a senior cabinet minister has rattled the government of Papua New Guinea; Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been accused of making comments threatening marriage equality in the country based on "fake news;" health authorities in Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands are worried that water supplies are being put at risk by protesting landowners; scientists in New Zealand are hoping a new project to develop the use of cutting edge genetic research will improve woeful health problems for the country's Pacific people; Australia's big step-up in the Pacific has come largely at the expense of other regions; a controversial mining company in French Polynesia claims the government has assured it a new mining code will be introduced next week; a young Papua New Guinean film-maker says her recent feature highlighting repression of women in PNG is making an impact; Pacific women authors and their challenges are being recognised by the Commonwealth.