PINA

France has detailed an unprecedented security set-up for New Caledonia's third and final independence referendum on 12 December. The French authorities made the announcement as the pro-independence FLNKS called on its supporters to boycott the vote after France refused to delay it to next year. If the call is heeded, the anti-independence side is all but certain to again have a...

Some of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries have been forced to scale back their attendance at the COP26 climate summit due to COVID-19 travel curbs and costs, blunting their negotiating power, according to Fiji's UN Ambassador. Border closures, quarantine rules and high travel costs will see small island states and poorer nations sending smaller delegations, with some leaders unable to...

Bridging the financial and technical gaps that will limit global warming, is the focus of a high-level debate in the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. The day-long meeting comes just ahead of the COP26 climate change conference for countries to deliver on the promise of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the...

The world is squandering the opportunity to “build back better” from the Covid-19 pandemic and faces disastrous temperature rises of at least 2.7C if countries fail to strengthen their climate pledges, according to a report from the UN. Tuesday’s publication warns that countries’ current pledges would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut...

“This island is me, and I am this island,” Wadhuam Pabai. Pabai says of the homeland he’s known all his life. “I can’t imagine being forced to leave Boigu … there are 65,000 years of wealth and experience here,” the father of seven says. Losing Boigu, his home in the Torres Strait, will mean losing all of it. The islands of the...

No lockdown yet for Port Moresby, as health and city authorities plan to address the increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths through an effective medical response and vaccination drive, an official says. They will also be pushing hard to have people observe the public health safety rules (Niupla Pasin). National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop, who had been consulting senior doctors,...

Health ministers and senior officials from countries and areas across the World Health Organisation (WHO) Western Pacific Region are gathering this week to agree on actions to address COVID-19 and other key health issues. The seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific is being held as a “hybrid” meeting on 25–29 October, with over 50 senior...

For months, U.S refusal to accept responsibility for a leaking dome of radioactive waste in the Marshall Islands has complicated negotiations with the Marshallese government on an international compact viewed as crucial for blunting Chinese influence in the central Pacific. On Thursday, members of a congressional oversight committee scolded representatives of the Biden administration for not making more progress on...

A deadly bomb blast at LDA area, Upper Betikama in east Honiara in Solomon Islands has killed two people, a father and his son who is a grade five student. The father died during the blast at around 7pm last night and his son two hours later at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. The wife of the deceased and another...

Last year, heat-trapping greenhouse gases reached a new record, surging above the planet's 2011-2020 average, and has continued in 2021, according to a new report published on Monday by the UN weather agency. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a “stark, scientific message” for climate change negotiations at the upcoming UN climate conference, known as COP26, in...