The women, on the left and right, are welcomed at Moorea. Photo: French Polynesian presidency
French Polynesia - rowing
A group of six women has reached French Polynesia after rowing from Peru as part of a campaign to help cancer sufferers.
The five French women and one Spaniard took turns to row on a paddle board for 80 days from Lima to Moorea.
For the last few metres they travelled in a traditional canoe to a reception attended by a hundreds of people.
Calling their campaign Cap Optimist, they embarked on their 8,000km journey to help children with cancer and their carers.
PNG - betel nut
Papua New Guinea Police have removed a major illegal wholesale and retail betel nut market at Suara, next to the Mt Hagen main market.
This is part of an ongoing clear-up of illegal markets.
Western Highlands Provincial Police Commander John Sagom said police have issued warnings numerous times but people are deliberately disrespecting the city laws.
Sagom said vendors in illegal locations create a "safe haven" for criminals and criminal activities.
He said sellers must use the designated markets.
PNG - agriculture
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has provided 60,000 vanilla vines to farmers in East and West Sepik provinces of Papua New Guinea.
The EU-STREIT organisation says this is an effort to increase the quality and quantity PNG Vanilla.
The Sepik region has a uniquely favourable agro-ecological environment for vanilla cultivation, and a longstanding tradition in vanilla production which thousands of rural households depend on.
The beneficiaries of the programme have undergone capacity-building training, including climate-smart agriculture practice, as well as being supported with tools and equipment to improve their cultivation, husbandry and processing techniques.
Vanuatu - seasonal workers
The Vanuatu government is set to allow 1500 foreign workers under special visas to work in the country for one year.
The Daily Post said these special skills workers will be allowed into the country to work for legitimate employers in the manufacturing sector.
Finance Minister John Salong said the Government is concentrating on its focus of an economic growth of 4.1 percent in 2023.
While he has not blamed the current high numbers of seasonal workers leaving for New Zealand and Australia,
Salong has admitted a negative impact caused by experienced, educated young people leaving for seasonal work opportunities in both Australia and New Zealand.
Currently, Vanuatu remains the top provider of seasonal work applicants with thousands of workers in both countries.
Micronesia - USA
US President Joe Biden's administration is seeking more than $US7 billion for economic assistance to three Pacific island countries over the next 20 years.
Washington said earlier this year it had reached consensus with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia on terms of US economic assistance in talks to renew Compacts of Free Association, but had not provided details.
Jane Bocklage, a senior State Department official, told a congressional hearing the Biden administration's 2024 budget request included $US6.5 billion in direct economic assistance and $634 million for the unfunded costs of extending the US Postal Service in the three countries.
Bocklage alluded to China's efforts to court the Pacific, saying "absent the new economic assistance provisions, we really leave the three countries open to predatory behaviour".
French Polynesia/Cook Islands - aviation
Air Tahiti will resume its service between French Polynesia and the Cook Islands in June.
Its flights between Tahiti and Rarotonga were suspended because of the covid-19 pandemic.
The French Polynesian government has approved airline services from June until the end of October.
The revival of aviation has been marked by more flights between Tahiti and the United States, including the launch of flights from Tahiti and Seattle.
Kiribati - meteorology
Kiribati has recruited its first female oceanographer at the Kiribati Meteorological Service.
The Pacific Community reports Miriam Kataunati has recently been appointed to the role, which she says also includes supporting tsunami monitoring and early warning systems.
She says the Meteorological Service office realises the importance of this role in supporting and improving ocean services through the provision of ocean science products and information, as well as supporting post-disaster assessments incurred by impacts in Kiribati.
Kiribati joins the Solomon Islands as the two National Meteorological Services in the Pacific to have oceanographers on their teams.
