News stories by Catherine Wilson, page 13

SYDNEY, Jan 07 (IPS) - Coral reefs and marine ecosystems in the Milne Bay Province of the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea are at serious risk of long-term environmental damage. The reason: an oil spill from a ship that ran aground on a reef on Kwaiawata Island on Christmas Eve, and authorities' long delay in mobilising an appropriate response to the accident.

SYDNEY, Dic 17 (IPS) - The world's first deep sea mineral (DSM) mining venture in the Bismarck Sea off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific has come to a halt after two years of development.

BRISBANE, Nov 07 (IPS) -  

The Pacific Islands are making steady progress on reducing child mortality, but most are struggling to eradicate poverty and generate employment for young and rapidly growing populations. 

BRISBANE, Oct 26 (IPS) - Tokelau, a small Polynesian territory in the central Pacific, has surpassed the rest of the world in replacing fossil fuels and raised the benchmark of achievement on sustainable development.

BRISBANE, Oct 15 (IPS) - For the first time in 48 years, a Pacific Small Island Developing State (PSIDS) is gearing up to assume chairmanship of the Group of 77 developing nations plus China.

BRISBANE, Australia, Oct 01 (IPS) - Climate activist Wanita Limpus, from the low-lying island nation of Kiribati in the Central Pacific Ocean, says the outcome of the Rio+20 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in June was a serious letdown for small, developing island states.  

BRISBANE, Sep 03 (IPS) - In Papua New Guinea, the largest island nation in Melanesia in the southwest Pacific, where more than 60 percent of major crimes involve guns, a burgeoning illegal arms trade is associated with lack of employment growth and low human security, with vulnerable communities suffering the consequences.

BRISBANE, Sep 03 (IPS) - Leaders of 15 Pacific Island nations have pledged to remove barriers to women’s economic empowerment, end violence against women and pave the way for their increased political representation, at the conclusion of the 43^rd Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, last week. The meeting was also attended by the Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet.

PORT MORESBY, Sep 01 (IPS) - Papua New Guinea’s national election, which ended a ten-month leadership duel between National Alliance Party and veteran post-Independence leader Sir Michael Somare, and Peter O’Neill, leader of the People’s National Congress Party, has come to a close with O’Neill announcing his new coalition government.