papua new guinea

A leader's summit for the regional group originally scheduled for this week has again been postponed without explanation.

This comes as the MSG grapples with a bid for full membership by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which is opposed by Indonesia.

Barak Sope, a staunch advocate for West Papuan independence, said the group has become ineffective because Fiji and Papua New Guinea, which both support Indonesia, are dodging making a decision.

Four of them have travelled to Sydney's Australian Museum for a new exibition, where Ian Lloyd Neubauer found out more about the masks and the men behind them.

With their skin painted white, elongated bamboo fingers, and of course the eerie masks, the four mud men - who have never left Papua New Guinea's highlands before - are at the Australian Museum for a week as "artists in residence" as it opens a new permanent mud men exhibit.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Damukana Sogavare told LOOP PNG resolving past differences is the only path to true peace and security in the border regions.

“We have the Bougainvilleans also here, they come as observers, and we look at how we can do peace building on the border between PNG and Solomon Islands a bit better and in a way that can promote and harness peace among our people,” Sogavare said.

Bougainville civil war, the largest conflict in Oceania since WWII, raged for a decade from 1988, with thousands of lives lost.

The summit which concluded in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday encouraged further cooperation with the EU in identifying other sources for financing the SDGs.

RNZI reports a meeting of the joint ACP council of ministers and foreign ministers is underway, including representatives from a number of Pacific Islands governments.

The meeting is to feature a briefing on a report by an Eminent Persons Group considering if there are relevant grounds to continue with the ACP as a group.

After a successful election petition by the seat's runner-up, Alfred Manase, the court yesterday ruled that five ballot boxes in Mr Polye's Kandep electorate were not properly counted by the Electoral Commission.

RNZI reports Sam Basil is to be the new opposition leader after Mr Polye yesterday announced he respected the court decision and would step aside.

Both elections will be held concurrently.

The theme of the elections is 'Your Choice, Protect the Democracy - Election 2017'.

The Governor General approved the dates as per the Electoral Commissioner's recommendations.

The Issue of Writs and Nomination will open on Thursday, 20 April, 2017. Nominations close 27 April, with polling to start on 24 June and will end on 08 July.

Return of Writs is on or before July 24. For the LLG Election, the return of Writs is August 07.

Arron Culling, a New Zealander working in Papua New Guinea, said he found the turtles at the local market, waiting to be sold for their meat.

He decided to buy them, and simply drove to the nearest beach, approximately five kilometres away, and released the beautiful creatures back into the ocean.

Culling posted photos of the rescue to Facebook, which have so far been shared over 30,000 times on social media.

Much of the Highlands region has been affected by drought and frost which have destroyed food gardens.

The PNG Government started rolling out food aid several weeks ago but the Chimbu Governor Noah Kool says it is not enough.

He says Port Moresby has to under a proper assessment of the number of people affected and the help they will need for a drought expected to extend into 2016.

The RI-PNG border remains prone to drug smuggling, although some suspected individuals illegally crossing the border have been arrested.

Security officials have frequently arrested people possessing marijuana while attempting to illegally cross the PNG border to enter Jayapura, Papuas provincial capital; however, drug smuggling activities continue to thrive along the border.