PNG government may restrict Facebook as PM faces no-confidence motion

Peter O’Neill says ‘fake news’ is destroying Papua New Guinea, which has faced a tumultuous few weeks in politics

The Papua New Guinea government is again flagging restricting or banning Facebook and other social media in the country, after a tumultuous few weeks in politics which may still see a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.

The prime minister, Peter O’Neill, has said he would order cabinet to conduct a “complete review” of social media as the first task of the newly appointed communications minister on Thursday.

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Papua New Guinea politics in chaos as MPs table no-confidence motion in PM

High-profile resignations come amid growing lack of trust in Peter O’Neill

Papua New Guinea has lurched into a new political crisis, after a spate of high-profile resignations by government ministers led to MPs calling a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, Peter O’Neill.

Over the past week MPs from the government and the opposition have been engaged in a dramatic standoff, with groups from both camps in lockdown in two hotels in the capital, Port Moresby. About 1,000 police have reportedly been called in to patrol the city as the commissioner called for calm.

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Botched penis enlargements: Papua New Guinea doctors warn of nationwide problem

One clinic has treated at least 500 men in past two years with penile disfigurement and dysfunction from injections gone wrong

Doctors in Papua New Guinea have warned of a “nationwide problem” of men injecting foreign substances, including coconut oil and silicone, into their penises in an attempt to make them bigger.

A doctor at the Port Moresby General Hospital said that over the last two years his clinic has treated at least 500 men with penile disfigurement and dysfunction as a result of injections.

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Briton arrested after fleeing Australia on a jetski, armed with crossbow

Authorities catch up with 57-year-old, wanted on drugs charges, after he travelled 150km across the Torres Strait

A wanted British man has attempted to flee Australia on a jetski, travelling almost 150km (93 miles) across the Torres Strait while armed with a crossbow.

The 57-year-old man is subject to an outstanding warrant for drug-related charges in Western Australia.

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Last four refugee children leave Nauru for resettlement in US

Move follows intense campaign by refugee advocates for all children sent to the island by the Australian government to be taken off

The last four children living in Australian government-run offshore processing on Nauru have now left the island, amid a group of 19 people flown to the US for resettlement.

The group includes a number of Iranians, according to refugee advocates, contradicting persistent suspicions that Donald Trump’s travel ban on six nationalities was blocking refugees from the resettlement scheme.

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Australian government security contractor Paladin breaks silence on corruption allegations

Company that was awarded $423m to provide services on Manus Island says reports linking it to bad debts are ‘offensive’ and ‘unsubstantiated’

Security contractor Paladin has broken its silence to attack suggestions of corruption as “offensive”, while rejecting reports linking it to a series of bad debts or failed contracts across Asia.

The firm said it is seeking legal advice about media articles it said had “failed to identify any evidence to sustain the damaging allegations being made against Paladin”.

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Home affairs denies it was ‘desperate’ when $423m Manus Island contract awarded

Mike Pezzullo admits department faced ‘urgent’ circumstances when deal done with little known firm Paladin

The head of the department of home affairs concedes bureaucrats awarded a controversial $423m contract to Paladin to provide services on Manus Island because of an “urgent” set of circumstances, but Mike Pezzullo denies he was “desperate”.

Officials from the home affairs department told estimates on Monday they were, in essence, forced to conduct a closed tender process for the contract because the government of Papua New Guinea advised the then Turnbull government in July it could not provide services it had signalled it would provide because it had entered a caretaker period.

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Labor issues please explain over Paladin’s $420m Manus contract

Penny Wong says it’s ‘deeply concerning’ a company with ‘such a poor track record’ was awarded a lucrative sum through closed tender

Penny Wong has indicated Labor will target the Paladin offshore detention security contract in Senate estimates this week, accusing the government of failing to explain why the company was awarded $420m in contracts through closed tender.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that Paladin Group’s $420m of contracts to provide security to refugees on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea was extended by the home affairs department in January after a closed tender process.

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How colonialism shapes immigration policy in the US and Australia

A group of around 20 protesters occupy PM Malcolm Turnbull's electoral office, demanding the end to the policy of offshore detention of asylum seekers, in Sydney, October 14, 2015 [Reuters] , President Donald Trump praised Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the Australian policy of refusing entry to asylum seekers who arrive by boat. It is official Australian policy to detain future arrivals through systematically cruel treatment in offshore detention centres.

The Politics of Manus Island: Refugees, Responsibilities and Contracts

In what has been a nightmare at Christmas, the plight of refugees relocated to other sites on Manus Island after the closure of the facility at Lombrum Naval Base has worsened. The latest scenes at East Lorengau Transit Centre, where 300 men have been since December 19, have been ugly and pitiable.

Tasmanian connection to WWI submarine, found after 103 years

FAMILY TIES: Daisy Baker, in 2014 on the 100-year anniversary of the disappearance of AE1, with a picture of her great-great-uncle Cyril Lefroy Baker. Battery ventilation trunks of HMAS AE1, which has been found after 103 years in waters off the Duke of York Island group in Papua New Guinea.

Missing Australian WWI submarine discovered after 103 years

In this undated image provided by the Australian Department of Defense fish swim around the helm of the Australian submarine HMAS AE1 off the coast of the Papua New Guinea island of New Britain Australia resolved the oldest mystery in its naval history on Thursday after discovering its first submarine, the HMAS AE1, which disappeared over a century ago, official sources reported Thursday. The HMAS AE1 disappeared on September 14, 1914, with 35 people on board, for some unknown reasons while sailing between the islands of New Britain and New Ireland, in northeastern Papua New Guinea, reports Efe news.

WWI Australia submarine wreck found off Papua New Guinea

Australia's most enduring military mystery has been solved after the wreckage of the country's first submarine was found more than a century after vanishing off Papua New Guinea's coast, officials said Thursday. HMAS AE1, the first of two E Class submarines built for the Royal Australian Navy, vanished on 14 September, 1914 near the Duke of York Islands with 35 crew members from Australia, Britain and New Zealand on board.

Sri Lanka arrests 22 trying to go to Australia by boat

Sri Lankan prison officers escort suspected Sri Lankan illegal immigrants after producing them at a magistrate court in Puttalam, about 120 kilometers north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Nov. 27, 2017. Sri Lankan police said Monday that they have arrested 22 people who were attempting to illegally migrate to Australia by boat.

Australia disappointed by U.S. failure to take in refugees as promised

Australia's Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton speaks to reporters in Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. CREDIT: AP Photo/Rod McGuirk Now that the U.S. government has reached its annual refugee resettlement cap as set by the Trump administration, hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers from Australia won't be able to enter the United States as promised during former President Barack Obama's administration.

Australia PM says asylum seekers to be resettled in U.S. after Trump takes office

Australia's prime minister said on Monday resettlement to the United States of many of the 1,200 asylum seekers held in detention camps on Papua New Guinea and the Pacific island of Nauru will begin after President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration in January. Whether Trump honours the deal Australia reached with the outgoing Obama administration, and announced earlier this month, will provide an early test of Trump's anti-immigration stance.

Australia seeks to allay fears Trump could nix refugee deal

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to allay concerns Monday that a deal to send refugees from remote Pacific camps to the United States could be scuppered by President-elect Donald Trump. Canberra on Sunday announced a "one-off" arrangement that would see an unspecified number of the 1,600 boatpeople held in offshore processing centres on Nauru and in Papua New Guinea settled in the US.