It took scientists 375 years to discover the eighth continent of the world, which had been hiding in plain sight all along. But mysteries about the land mass still remain. As we head towards the end of another extraordinary year, BBC Future is taking a look back at some of our favourite stories for our “Best of 2021” collection. Discover more of our picks here. It was 1642 and Abel Tasman was on a mission. The experienced Dutch sailor, who sported a flamboyant moustache, bushy goatee and penchant for rough justice – he later tried to hang some of his crew on a drunken whim – was confident of the existence of a vast continent in the southern hemisphere, and determined to find it. At the time, this portion of the globe was still largely mysterious to Europeans, but they had an unshakeable belief that there must be a large land mass there – pre-emptively named Terra Australis – to balance out their own continent in the North. The fixation dated back to Ancient Roman times, but only now was it going to be tested. And so, on 14 August, Tasman set sail from his company's base in Jakarta, Indonesia, with two small ships and headed west, then south, then east, eventually ending up at the South Island of New Zealand. His first encounter with the local Māori people (who are thought to have settled there several centuries earlier) did not go well: on day two, several paddled out on a canoe, and rammed a small boat that was passing messages between the Dutch ships. Four Europeans died. Later, the Europeans fired a cannon at 11 more canoes – it’s not known what happened to their targets. And that was the end of his mission – Tasman named the fateful location Moordenaers (Murderers) Bay, with little sense of irony, and sailed home several weeks later without even having set foot on this new land. While he believed that he had indeed discovered the great southern continent, evidently, it was hardly the commercial utopia he had envisaged. He did not return. (By this time, Australia was already known about, but the Europeans thought it was not the legendary continent they were looking for. Later, it was named after Terra Australis when they changed their minds). Little did Tasman know, he was right all along. There was a missing continent. [caption id="attachment_28203" align="alignnone" width="906"] Abel Tasman arguably did find the great southern continent, though he didn’t realise 94% of it is underwater (Credit: Alamy)[/caption] In 2017, a group of geologists hit the headlines when they announced their discovery of Zealandia –Te Riu-a-Māui in the Māori language. A vast continent of 1.89 million sq miles (4.9 million sq km) it is around six times the size of Madagascar. Though the world's encyclopaedias, maps and search engines had been adamant that there are just seven continents for some time, the team confidently informed the world that this was wrong. There are eight after all – and the latest addition breaks all the records, as the smallest, thinnest, and youngest in the world. The catch is that 94% of it is underwater, with just a handful of islands, such as New Zealand, thrusting out from its oceanic depths. It had been hiding in plain sight all along. "This is an example of how something very obvious can take a while to uncover," says Andy Tulloch, a geologist at the New Zealand Crown Research Institute GNS Science, who was part of the team that discovered Zealandia. But this is just the beginning. Four years on and the continent is as enigmatic as ever, its secrets jealously guarded beneath 6,560 ft (2km) of water. How was it formed? What used to live there? And how long has it been underwater? A laborious discovery In fact, Zealandia has always been difficult to study. More than a century after Tasman discovered New Zealand in 1642, the British map-maker James Cook was sent on a scientific voyage to the southern hemisphere. His official instructions were to observe the passing of Venus between the Earth and the Sun, in order to calculate how far away the Sun is. [caption id="attachment_28204" align="alignnone" width="906"] Possibly due to a quirk of geology, the enigmatic kiwi bird’s closest relative hails from Madagascar (Credit: Alamy)[/caption] But he also carried with him a sealed envelope, which he was instructed to open when he had completed the first task. This contained a top-secret mission to discover the southern continent – which he arguably sailed straight over, before reaching New Zealand. The first real clues of Zealandia's existence were gathered by the Scottish naturalist Sir James Hector, who attended a voyage to survey a series of islands off the southern coast of New Zealand in 1895. After studying their geology, he concluded that New Zealand is "the remnant of a mountain-chain that formed the crest of a great continental area that stretched far to the south and east, and which is now submerged…". Despite this early breakthrough, the knowledge of a possible Zealandia remained obscure, and very little happened until the 1960s. "Things happen pretty slowly in this field," says Nick Mortimer, a geologist at GNS Science who led the 2017 study. Then in the 1960s, geologists finally agreed on a definition of what a continent is – broadly, a geological area with a high elevation, wide variety of rocks, and a thick crust. It also has to be big. "You just can't be a tiny piece," says Mortimer. This gave geologists something to work with – if they could collect the evidence, they could prove that the eighth continent was real. Still, the mission stalled – discovering a continent is tricky and expensive, and Mortimer points out that there was no urgency. Then in 1995, the American geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk again described the region as a continent and suggested calling it Zealandia. From there, Tulloch describes its discovery as an exponential curve. [caption id="attachment_28205" align="alignnone" width="949"] Tasman’s ships left New Zealand after a bloody encounter with the Māori people – but he believed that he had found the legendary southern continent (Credit: Alamy)[/caption] Around the same time, the "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea" came into force, and finally provided some serious motivation. It states that countries can extend their legal territories beyond their Exclusive Economic Zone, which reaches 200 nautical miles (370km) out from their coastlines, to claim their "extended continental shelf" – with all the mineral riches and oil this encompasses. If New Zealand could prove that it was part of a larger continent, it could increase its territory by six times. Suddenly there was an abundance of funding for trips to survey the area, and the evidence gradually built up. With every rock sample that was collected, the case for Zealandia improved. The final flourish came from satellite data, which can be used to track tiny variations in the Earth's gravity across different parts of the crust to map the seafloor. With this technology, Zealandia is clearly visible as a misshapen mass almost as large as Australia. When the continent was finally unveiled to the world, it unlocked one of the most sizeable maritime territories in the world. "It is kind of cool," says Mortimer, "If you think about it, every continent on the planet has different countries on it, [but] there are only three territories on Zealandia." In addition to New Zealand, the continent encompasses the island of New Caledonia – a French colony famous for its dazzling lagoons – and the tiny Australian territories of Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid. The latter was described by one 18th-Century explorer as appearing "not to be larger than a boat." A mysterious stretching Zealandia was originally part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, which was formed about 550 million years ago and essentially lumped together all the land in the southern hemisphere. It occupied a corner on the eastern side, where it bordered several others, including half of West Antarctica and all of eastern Australia. Then around 105 million years ago, "due to a process which we don't completely understand yet, Zealandia started to be pulled away", says Tulloch. Continental crust is usually around 40km deep – significantly thicker than oceanic crust, which tends to be around 10km. As it was strained, Zealandia ended up being stretched so much that its crust now only extends 20km (12.4 miles) down. Eventually, the wafter-thin continent sank – though not quite to the level of normal oceanic crust – and disappeared under the sea. Despite being thin and submerged, geologists know that Zealandia is a continent because of the kinds of rocks found there. Continental crust tends to be made up of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks – like granite, schist and limestone, while the ocean floor is usually just made of igneous ones such as basalt. [caption id="attachment_28206" align="alignnone" width="906"] When the supercontinent of Gondwana broke up, fragments drifted all across the globe. Many of its ancient plants still live in the Australian Dorrigo forest (Credit: Getty Images)[/caption] But there are still many unknowns. The unusual origins of the eighth continent make it particularly intriguing to geologists, and more than a little baffling. For example, it's still not clear how Zealandia managed to stay together when it's so thin and not disintegrate into tiny micro-continents. Another mystery is exactly when Zealandia ended up underwater – and whether it has ever, in fact, consisted of dry land. The parts that are currently above sea level are ridges that formed as the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates crumpled together. Tulloch says opinion is split as to whether it was always submerged apart from a few small islands, or once entirely dry land. This also raises the question of what lived there. With its mild climate and 39 million-sq-mile (101 million-sq-km) range, Gondwana itself was home to a vast array of flora and fauna, including the first four-limbed land animals and later, an abundance of the largest to ever live – the titanosaurs. So, could the rocks of Zealandia be studded with their preserved remains? A debate about dinosaurs Fossilised land animals are rare in the southern hemisphere, but the remains of several were found in New Zealand in the 1990s, including the rib bone of a giant, long-tailed, long-necked dinosaur (a sauropod), a beaky herbivorous dinosaur (a hypsilophodont) and an armoured dinosaur (an ankylosaur). Then in 2006, the foot bone of a large carnivore, possibly a kind of allosaur, was discovered in the Chatham Islands, about 500 miles (800km) east of the South Island. Crucially, the fossils all date to after the continent of Zealandia split from Gondwana. However, this doesn't necessarily mean there were dinosaurs roaming over the majority of Zealandia – these islands may have been sanctuaries while the rest was drowned, as it is now. "There's a long debate about this, about whether it's possible to have land animals without continuous land – and whether without it, they would have been snuffed out," says Rupert Sutherland, a Professor of Geophysics and Tectonics at the Victoria University of Wellington. The plot thickens with one of New Zealand's weirdest and most beloved inhabitants, the kiwi – a dumpy, flightless bird with whiskers and hair-like feathers. Oddly, its closest relative is not thought to be the Moa, which is part of the same group – the ratites – and lived on the same island until its extinction 500 years ago, but the even-more giant elephant bird, which stalked the forests of Madagascar until as recently as 800 years ago. The finding has led scientists to believe that both birds evolved from a common ancestor that lived on Gondwana. It took 130 million years to fully break up, but when it did, it left behind fragments which have since been scattered all across the globe, forming South America, Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica, Australia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent, and Zealandia. This, in turn, suggests that at least part of now-submerged Zealandia has remained above sea level the whole time. Except around 25 million years ago the entire continent – even possibly the entirety of New Zealand – is thought to have been plunged underwater. "It was thought that all the plants and animals must have colonised afterwards," says Sutherland. So what happened? [caption id="attachment_28208" align="alignnone" width="906"] Satellite data can be used to visualise the continent of Zealandia, which appears as a pale blue upside-down triangle to the east of Australia (Credit: GNS Science)[/caption] When the continent was finally unveiled to the world, it unlocked one of the most sizeable maritime territories in the world. "It is kind of cool," says Mortimer, "If you think about it, every continent on the planet has different countries on it, [but] there are only three territories on Zealandia." In addition to New Zealand, the continent encompasses the island of New Caledonia – a French colony famous for its dazzling lagoons – and the tiny Australian territories of Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid. The latter was described by one 18th-Century explorer as appearing "not to be larger than a boat." A mysterious stretching Zealandia was originally part of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, which was formed about 550 million years ago and essentially lumped together all the land in the southern hemisphere. It occupied a corner on the eastern side, where it bordered several others, including half of West Antarctica and all of eastern Australia. Then around 105 million years ago, "due to a process which we don't completely understand yet, Zealandia started to be pulled away", says Tulloch. Continental crust is usually around 40km deep – significantly thicker than oceanic crust, which tends to be around 10km. As it was strained, Zealandia ended up being stretched so much that its crust now only extends 20km (12.4 miles) down. Eventually, the wafter-thin continent sank – though not quite to the level of normal oceanic crust – and disappeared under the sea. Despite being thin and submerged, geologists know that Zealandia is a continent because of the kinds of rocks found there. Continental crust tends to be made up of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks – like granite, schist and limestone, while the ocean floor is usually just made of igneous ones such as basalt. Though it's not possible to collect fossils from the seafloor of Zealandia directly, scientists have been plumbing its depths by drilling. "Actually the most helpful and distinctive fossils are the ones which form in the very shallow seas," says Sutherland. "Because they leave a record – there are zillions and zillions of tiny, tiny little fossils that are very distinctive." In 2017, a team undertook the most extensive surveys of the region so far, and drilled more than 4,101ft (1,250m) into the seabed at six different sites. The cores that they collected contained pollen from land plants, as well as spores and the shells of organisms that lived in warm, shallow seas. "If you have water, which is only you know, 10m (33ft) deep or something like this, then there's a good chance that there was land around as well," says Sutherland, who explains that the pollen and spores also hint at the possibility that Zealandia was not quite as submerged as was thought. A (literal) twist Another lingering mystery can be found in Zealandia's shape. "If you look at a geological map of New Zealand, there are two things that really stand out," says Sutherland. One of these is Alpine Fault, a plate boundary that runs along the South Island and is so significant, it can be seen from space. The second is that the geology of New Zealand – as well as that of the wider continent – is oddly bent. Both are split in two by a horizontal line, which is where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates meet. At this exact point, it looks like someone has taken the lower half and twisted it away, so that not only do the previously-continuous ribbons of rock no longer line up, but they are almost at right angles. An easy explanation for this is that the tectonic plates moved, and somehow deformed them out of shape. But exactly how or when this happened is still totally unresolved. "There are various interpretations, but this is quite a large unknown thing," says Tulloch. Sutherland explains that the continent is unlikely to give up all its secrets anytime soon. "It's quite hard to make discoveries, when everything is 2km (1.2 miles) underwater, and the layers that you need to sample are 500m (1,640ft) beneath the seabed as well," he says. "It's really challenging to go out and explore a continent like that. So, it just takes a lot of time, money and effort to go out and ships and survey regions." If nothing else, the world's eighth continent surely shows that – nearly 400 years after Tasman's quest – there is still plenty to be discovered. Source: BBC.com

Deadly landslides have swept away homes in Venezuela's Las Tejerias city, south of the capital Caracas. At least 22 people have been reported dead, and a further 52 are missing after the torrential rainfall caused by La Niña weather pattern. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez visited one of the worst-affected areas on Sunday. Rescue services are working to find those still missing, she said. President Nicolas Maduro described the situation as "difficult and painful". About 1,000 emergency personnel were taking part in search and rescue operations, deputy civil protection minister Carlos Perez Ampueda added. The landslides happened after the El Pato river burst its banks, and the resulting floodwaters swept away several houses and shops. Carmen Melendez, a 55-year-old local, told AFP: "The village is lost. Las Tejerias is lost." Las Tejerias, which is some 67km (42 miles) from Caracas, has been hit the hardest in Venezuela by this year's La Niña weather pattern. La Niña is a naturally-occurring event, which involves a cooling of the Pacific Ocean and usually brings wetter conditions to Asia, Africa and Latin America.   Source: BBC

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PNG Power Mr. Obed Batia has condemned the attack on a PNG Power Limited (PPL) employee during the weekend at Wandumi bridge in Wau, Morobe Province. The assault occurred while the officer was attending to his routine job. Mr. Batia stressed that similar incidents have occurred to his officers on several occasions and that wasn’t the first time. “If power users or customers and clients are upset about any power issues or blackouts, they should report in a proper manner to the right forum rather than resorting to violence. Power blackouts and adversities do occur and it’s not by employees. Our job is to fix the problem and to maintain reliability at all cost,” the CEO said. “My officers put their lives on the line to rectify problems. They work day and night ensuring power comes back,” Mr. Batia said. “Imagine of a power line that felled by landslide, bushfires, fallen trees or so at wherever distances. PPL employees are there doing the hard-yards to restore power even in bad weather, night or in the hot sun,” the CEO said. Mr. Batia has called on the police in Wau to apprehend the suspects and lay appropriate charges. The CEO has lashed his frustration after an assault case reported on yesterday’s (Monday’s) Post-Courier, news.

Villagers are pushing back against logging operations they say are encroaching on designated conservation areas. In mid-May, a bulldozer began clearing a logging road into an area of largely untouched rainforest near the village of Suburam, on Papua New Guinea’s north coast, between the mountains of the Adelbert Range and the Bismarck Sea. Towering kwila trees were among those locals say were felled by loggers. This is a coveted, high-value species that yields the rich red timber familiar in Australia as merbau. Landowners in the area say these trees are historically never cut down by them. They are considered ancestors, and the local Tivia clan say they only use the hardwood when the trees are “given”, falling naturally. Tivia means “blood”, Lawrance Omben, a clan leader from Arenduk village explains: “Blood because it is red – the tree sap is red.” Locals say the bulldozer felled 18 kwila and 100 mixed hardwoods. They say the bulldozer also levelled a sacred area – a matmat, the burial site for five generations of chiefs from three clans, surrounded by tall kwila that were the daughters of the clan’s mother tree. “Our belief is that when the masalai [spirits] … touch that sap, [humans] come out from that,” says another Tivia member, Bryan Lavate. “It is the creation of our clan.” When one of the local chiefs heard what had occurred, he says he lay down in his hut grief-stricken, and stayed there for days. [caption id="attachment_28187" align="alignnone" width="592"] Papua New Guinea landowners fight against logging –[/caption] Others ordered the young men of the clans not to retaliate with violence. Instead, on 19 May Lavate, the secretary of a collective of local clans known as the Yikmol Landowners Association, was dispatched with a letter advising the loggers they had caused damage to the external border of a designated conservation area, that they had no right to be there and should withdraw immediately. And they did. Sandu Ovot, a chief from Suburam whose great-grandfather was buried in the matmat levelled by the loggers, explains that kwila timber is imbued with spiritual powers, providing medicines and digging sticks for planting garden crops. Logs are only used for building when they are given – when trees or branches fall naturally. They are then also transformed into weapons that hold the strength of ancestors. Omben, the chief from neighbouring Arenduk village, says that since the letter to the loggers at Suburam in May, the logging crews have moved away. [caption id="attachment_28189" align="alignnone" width="775"] Bryan Lavate and Sandu Ovot, a chief from Suburam, whose great-grandfather was buried in the matmat he says was levelled by the loggers. Photograph: Supplied[/caption] Meanwhile the Tivia landowners say they have been struggling with the fallout. Because the landscape of their creation story has been desecrated, and the remains of the chiefs of three clans disturbed, it has damaged people’s physical and mental health, says Lavate. But the Tivia have continued to fight back, seeking justice of some kind, although Lavate says their loss can never be compensated. And so it is that when they hear a reporter from the Guardian is in Madang town, a delegation of 21 men, including seven chiefs, walk hours overnight to catch a ride into town and tell their story. ‘For us, forest is life’ Dubious – in some cases illegal – incursions by loggers into forests across the country are so common as to be unremarkable, according to Peter Bosip, executive director of PNG’s Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (Celcor). “In most cases in PNG there is no such thing as due diligence, so the PNG Forest Authority will just go ahead and accept whatever application that is brought by the loggers.” He says he hears countless variations of the Tivia clan’s story – far more than his stretched team of advocates can ever take up. As extraordinary as it is, what happened in the forest near Suburam in Sumkar district appears to be an all-too-ordinary reflection of the realities playing out as global corporations push deeper into the world’s third-largest remaining rainforest. Just three weeks before the bulldozers arrived, Suburam village had been the site of a 20-clan, five-pig feast and extravaganza, as the community celebrated the creation of a conservation area covering nearly 10,000 hectares of forest. Hundreds of locals were joined by guests representing the partnerships supporting the conservation project – Australia’s Dfat, USAID, the World Conservation Society, PNG’s MiBank and Kamapim, a local sustainable agriculture project that has helped village farmers produce vanilla beans of such quality they are sought out by European chocolatiers. “The thing about vanilla is that you can grow it, make it, and it’s easy work without cutting your rainforest down, and so we can do conservation, and we can have livelihoods with vanilla,” says Lavate, who represents about 4,000 people across two language groups involved in the project. For decades, forest communities in PNG have fallen back on selling their trees as one of the only ways to earn income in a country where basic services are scarce and households struggle to cover school fees. It has rendered communities vulnerable to exploitative deals. Loggers are offering 35 kina (about $US10) a cubic metre for prized kwila trees, but often pay less, locals say. These same trees often sell in China for $US500 a cubic metre, according to a 2021 PNG government report. Rather than sell their trees, Lavate and other landowners are trying to safeguard them for future generations, negotiating fraught clan politics, agreeing terms and mapping boundaries for a patchwork of locally controlled conservation areas. All this action has unfolded remarkably quickly by PNG timelines – within two years. In a nation notionally still almost entirely held under customary ownership, wrangling over land use can take years with no resolution. “We’re not rich people,” says Lavate. “We’re not the kind of people who can pay for water, pay for our food, pay for housing. We get these things from our forest. So for us, forest is life.” ‘They feel intimidated, they feel suppressed’ According to mapping done by locals and seen by the Guardian, the logging crew that arrived near Suburam in May carved their road hard along the boundary of the new Yikmol conservation area, despite regulations requiring a 100 metre buffer zone around protected areas, before pushing inside it at least once. Perhaps they were unaware of the new conservation area, or unpersuaded of its authority. The paperwork formalising the new conservation area could not be lodged with provincial authorities because they were on a protracted strike. Meanwhile, legislation enshrining new protected areas across PNG has been stuck by political inaction for years. But there are also questions around what rights the Malaysian-owned logging company, Woodbank Pacific Limited, had to be operating in the area at all. The company has not responded to questions, and neither has the PNG Forest Authority. It appears from log export data that Woodbank’s activities in this region of Madang province rely on colonial era logging concessions called timber rights purchases, or TRPs, that expired decades ago. Created in 1951, these provided a mechanism to purchase timber rights from customary owners and control the harvesting. The Yikmol landowners delegation is adamant that the company had not been given consent to be working near or within the conservation area or the matmat. “The logging company didn’t ask us landowners,” Lavate says. “We did not have an agreement with the logging company that they could come on our land but they came in anyway.” In a soon-to-be-published analysis for the ANU Development Policy Centre drawing on 40 years of insight and data, veteran PNG forestry expert Prof Colin Filer observes that outdated TRPs have produced more log exports than any other type of licence for the clearing of PNG forests, and that almost two-thirds of exports in the past three years have come from areas where TRP agreements have expired. Filer argues these operations are all illegal, citing a 2017 PNG state solicitor’s opinion which came to a similar conclusion. Celcor’s Peter Bosip argues that if the licences are not valid, then loggers who use them should be held accountable. But he has concerns about enforceability, speaking generally and not about Woodbank, “Even when there is a court order stopping them … the court is in Port Moresby. The logger in the remote location doesn’t really tend to recognise what the court says, and keeps on cutting down trees, and this has been an ongoing issue here.” Bosip has broader concerns about the potential for corruption in the industry, saying that government officers, elected officials, from top to bottom, “might accept [a] bribe and say OK, everything is in order and issue the logging permit”, says Bosip. Again speaking generally and not about the logging near Suburam he says that if some loggers have paid police to escort them on site, landowners “might get caught by surprise, and the police go in with arms and threaten them – if you want to dispute the logging company, go to court. They realise they don’t have the money to get legal assistance. They feel intimidated, they feel suppressed, but how can they speak?” What’s missing, says Paul Barker, executive director of PNG thinktank the Institute of National Affairs, speaking generally, is a commitment to the principle of adherence to law. “There is big money to be made out of this.” This is shaping as a particularly dangerous moment for PNG’s forests, Barker warns, not least because of the growing global momentum to save the country’s vast, vanishing, wildly diverse landscape as the climate emergency escalates. Speculation around lucrative carbon markets is attracting some genuine players but also unscrupulous “carbon cowboys”. The PNG government declared at Cop26 in Glasgow last November that it would ban log exports in 2025 and end all logging by 2030. Similarly welcome promises have been made and delayed for 15 years, and while cynics anticipate they may well be pushed out again, loggers are nonetheless “under pressure to extract as many bloody logs as they can over the next two or three years”, says Prof Filer. “Logging companies are realising they need to move fast just in case some of these carbon agreements, or even biodiversity agreements, actually do get established,” says Barker. Source: The Guardian.com

New Ireland Legislative Assembly Chairperson assisting Governor in Finance Misbil Nelson on Thursday 06th/10/22 issued a public call for openness and transparency on the part of the two Open Members for New Ireland with respect to the use of millions of kina worth of mining royalty funds that have gone to the District Development Authorities since 2021. Nelson said that “New Ireland is one of the few resource-rich provinces blessed with two Gold mines. The Lihir Gold mine, in particular, pays out large sums of royalties every month, as well as contributing to the National purse at the same time. The people of New Ireland deserve to know how their mining royalties are being spent. “ Nelson noted that since a change in the distribution of Royalty payments, 80 percent of the royalties from the gold mines go directly to the districts and only 20 percent stays with the Provincial Government. She said that “In the past all the royalties were parked with the Provincial Government, and all expenditure was tied to impact projects for the districts and the People of New Ireland. Every toea of royalty expenditure was identified in the Provincial Annual Budget, as approved by the Provincial Executive Council. However, since the royalties have been paid directly to the Districts, there has been no accounting for how those funds have been spent. The two DDAs have never made their budgets public, and there is no record of expenditure by the two Districts.” Nelson revealed, “From February 2021 to August 2022, a total of over K70 million in royalty payments have been paid to the respective districts and NIPG. Broken down, the two districts have received a total of more than K28 million each, while the Provincial Government has received only K14 million. Our Provincial Budget identifies where every toea of the K14 million the Provincial Government has received has been spent. However, we have no record at all of where the K56 million received by the two districts has gone. No record at all.” Nelson continued, saying that the lack of accountability on the part of the two Districts has meant that important programmes implemented in the last fifteen years by the provincial Government – including Roof Over Heads, Old Age and Disabled Pensions, Ward Level Projects and many others – now have no funds for implementation. “These are programmes that benefit the people in the two Districts for which the Open Members are representatives. But now that the money is under the control of the Open Members, their People are no longer benefitting from that money. Where has the money gone? It has not gone to the People. It has not gone to making the lives of the people better. New Irelanders have the right to ask what the two Open MPs, who also happen to be Ministers of State, are spending the royalty monies on?” said Nelson. Nelson stressed that “To date the New Ireland Government has not received any district plans or expenditure reports from the two open MPs to determine whether the royalty monies are being spent on the intended requirements of the Lihir MOU, which was signed by Sir Julius Chan when he was Prime Minister in 1994.” Nelson said “the New Ireland Government has nothing to hide. If you want to know what we have spent Lihir Royalties on just refer back to all the budgets we have passed. As soon as the royalties hit our accounts, they always go directly to funding impact projects and our Government policies as captured in our Malagan Declaration, Malagan Declaration Forward and New Ireland Declaration. Those Budgets are made public every year.” “But, where are the Budgets of the Districts? Where are the records of expenditure of over K56 million? That money has just disappeared, and it has done nothing to help our People.” Nelson also urged the two Open MPs to contribute to the construction of the West Coast Highway project. “Our people on the West Coast also voted for the two open MPs. The cry from our West coast people is for them to have a proper sealed highway, just like the Boluminski Highway or even better. They are hardworking people and have suffered enough for many years, we must fast track the West Coast Highway. The two open MPs must live up to their mandated duties of serving the people. They were not elected to build their own empires or serve only a select few.” Nelson concluded, saying “We are not here to play around. Our Government means business and we intend to give the best to our people. We must work together for the benefit of all New Irelanders. The first step is for two Open Members to come clean. They need to tell us what they have done with all the money they have received. And they need to recognize that they have a duty to the People of New Ireland, and that we should all work together to ensure that the resources available to us are used not for the benefit of a few, but for the benefit of all the People of New Ireland.”

He's just turned 29, but Brian Kaltak is in line to make his debut as a full time pro, at last, for Central Coast Mariners in the Australian A-League. It's taken the captain of Vanuatu's national men's team a good number of years to secure a professional deal, and when his trial with the Mariners was stalled by injury he feared his big chance may have been missed. But he was invited back by the team's English coach, Nick Montgomery, and impressed him enough to win a place in the squad. Now after a career which has taken him from his native Vanuatu to Solomon Islands, Fiji, PNG, and notably Auckland City in New Zealand where he captained the side, the central defender has become the first player from his country to join Australia's professional ranks. He freely admits he wishes it had happened ten years earlier, but right now he's out to impress in the hope that other, younger island players will follow him to Australia. Source: ABC Pacific 

The annual 59th Morobe Show goers expressed gratitude over the manner this year's event was organised. Majority of the show goers mostly females and kids, said this year's show was well organised when comparing the previous years shows. One of the females Jinjin Mea said unlike in the previous shows where kids, elderly people and females have fallen victims to harassment, pick pocketing and violence cases, this year's show was more controlled and their safety was protected. She stated that in this year's event, females and kids were able to walk in and out of the show ground freely without having to worry about opportunists preying on them. The show goers commented on this year's event after witnessing a trouble free show both on Saturday and Sunday show days. This was because police, Lae City Authority and Morobe Provincial Agricultural Show committee have banned people from setting up stalls and trade of any activities outside of the show ground area. Police and PNG Defence Force at Igam Barracks that were engaged ensured that show goers and the general public complied with instructions not to trade any activities outside of the show ground. Philip Maliaki aged 12 from Wampar Local Level Government area in Huon Gulf District said because authorities have banned the trade of activities outside the show ground, people bought tickets and made their way inside the event venue and watched their favourite activities. People also behaved when they were inside the event venue. The usual exchanges of sticks and stones that occurred between security guards and the opportunists was no more this year. Most show goers recommended that the ban on trade of activities outside of the show ground must be maintained in future events to minimize petty criminal activities.

England players and officials believe the host nation hasn’t been getting the respect they deserve ahead of this weekend’s World Cup opening game against Toa Samoa at St James' Park. Canberra captain Elliott Whitehead, the most experienced forward in the England team, was among those to question after the weekend’s 50-0 rout of Fiji whether the focus would now shift from Samoa. With Whitehead’s Raiders team-mate Josh Papali’i among a host of Origin stars to commit to Samoa, there is a lot of hype in England about the possibility of the Pacific nation causing an opening game boilover. “There is a lot of talk about other nations, but people can talk as much as they like,” Whitehead said. “As a group we know what we are capable of doing and we are going to show that so they can think whatever they want to be honest. “We aren’t talking about it, we know what we can bring as a group, so if the media want to start talking about that you can, but if not, we are happy to get on with it and do what we do.” [caption id="attachment_28153" align="alignnone" width="840"] Elliott Whitehead will be hoping to produce a strong World Cup for England.[/caption] England coach Shaun Wane hoped the performance against Fiji had silenced the doubters ahead of the tournament opener on October 15. “There has been a lot of talk about every other nation so I am just glad that we went out and performed and people have seen a glimpse of what we can do,” Wane said. “I know we are going to have massive challenges in this tournament, I know what we are up against, but I am just glad that people can see that we have got a good team and hopefully people will talk about us now.” Those close to the England camp warn that the impact on the team of playing in front of English crowds can’t be underestimated and it something few players from other nations have experienced. “Any time I play for England, no matter where it is, I am very proud and honoured to pull that jersey on and I am sure I will be doing the same next week if I get selected,” Whitehead said. “Samoa have got a great side, it is going to be a tough game and very physical but I think the first 20 minutes against Fiji were a step in the right direction. “We know it is going to go for a bit longer against Samoa, but the first 20 minutes were excellent. We were very physical and that set a good platform.” Former Raiders playmaker George Williams captained the England team against Fiji and dispelled any doubts about his form for Warrington this season with a strong performance. Williams played five-eighth, with Salford’s Marc Sneyd in the halfback role and Wane is expected to go with the same halves pairing against Samoa. “I watched a few of the Warrington games and I thought George re-found his form at the back end of the season,” Whitehead said. “The Warrington team struggled a bit this year, but George is a class player and I know what he can bring. He deserved to have the captaincy and he led the boys around well. George will bring a lot to our team in this World Cup.” Source: NRL.com

It's been around 80 years since the plane it was attached to crashed. The aircraft and the four men believed to have been onboard have lain here since, undiscovered. It's estimated there are between 500 and 600 crash sites across PNG from World War II, but the locations of many of them remain unknown. After this discovery, there will be one less Australian plane considered missing in action. The long jungle trek to discover a wreck The tip-off first came from a pig hunter who stumbled across the wreckage while tracking his prey. It was up in the hills of East New Britain, outside the town of Rabaul where Willie's family lives. [caption id="attachment_28136" align="alignnone" width="582"] Willie Flinn, 15, led a group of family and friends into the jungle to find the wreck.(ABC News: Natalie Whitin[/caption] But getting to the site to investigate wasn't easy. "I collapsed on the way in, so it was pretty tough for me," Willie says. He blames himself for not eating enough before beginning the trek. "And all the river crossings going to the crash site, it was brutal, I ended up going back with a sprained ankle. "But it was all worth it." He went in with a group of family friends. They were hosted by the chief of the nearest village, Barrum, with some of the villagers accompanying the group to the site. [caption id="attachment_28137" align="alignnone" width="587"] The chief of the nearby Barrum village hosted Willie Flinn before he set off on his expedition.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption] From the village, it takes several hours of trekking to get to the site: through the bush, across several rivers and up and down multiple mountain sides. For one stretch of the walk, the group used the river as their path, walking through the water for several hundred metres to reach the next point to climb. They used machetes to cut a rough path through the jungle as they went. Then they came across the first piece of metal debris. "I was going nuts, I went bananas. I said, 'No way, what is this bit of metal doing in the middle of the jungle?'," Willie recounts. Pieces of the plane are scattered across the hillside. Some parts look like scrap metal, but others are clearly identifiable: part of a propeller, a bit of a door, several guns. [caption id="attachment_28139" align="alignnone" width="585"] Among the debris found at this crash site were old weapons and rusted bullets.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption] Willie and his crew had to dig to discover much of the plane which had been buried in decades of mud. "What helped identify that aircraft was a Beaufort control column," Willie says. "It was in the cockpit area, which was underground by about three metres maybe, so we dug down and took out the control column." The group could also see bones of the men who had been onboard, parts of a leather watch and the pilot's vest. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="587"] The expedition crew had to dig to discover parts of the plane long buried in the mud.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption]   The volunteers piecing together war history Willie brought the control column and some of the rusted weaponry back to his father David Flinn to try to identify the plane. David is president of the Rabaul Historical Society and the reason Willie has such an interest in WWII history. "I used to follow him out to investigate leads that others would provide for him, and we would go and see crash sites," Willie says of his childhood. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="585"] Willie says he took an interest in World War II history thanks to his father, David Flinn, president of the Rabaul Historical Society.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption]   Rabaul was a significant site during the war. Guarded by a small contingent of Australian troops, it was captured by Japanese forces in 1942 and turned into a major naval and air military base. It then suffered intense allied bombing until the end of the war. Across Rabaul, huge tunnels still remain that were dug by the Japanese — largely using forced labour — to hide people and materials from the air strikes. Over on the main island of New Guinea in East Sepik province, the US Embassy recently carried out their own excavations to repatriate the remains of WWII soldiers. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="585"] Divers take part in a US Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency excavation to repatriate the remains of World War II soldiers.(US Embassy Papua New Guinea)[/caption]   David is among a small group of locals who volunteer to preserve the history and discover crash sites in Rabaul. He's glad to see his son take on the interest. "It's extremely important because people like us, we're at the end of our careers. I can't walk up into the bush like I used to," he says. Rod Pearce, another local and an experienced diver, has identified more than 50 crash sites — mostly underwater. [caption id="attachment_28143" align="alignnone" width="583"] Rod Pearce volunteers with David and other locals to explore and research crash sites in the region.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption] Many families have come to Rod for help in locating relatives who were lost during the war. "I always reply but in a lot of cases it's beyond me to even start a search, and a lot of times they don't know where he went down," he explains, sitting on his boat in Rabaul Harbour. But Rod has been able to assist many families, as well as authorities from the US, Australia, and Japan, in locating sites. It involves extensive research, planning, and trawling through records. "Some of the aircraft still have [people listed as missing in action] onboard, waiting for the authorities to do the recoveries. And that's what I like [to see] — to just see closure for those airmen from WWII," he says. 'The plane was shot at': Villagers share stories of the downed aircraft The memories of the war have also been passed down in many villages across East New Britain. "Stories of the war were passed down from generation to generation," Barrum village chief Israel Joseph says. "During the war, the Japanese had killed some of locals. "Others were used as carriers, some died because of carrying heavy loads." He came across the crash site that Willie is now studying 15 years ago. He says he has heard stories of the plane being shot down. "It flew that way and crashed over there. My grandfather told me this. They watched the plane crash land from the old Vunga village." The chief has protected the site and was glad to see Willie come to document and report it, but he's worried about people from a neighbouring village coming onto his land to try to steal parts of the plane. [caption id="attachment_28144" align="alignnone" width="584"] Barrum is the closest village to the crash site, several hours' walk away.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption] David Flinn says many crash sites are lost to people pillaging. "The single-biggest problem we have is that people believe that these wrecks are very valuable," he says. "So, they go up and smash the site to bits and by the time we get to hear about them there's usually not a lot left." There is also concern about sites being destroyed by logging companies. Identifying the plane — and the Australians onboard It's been a year since Willie first trekked out to the plane site. He recently returned to try to get more identifying information. David and Rod are working on the guns he brought back from the first trip, trying to clean them up and find serial numbers. On his second visit to the site, Willie was trying to find identifying numbers on the props and other parts of the wreckage, but the material was either too rusted or buried. Willie remains hopeful that the plane can be identified. "It would mean the world to me," he says. [caption id="attachment_28145" align="alignnone" width="589"] Willie remains dedicated to finding the answers about the plane that crashed.(ABC News: Natalie Whiting)[/caption] The team has so far been able to identify the aircraft as an Australian Beaufort, and based on records of that type of plane and the area it was found in, the team believes there are two likely options. "It could be one of two — I wouldn't like to speculate who it is, simply because we haven't done enough investigation on it yet and it could take another year before we really find out who is in there," David says. Also, they think four airmen would have been onboard, based on the type of plane. The Australian Defence Force was informed when the site was found last year, but they haven't been out to visit yet, so there hasn't been an official identification. "In light of the eased COVID-19 related travel restrictions, further investigation of this remote crash site is planned in 2023," a spokesperson said in a statement. There is a small team within the Royal Australian Air Force tasked with investigating wreckages like this one. The defence spokesperson said RAAF has provided guidance to minimise disturbance to the site to ensure the best chance of positively identifying the aircraft and recovering any human remains. "Defence is committed to the recovery, identification and burial of its men and women who died while serving their nation," the statement said. David says he's hopeful the authorities will soon be able to make the trip, in order to finally bring closure to the families of those who went down with the plane. Source: ABC Pacific News

At around 11:30am Sunday morning, the 111 ambulance operations center received multiple calls about a motor vehicle incident on the Hiri-Tano Hwy about 100m west of Laloki hospital. Five ambulances, including a paramedic unit, and two emergency nurse units were dispatched to the scene. A total of 7 patients required treatment including four with serious injuries. All patients were transported to Port Moresby General Hospital. A total of 4 patients were the transported to hospital by St John and 3 by ambulance of Laloki hospital. However, it was frustrating for ambulance crews when bystanders forcefully remove patients from a vehicle that are trapped. People can die as a result of worsened injuries when bystanders try to remove patients from a vehicle. Leave the patients in place until ambulance professionals are at the scene.

Report any illegal power connection, either done by individuals in residential areas or done by business houses and get rewarded for reporting it. That is the word from PNG Power Limited (PPL) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Obed Batia when announcing the power company’s new initiative that would work both ways; reward people that report illegal connection and safeguard the power company from more illegal activities that drain its revenues. The new initiative- the External Reward Program called ‘Pawa Tokaut,’ will see PPL reward any individual who reports any illegal power connection with cash rewards. Mr. Batia said the new initiative is a follow on from the Amnesty Exercise that ran from June to September this year. “The Amnesty Exercise is enforcing the PNG Power revenue, a protection strategy part of the three-year corporate plan aimed to combat the revenue leakage, maintain existing revenue and see a growth in revenue through more new customer connections,” said Mr. Batia. He said other initiatives, like the new Pawa Tokaut, need to work hand in hand with the Amnesty Exercise. “It (Pawa Tokaut) will enable the public to come forward, report illegal connections and in return, the person reporting them will get cash reward.” For the cash rewards, the CEO said its K250 cash reward for reporting on illegal connections in domestic and residential areas. The second reward is 10% of the monthly billing of a business or company that is found guilty of making an illegal connection, be given to any individual who reports that business house or company that is doing so. “In addition, PPL will charge and prosecute and apply appropriate penalties to the offenders,” said the CEO. He also assured the public that the identity of the person reporting the illegal connection will be kept confidential and therefore, he is encouraging the public to come forward and report by calling the toll the free number 116. “PPL sends out a strong message as well to those that are illegally connected that this initiative will see you charged and prosecuted under the current Electricity Industry Act and the Criminal Code,” he said. This new initiative has already started and will run from October to December 31st, 2022, and is piloted in three urban centers, Port Moresby, Lae, Madang, and Kokopo. The CEO added that eventually, this program will go out to other provinces under phase two of the arrangements.

NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Gideon Ikumu said two people were reportedly killed in a fight between the Helas and Eastern highlanders in Erima yesterday. Mr Ikumu said, the two groups mobilized and exchanged projectiles resulting in some injuries, before police intervened and stopped the fighting. He said the NCD Homicide unit is now investigating these reported killings, but the community leaders must also step in to assist the police in their investigations. Mr Ikumu said the leaders on both sides of the conflict must identify the suspects involved in the killings and bring them to the police. The Metsup and his men spoke to the Helas underneath the Kookaburra Fly over before meeting up with the Marawaka community at Erima Mambu settlement yesterday. In these meetings, the Metsup appealed for calm and said the police will do everything within its means to stop the fight from re-occurring.