Stories by Jamie Tahana

After a year of zero visitors, the Cook Islands is now pondering just how many visitors it actually wants to return. Audio

The Cook Islands is grappling with how to entice an exodus of young people back to the country.

Businesses in Rarotonga are hoping the first plane load of tourists to fly into the Cook Islands in over a year are ready to spend up large. Audio

Human rights groups in Papua fear civilians will bear the brunt of any retaliation for the killing of a top Indonesian intelligence official.

Doctors in Papua New Guinea say the coronavirus crisis there is only getting worse, as hospitals struggle without supplies as basic as gloves in a country with no grasp of just how widespread the…

The people of a village Fiji's prime minister described as the "worst-affected" by Cyclone Yasa in December have decided to completely relocate.

Fiji's public prosecutor has thrown out a case against the country's attorney general, saying there is insufficient evidence to charge him in relation to two bombings in Suva 30 years ago.

Analysis: The pace of progress towards opening a travel bubble with coronavirus-free Pacific countries has been frustrating for many, but with the pandemic still raging, there is reason for caution…

A study into Tonga's tax on sugar-sweetened drinks has found it may have led to an increase in bottled water production.

The premier of Niue will wait and see how a 'travel bridge' between the Cook Islands and New Zealand goes before joining a proposed travel bubble between the realm countries. Audio

A Samoan man was kept in prison for nearly five years longer than he should have been because of an administrative error.

Taneti Maamau has been re-elected president of Kiribati by more than 8,000 votes, cementing the country's relations with China.

The confirmation of new Covid-19 cases in New Zealand and the associated administrative bungles has dampened some enthusiasm for a travel bubble with the Pacific. Audio

There are again calls in Fiji for more to be done to curb what's described as a culture of violence in both the police and prisons service. Audio

Thousands of jobs have been lost as the tourism industry - the economic lifeblood for Pacific countries - disappears. There are growing signs many families are being plunged into poverty.

Plans are underway to return the body of Laisenia Qarase, the former prime minister who led Fiji through a tumultuous six years bookended by two coups, to his home village for burial.

Laisenia Qarase, the sixth prime minister of Fiji who was installed by one coup and removed by another, died on Tuesday.

The MP for the cyclone-devastated Vanuatu town of Luganville says up to 70 percent of buildings have been destroyed.

As the winds finally died down on Wednesday morning, the people of northern Vanuatu emerged to scenes of devastation.

Reports of extensive damage are emerging from parts of Vanuatu struck by Cyclone Harold yesterday, but communication with much of the battered region is proving difficult.

Cyclone Harold, the most powerful storm in the Pacific in at least two years, has made landfall on the Vanuatu island of Santo, with winds gusting as high as 235km/h.

Two bodies have been recovered in Solomon Islands as the search continues for 27 people who were swept from a ferry that appears to have defied warnings.

Vanuatu is bracing for a direct hit from the still intensifying Cyclone Harold, which is forecast to pass straight over the central islands, forcing the country to contend with dual emergencies.

Fiji's capital, Suva, went into lockdown this morning after two cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the city.

With the country in a state of emergency, Vanuatu election officials came up with a novel way to keep their election transparent: putting the counting on livestream. Jamie Tahana watched for hours…