New Zealand

Gichard at the double on thrilling night of swimming finals at Samoa 2015

The 15-year-old came into the race having beaten compatriot Gabrielle Fa’amausili in the 100m backstroke and produced another superb performance to take 200m gold with a time of 2min 10.87sec.

She touched the wall over three seconds in front of nearest challenger Nathania van Niekerk of South Africa, while Australian Elyse Woods did enough for bronze.

Climate change tension at Pacific Islands Forum

Representatives from the 16 forum member countries have gathered in Port Moresby to address issues concerning the region, but there are a number of conflicting positions, particularly when it comes to Australia and New Zealand and climate change.

Small island states have called for a global moratorium on new coal mines, which may struggle to get the backing of the wider forum, and enough of a reduction in emissions so that global temperature increases do not exceed 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels.

NZ PM happy with his country's climate change stance

John Key is attending the Forum leaders meeting in Port Moresby.

The meeting was preceded by declarations by Small Islands States, NGOs and Fiji's Pacific Islands Development Forum calling for greater action including no more than a 1.5 degree rise in global temperature above pre-industrial levels.

Developed nations have traditionally looked at two degrees as a more realistic target.

Key says he is happy with the work New Zealand has done to fight climate change.

NZ boosts Pacific aid, offers new broadcast deal

The Prime Minister John Key says this will take the total aid commitment to the region over the three years to nearly a billion New Zealand dollars.

He made the announcement at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders summit in Port Moresby.

He says New Zealand is a Pacific nation and it is committed to working with its closest neighbours to develop their economies and build a prosperous and stable region.

Meanwhile, John Key has announced a new broadcasting initiative that will see more New Zealand television content provided to the Pacific, free-of-charge.

NZ not in favour of Pac Forum West Papua mission

Murray McCully is part of the New Zealand delegation attending the Forum leaders meeting in Port Moresby this week.

The situation in West Papua is one of the five big issues on the Forum agenda and there have been calls from both NGOs and West Papuans for a mission to look into allegations of human rights abuses in the Indonesian province.

However Mr McCully says he does not back the calls.

NZ PM happy with his country's climate change stance

John Key is attending the Forum leaders meeting in Port Moresby which opened last night.

The meeting was preceded by declarations by Small Islands States, NGOs and Fiji's Pacific Islands Development Forum calling for greater action including no more than a 1.5 degree rise in global temperature above pre-industrial levels.

Developed nations have traditionally looked at two degrees as a more realistic target.

Mr Key says he is happy with the work New Zealand has done to fight climate change.

Kiribati urges Australia, NZ to be 'real friends' on climate change

Kiribati president Anote Tong made the call at the Pacific Islands Forum — which started in Port Moresby on Monday — where Pacific nations have gathered to form a united position to take to the Paris COP21 meeting in December.

“What we are talking about is survival, it's not about economic development... it's not politics, it's survival,” Tong said.

Tong said Australia and New Zealand should use their relative regional power to advocate for smaller countries.

Survey of Australians' attitudes to aid yields mixed results

Researchers from the Australian National University surveyed Australians about their opinions of foreign aid and what they expect from their aid programme.

One of the authors, Terence Wood, says in a nutshell, the research found most Australians support the government giving aid, even though many don't actually know how much Australia gives or where.

However, he says the public is also fairly comfortable with the amount of money given being reduced - but not to the Pacific.

Australia's inaction on climate change set to dominate Pacific Island talks

The issue will likely dominate this week’s Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ summit in Port Moresby, ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Paris later in the year.

Pacific leaders want the world to work on restricting the global warming temperature rise to 1.5C, fearing a 2C target will risk the survival of many tiny islands.

Natural disaster recovery will be fresh on their minds. The summit starts on Monday, six months after Cyclone Pam, which flattened much of Vanuatu and caused heavy flooding on Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.

Heilala vanilla added to fresh NZ milk

The Heilala vanilla extract added to Lewis Road Creamery’s Premium Whole Milk creates a New Zealand first, Fresh Vanilla Milk, stated the Heilala Vanilla company.

Heilala Vanilla this week joins Lewis Road Creamery’s Premium Whole Milk dream team in selected supermarkets and specialty food stores.

“This is an exciting development for Heilala and our growers in Tonga and means our vanilla will now be in the hands of exciting group of customers.”