Life in Papua New Guinea

Scenes from Papua New Guinea, where witch-burning and torture are still frighteningly common. Photography by Brendan Esposito. Selected images available from www.fairfaxsyndication.com.

O'Neill takes charge of Papua New Guinea

Ilya Gridneff Peter O'Neill has taken control of Papua New Guinea in what rival Sir Michael Somare supporters described as a "coup."

Papua New Guinea teeters on a wide political fault line

Jo Chandler 'Perhaps there are too many visionaries and dreamers such that no one is there to deal with the reality of life in Papua New Guinea.'

PNG ponders imposition of the death penalty

Eoin Blackwell PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea's government is considering backing the death penalty in a bid to deter crimes against women and "sorcery"-related killings.

Fears for PNG towns after quake

A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake has rocked Papua New Guinea's north. Seismologists warn there could be considerable damage in Aitape, where a giant tsunami in 1998 killed more than 2000 people.

Four arrested over PNG gang rape

Police in Papua New Guinea have detained four men over the gang-rape of a US academic after a massive manhunt, with officials urging locals to help find five suspects still on the run.

Witch-hunt

Tim Elliott Witch burning, torture and sorcery are still frighteningly common in Papua New Guinea, and the victims are invariably women, writes Tim Elliott.

Bougainville woman accused of sorcery, tortured, beheaded

Eoin Blackwell One woman is dead and another in hiding after a brutal murder over alleged ''sorcery'' in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea police say.

6.7-magnitude quake hits PNG

A strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake has struck off Papua New Guinea, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported, but a tsunami warning was not issued.

Hero returns after a particularly hard day at the office

Damien Murphy HOME is the hero. After a two-month 800 nautical-mile voyage in an open boat and trek across a wind-blasted mountain range at the bottom of the world, Tim Jarvis returned safely to his wife and...

UN demands end to 'witch' deaths in PNG

Nick Cumming-bruce Geneva SPURRED by the killing of a young woman accused of witchcraft in Papua New Guinea, the United Nations on Friday called on the country to address increasing vigilante violence against people accused...

Australian troops leave East Timor to begin crafting its new beginning

Lindsay Murdoch First time in almost 500 years the small half-island nation stands alone in the world.

Sri Lankans deaf to asylum warnings

Ben Doherty NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka: "If you get to Australia, you can get visa, and you can get work. Straight away."

Ben Doherty

Pawns in asylum trade

Ben Doherty 'If you get to Australia, you can get visa and you can get work. Straight away.'' The pitch is simple and it is unchanged by the policy whims of a government on the other side of the Indian Ocean.

Woman burnt for 'sorcery'

Port Moresby THE people responsible for burning a young woman alive in a Papua New Guinea town after she was accused of sorcery will be caught and punished, police say.

Charles pays tribute to PNG's Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

THE Prince of Wales has recalled the extraordinary courage of Papua New Guinea's Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, who helped Australian troops during World War II.

The man who knew too much stirs ghosts of Gillard's past

Mark Baker In 1996, a little-known lawyer not long out of a suburban law practice in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs scalped a goliath.

Fiji given hope of Pacific family reunion

Daniel Flitton, Rarotonga Moves to bring Fiji back into the Pacific fold are building at a regional leaders' summit, despite Australian and New Zealand opposition to lifting Fiji's suspension sparked by the military regime of...

Poet and firebrand finds herself in good company

Jo Chandler LOUJAYA Toni spent much of the past few years toiling in the vegetable garden she had inherited from her late mother on the outskirts of Lae, Papua New Guinea's second largest city.

Islands of the damned

Deborah Snow Father Paul Lonot Sireh calls himself a proud ''Manusian'' - a native of Manus Island, that small drop of land in Papua New Guinea's northern waters pushed to centre stage this week by the expert...