![Prior to independence, Somare was the chief minister of the Australian-administered territory of Papua New Guinea [File: Hakon Mosvold Larsen/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/000_Hkg3844566.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Pacific island nation’s four-time prime minister was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early February.
Papua New Guinea
![Blood Generation (Sami and the mine, 1- 3), 2009, digital print [Courtesy of Taloi Havini and Stuart Miller]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Image-1-Taloi-Havini-Blood-Generation-Sami-and-the-mine3-1.png?resize=570%2C380)
The people of remote Pacific island battled corporate greed and war on its long road to independence.
![Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama during a visit to Beijing [File: Andy Wong/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/h_52055965-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
China-Taiwan fistfight in Fiji raises concerns that broader US-China rivalry could destabilise the Pacific.
![Ishmael Toroama has been elected Bougainville president and will lead independence talks with Papua New Guinea [File: Ness Kerton/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/000_1MH09J.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Ishmael Toroama is set to lead independence talks for the autonomous territory in the remote east of Papua New Guinea.
![Prime Minister Marape has warned that the country's health system would not have the capacity to deal with a widespread outbreak of the coronavirus disease [File: David Gray/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/68a88b455016414d9e366d0ba0f21501_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Government orders mandatory wearing of face masks in capital Port Moresby to help contain spread of deadly COVID-19.
![In the past, Peter O'Neill has denied similar charges [File: Fazry Ismail/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/d1a77ea60fce4d3a9601a23854e83a1a_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
His arrest is part of a probe into the alleged unauthorised purchase of two Israeli generators while in office.
![Geographical isolation has helped protect the Pacific Islands from the coronavirus, and governments also closed borders to keep visitors out, recognising the risk the disease poses to their communities [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/6a57014c8e0b4fc89c1ac4288cd8c2cf_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
People in the island nations have some of world’s highest rates of diabetes and obesity, and health systems are weak.
![Voting began on November 23 with ecstatic residents singing and stomping through the streets [File: Melvin Levongo/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ec6191248021443280b42f06e85f4f29_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
South Pacific region votes overwhelmingly in non-binding referendum that could create world’s newest nation.
![Bougainville Vice President Raymond Masono he expects voters to support the referendum but it could take at least 10 years to fully establish an independent state [Jeremy Miller/Bougainville Referendum Commission/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/9b6268c683e4488e8325eabcba1cb470_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Pacific island once ravaged by fierce fighting expected to overwhelmingly back independence from Papua New Guinea.
![The vote is a cornerstone of a 2001 peace deal that ended a brutal decade-long war [Bougainville Referendum Commission via Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/e79f1ac7964e4399b9b1449b954d913b_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Two weeks of voting concludes on Pacific island chain that could kick off creation of world’s newest country.
![About 207,000 Bougainvilleans are registered to vote over the next two weeks [Ness Kerton/AFP]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/5fccf147f06144b1ac898bfbfcb613de_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
About 207,000 Bougainvilleans are registered to vote on whether Melanesian isles will become world’s newest country.
![The waterfront of Bougainville's main town of Buka. The territory is voting in a referendum on independence [Catherine Wilson/Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/3e4594087a414c1f852c062596ad4218_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Referendum vote will continue until December 7 amid expectations territory’s 200,000 people will back independence.
![This is the first time Boochani has been allowed to leave PNG since he was detained six years ago [Al Jazeera]](/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/a03a4aa0875d4f96b667b3a0574e3957_18.jpeg?resize=270%2C180)
Kurdish-Iranian journalist tells Al Jazeera that housing refugees in offshore detention facilities is ‘barbaric’.
The Kurdish Iranian writer, held in PNG since 2013, says he may seek asylum in New Zealand or the US.