Dateline Pacific evening edition for 2 February 2018

There are renewed calls in Kiribati for an independent commission of inquiry into the Butiraoi ferry disaster; Immigration authorities in the Marshall Islands appear to be cracking down on illegal baby trade after they recently stopped three people and an infant from boarding a flight to Hawaii at Majuro Airport; the Catholic Church in Rabaul in Papua New Guinea says the sale of several large parcels of land to a Malaysian logging company at Putput in East New Britain is fraudulent; The Samoa Voyaging Society is in New Zealand to promote a part of Samoan culture that is slowly dying; the New Zealand minister of Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio this week made the first visit by a New Zealand government minister to Nauru; Fiji sevens players have been mulling over new contracts while trying to prepare for World Series tournaments in Australia and New Zealand.