Pacific news headlines

Anthony Albanese jokingly suggested the US could go halves with Australia on a $400 million regional policing plan.

Amid the growing superpower rivalry between the United States and China, the self-governing island of Taiwan has become one of the thorniest issues, with the ripples felt in Australia.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says both nations need to work closer to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific.

The device can detect submarine signals, according to a social media site linked to state media.

It was a peculiar setting to the final act in a legal drama that has now spanned the globe: a rural Western Pacific island, where visitors are usually tourists.

The agreement came hours after China's Premier left Australia, and a month after reports PNG was considering signing a policing deal with Beijing.

Liquidators said a number of bids from parties looking to revive the Pacific carrier had been received.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and other senior ministers have arrived in Papua New Guinea for high level talks with the island nation.

Traumatised survivors of the massive landslide estimated to have buried hundreds in Papua New Guinea have been slow to move to safer ground.

Authorities fear a second landslide and a disease outbreak are looming at the scene of Papua New Guinea's mass-casualty disaster because of water streams and bodies trapped beneath debris.

Local officials had initially put the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. Only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered by Sunday.

He plans a high-profile show of support for the French Pacific archipelago wracked by deadly unrest.

Dozens of Australians have touched down in Brisbane on evacuation flights from New Caledonia organised after rioting engulfed the French territory.

Lai Ching-te pledged to "neither yield nor provoke" Beijing and said he sought peace in relations with the superpower.

"The company's financial position is dire and it clearly cannot fund its own operations."

Beijing insists the trip violates the federal government's long established one-China policy.

The only flight from Australia due to land in Noumea today is Qantas Flight 8693, which is still scheduled to land in the capital at 4.20pm from Sydney.

Air Vanuatu has cancelled all its international flights, including those to and from Australia, as its government decides whether to place it into administration.

Australia will be watching the Pacific nation's incoming government over its stance on regional security.

The Solomon Islands' pro-China leader has pulled out of the fight to remain as the Pacific nation's prime minister, in a decision sure to be felt in Canberra, Washington and Beijing.

The shadow of China looms over the small Pacific nation as Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare bids for re-election.

A US Navy and Coast Guard operation on Tuesday rescued three mariners stranded on a tiny Pacific Ocean islet for more than a week after the trio spelled out "HELP" using palm fronds laid on a white-sand beach.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the pivot in spending is required to meet challenging conditions in our region.

Qantas has launched a landmark new direct flight between Australia and Papua New Guinea.

In the far-flung reaches of the south Pacific Ocean, there is a point so remote that the closest living people are the astronauts on the International Space Station.

Video of the shark was posted on Instagram showing the predator in cloudy waters at Gymea Bay, in southern Sydney.

The high-seas confrontation comes as South-East Asian leaders meeting in Melbourne are set to discuss Beijing's aggression.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong gave a stark warning to ASEAN officials ahead of today's summit of leaders.

Families of the victims of the 2019 Whakaari/White Island volcanic eruption have been awarded more than $NZ10 million ($9.4 million) by a judge in New Zealand.

A report has called for a communications link between the political or military leaders of the nations, similar to the so-called "red telephone" between the US and Russia.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said there will be more warships in the water ahead of schedule.

Police Commissioner David Manning described the clash as a "gun battle between warring tribes".

Sea surface temperatures are expected to return to neutral El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) levels in the southern hemisphere in autumn 2024.

The legendary American aviator disappeared over the Pacific Ocean 87 years ago.

The unrest began in the capital after hundreds of police officers, soldiers, prison staff and public servants walked off their jobs in protest over a pay dispute.

Paramedics said they'd been called to treat victims of shootings and an explosion amid a "significant emergency situation", and the Australian High Commission stepped up security measures.

Officials said the incident caused damage and endangered Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Australia and France have marked another major step forward in the recovery from the AUKUS diplomatic furore.

She has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of conspiracy to murder.

At the height of the faceoff in the high seas, a Chinese coast guard ship blasted a water cannon toward a Philippine motorboat

Tuvalu, an atoll home to slightly more than 11,000 people, is one of the lowest-lying countries on the planet, and as such one of the nations at most risk from rising sea levels due to climate change.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has come away from a seven-year-first China visit with positive signs on trade, climate change and visas.

The exact origins of Sydney's Centennial Park Eels is a long standing urban myth. The answer lies over 2,000 kilometres away on a tropical island.

A Category Five storm has never before been recorded this early in the season this side of the equator.

Forecasters are unsure about how the weather system will track over coming days.

The Pentagon has accused the rising Asian superpower of a campaign of 'coercion' against American aircraft.

Tom Robinson was rescued by a P&O cruise ship, who took a detour from their usual route to pick him up.

P&O Cruises confirmed to 9news.com.au that the passenger of the Pacific Adventure – the company's newest cruise liner – died at Mystery Island.

Beijing installed the structure to prevent Filipino fishing boats from entering a lagoon in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

The Philippines government claimed the structure destroyed coral and marine life.