Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele met Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Canberra to discuss security and development ties, as the United States and China vie for influence in the Pacific Islands region.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Canberra wanted deeper ties with its Pacific neighbour Solomon Islands and a region where decisions are made “without fear”, as China also sent its envoy to Honiara to meet new Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele.

Papua New Guinea ordered thousands of residents to evacuate from the path of a still-active landslide after parts of a mountain collapsed burying at least 2,000 people, according to government estimates.

A 6.6 magnitude has struck 70km northwest of Tonga, this morning.

New Caledonia’s international airport will remain closed until at least next Sunday, its operator said, nearly two weeks after rioting erupted on the French-ruled Pacific island over a contested electoral reform.

More than 670 people are assumed to have died in Papua New Guinea’s massive landslide, the U.N. migration agency estimated on Sunday as rescue efforts continued.

The survivors of a massive landslide in a remote village in Papua New Guinea are still waiting for official help, more than 24 hours after the disaster.

Police shot dead a man in riot-hit New Caledonia on Friday evening, a day after President Emmanuel Macron visited to the French-ruled Pacific island to try to calm tensions, local media said, citing the local prosecutor’s office.

More than 300 people and over 1,100 houses were buried by a massive landslide that levelled a remote village in northern Papua New Guinea, local media reported on Saturday.

More than 100 people are believed dead in a landslide in remote Papua New Guinea on Friday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on a visit to New Caledonia that inequalities had widened on the French-ruled Pacific archipelago and were a driving force in the deadly civil unrest that broke out last week.

French President Emmanuel Macron said after a day of talks in New Caledonia that he would delay a voting reform that had triggered deadly riots on the French-ruled Pacific island, and try to seek a new political agreement.