The PNG Parliament’s decision to toughen sentences for serious crimes receives widespread coverage.

The decision to repeal the country’s Sorcery Act even made the New York Times last week. However, such positive international coverage has been tempered by widespread criticism of the simultaneous decision to re-introduce the death penalty.

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On the Development Policy blog, Colin Filer comments on ABC TV’s 7.30 Report of 28 May, which suggested Australian mining jobs were under threat from Papua New Guineans. Filer was subsequently interviewed by Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat in a segment entitled ‘PNG workers in Australia at risk of becoming election fodder.’

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Fiji has been at the centre of a political storm in the UK over the past week. Tory MP Patrick Mercer has resigned after investigative reporters tricked him into signing a contract supposedly to lobby for British parliamentary support for Fiji’s return to the Commonwealth in exchange for cash payments. One consequence of the scandal has been to cast the UK’s media spotlight upon its distant former-colony. The UK’s Daily Telegraph declared:

‘Fiji may look like an island paradise but it and its Commonwealth membership was chosen as the subject of the lobbying investigation because it is an undeserving cause for back-bench MPs.’

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And the Tele, as it is known, also reports that Google considers using blimps to bring the internet to Africa, while The Lowy Institutue’s Interpreterblog uncovers a charming article about the internet’s infancy.

The Melbourne Age reminds us that the internet has its dark side, however, with a quarter of workers in a recent survey admitting to checking their work email account out of hours.