A US academic has been gang-raped by an armed mob in Papua New Guinea, barely a week after an Australian was killed and his friend sexually assaulted by a group of men. The incidents come after a brutal spate of sorcery-related crimes that have sparked condemnation from the United Nations and undermined the poor Pacific country's standing as a destination for tourism and investment.

A giant statue from Chile's Easter Island was unveiled in Tokyo Wednesday before it is erected in a small tsunami-devastated northeastern Japanese town as a symbol of recovery. The three-metre (9.8-foot) Moai statue is a gift from Chile, which pledged to supply a new statue to the fishing community of Minami Sanriku after the town's original was destroyed in the March 2011 quake and tsunami. "It has been two years since the disaster and reconstruction has just begun," the town's mayor Jin Sato said at an unveiling ceremony.

Two women were stabbed to death and an eight-month-old baby knifed in a frenzied attack on 14 Japanese tourists on the Pacific island nation of Guam, a court heard Wednesday. The attack happened late Tuesday when a local man drove his car up a pavement near the Outrigger Guam Resort and rammed into a convenience store, before jumping out and stabbing bystanders. Court documents allege Chad Ryan Desoto, 21, admitted he was intent on causing maximum carnage after being arrested following the rampage, which has stunned the normally sleepy tropical nation.