News media reports in Port Moresby say at least eight people have been murdered in horrific sorcery-related incidents in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the last week.Six women and a man were tortured and the women burnt to death in the Southern Highlands. Two elderly women have also been beheaded on the island of Bougainville, Fairfax News reports.Sorcery-related murders are soaring in PNG especially after a February incident in which a woman was burnt to death in front of hundreds of people at Mt.

Relief supplies began trickling into tsunami-hit communities in the Solomons Islands Monday, as another powerful aftershock rattled the Pacific nation in the wake of last week's 8.0-magnitude earthquake. The aftershocks had slowed but not halted aid operations in the remote Santa Cruz islands, where at least 10 people died in the tsunami triggered by the quake last Wednesday, the Red Cross said. "The wharf in (regional capital) Lata has been damaged, so it can't take large, heavy trucks," Red Cross secretary general for the Solomon Islands, Joanne Zoleveke, told AFP.

A powerful aftershock rattled the Solomon Islands Sunday as aid agencies struggled to get a clear picture of the devastation four days after a 8.0-magnitude quake triggered a deadly tsunami. The confirmed death toll rose to 10 with the discovery of a child's body in a ditch in the remote Santa Cruz Islands, while more than 3,000 people are squatting in shelters after their homes were destroyed.

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the Solomon Islands on Sunday, the latest powerful aftershock following a 8.0-magnitude quake that sparked a tsunami four days ago, US seismologists said. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 8:02 am (2102 GMT Saturday) 29 kilometres (18 miles) south-southwest of Lata, the main town on remote Ndende island in the Santa Cruz Islands, which are part of the Solomons, at a depth of 18 kilometres.