Among the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea, beginning at age seven all males regularly submit to oral penetration by adolescents in a six-stage initiation process, as the Sambia believe that regular ingestion of an older boy's semen is necessary for a prepubescent youth to achieve sexual maturity and masculinity.

They are located in the northeast sector of the archipelago, bounded by the Philippines to the north, Papua to the east, and Nusa Tenggara to the south.

* 1998 – Papua New Guinea earthquake: A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 3, 183, leaving 2, 000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.

After being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975.

The southern half was colonised in the same year by the United Kingdom as British New Guinea, but in 1904 with the passage of the Papua Act, 1905 was transferred to the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia who took on its administration.

The difference in legal status meant that up until 1949, Papua and New Guinea had entirely separate administrations, both controlled by Australia.

The initial spark was a fight between Chinese and Papua New Guinean workers at a nickel factory under construction by a Chinese company.

It had been expected by the constitutional convention, which prepared the draft constitution, and by Australia, the outgoing metropolitan power, that Papua New Guinea would choose not to retain its link with the Commonwealth realms monarchy.

The Queen is represented by the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, currently Michael Ogio.

Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are unusual among Commonwealth realms in that Governors-General are selected by the legislature rather than by the executive branch.

In foreign policy, Papua New Guinea was accorded Observer status within ASEAN in 1976 followed later by Special Observer status in 1981.

Vessels from other parts of Papua New Guinea and other countries attempting to cross into Australia or Australian waters are stopped by Australian Customs or the Royal Australian Navy.

Papua was administered under the Papua Act until it was invaded by the Empire of Japan in 1941, and civil administration suspended.

During the Pacific War, Papua was governed by an Australian military administration from Port Moresby, where General Douglas MacArthur occasionally made his headquarters.

Most of West Papua, at that time known as Dutch New Guinea, was occupied, as were large parts of the Territory of New Guinea ( the former German New Guinea, which was also under Australian rule after World War I ), but Papua was protected to a large extent by its southern location and the near-impassable Owen Stanley Ranges to the north.

The offensives in Papua and New Guinea of 1943 – 44 were the single largest series of connected operations ever mounted by the Australian armed forces.

Across the 820 km border, the western half of New Guinea is officially known as Papua province, governed by Indonesia.

Papua New Guinea is also prone to landslides, often caused by deforestation in major forests.

If the trend continues, more than half the forest that existed when Papua New Guinea became independent from Australia in 1975 will be gone by 2021.

In contrast, many other researchers, including Robert Klitzman, S. Lindenbaum, R. Glasse, and kuru field researchers at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research have documented reports that confirm the practice.

They call for the release of all refugees currently held in detention, the closure of all immigration detention facilities and contrast Australia's border control laws with accusations of the Australian military and federal police of having invaded the national borders of countries such as the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sir Paulias Matane, Governor-General of Papua New Guinea, was the Viceroy | viceregal representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Monarchy of Papua New Guinea | Queen of Papua New Guinea

The Transmigration program ( Transmigrasi ) was a National Government initiative to move landless people from densely populated areas of Indonesia ( such as Java and Bali ) to less populous areas of the country including Papua, Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sulawesi.

Papua New Guinea was the first country in the world to grant commercial exploration licenses for seafloor massive sulphide deposits when it granted the initial license to Nautilus Minerals in 1997.

Additionally from 1905, British New Guinea was renamed the Territory of Papua.

The two territories were combined into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea after World War II, which later was simply referred to as " Papua New Guinea ".

Papua New Guinea was admitted to membership in the United Nations on 10 October 1975.

Australian troops at Milne Bay, Papua. The Australian garrison was the first to inflict defeat on the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II at the Battle of Milne Bay of Aug – Sep 1942.

Canadian scholar Richard Toporoski theorised in 1998 that " if, let us say, an alteration were to be made in the United Kingdom to the Act of Settlement 1701, providing for the succession of the Crown ... t is my opinion that the domestic constitutional law of Australia or Papua New Guinea, for example, would provide for the succession in those countries of the same person who became Sovereign of the United Kingdom.

The Korowai tribe of south-eastern Papua could be one of the last surviving tribes in the world engaging in cannibalism, although there have been media reports of soldiers / rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia eating body parts to intimidate child soldiers or captives.

* Papua monitor ( Varanus salvadorii ) – A monitor lizard often asserted to be the longest lizard

* 2011 – The Royal Australian Navy announces that they discovered the wreck of a World War II submarine in Simpson Harbour, Papua New Guinea during Operation RENDER SAFE-it is likely to be Japanese.

( A detailed series of language maps of Papua New Guinea may be found at Ethnologue ) There may be at least as many traditional societies, out of a population of about 6. 2 million.

The PNG Constitution expresses the wish for " traditional villages and communities to remain as viable units of Papua New Guinean society ", and for active steps to be taken in their preservation.

The prehistory of Papua New Guinea can be traced back to about 60, 000 years ago when people first migrated towards the Australian continent.

Australia's change of policy towards Papua New Guinea largely commenced with the invitation from the Australian Government to the World Bank to send a mission to the Territory to advise on measures to be taken towards its economic development and political preparation.

Sugar gliders can be found throughout the northern and eastern parts of mainland Australia, and in Tasmania, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.

Given that Papua New Guinean anglophones almost invariably refer to Tok Pisin as Pidgin when speaking English, it may be considered something of an affectation to call it Tok Pisin, much like referring to German and French as Deutsch and français in English.

The flourishing of the mainly English-based Tok Pisin in German New Guinea ( despite the language of the metropolitan power being German ) is to be contrasted with Hiri Motu, the lingua franca of Papua, which was derived not from English but from Motu, the vernacular of the indigenous people of the Port Moresby area.

However, in the early 1960s fairly systematic efforts were launched in Papua New Guinea, and that areamuch smaller than SA, to be sureis in general much better documented than any part of indigenous SA of comparable size.

In the case of exceptionally large sinkholes, such as Minyé sinkhole in Papua New Guinea or Cedar Sink at Mammoth Cave National Park, USA, a stream or river may be visible across its bottom flowing from one side to the other.

In one clinical study, stroke and ischaemic heart disease appeared to be absent in a population living on the island of Kitava, in Papua New Guinea, where a subsistence lifestyle, uninfluenced by western dietary habits, was still maintained.

The center of diversity of this genus is in the montage forests of Papua New Guinea ( more than 600 species ) which seems to be the evolutionary homeland, though the genus is pantropical and widespread, occurring in Australia, Southeast Asia ( with over 200 species in Borneo ), India, Madagascar ( with 135 species, some endemic ), Africa and in tropical central and South America.

* The Governor-General is appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister of the day, is a resident of the country he or she will represent, and can be dismissed immediately on the advice of the Prime Minister ( exceptions are Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, where the Governor-General is elected by Parliament and then formally appointed by the Queen, and the United Kingdom, which has no vice-regal office ).

Upon retirement from the governor generalcy in 1984, Schreyer announced that he would donate his pension to the environmental Canadian Shield Foundation ; unlike other former viceroys, he clearly had no intent of removing himself from political and diplomatic life, as he was on the same day he ceased to be governor general appointed by his viceregal successor as the High Commissioner to Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu for Her Majesty's Government in Canada.

An Australian troop ship was en route to transfer them to Papua New Guinea, where they would be split up and sent to New Zealand and to Nauru.

In 1992, Virgin Records were looking for electronic bands and, after " Papua New Guinea "' s chart success, quickly signed them, giving them free rein to experiment. With their newfound contract they immediately began to play with more ambient music, resulting in the " Tales of Ephidrina " album of 1993, the first album to be released under the Amorphous Androgynous alias ; this was well received by press and marked a distinct shift from the more techno driven Accelerator, retaining some dance beats, but focussing more on texture, mood and sound, most famously on the popular track " Mountain Goat ".

The Torres Strait seen from space-Cape York Peninsula is at the bottom ; several of the Torres Strait Islands can be seen strung out towards Papua New Guinea to the north.

* There is a cluster of languages in West Papua between the upper Taritatu River and the PNG border, including Molof, Usku, and Tofamna listed above but also Namla, Murkim, Lepki, and Kembra, which do not appear to be related to each other or to other languages in the area.

RopeCon installations can be found in Papua New Guinea, Jamaica, Switzerland, and Austria.