All that was shattered in 1987: Fiji was the scene of the South Pacific's first military coup, declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth.

ECONOMIST: Fiji

Fiji's military spokesman, Colonel Filipo Tarakinikini, said Mr Speight was arrested because of his failure to comply with the terms of an accord under which he had agreed to release the hostages his gang had held inside the Parliament complex for 56 days and hand back weapons which had been stolen by the rebels.

ECONOMIST: Fiji

The development of this market an international one, centred on Washington and London, but hiring former soldiers from as far afield as Fiji, Nepal, Ukraine, Russia and Bangladesh is the result of fundamental change in military organisation.

ECONOMIST: An unregulated and unsupervised semi-covert world