Vanuatu opposition boycott parliament after failed bid to remove prime minister

Vanuatu's opposition party boycotted parliament on Thursday and said it would lodge a court challenge to the defeat the previous day of its bid to remove Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau. Kalsakau narrowly survived a no-confidence motion on Wednesday, with the opposition falling one vote short of the 27 needed to unseat him after criticising his government for signing a security pact with Australia. Vanuatu, at the centre of a strategic rivalry between China and Western countries in the Pacific, was plunged into political crisis after opposition leader Bob Loughman lodged the no-confidence petition, which also criticised the government for raising the minimum wage.