evidence: On a visit to Europe this month, the foreign Minister of Vanuatu has scheduled a meeting in Paris to discuss two remote, unpopulated islands claimed by both countries since 1980. More on Matthew and Hunter Islands from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute. [...] There’s also a cultural claim. In ni-Vanuatu tradition, Matthew Island is called the House of the Gods where the spirits of the dead go to rest. And there is a historic dispute, the Islands were annexed by France in 1929. But as part of the New Hebrides, which it then ruled jointly with Great Britain. [...] Then there’s geography. France has taken this dispute before UNCLOS, the UN Conference on the law of the Sea. And one final complication, Hunter Island is also claimed by a micro nation called The Republic of Lost Island, one of those quixotic efforts to establish a tax-free libertarian haven. A report on the latest effort along those lines in tomorrow’s Pacific News Minute