Peru declares environmental emergency after oil spill
Lima, Peru Reuters Peru’s government on Thursday declared an environmental emergency in a northern coastal area, where state oil firm Petroperu last weekend spilled a crude oil shipment into surrounding waters of the Pacific Ocean. A vessel carrying out pre-shipment maneuvers caused the spill on Saturday at a terminal of Peru’s Talara refinery in northern […]
Russian rescued after 67 days adrift in waters fringing Pacific
Reuters Russian authorities said on Tuesday they had rescued a man whose tiny boat drifted for 67 days since August in waters edging the north-western Pacific, but his brother and nephew died during the ordeal. Social media images showed a thin, bearded man wearing a hooded jacket and orange emergency vest in a catamaran-like sailboat […]
Sea levels rising faster in Pacific than elsewhere, says WMO report
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Sea level rises in the Pacific Ocean are outstripping the global average, a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report showed on Tuesday, imperiling low-lying island states. Globally, sea level advances are accelerating as higher temperatures driven by the continued burning of fossil fuels melt once-mighty ice sheets, while warmer oceans cause water molecules […]
Pacific leaders delay visit to troubled New Caledonia
Reuters Pacific Islands leaders postponed a visit to French territory New Caledonia to assess civil unrest between indigenous Kanaks and French loyalists, the regional bloc’s chairman and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said on Wednesday. A delegation of three leaders, including Brown and Fiji’s prime minister, had hoped to travel to New Caledonia and […]
Three castaways rescued after a week on remote Pacific islet, US Coast Guard says
Reuters Three castaways stranded for a week on a desert island in the western Pacific Ocean were rescued after a US Navy aircraft searching for them spotted palm fronds that the trio used to spell out the word “H-E-L-P” on a sandy beach. The US Coast Guard’s logo is seen on an helicopter on the […]
Postcards: Indonesia fishing village grapples with piles of trash brought in by tides
WILLY KURNIAWAN, of Reuters, reports from the fishing village of Teluk…
Explorer may have found wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane in Pacific
Reuters A former US Air Force intelligence officer says he believes he has found the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane, which disappeared nine decades ago, on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean using sonar data from a deep-sea drone. Hoping to solve an 87-year-old mystery, explorer Tony Romeo plans to launch a mission later this […]
North Korea fires ballistic missile, warns of turning Pacific into “firing range”
Seoul, South Korea Reuters North Korea fired two more ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, as the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un warned US forces to halt military drills, saying the reclusive nuclear state could turn the Pacific into a “firing range”. The launches come just two days after North Korea fired […]
At UN, Micronesia denounces Japan plan to release Fukushima water into Pacific
United Nations Reuters The president of the Pacific island state of Micronesia denounced at the United Nations on Thursday Japan’s decision to discharge what he called nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the Pacific Ocean. A worker, wearing protective suits and masks, takes notes in front of storage tanks for radioactive […]
Updated: Australia to deploy police, military to Solomon Islands as protests spread
Updated: 6pm (AEDT) Sydney, Australia Reuters Australia will deploy more than 100 police and military personnel to aid the Solomon Islands, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, as protesters in the Pacific Island nation defied a curfew to protest for a second consecutive day. Morrison said Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare had requested […]