Oceania
New Zealand: Maori elder issues TPP ‘veto’
Kingi Taurua, a prominent elder of New Zealand's Maori people, sent a formal "notice of veto" of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the governments of signatory nations.
Tag: Oceania
Oceania
Fiji: not a ‘natural’ disaster
There are few climate-change skeptics in Fiji, which has been left devastated by Cyclone Winston, the strongest tropical cyclone ever measured in the Southern Hemisphere.
Oceania
ISIS in Sydney?
Internet and media slueths scramble to identify the faction behind the jihadist flag raised by the militant in the Sydney hostage crisis—which follows Austrailian air-strikes on ISIS.
Oceania
Rival trade pacts vie for Pacific hegemony
China is proposing a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) in a race with the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region.
Oceania
Kali Yuga in Australia
Nuclear disaster was narrowly averted in Sydney when one of the wildfires sweeping New South Wales threatened an atomic research station near the city.
Oceania
Pacific mega-storms portend climate disaster
The Doha climate conference failed to do more than extend the Kyoto Protocol, even as the Philippines were devastated by a mega-storm that left 1,000 dead.
Oceania
US, New Zealand restore military cooperation
Leon Panetta in Auckland announced that US naval cooperation with New Zealand will be resumed—cut off in 1985, when the Pacific nation declared itself a nuclear-free zone.
Oceania
Australia: Aboriginal protesters occupy Canberra
This Australia Day—marking the 1788 establishment of the New South Wales colony, derided by Aborigines as “Invasion Day”—saw the establishment of a “Tent Embassy” encampment outside the Old Parliament House in Canberra.
Oceania
Ninth Circuit allows Papua New Guineans to sue mining company for genocide
A US appeals court approved a lawsuit by Papua New Guinea citizens against mining giant Rio Tinto on claims of genocide and war crimes. The suit charges the company directed a war of extermination against indigenous people on Bougainville Island.
Oceania
Oil from stricken ship fouls New Zealand beach
Oil from a tanker ship stuck on a reef has started to wash up at New Zealand’s popular Mount Maunganui beach. In a race to avert disaster, salvage teams are pumping oil from the leaking ship, ahead of forecast gale-force winds and swells.
Oceania
Easter Island: Chilean forces suppress indigenous protests
Chilean police evicted indigenous Rapa Nui protesters who had occupied the central plaza and a luxury hotel in Hanga Roa, capital of Easter Island, over the new year.
Oceania
Chilean troops flown in to suppress Easter Island protests
More Chilean troops are being flown to Rapanui (Easter Island) to augment the already in-place armed forces set to remove indigenous Rapanui people from their ancestral lands.