South Pacific news stories on Newser

Drought Hits Crisis Level in Pacific Islands

Rob Quinn — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:46:45 CDT

Some island groups in the South Pacific, already in danger of being swamped by rising seas, have run out of fresh water. Tuvalu and Tokelau have declared states of emergency because of the water crisis, caused by six months of low or no rainfall and by groundwater becoming contaminated with...

NASA: Satellite Fell in Remote South Pacific

John Johnson — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:50:05 CDT

Now that NASA's had time to crunch the numbers regarding last weekend's falling satellite , it has a pretty good idea of where it splashed down—in the middle of nowhere in the South Pacific. The dead UARS craft entered the atmosphere generally above American Samoa, according to the new calculations,...

Bank Heist Stuns Pious Island

Kevin Spak — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:20:05 CDT

The tiny Pacific island getaway of Aitutaki is looking for answers after someone broke into its tiny bank last week and made off with $200,000. The theft has blindsided the nation’s notoriously devout population of about 1,800, which had seen such a thing as unthinkable—the New Zealand...

Island Apologizes for Eating Missionary

Mary Papenfuss — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:07:28 CST

In one of the stranger meetings we've seen lately, descendants of a British missionary and the descendants of cannibals who killed and ate him 170 years ago got together yesterday to bury the hatchet. It seems the South Pacific island of Erromango, now predominantly Christian, has been feeling bad about...

Indonesia Quake Toll Passes 1,000

John Johnson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:34:44 CDT

The death toll in Indonesia has reached 1,100 and is expected to keep rising. Rescue workers are scrambling to find earthquake survivors under trapped buildings, with "many hundreds more" injured or missing, says a top UN relief official. Rescue efforts have been hung up over a shortage of heavy...

Post-Quake Tsunami Kills 34 in Samoa

M. Morris — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:34:34 CDT

An 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck the area around American Samoa today, generating a tsunami that killed as many as 34 in the US territory and adjacent Samoa, an independent state. The waves at Pago Pago were 5.1 feet above normal—smaller than originally feared— but tsunami warnings went up...

US Offers $200M to Send Gitmo Inmates to South Pacific

Harry Kimball — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:50:02 CDT

The US wants to resettle Uighur detainees held at Guantanamo Bay on the Pacific island nation of Palau, the AP reports. Palau, whose eight main islands lie 500 miles east of the Philippines, has strong ties to the US and depends on it for aid and protection. Daniel Fried, the...

VJ Day Nurse to Lead Parade

Peter Fearon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:14:11 CST

The woman who claims to be the lady in white in the iconic Life photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on V-J Day is being feted this week as grand marshall of tomorrow's Veterans Day Parade in Manhattan, AP reports. Former nurse Edith Shain, now 90,...

Heights , South Pacific Lead Tony Nominations

Jason Farago — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:48:14 CDT

Nominations for the Tony Awards were announced today, with 13 nods going to In the Heights , a new musical about Latino families in working-class New York that features rap, hip-hop, and salsa music. The revival of South Pacific drew 11 nominations, while August: Osage County drew the most nominations (7)...