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Marshall Islands setback on disarmament

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Marshall Islands setback on disarmament By Josh Butler

UNITED NATIONS - A lawsuit by the Marshall Islands accusing the United States of failing to begin negotiations for nuclear disarmament has been thrown out of an American court.

The Marshall Islands is currently pursuing actions against India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom in the International Court of Justice, for failing to negotiate nuclear disarmament as required in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Action against the US had been filed in a federal court in

California, as the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ.

David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, said the US conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs detonating daily for 12 years.

Despite documented health effects still plaguing Marshallese islanders, US Federal Court judge Jeffrey White dismissed the motion on Feb. 3, saying the harm caused by the US flouting the NPT was "speculative".

White also said the Marshall Islands lacked standing to bring the case, and that the court's ruling was bound by the "political question doctrine" - that is, White ruled the question was a political one, not a legal one, and he therefore could not rule for the Marshalls.

Krieger, whose Nuclear Age Peace Foundation supports Marshall Islands in its legal cases, called the decision "absurd".

"I think it was an error in his decision. There were very good grounds to say the Marshall Islands had standing, and this shouldn't have been considered a political question," he told IPS. "The Marshall Islands know very well what it means to have nuclear bombs dropped on a country. They've suffered greatly, it's definitely not speculative."

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Marshall Islands setback on disarmament

School assignment inspires 8th graders to try to save tiny island

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On a cold winter morning, Olivia Arnold joins her friend Valerie Vujnovich on an exotic trip with their fathers down the Wilkinson Canal in Plaquemines Parish, past the fishing camps and into Barataria Bay.

About 10 miles east of Grand Isle, they step onto a tiny island where hundreds of brown pelicans and other species have nested.

"It's pretty great that it's still here at least," said Valerie as the girls walked along a shell beach.

Heavily oiled in the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the four main islands of Cat Bay have all but vanished. Although the islands had steadily eroded in recent decades, and were heavily damaged in the 2005 hurricanes, Plaquemines Parish government has blamed the spill for hastening their demise.

"It's sad to see something this beautiful wash away," Olivia said.

Until recently, Olivia had only vague idea about the coastal land loss that has changed the landscape of south Louisiana.

"I've heard it once or twice, but I never actually took interest in finding out what it actually is."

That all changed when the girls and their eighth-grade classmates were assigned a social justice project at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Belle Chasse. Like the eighth-graders one year earlier, they adopted another island, which locals call "Cat Island." Not to be confused with its famous namesake in Mississippi, this Cat Island serves as a poster child of the spill.

Classmate Katie Goens said she tells people the island is, "the size of a speed bump and it's shrinking."

That turns out to be only a slight exaggeration. Stretching roughly 4 acres in April of 2010, Cat Island now is devoid of vegetation. The almost-skeletal remains of dead mangrove trees sprout from the little remaining soil and from shells pushed up by wave action. This very grown-up problem registered with the class along with the urgency of taking action along Louisiana's coast.

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School assignment inspires 8th graders to try to save tiny island

MEP delegations on lavish ‘fact-finding missions’ to tropical islands – Nathan Gill MEP – Video

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MEP delegations on lavish #39;fact-finding missions #39; to tropical islands - Nathan Gill MEP
http://www.ukipmeps.org | http://www.ukip.org/join European Parliament, Strasbourg, 10 February 2015 Nathan GILL MEP (Wales), Europe of Freedom and Direc...

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MEP delegations on lavish 'fact-finding missions' to tropical islands - Nathan Gill MEP - Video

Ep. 5 Sandwich Making While Sailing FAIL (Sailing La Vagabonde) – Canary Islands to Cape Verde – Video

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Ep. 5 Sandwich Making While Sailing FAIL (Sailing La Vagabonde) - Canary Islands to Cape Verde
How not to make a sandwich whilst on passage. Meet Jack. His first encounter with whales. A few more adventures on land. And a bit of spearfishing! Cape Verde is what we have flown out of...

By: Sailing La Vagabonde

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Ep. 5 Sandwich Making While Sailing FAIL (Sailing La Vagabonde) - Canary Islands to Cape Verde - Video

Balearic Islands – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Balearic Islands (English / /; Catalan: Illes Balears [iz as]; Spanish: Islas Baleares [islas aleaes])[1][2][3] are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, with Palma de Mallorca as the capital. The co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Catalan and Spanish. The current Statute of Autonomy declares the Balearic Islands as one nationality of Spain.[4]

The official name of the Balearic Islands in Catalan is Illes Balears, while in Spanish they are known as the Islas Baleares. The term "Balearic" derives from Greek (/Gymnesiae and /Balliareis).[5] In Latin (Baleares).

Of the various theories on the origins of the two ancient Greek and Latin names for the islands Gymnasiae and Baleares classical sources provide two.

According to the Lycophron's Alexandra verses, the islands were called /Gymnesiae (/gymnos, meaning naked in Greek) because its inhabitants were often nude, probably because of the year-round benevolent climate.

The Greek and Roman writers generally derive the name of the people from their skill as slingers (/baleareis, from /ballo: ancient Greek meaning "to launch"), although Strabo regards the name as of Phoenician origin. He observed it was the Phoenician equivalent for lightly armoured soldiers the Greeks would have called /gymnetas.[6] The root bal does point to a Phoenician origin; perhaps the islands were sacred to the god Baal[original research?] and the resemblance to the Greek root (in /ballo) is accidental. Indeed it was usual Greek practice to assimilate local names into their own language. But the common Greek name of the islands is not /Baleareis, but /Gymnesiai. The former was the name used by the natives, as well as by the Carthaginians and Romans,[7] while the latter probably derives from the light equipment of the Balearic troops /gymnetae.[6]

The main islands of the autonomous community are Majorca (Mallorca), Minorca (Menorca), Eivissa (Ibiza) and Formentera, all of which are popular tourist destinations. Among the minor islands is Cabrera, which is the location of the Parc Nacional de l'Arxiplag de Cabrera.

The islands can be further grouped, with Majorca, Minorca, and Cabrera as the Gymnesian Islands (Illes Gimnsies), and Ibiza and Formentera as the Pityusic Islands (Illes Pitises officially in Catalan), also referred to as the Pityuses (or sometimes informally in English as the Pine Islands). There are many minor islands or islets close to the biggest islands, such as Es Conills, Es Vedr, Sa Conillera, Dragonera, S'Espalmador, S'Espardell, Ses Bledes, Santa Eulria, Plana, Foradada, Tagomago, Na Redona, Colom, L'Aire, etc.

The Balearic Front is a sea density regime north of the Balearic Islands on the shelf slope of the Balearic Islands, which is responsible for some of the surface flow characteristics of the Balearic Sea.[8]

Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the Balearic Islands unsurprisingly have typical Mediterranean climates. The below-listed climatic data of the capital Palma is typical for the archipelago, with minor differences to other stations in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca.[9]

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Balearic Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Governor-General to visit the Auckland Islands

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The Governor-General, Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae leaves on Friday for a five-night visit to the Auckland Islands. The Governor-General will be hosted by The Sir Peter Blake Trust, the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute, the Department of Conservation, NIWA and the University of Otago. Weather permitting, he will visit the proposed Blake Station site at Smith Harbour and tour Enderby Island to see albatross, penguins, sea-lions and the Auckland Islands famous megaherbs. It is hoped the programme can also include visits to heritage sites, including the location of Second World War coast-watchers huts, a helicopter tour of the islands, and participation in scientific research activities.

The Auckland Islands are part of New Zealands subantarctic islands, and are considered to be one of the few relatively pristine groups of islands in the world. The subantarctic islands became a World Heritage Area in 1998. Visitors must observe strict quarantine procedures to ensure that no potential pest species are inadvertently introduced. The islands have a challenging climate, with high rainfall, strong winds and a mean summer temperature of 7 degrees.

The Governor-General arrives in the Auckland Islands on Friday 13 February and will return to the mainland on Wednesday 18 February.

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Governor-General to visit the Auckland Islands


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