1. Islands

Category Archives: Islands

Marshall Islands to appeal in nuclear case vs. US; says US is modernizing arsenal, not cutting

Posted on by

UNITED NATIONS The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands is persisting with an unprecedented lawsuit demanding that the United States meet its obligations toward getting rid of its nuclear weapons. It filed notice Thursday that it will appeal a federal judge's decision to dismiss the case.

The island group was the site of 67 nuclear tests by the U.S. over a 12-year period after World War II, with lasting health and environmental impacts, including more than 250 people exposed to high amounts of radiation.

The Marshall Islands filed its lawsuit last year, naming President Barack Obama, the departments and secretaries of defense and energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Obama in 2009 called for "a world without nuclear weapons" and said the U.S. would take concrete steps toward that goal, a declaration highlighted by the committee that awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize months later.

The U.S. is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a landmark agreement to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The United Nations this month will host the treaty's latest five-year review conference.

But the Marshall Islands claims the U.S. is modernizing its nuclear arsenal instead of negotiating in good faith on disarmament, as the treaty requires. The lawsuit seeks action on disarming, not compensation.

A federal judge in San Francisco last month granted the U.S. government's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the Marshall Islands didn't have standing to bring the case.

"Requiring the court to delve into and then monitor United States policies and decisions with regard to its nuclear programs and arsenal is an untenable request far beyond the purview of the federal courts," the judge's order said. It added that the authority to negotiate with foreign countries falls under the government's executive branch, not the judicial one.

The Marshall Islands says the executive branch is the very one that has neglected its disarmament obligations for years.

"We believe the district court erred in dismissing the case," the lead attorney for the Marshall Islands, Laurie Ashton, said in a statement announcing the appeal in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The Marshall Islands, like every party to the NPT, is entitled to the United States' fulfillment of its NPT promise."

The statement also said the nuclear threat is "now magnified by the deteriorating relationship between Russia and the U.S., which between them control over 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons."

Read more:

Marshall Islands to appeal in nuclear case vs. US; says US is modernizing arsenal, not cutting

Marshall Islands will appeal in unprecedented nuclear weapons case against US

Posted on by

UNITED NATIONS The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands is persisting with an unprecedented lawsuit demanding that the United States meet its obligations toward getting rid of its nuclear weapons. It filed notice Thursday that it will appeal a federal judge's decision to dismiss the case.

The island group was the site of 67 nuclear tests by the U.S. over a 12-year period after World War II, with lasting health and environmental impacts, including more than 250 people exposed to high amounts of radiation.

The Marshall Islands filed its lawsuit last year, naming President Barack Obama, the departments and secretaries of defense and energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Obama in 2009 called for "a world without nuclear weapons" and said the U.S. would take concrete steps toward that goal, a declaration highlighted by the committee that awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize months later.

The U.S. is a party to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a landmark agreement to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The United Nations this month will host the treaty's latest five-year review conference.

But the Marshall Islands claims the U.S. is modernizing its nuclear arsenal instead of negotiating in good faith on disarmament, as the treaty requires. The lawsuit seeks action on disarming, not compensation.

A federal judge in San Francisco last month granted the U.S. government's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the Marshall Islands didn't have standing to bring the case.

"Requiring the court to delve into and then monitor United States policies and decisions with regard to its nuclear programs and arsenal is an untenable request far beyond the purview of the federal courts," the judge's order said. It added that the authority to negotiate with foreign countries falls under the government's executive branch, not the judicial one.

The Marshall Islands says the executive branch is the very one that has neglected its disarmament obligations for years.

"We believe the district court erred in dismissing the case," the lead attorney for the Marshall Islands, Laurie Ashton, said in a statement announcing the appeal in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "The Marshall Islands, like every party to the NPT, is entitled to the United States' fulfillment of its NPT promise."

The statement also said the nuclear threat is "now magnified by the deteriorating relationship between Russia and the U.S., which between them control over 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons."

Read more:

Marshall Islands will appeal in unprecedented nuclear weapons case against US

Amid Booming Fish Trade, Faroe Islands Launch Representative Office in Moscow

Posted on by

Representation of the Faroe Islands in MoscowBjorn Kunoy, head of the Faroe Islands representative office in Russia.

TheFaroe Islands, an18-island archipelago that has emerged as awinner inthe tit-for-tat sanctions between Russia andthe West, opened onTuesday arepresentative office inMoscow amid growing tensions over thelingering crisis inUkraine.

Though they are within theKingdom ofDenmark, thefishing-dependent Faroe Islands located between Norway andIceland are not within theEuropean Union.

TheFaroe Islands, home tosome 48,000 people, have complete autonomy inall trade matters, andare not constrained byDenmark's membership inthe EU.

They are thus exempt froma food-import embargo Moscow imposed inAugust as aretaliatory move after anumber ofWestern nations, including all ofthe EU member states, sanctioned Russia forits annexation ofCrimea andits perceived role inthe Ukraine crisis.

Bjorn Kunoy, alegal adviser inthe Faroe Islands' Foreign Affairs Department appointed as thehead ofthe archipelago's representative office inRussia, told TheMoscow Times onTuesday that thedecision toopen anoffice inMoscow predated thecurrent political strife between Russia andthe West.

"Other than thelong-standing cooperation infisheries between theFaroe Islands, there has been arelatively high increase oftrade flows between thetwo countries," Kunoy said. "On thebasis ofthese elements, apolitical decision was made toopen arepresentation inRussia tostrengthen therelations between our countries."

Fish products represent 95 percent ofthe Faroe Islands' merchandise exports andaccount for20 percent ofits gross domestic product, according togovernment figures.

Russia's first bilateral fisheries agreement with theFaroe Islands was signed in1977, Kunoy said. Thegovernments ofRussia andthe Faroe Islands have more recently strived toincrease cooperation, signing aMost-Favored Nation treaty in2006, thereby guaranteeing each other mutual trade advantages.

Since Russia imposed its ban onfish products frommany Western states, Kunoy said he has noticed anincrease inhis country's export offisheries toRussia, including mackerel, herring andmost importantly, salmon.

See the rest here:

Amid Booming Fish Trade, Faroe Islands Launch Representative Office in Moscow

EPA: Pesticide may have caused illness in family staying at Virgin Islands resort

Posted on by

ST. JOHN, Virgin Islands, April 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said exposure to a pesticide with restricted use in the United States may have caused severe illness in a Delaware family vacationing at a Virgin Islands resort.

Steve Esmond, his wife and two teenage sons had been renting a villa at the Sirenusa resort on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands since March 14. The EPA received reports of the family falling ill on March 20; paramedics had found Esmond unconscious and his wife and sons, 14 and 16, having seizures.

According to family attorney James Maron, Esmond is still unable to move or talk, and his two sons are in critical condition after being airlifted to the United States, where on Saturday they remained in a coma at a Philadelphia hospital. Esmond's wife, Theresa Devine, was released after treatment but remains in occupational therapy.

Speaking Friday, EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez said preliminary tests did "show that there was a presence of methyl bromide in the unit where the family was staying."

The EPA defines methyl bromide as a "broad spectrum pesticide" designed to control "pest insects, nematodes, weeds, pathogens, and rodents," but that it "will affect not only the target pests it is used against, but non-target organisms as well."

"Human exposure to high concentrations of methyl bromide can result in central nervous system and respiratory system failure, as well as specific and severe deleterious actions on the lungs, eyes, and skin," according to the agency.

Because of its toxicity, methyl bromide is only permitted for outdoor use by certified professionals in the United States.

Sirenusa resort was reportedly fumigated on March 18, and the EPA is working with local investigators to discern whether any laws or regulations were breached.

Sea Glass Vacations, the rental agency for several villas at Sirenusa resort, said it uses an outside pest control company called Terminix.

"We're thinking about the family, and we join the community in wishing them a speedy recovery," Terminix wrote in an email statement to CNN, noting also that it is "looking into this matter internally, and cooperating with authorities."

Read more:

EPA: Pesticide may have caused illness in family staying at Virgin Islands resort

Symmetry matters in graphene growth

Posted on by

What lies beneath growing islands of graphene is important to its properties, according to a new study led by Rice University. Scientists at Rice analyzed patterns of graphene - a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon - grown in a furnace via chemical vapor deposition. They discovered that the geometric relationship between graphene and the substrate, the underlying material on which carbon assembles atom by atom, determines how the island shapes emerge.

The study led by Rice theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and postdoctoral researcher Vasilii Artyukhov shows how the crystalline arrangement of atoms in substrates commonly used in graphene growth, such as nickel or copper, controls how islands form. The results appeared in Physical Review Letters.

"Experiments that show graphene's amazing electronic properties are typically done on mechanically exfoliated graphene," Artyukhov said.

"That limits you in terms of the flake size, and it's expensive if you need a lot of material. So everybody's trying to come up with a better way to grow it from gases like methane (the source of carbon atoms) using different substrate metals. The problem is, the resulting crystals look different from substrate to substrate, even though it's all graphene."

Yakobson said researchers often see odd-shaped graphene islands grown by chemical vapor deposition, "and we have all wondered why. In general, this is very surprising, because in graphene, the six sides should be identical." Triangles and other shapes, he said, are examples of symmetry breaking; systems that would otherwise produce regular shapes "break" and produce less regular ones.

Graphene forms in a chemical vapor deposition furnace when carbon atoms floating in the hot fog settle on the metallic substrate. The atoms link up in characteristic six-sided rings, but as an island grows, its overall shape can take various forms, from hexagons to elongated hexagons to more random structures, even triangles.

The researchers found a strong correlation between the ultimate shape of the island and the arrangement of atoms in the exposed surface of the substrate, which can be triangular, square, rectangular or otherwise.

The researchers found individual atoms follow the road map set out by the substrate, as illustrated by a microscope image of two grains of copper substrate that host two distinct shapes of graphene, even though the growth conditions are identical. On one grain, the graphene islands are all nearly perfect hexagons; on the other, the hexagonal islands are elongated and aligned.

"The image shows the basic growth mechanisms are the same, but the difference in the islands is due to the subtle differences between the crystallographic surfaces of the graphene and copper," Yakobson said.

Because graphene's edges are so important to its electronic properties, any step toward understanding its growth is important, he said. Whether a graphene edge ends up as a zigzag, an armchair or something in between depends on how individual atoms fall into equilibrium as they balance energies between their neighboring carbon atoms and those of the substrate.

Read the original here:

Symmetry matters in graphene growth

Governor, deputy to face-off in Riau election

Posted on by

The Riau Islands General Elections Commission (KPUD) is ready to hold a gubernatorial election, with the incumbent governor and deputy governor set to battle it out to leader the province.

Riau Islands KPUD head Said Sirajuddin said the election, held alongside other elections in seven regencies and mayoralties in October, was estimated to cost Rp 89 billion (S$9.36 million), less than the earlier estimate of Rp 121 billion.

"The budget is smaller because based on the new electoral law, an election is held in a single round, so it costs less," Sirajuddin told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

According to him, the election's stages had yet to be arranged because the General Elections Commission (KPU) was still discussing its regulations (PKPUs) with the House of Representatives' Commission II overseeing domestic governance on Tuesday.

"We're still waiting for the PKPU, which will be discussed by the KPU and Commission II tomorrow. We will arrange the election phases after the new PKPUs have been decided, including the election budget," said Sirajuddin.

According to him, based on the number of ballots obtained in the 2014 legislative election, only the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) can nominate its candidates for governor and deputy governor for the 2015-2020 period without forming a coalition.

He added that the number of voters in the Riau Islands in the 2014 legislative election was 1.3 million, but his commission would recount the number of voters after the KPU issued the PKPU on simultaneous elections.

More than 50 per cent of eligible voters are found in Batam, while the rest are in Bintan, Karimun, Tanjungpinang, Natuna, Anambas and Lingga.

Meanwhile, Governor Muhammad Sani has declared he will team up with Batam Mayor Ahmad Dahlan to contest the election against Deputy Governor Soerya Respationo, as both vie for the gubernatorial seat for the 2015-2020 term.

Sani, a former bureaucrat and member of the Golkar Party Riau Islands supervisory board, announced Dahlan, who is also the Democratic Party's Batam Regional Executive Board chairman, as his running mate on Feb. 19.

View post:

Governor, deputy to face-off in Riau election


  1. Islands