Word: boated
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...unplanned growth. The threat of sea-level rise and flooding makes Bangkok a "climate hazard hotspot," says a May report by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) in Singapore. I prefer an older description: "the Venice of the East." Most early Bangkok residents moved by boat between floating houses; it was not until 1863 that the city's first paved road was built. Today, despite flood-control measures that include a 48-mile (77 km) levee along the Chao Phraya river, Bangkok feels like it's returning to its watery origins. (See pictures of a dam breaks...
...Cavanagh's office untangles April's events, one thing is certain: The number of asylum seekers seeking to enter Australia by boat is on the rise. Nine months into 2009, there have already been 1239 recorded "irregular maritime arrivals" in Australia; in 2008, there were only 161 during the whole year. On September 11 and September 12, two boats carrying 148 asylum-seekers were discovered off the northwest coast of Australia. On September 16, another boat carrying 58 people was intercepted 265 miles (420 km) north of Broome in Western Australia. Just the day before, the Australian government announced that...
...Australia's stance on immigration has been riddled with controversy for almost a decade. After a flash flood of boat arrivals in 2001 - 43 boats full of 5,516 asylum seekers arrived that year - the conservative John Howard government established the grimly named "Pacific Solution," which diverted asylum seekers arriving to Australia by boat to remote detention centers scattered around the Pacific Ocean. Holding camps were set up on the small island nation of Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, where would-be refugees were kept indefinitely while their applications were processed. Many were confined in the premises...
...Times have changed - mostly. Rudd abolished the globally condemned Pacific Solution when he came to power by a landslide in November 2007. But asylum seekers who arrive by boat - referred to in the Australian press as "boat people" - are still shuttled off to a remote island while their papers are processed. There are currently about 600 asylum seekers staying at the $350 million facility built for the purpose on the Australian-owned Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, most of whom have come from conflict or post-conflict zones like Sri Lanka, Iraq and Afghanistan. Current policy, however, mandates that...
...Australia's conservative opposition, the Liberal Party of Australia, blames this year's spike of boat arrivals - almost all with the help of human smugglers from Indonesia, Malaysia and other parts of Asia - on Rudd's new border policy. If nothing else, the Pacific Solution was at least an effective deterrent, they claim. In 2001, before Howard's program was implemented, there were 5,516 arrivals by boat; by 2002, there was just one. The numbers stayed below 60 until 2007, but have been increasing steadily ever since. "When you weaken laws for unauthorized arrivals, you are in fact creating...