Word: kiribati
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Lisbon, Ohio, fable believers Bruce and Diane Eckhart awoke and immersed themselves in technology for what they believed was the last time, turning on their two televisions, dialing up the Internet and clicking on their shortwave radio to monitor the first Y2K rollover in Kiribati. Since 1997 the Eckharts have been stockpiling food, conducting surprise drills, practicing firearm skills, converting savings into gold coins and studying rudimentary dentistry and field medicine. "So far, it's just a minor power outage in New Zealand," Diane reports, before uttering a sentence few have ever delivered. "But we've heard nothing about Guam...
...Truman Show," it's practically a given. In fact, I am surprised that that simply charming couple from San Diego hadn't already lined up a production team. What San Diego couple, you ask? Why, the very one that had originally intended to visit the island nation of Kiribati, conveniently located near the international date line, so the wife could receive a Caesarian section once the clock struck midnight, of course. Yeah, aren't you a sucker you didn't think of that one first...
...Sydney and Tokyo, while demonstrators in Manila burned a French flag. Japan's Finance Minister Masayoshi Takemura called the French action "crazy." Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating branded it "an act of stupidity." Chile and New Zealand recalled their ambassadors. The tiny Pacific island nations of Tuvalu, Nauru and Kiribati broke off relations with Paris. Washington showed more restraint, expressing "regrets," while Bonn and London refrained from outright criticism...
...port call was a symbolic victory for Washington in the diplomatic war of nerves now emerging in the Pacific between the superpowers. The contest began in earnest 15 months ago, when Moscow secured fishing rights to the tuna-rich waters of Kiribati, a tiny 33-island former British colony in the South Pacific. Since then, much has happened to heighten Washington's jitters. Last June, Vanuatu, formerly the British-French territory of New Hebrides, opened diplomatic relations with Moscow, following the lead of Fiji and three other Pacific island states. Vanuatu is currently negotiating a pact with the Soviets that...
Claiming that its exclusive fishing rights extend 200 miles offshore, Kiribati, along with a dozen other small Pacific nations, wants U.S. fishing interests to pay it $20 million a year to catch tuna off their shores. U.S. companies refused to fork over, but the Soviet Union agreed to pay $1.7 million to fish off Kiribati...