Word: noumea
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...those of British Explorer Captain James Cook. As Louis was led to the guillotine eight years later, he supposedly inquired, "Has there been any news of La Perouse?" Each morning 20 divers from a multinational team, led by researchers from the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia, and historians from Noumea, New Caledonia, left three chartered boats anchored in Vanikoro's lagoon and sped in inflatable outboards to the wreck site. In the afternoons, they returned laden with artifacts that included part of a shoe, Chinese ceramics, a dragoon's brass helmet and thousands of glass necklace beads probably intended...
Although three French loyalist parties won nearly 61% of the popular vote, their strength was concentrated in and around the capital of Noumea, which constitutes only one of the island's four electoral districts. The radical pro-independence party of Melanesian natives, or Kanaks, gained administrative control of the other three districts. In Paris, conservative opposition parties promised that if they wrest control of the French National Assembly from the Socialists next March, New Caledonians will be asked simply: Do you want to remain French...
Soon after the President's jetliner touched down at Tontouta Airport, he was taken by helicopter to the New Caledonian capital of Noumea, 33 miles away. He was met by 25,000 anti-independence demonstrators waving French flags, singing the Marseillaise and displaying banners that read "Caledonie Francaise Toujours." In the morning, Mitterrand held meetings with Pisani and leaders on both sides of the independence issue...
...latest in a series of sporadic disturbances over the past two months began on Jan. 11, when a 17-year-old French settler was killed, allegedly by Kanak militants. The shooting brought a mob of 1,500, mainly made up of caldoches, into the streets of Noumea, where they hurled rocks and bottles at police. Tensions increased the next day when at least 100 gendarmes surrounded a farmhouse near La Foa, 55 miles northwest of the capital. There, Eloi Machoro, a leader of the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, a militant Separatist party, and 50 of his followers were gathered...
...week's end New Caledonians were enjoying an uneasy peace. The nightly curfew had been pushed back from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. In Noumea, restaurants and hotels were virtually empty. Before boarding his plane for the 12,000-mile trip back to Paris, Mitterrand spoke optimistically of his twelve-hour visit. "The threads which were feared to have been cut are tied again," he said. "The dialogue continues...