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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres raised concerns Thursday that a concrete dome built last century to contain waste from atomic bomb tests is leaking radioactive material into the Pacific. Speaking to students in Fiji, Guterres described the structure on Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands as "a kind of coffin" and said it was a legacy of Cold War-era nuclear tests in the Pacific... ...The "coffin" is a concrete dome, built in the late 1970s on Runit island, part of Enewetak atoll, as a dumping ground for waste from the nuclear tests. Radioactive soil and ash from the explosions was...

Veteran journalists at CBS are reportedly quite upset with network host Gayle King after she enjoyed a recent yacht vacation with Barack and Michelle Obama in Tahiti. King, co-host of "CBS This Morning," went on a star-studded vacation with the former president and first lady, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, and her best friend Oprah Winfrey on billionaire David Geffin's 138-meter luxury yacht, called the Rising Sun. A source told Page Six on Thursday that CBS journalists are "pissed and raving mad" at King for vacationing with the Obamas while she anchors a news program that covers the White House. "The...

WASHINGTON — The Obamas are having the time of their post-White House lives. Former President Barack Obama snapped a photo of former first lady Michelle Obama as she posed on the top deck of a yacht where the couple and celebrity friends spent Friday morning off the island of Mo’orea, in the South Pacific. The Obamas were vacationing with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey and spent two hours aboard music mogul David Geffen’s luxury yacht, the Rising Sun, before leaving Tahiti. They had been staying in French Polynesia for nearly a month. So far, Obama’s post-presidency life has...

An alleged refusal by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEDI) to allow the FBI's special attaché for international relations to interview former President Barack Obama in French Polynesia is getting internet coverage but virtually no narrative in America's media. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Joseph Napier interdicted the fishing vessel "Lady Michelle" in international waters near St. Vincent Island by zapping its electronic navigation system and rendering it "dead in the water." Four smugglers and contraband including approximately $125 million US dollars in seized cocaine were offloaded into American custody in San Juan, Puerto Rico as DEA and other...

In 1967, after shooting Mutiny on the Bounty, Marlon Brando bought the atoll of Tetiaroa in French Polynesia as his secluded getaway from the dreaded klieg lights of Hollywood. Fifty years later, after Barack Obama staged a mutiny against his party by refusing entreaties to lead the “Resistance” to Donald Trump, he flew to a luxury resort on Brando’s island to evade the partisan clashes in Washington. It seems fitting that Obama would end up at The Brando, as the resort is known, since the two men have much in common. Marlon Brando is considered to be one of the...

Buried deep inside a very long Washington Post article about Barack Obama’s post-presidency is the revelation that his is supposedly writing his memoir during his month-long South Pacific retreat to French Polynesia. (hat tip: Caitlin Yilek) …he jetted off in a Gulfstream G550 to Tetiaroa, a South Pacific island once owned by Marlon Brando. He plans an extended stay there to start writing his White House memoir, according to a person familiar with his plans who asked for anonymity to discuss them. As ever long time reader of this site knows, Jack Cashill has covered the authorship of Dreams from...

What is Barack Obama Doing Now? Former President in French Polynesia for Month-Long Vacation BY EMMANUELLE ESPIRITU , CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR Mar 23, 2017 | 6:43 AM After eight years in office in one of the world's most difficult and demanding jobs, former U.S. President Barack Obama is now taking life in a more relaxed stride. As a private citizen, Obama is now able to just go out there and soak up the sun, and where can he better do that than in the celebrated French Polynesian luxury resort, The Brando. The former POTUS has reportedly flown to Tahiti by...

GERMAN sailor Stefan Ramin was on the trip of a lifetime when it turned into a nightmare on an island in the middle of nowhere. He set off on 2008 with his girlfriend and traversed the globe looking for paradise - but it took a horrible twist when he reached Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia. The remote tropical island was the last place Mr Ramin was seen before remains, believed to be his, were uncovered. Experts believe he was "hacked to pieces and burned" and eaten by suspected cannibals. Testing will conclude whether the ashes belong to Mr Ramin, Radio...

Lange's anti-nuclear stance became a hallmark of New Zealand's identity The former New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, who has died aged 63, introduced an aggressively anti-nuclear stance and bold modernising of socialist politics to the world stage. Before he took over the leadership of New Zealand's Labour Party in 1983, the left-leaning party's anti-nuclear stance had made little impact. But it was soon to become one of the cornerstones of the country's foreign policy - and one that would put it on a collision course with the US in some of the darkest days of the Cold War. When...

French anti-corruption leader views Tahiti as classic case of corruption (Tahitipresse) - As some 110,000 Windward Islands potential voters prepare for Sunday’s by-election, a visiting French anti-corruption leader described Tahiti as a “good example” of political corruption. Tahiti is a good example because even though it is smaller than France, when examined under a magnifying glass, “one encounters all that one finds elsewhere—cronyism, rigged markets, fictitious employment, financial channels and even pressures that one can exert on civil servants or judges,” Eric Halphen said Friday. Halphen, a former powerful and controversial examining judge in France who has turned to politics,...

PAPEETE, Feb 13 (AFP) - The pro-independence party of Oscar Temaru swept to victory in initial by-elections in the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti and Moorea that residents hope will end a 10-month political crisis, officials said Sunday. The vote was called after France's state council - the highest administrative court - last year annulled the results of May 2004 elections in the two islands, citing irregularities in some polling stations. The islands send 37 members to the 57-seat territorial assembly. New elections will be held throughout the sprawling Pacific territory. Temaru's Union for Democracy (UPLD) took 46.94 percent of...

PAPEETE, Tahiti (AP) -- Voters in Tahiti and nearby Moorea cast ballots in a partial election that islanders hope will resolve a months-long political crisis that has broken the calm of French Polynesia and divided politicians all the way to Paris. Political tumult has torn the French territory in the South Pacific since May when conservatives -- in power since 1982 -- suffered an unexpected defeat in legislative elections. The narrow loss gave an extra seat in the Assembly of French Polynesia to the pro-independence party, triggering a bitter political crisis that the 112,000 eligible voters were being asked to...

PAPEETE - After years of battling to gain power in French Polynesia, newly elected Oscar Temaru could not sleep the first night he set foot in the presidential residence. It wasn't because he was overexcited. Temaru was horrified at the grandiose interior of golden curtains and inlaid furniture, crystal chandeliers and yellow walls. "It looked like the city hall in Paris." Temaru had never seen inside the three-year-old $85 million complex before he narrowly won the May election and formed a coalition with a majority of one seat. Now Temaru and his supporters are illegally occupying the presidential buildings and...

The positions over the situation in French Polynesia are becoming increasingly entrenched. Although a strong argument can be made that this is a political crisis rather than a constitutional or legal crisis, if two men claim to be the president of French Polynesia and if the main opposition party refuses to concede that it has lost power then a major constitutional crisis is in the making. Oscar Temaru, the leader of the Union for Democracy (UPLD), appears to have lost most of the legal battles he has waged. He wanted new elections to be held immediately after he lost two...

DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland has become the first country on earth to cut off direct-dialed calls to entire nations in a bid to crack down on Internet-based fraud. The crackdown, announced this week and due to come into force Oct. 4, will block calls to 13 locations — all but one of them far-flung islands — to deter fraudsters from breaking into people's computers and hijacking their modems for profit. The government-appointed Commission for Communications Regulation said it was obliged to act after receiving more than 300 complaints this year from Internet users who discovered that their connections had been...

One of France's farthest-flung and most exotic colonial possessions, French Polynesia, elected its first pro-independence leader yesterday in a blow to the government in Paris. The new head of state, Oscar Temaru, replaced a long-time political ally of President Jacques Chirac as president. The new man favours independence for the South Pacific archipelago, also known by the name of its main island, Tahiti. The high tension of the past few weeks is at odds with French Polynesia's reputation as the epitome of South Seas tranquillity and romance, an image first fostered by 18th century explorers such as Capt James Cook....

UPDATE - Independence campaigner, anti-nuclear testing protester and former Westfield freezing worker Oscar Temaru has been confirmed as the new president of French Polynesia. The elevation of Mr Temaru, 59, will end the 20-year rule of Gaston Flosse, 72, a close friend of French president Jacques Chirac. Elections were held three weeks ago and legal action by Mr Flosse to have the elections nullified were unsuccessful. At last count, Mr Temaru, leader of the Tavini Huiraatira Party, had formed a coalition with 30 seats in the 57-member Assembly. Mr Temaru has not set a deadline for independence from France but...