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CNN CNN He was shot down in the Pacific Ocean in WWII. Almost 80 years later, his remains are finally home Story by Sara Smart • 8h ago Almost 80 years after Anthony Di Petta’s plane was shot down by enemy fire in World War II and over 70 years after he was declared “non-recoverable,” he’s finally home. The remains of the sailor arrived back in the US on Friday afternoon, according to an agency of the US Department of Defense. Di Petta, from Nutley, New Jersey, served as a US Navy Aviation Ordnanceman during World War II, according to...

The United Nations has decided that Israel needs to get rid of its nuclear weapons — if indeed it has any. But the organization has nothing to say about Iran.In a 152-5 vote on Friday, the UN’s General Assembly voted to have Israel dispose of its nuclear weapons and place any nuclear sites within its borders under the watchful eye of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The dissenting votes were from the United States, Canada, Israel, Micronesia, and Palau. Twenty-three nations and the European Union abstained.Fox News reports that it has never been confirmed that Israel has any nuclear weapons,...

The United Nations General Assembly's first committee, which deals with disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace that affect the international community, voted 152-5, on Friday, on a resolution concerning "the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East". The resolution states that Israel must dispose of all its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear sites under the International Atomic Energy Agency's purview. The resolution, which is submitted every year to the UNGA in New York, was submitted by Egypt and sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and 19 counties including Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates. Canada, Israel,...

Russia has unambiguously stated its position that the self-ruling island of Taiwan is a part of the mainland-based People's Republic of China, as strategic partners Moscow and Beijing seek to further align their positions regarding geopolitical issues across the globe. During his visit Tuesday to the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared Moscow's stance on the issue. "Russia, like the overwhelming majority of other countries, considers Taiwan to be part of the People's Republic of China," Lavrov said. "We have proceeded and will proceed from this premise in our foreign policy." Only 14 countries today, along...

The Pacific nation of Palau urged the U.S. this week to build military bases on its island territory amid growing Chinese influence in the western Pacific region. U.S. Pentagon chief Mark Esper visited Palau last week as part of a tour of the Pacific. It was the first-ever visit to the island by a U.S. defense secretary. During his visit, Esper accused Beijing of a “malign influence” in the region marked by “ongoing destabilizing activities” in the western Pacific Ocean. Palau President Tommy Remengesau Jr. revealed this week that he sent a hand-delivered letter to Esper during his stay on...

<p>KOROR (AFP) — The United States has announced plans to install radar systems in Palau, a move that will increase its monitoring ability in the western Pacific region recently rocked by threats from North Korea.</p> <p>In a joint statement, the U.S Defense Department and the Palau government said they were working to finalize the location of radar towers on the archipelago nation of 22,000 people.</p>

WASHINGTON Some 90 people, including lobbyists for foreign governments, lawmakers, top Obama aides and State Department employees, communicated directly with Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state using her personal email address, according to a McClatchy review of thousands of her recently released emails. Many people said they were surprised when it was revealed in the spring that Clinton relied on a private email account on a private server in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home to conduct official business during her four years as Obama’s secretary of state. But the review of emails shows influential people in Washington and...

In what seems a miracle of mercy, Palau has been spared the full wrath of Typhoon Bopha. While it wailed and howled and sent piercing noises through the trees and outside of our windows, at the very last minute the Typhoon turned west and its path jogged south of Palau. Early reports have the Typhoon passing more than 50 miles south of Koror, the nation’s city-centre. Surprisingly despite its thunderous whistle, there was very little rain. It is early morning here in Palau and as of yet, it has been difficult to communicate within Palau because the phone lines are...

The air that now blankets Palau is warm, dry, still, and disturbingly ominous. Palau’s sky has reason to brood for in less than 24 hours Typhoon Bopha is predicted to make landfall on the tiny nation of the Republic of Palau with a near direct hit. This typhoon has been securing strength and intensity while at sea and is expected to be a monster typhoon with a violent entry. As of 4am on December 2, 2012, this typhoon is predicted to sustain 150-mph winds and 180-mph gusts when it reaches Palau on early morning Monday. If that were not enough,...

After nearly three decades of making available much needed after-school academic assistance to under-represented high school students in Palau, the TRIO Upward Bound Program at Palau Community College has once again been awarded to continue its services. The U.S. Department of Education award in the amount of $1,781,750 will ensure that the long-running TRIO Upward Bound legacy at PCC of helping under-represented college-bound students in the Republic of Palau will be guaranteed for another five-year cycle. Initiated back in 1983, the Upward Bound program's mission remains unchanged and it is to provide fundamental support and opportunities for participants to succeed...

The United States has signed a deal with Bhutan giving US citizens in the country immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the State Department said Tuesday. The deal with Bhutan brings to 34 the number of countries with which the United States has signed so-called "Article 98" agreements exempting US citizens from the court's jurisdiction, said Lynn Cassel, a department spokesman. Bhutan and Bosnia-Herzegovina both agreed to the pacts on May 16 but the deal with Thimphu was not announced until Tuesday. Washington refuses to support the ICC, arguing that it could become a forum for politically...

Fourth-place Survivor Palau cast member Jenn Lyon died yesterday. She was 37, and is the first of Survivor’s 301 cast members to die.

Six Chinese Muslims who were held in the Guantánamo Bay prison camp for almost eight years have arrived on the tiny Pacific island of Palau. The detainees from the Turkic Uighur minority were arrested in Afghanistan during the opening days of military operations in 2001 and held as suspected militants until last year when a US military tribunal decided they were not 'enemy combatants'. The release of the men, who were greeted on arrival by Palau's President, Johnson Toribiong, is another small step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison camp by January. Palau, situated 500...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

MELEKEOK, Palau (AP) — Some Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay are hesitant about accepting this tiny Pacific nation's offer to take them in because they fear it cannot shield them from China, Palau's president said Tuesday. An American official in Palau described the concerns as unwarranted, pointing out that Beijing has no political influence over the island country. It was also unclear whether the detainees even have a say in where they will be resettled.

The Obama administration's drive to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has hit a new snag: At least some of the 13 detainees accepted for resettlement by the island nation of Palau don't want to go there..... Palau has no Muslim community, and the majority of residents are Roman Catholic. Clarke said his clients are particularly concerned about the legal status they would hold on Palau, and whether they could obtain documentation such as a passport.

KOROR, Palau (AP) — At the call to prayer, the men turn one-by-one down a narrow path through the jungle, marked only by a towering coconut tree. Hidden at the end of the dirt track stands the sole mosque in Koror, home to more than two-thirds of people in Palau, the tiny Pacific nation that has agreed to take in a group of Chinese Muslim detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The mosque is perched on bamboo stilts and held together by a patchwork of corrugated metal. For the small group of about 500 Muslims in this predominantly Christian nation, this is...

KOROR, Palau (AP) — A group of Guantanamo detainees expected to be resettled in Palau may not want to move to the remote Pacific nation, a Palauan official said Wednesday. Last weekend, Palau sent a fact-finding team to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to meet with the 13 Uighurs — Turkic Muslims from China's far western Xinjiang region — and assess their needs. ... Sending them back to China was not an option because of U.S. concerns that Chinese authorities, who consider them separatists, would immediately arrest the men.

With nation after nation turning down the "opportunity" to house detainees from Guantanmo Bay, I thought Obama discovered Palau by ordering Robert Gibbs to spin a Replogle globe and stop it with his finger. I was wrong.

The tiny Pacific nation of Palau's decision to allow 13 Chinese Muslims from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to resettle there has sparked anger among islanders who fear for the safety of the tranquil tourist haven. The U.S. government determined last year that the Chinese Muslims, or Uighurs, were not enemy combatants and should be released from the U.S. military prison in Cuba. China has objected to their resettlement, calling the men "terrorist suspects" and demanding they be sent home. The U.S. has said it fears the men would be executed if they were returned to China. Palau President Johnson...