New zealand north or south island

New Zealand soldiers recovered six of the eight bodies on White Island during a high-risk operation on Friday, police said. A team of military specialists traveled to the volatile site by helicopter at dawn, despite experts putting the risk of a further eruption at 50-60%. The bodies were airlifted to a navy patrol vessel waiting offshore, police said. The whereabouts of two other people presumed dead on the island is unclear.  "It has been an incredibly difficult operation but it has been such a priority," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "We just want to bring loved ones home." White Island, also known as Whakaari, erupted Monday while being visited by 47 tourists and their guides — some close to its crater. New Zealand volcano eruption — in pictures Last-second escape Tourist Michael Schade wrote on Twitter as he posted video of the eruption that his "family and I had gotten off it 20 … [Read more...] about New Zealand recovers bodies from volcanic White Island

In New Zealand, where bodies still lie on a volcano after Monday’s eruption and survivors fill hospital burns units across the country to capacity, questions are mounting about who exactly was responsible for the safety of tourists on Whakaari or White Island, and how, if failings are found, who will be held accountable. Questions are also being asked about the wisdom of allowing tourists on to the island while it was assigned a volcanic alert level of two out of five, signalling volcanic unrest – a practice that has happened for years. But one thing that is already clear is that those hurt in the eruption will be prevented from bringing civil lawsuits in New Zealand against the tour companies who took them to the island, or anyone else. New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme, run by the government, covers the cost of all treatment for injuries sustained in New Zealand, including for foreigners. Its coverage, which the injured cannot opt out of, bars them from … [Read more...] about White Island volcano victims cannot bring civil lawsuits for negligence

New Zealand deployed eight military specialists to White Island at dawn on Friday despite its GNS geological agency putting the risk of a further eruption at 50-60%. White Island, also known as Whakaari, erupted Monday while being visited by 47 tourists and their guides — some close to its crater. Eight other victims were recovered dead or died subsequently, and dozens were scalded by pyroclastic ash and steam. Twenty nine of them remain in hospital burns units in New Zealand and Australia as medics await deliveries of frozen skin from foreign repositories to graft onto patients. They come from Australia, the USA, Britain, China, Germany, Malaysia and New Zealand — many of them were vacationing on a giant cruise ship. Recovery in ashen crater Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement alluded to the added risk of bodies still on White Island being encased in cement-like volcanic ash if rain fell. "The weather, the direction of the wind" would add "complexity" to Friday's … [Read more...] about New Zealand begins body retrieval on volcanic White Island

The funerals are over, the investigation continues and the blame game begins and media attention shifts away. This time the victims were Catholic worshippers and patrons of luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. A month ago they were Muslim worshippers in New Zealand, shot by a white supremacist as they prayed. It is almost two decades since attacks launched by al-Qaida on New York, the Pentagon and Washington announced a new era of mass-casualty terrorism. Such violence has long been with us all, of course. Terrorism in its modern form can trace its roots back to the 19th century. The 1970s saw hundreds of terrorist bombings, shootings and hijackings in the US. The 1990s were bloody, too. But the era that began with the 2001 attacks brought something else. The rapidity with which we now learn of violence thousands of miles away, the graphic images and testimony to which we are exposed, or seek out, and the unprecedented scale of the violence combine to give an old threat a new immediacy. … [Read more...] about From 9/11 to Sri Lanka: the terrorists’ deadly message we have failed to grasp

A high-tech Chinese spy ship preparing to snoop on Australian-U.S. naval exercises highlights the growing threat of China, military experts warn. The ADF is closely tracking the surveillance ship as it steams towards Queensland ahead of the Talisman Sabre war games that begin on Thursday. The Type 815G Dongdiao-class vessel is loaded with advanced equipment that can eavesdrop on military signals from hundreds of kilometres away. A high-tech Chinese Type 815G Dongdiao-class spy ship is preparing to snoop on Australian-U.S. naval exercises Australian Strategic Policy Institute defence and strategy director Michael Shoebridge said China was now a force to be reckoned with. 'This is a demonstration that China is a technological competitor with Western military and needs to be taken seriously,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'The bigger concern is how the authoritarian Chinese state is willing to use them as they, like Russia, have taken territory claimed by other countries.' … [Read more...] about Spy ship ‘hoovering up data’ off Australian coast during war games with the US Navy highlights growing threat of China’s rapidly modernising military, expert warns