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Papua New Guinea
Wisdom from an obscure archipelago
Issue Date: Feb 28, 1994
Ask anyone to locate Papua New Guinea on a map and there are very good chances that he or she wouldn't know where to start.
Till recently, Papua New Guinea was a relatively obscure archipelago on the western rim of the Pacific. Portuguese colonisers first landed on the island in the 16th century, followed by hordes of the Dutch, the Germans, the British and finally, the Australians, but the colonising was done far from the world's attention.
News 360° - Briefs
Issue Date: Aug 15, 2010
Mercury pollution
Gold poisons colombia
News 360° - Briefs
Issue Date: Jun 30, 2010
HYBRID SEEDS AND PESTICIDE
Haitians shun Monsanto aid
As Haiti struggles to recover from the quake that battered it on January 12, biotech giant Monsanto has offered it 475 tonnes of hybrid corn and vegetable seeds, worth US $4 million.
New species found
Issue Date: Oct 31, 2006
A research team from Conservation International, USA, claims to have found 52 new species in Papua New Guinea. They have found 24 new species of fish, 20 species of coral and eight species of shrimp. Among the curiosities are a shark that walks on its fins and a shrimp that looks like a praying mantis. With the discovery, the Bird's Head Seascape, off Papua province, has staked claims of being the world's richest biodiversity area.
Papua New Guinea cabinet votes against copper mine
Issue Date: Jul 15, 2006
A daily newspaper of Papua New Guinea recently said cabinet members voted to shut down a copper mine situated in the Star mountains. The mine is operated by Ok Tedi Mining Limited.
Give us our due
Issue Date: Jan 31, 2006
At the recent un summit on climate change in Montreal, Canada, a group of 10 developing countries led by Papua New Guinea came up with a new proposal. Termed "radical" by the North, the proposal sought financial rewards for developing countries that preserve their tropical forests. The representatives of the 10 nations felt that since the rest of the world was benefiting from the natural wealth of tropical forests, it was only proper that they shared costs of conserving them.
AT CROSSROADS
Issue Date: Feb 28, 2002
The villagers of
Papua New Guinea (PNG) are
caught in a legal tangle. They would
invite prosecution from their own
country's courts if they continue to
demand compensation for environmental damages resulting from
the Ok Tedi copper mine in PNG,
operated by Broken Hill
Proprietary, a large Australian
mining group. The group has won
a 60-day stay in its long-running
court battle. The Melbourne
Supreme Court recently adjourned
all compensation applications in
the light of the new PNG law which
bans such legal action in foreign
courts and provides for financial
and jail term penalties.
Full of treasure
Issue Date: May 31, 1998
Geologists have discovered huge deposits of gold, silver, copper and zinc in the Manus Basin, part of the Bismarck Sea to the northeast of Papua New Guinea. These minerals were found while they were studying the formation of metal ores on the seafloor. A team led by Ray Binns of the Division of Exploration and Mining of the CSIRO, Australia's national research body, collected 83 samples from the seafloor. One of the deposits has got an average of 15 grams of gold, 200 grams of silver per tonne and 26 per cent by weight of zinc.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Issue Date: Oct 15, 1996
BROKEN DISPUTE
Issue Date: Jul 15, 1996
A six-year-old
mine dispute between the villagers
of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and
Australia's largest company, the
Broken Hill Pty Company (BHP)
Ltd has been settled out of court.
PNG landowners and their
Australian law firm, Slater and
Gordon, agreed to drop their claim
for US $3.2 billion compensation
for pollution caused by BHP
majority-owned Ok Tedi copper-
gold mine. As part of the settlement, BHP would include almost
35,000 landowners in the US $80
million compensation package
which was agreed late last year by
BHP and the PNG government.
