Portal:Oceania/Selected article/2007

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January 2007

The island and province Bougainville is part of Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Solomon Islands group. Its capital is Arawa. Bougainville, the adjacent island of Buka, and assorted outlying islands including the Carterets are sometimes known as North Solomons. Together they make up the Papua New Guinean province of Bougainville. The population is 175,160 (2000 census).

The island is ecologically and geographically, although not politically, part of the Solomon Islands. Buka, Bougainville, and most of the Solomons are part of the Solomon Islands rain forests ecoregion.

Bougainville is rich in copper and gold. A large mine was established at Panguna in the early 1970s by Bougainville Copper Limited, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. By the end of its operations on May 15, 1989 it was the largest open-cut mine in the world; it was also a major catalyst in the unrest in Bougainville in the 1970s and 1980s.

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February 2007

Hurricane Ioke (was also Typhoon Ioke) is the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Central Pacific. The first storm to form in the Central Pacific in the 2006 Pacific hurricane season, Ioke was a record breaking, long-lived and extremely powerful storm that traversed the Pacific, reaching Category 5 status twice as a hurricane. As a typhoon, Ioke managed to achieve Category 5-equivalent one-minute sustained winds one more time before weakening.

Ioke did not affect any permanently populated areas in the Central Pacific or Western Pacific basins as a hurricane or a typhoon, but the storm passed over Johnston Atoll as a Category 2 hurricane and passed near Wake Island as a Category 4 typhoon.

Despite its strength, Ioke only caused moderate damage to Wake Island, and was not responsible for any fatalities. Later, the extratropical remnants of Ioke produced a severe storm surge along the Alaskan coastline, causing beach erosion.

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March 2007

Western New Guinea is the Indonesian western half of the island of New Guinea and consists of two provinces, Papua and West Papua (Papua Barat). It was previously known by various names, including Netherlands New Guinea (until 1st Dec 1961), West Papua (until August 1962), West Irian (1962–1973), and Irian Jaya (1973–2000). The incorporation of western New Guinea remains controversial.

Papua was annexed by Indonesia under the controversial Act of Free Choice in 1969. The West Irian Jaya (Irian Jaya Barat) province was formed on February 6th, 2006 and the name was officially changed to West Papua (Papua Barat) a year later.

The combined population of the Indonesian provinces of West Irian Jaya and Papua, constituting all of Western New Guinea, was estimated to be 2,646,489 in 2005. The two largest cities in the territory are Sorong in the northwest of the Bird's Head Peninsula and Jayapura in the northeast. Both cities have a population of approximately 200,000.

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April 2007

The Pacific War was the part of World War II — and preceding conflicts — that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, between July 7, 1937, and August 14, 1945. The most decisive actions took place after the Empire of Japan attacked various countries, later known as the Allies (or Allied powers), on or after December 7, 1941, including an attack on United States forces at Pearl Harbor.

The major Allied participants were the United States and China. The United Kingdom (including the forces of British India), Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands also played significant roles. Free French Forces and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies.

In Japan, August 14 is considered to be the day that the Pacific War ended. However, Imperial Japan actually surrendered on August 15 and this day became known in the English-speaking countries as "V-J Day" (Victory in Japan).

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May 2007

A Chinatown is a section of an urban area associated with a large number of Chinese within a city outside the majority-Chinese countries of China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Chinatowns in Oceania exist throughout the region.

Chinatowns are most common in Australia due to its proximity to the Asian continent. The majority of ethnic Chinese immigrants to Australia are from Hong Kong. Chinese from various places of mainland China, Macao, Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia—especially Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, and Indonesia—and Latin America also settled Australia. There are historic Chinatowns in most of the major Australian cities, a synthetic Chinatown in Darwin, and heritage sites in other areas.

In New Zealand, Auckland and Wellington had Chinatowns until the 1970s and Christchurch and Dunedin have growing Chinese communities. Papua New Guinea has several Chinatowns, and Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Guam, Nauru, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Northern Mariana Islands also have Chinatowns in their capital cities.

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June 2007

Caroline Island is the easternmost of the uninhabited coral atolls which comprise the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean.

First sighted by Europeans in 1606, claimed by the United Kingdom in 1868, and part of the Republic of Kiribati since the island nation's independence in 1979, Caroline Island has remained relatively untouched and is considered one of the world's most pristine tropical islands, despite guano mining, copra harvesting, and human habitation in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is home to one of the world's largest populations of the coconut crab and is an important breeding site for seabirds, most notably the sooty tern.

The atoll is best known for its role in celebrations surrounding the arrival of the year 2000 — a 1995 realignment of the International Date Line made Caroline Island one of the first points of land on Earth to see sunrise on January 1, 2000.

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July 2007

Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi (born 20 May 1968 on the island of Gau, Fiji) is a Fijian rugby union footballer. He is widely considered the greatest rugby sevens player of all time.

In fifteen-a-side rugby, he played for Fiji 39 times between 1989 and 2003, and scored 376 points. This included representing Fiji in the 1991, 1999, and 2003 Rugby World Cups. He also played professionally for Mitsubishi, Leicester, Stade Montois, Stade Bordelais and Staines.

He has played at the Hong Kong tournament almost every year since 1989. Serevi has also played in the 1993, 1997, 2001, and 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens, winning the World Cup with Fiji in 1997 and 2005. He won silver at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002, and captured bronze in 2006. Serevi has played in the International Rugby Board Sevens Series since its creation in 1999. Serevi coached the Fiji Sevens to the 2005/2006 IRB Sevens Series victory.

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August 2007

The Battle of Tulagi and Gavutu-Tanambogo was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, between Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied (mainly United States (U.S.) Marine) ground forces. It took place August 7 – August 9, 1942, on the Solomon Islands, during the initial Allied landings in the Guadalcanal campaign.

In the battle, U.S. Marines, under the overall command of U.S. Major General Alexander Vandegrift, landed and captured the islands of Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo among which the Japanese Navy had constructed a naval and seaplane base. The landings were fiercely resisted by the Japanese Navy troops who, outnumbered and outgunned by the Allied forces, fought and died almost to the last man.

At the same time, Allied troops were also landing on nearby Guadalcanal. In contrast to the intense fighting on Tulagi and Gavutu, the landings on Guadalcanal were essentially unopposed. The landings on both Tulagi and Guadalcanal initiated the six-month long Guadalcanal campaign and a series of combined-arms battles between Allied and Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands area.

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September 2007

Honolulu is the capital as well as the most populous community of the State of Hawaii, United States. In the Hawaiian language, honolulu means "sheltered bay" or "place of shelter." The census-designated place (CDP) is located along the southeast coast of the island of Oahu. The term also refers to the District of Honolulu.

As of July 1, 2004, the United States Census Bureau estimate for Honolulu puts the population at 377,260 and that of the city and county (essentially, the Island of Oahu) at 900,000. In Hawaii, local governments operate only at the county level, and the City & County of Honolulu encompasses all of the Island of Oahu (approximately 600 square miles).

Honolulu is in the tropics, but the climate (temperature and humidity) is moderated by the mid-ocean location and some cooling achieved by the California Current that passes through the islands much of year. The average daily low and high temperatures in January are 65/80 °F (18/27 °C) and in July are 74/88 °F (23/31 °C).

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October 2007

John Frum (or Jon Frum; John From) is a figure associated with cargo cults on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. He is depicted as an American World War II serviceman, who will bring wealth and prosperity to the people if they follow him. He is sometimes portrayed as black, sometimes as white.

It is not known whether the religion arose spontaneously or was deliberately created; nor is it clear whether an individual named "John Frum" existed in the first place; the name is sometimes considered a corruption of "John from (America)", which the natives heard from US GIs during World War II. There are no records of the John Frum religion before 1940.

The John Frum movement has its own political party. On John Frum Day in February 2007, the John Frum Movement celebrated its 50th anniversary. Chief Isaac Wan, its leader, remains strong in his belief in John Frum. He was quoted by the BBC as saying that John Frum was "our God, our Jesus," and would eventually return.

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November 2007

The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest terrestrial arthropod in the world. It is a derived hermit crab and is known for its ability to crack coconuts with its strong pincers in order to eat the contents. Coconut crabs live in areas throughout the Indian and western Pacific oceans.

Reports about the size of Birgus latro vary, and most references give a weight of up to 4 kg (9 lb), a body length of up to 400 mm (16 in), and a leg span of around 1 m (3 ft), with males generally being larger than females. Some reports claim weights up to 17 kg and a body length of 1 m.

The diet of coconut crabs consists primarily of fruit, including coconuts and figs. However, they will eat nearly anything organic, including leaves, rotten fruit, tortoise eggs, dead animals, and the shells of other animals. They may also eat live animals that are too slow to escape, such as freshly hatched sea turtles. One crab was observed catching and eating a Polynesian rat.

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December 2007

Rugby union is considered to be the national sport of Fiji. The sport was introduced in the 1880s. Fiji is defined as a tier two rugby nation by the International Rugby Board (IRB). The national team has competed at the Rugby World Cup and made it as far as the quarter finals. Their sevens team are current world champions.

The Fiji national rugby union team have competed at four World Cups since the tournament was first held in 1987. They made the quarter-finals in 1987 and in 1999. Fiji also participates in the IRB Pacific 5 Nations with Samoa, Tonga, Japan and the Junior All Blacks, and the Pacific Tri-Nations with Tonga and Samoa.

Fiji are one of the most successful sevens nations. The Fiji Sevens won the Hong Kong Sevens tournament in 1977, and have since won it another eight times. They are also the only side to have won the Rugby World Cup Sevens on two occasions; in 1997 and in 2005. At the 2006 event, Fiji became the 2006 World Sevens Series champions.

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