Oceania Kiribati The government says a new runway on the small island of Kanton, with a population of about 20 people, will facilitate high-end ecotourism on the island, and provide an alternative to existing runways for future domestic and international flights
Oceania Kiribati Banaba Island, whose phosphate-rich soil has boosted agriculture in Australia and New Zealand, is now facing its own food crisis due to a severe drought and the quarantine of new supplies such as rice
Oceania Kiribati The health minister said a team of five (doctors, nurses and logistical personnel) has arrived in the country from Australia to assess the Covid-19 situation for 10 days and prepare the nation for the next phase of its response
Oceania Kiribati Curfew has begun after the first commercial flight in almost two years brought 40 cases to the country which until now had been virtually untouched by the virus
Oceania Kiribati A month ago marked the 3rd anniversary of Hope Radio, that has become an informer, educator and entertainer, as well as a powerful evangelistic platform leading to baptisms of a considerable number of new families in the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Oceania Kiribati The citizens welcomed the New Year first after the 1994 presidential candidate promised, if he won, that the locals would celebrate the New Year first; the country is divided into three time zones and the easternmost region actually now celebrates first
Oceania Kiribati Following the controversial decision to open the Phoenix Island Protected Area to commercial fishing, aquaculture experts have been summoned from China's Hubei province, a major producer of freshwater prawns
Oceania Kiribati A group of the country's sailors have had a pandemic-induced career change and have become fruit pickers in South Australia's Riverland after spending the last six months in a Brisbane hotel, unable to return home after working on foreign cargo ships
Oceania Kiribati The huge brain drain of nationals moving to Australia has an especially hard impact on the country's hospitals
Oceania Kiribati The country is at the forefront of waste and pollution management in the region thanks to Kaoki Maange, a system in operation for almost 15 years that collects and pays members of the public after they hand in their recyclable materials
Oceania Kiribati After banning fishing and other commercial activities in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in 2006, the country has now lifted the closure to commercial fishing in the world's largest marine reserve; there are suspicions that China influenced it
Oceania Kiribati The country's former president, Anote Tong, is travelling the world trying to secure a future for his people, who are in danger of sinking by the end of the century as a result of climate change
Oceania Kiribati The country ends the month of October 2021 with 0 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 0 deaths reported to WHO since 3 January 2020; as of today, over 65.200 vaccine doses have been administered