Castaway on a brandnew island
Nuku'lofa, 7 July - Ian Argus Stuart, a former British entrepreneur, has spent 11 days on Hunga Tonga island, a newly formed volcanic island off Tonga. According to the Australian ABC News Digital the 65-year old survived his stay on the bare island on squid, bird eggs and
coconuts that washed ashore.
"It's an amazing place. It must have been what the world was like when it first started", he told ABC. "It's made up of grit and lava ash compressed together. When you try to climb the volcano, it comes off on your hand all the time."
Stuart got to the island with the help of a fishing boat and a travel company specialising in "castaway" experiences. He spent most of his time scouring for food. But most of all he was amazed by how fast new life was developing on the newest island on earth. "There's hundreds and hundreds of newborn chicks on the island now. The place is swarming with birds.
It's really amazing, you've got life already starting there. There's green shoots even just three months on." Photo: Ian Argus Stuart
More than a lifetime
Islands are just pieces of land jutting out from the sea. Some are bare, some are full of life. Some have millions of people living on them. Others, actually most of them, are uninhabited. There are islands that no one would think twice about: they are just there and hold no alure for anyone except the most fanatical islomaniacs of the world.
But mention the word island and most people's eyes will get hazy, if even for a millisecond. No other word so easily conjurs up an image, a fantasy. It makes us dream of that ultimate destination: a place away from it all...
Read moreVolcano erupts on Isabele Island
PUERTO VILLAMIL, 25 May - Wolf Volcano has erupted on Isabele Island, the largest of the Galapagos Islands. It is the first time in over three decades that the volcano has become active. There is no immediate threat to the people that live on the island.
The eruption does pose a threat though: conservationist are worried about the population of pink iguanas on the island, the only one in the world. Read
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'Restore prison of Devil's Island'
by Jan Ligthart
PARIS - You may think you have seen and heard it all, but you are wrong. A French politician has seriously suggested that the most horrible prison island known to mankind be reopened. Mr. Dupont-Aignan, founder of the right wing DLF Party, thinks Devil's Island in French Guinea, would be the perfect place to lock up French jihadists.