Solomon Islands

Los Angeles to Sydney brings a 17-hour time change but little political change. Here, "Bush-Blair-Howard" is code for the Iraq war triumvirate. Although Australia's contribution of 2,000 troops to the war was modest, thrice-elected Prime Minister John Howard has been almost as staunch a supporter of President Bush as has British Prime Minister Tony Blair. An Iraq-induced machismo marks Australian foreign policy.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, December 10, 2009 - The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) on Thursday announced a proposal designed to safeguard the Earth's climate system and to secure the future survival of its 43 members. "AOSIS members are at the front line of the devastating impacts of climate change. Today we have put forward a proposal for a legally binding agreement to secure the twin objectives of survival of the Kyoto Protocol and to strengthen the UNFCCC with a new 'Copenhagen' Protocol that can be adopted here in Copenhagen", said Ambassador Dessima Williams of Grenada.

Biuka Gasa was 19 when he paddled his canoe by Plum Pudding Island and rescued the man who would be president. Jack Kennedy had washed onto this deserted South Pacific islet a week earlier when a Japanese destroyer rammed his boat, the PT 109, in August, 1943. Gasa scouted for the Allies, and he was all too pleased to save the young lieutenant. Only first, Gasa recalls, he tried to shoot him dead.

THE Solomon Islands are about 1,000 miles off Australia's northeast coast -- a long way from England's West Country, which is where we find Randall in the opening pages of this amusing, unassuming book. Randall is a teacher in his middle 30s, 10 years into a career of facing 14- and 15-year-olds, when a rare possibility falls into his path.

White-haired and nearly toothless now, Moses Sesa still recalls his date with history almost half a century ago. An American PT boat was missing in Blackett Strait, where Japanese destroyers battled nightly with U.S. sailors. Sesa was sent with six other native scouts to search for survivors. Finally, he spotted footprints on the beach on tiny Naru Island. He followed them until he found a gaunt, half-naked man with a boyish face and a Boston accent. "We asked, 'Who are you?' " Sesa recalls.

Disaster officials said Wednesday that medical staffers had been overwhelmed by the number of injured tsunami survivors and feared outbreaks of disease because of unhygienic conditions and the lack of fresh water and food. Fred Fakarii, chairman of the National Disaster Management Council, said, "The conditions at Gizo are such that these are likely things to happen unless action is taken quickly."

Prime Minister Sir Peter Kenilorea has decided to resign next week, his office said Friday. The move follows resignations by Cabinet colleagues after a political dispute about French aid to repair Kenilorea's cyclone-damaged home village.

Vanuatu's relations with Libya could pose a danger to the Solomon Islands and the rest of the South Pacific, Prime Minister Ezekiel Alebua said Friday. "Libya is not only a threat to the Middle East or the United States, but also a threat to the South Pacific," the Solomon Islands' leader said. Some Western countries have charged that Libya promotes international terrorism.

Televangelist Paul Crouch, founder of the world's largest Christian broadcasting network, has waged a fierce legal battle to prevent a former employee from publicizing allegations that he and Crouch had a sexual encounter eight years ago. Crouch, 70, is the president of Trinity Broadcasting Network, based in Orange County, whose Christian programming reaches millions of viewers around the world via satellite, cable and broadcast stations.

James E. Swett, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor after shooting down seven Japanese bombers in 15 minutes over the Solomon Islands during World War II, died Sunday of congestive heart failure at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, Calif. He was 88.