Naval tensions over territorial disputes in northeast Asia and the South China Sea are nearing the dangerous point where serious incidents or armed conflict could become inevitable, one of Australia‘s most respected strategists says. Paul Dibb, key architect of the defence of Australia strategy, will warn in a speech to a naval conference this week … Continue reading
Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor believes an asylum-seeker vessel that made it to the mainland is an exception, and does not herald a new strategy by people-smugglers. The Sri Lankan navy has warned the vessel’s arrival in the West Australian port of Geraldton will encourage more people to take the dangerous voyage, believing they can evade … Continue reading
On August 27th 1883, the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people. Krakatau exhibited … Continue reading
On July 11th 1979, parts of Skylab, America‘s first space station, come crashing down on Australia and into the Indian Ocean five years after the last manned Skylab mission ended. No one was injured. Launched in 1973, Skylab was the world’s first successful space station. The first manned Skylab mission came two years after the … Continue reading