Latest Pacific Stories
By Paul TaitSYDNEY -- It began as the holiday of a lifetime but descended into a lurid spiral of alcohol, drugs and sexual predators for a suburban mother of three whose humiliating death at sea could help change the global cruise industry.A coroner's inquest into the 2002 death of Dianne Brimble on board the P&O liner Pacific Sky has shocked Australia with its graphic descriptions of her treatment by a group of men she met on board.The inquest has heard that Brimble, 42, died of an...
WASHINGTON -- Twenty-four people disappeared from cruise ships between 2003 and 2005 and 178 passengers reported being sexually assaulted, a congressional panel heard on Tuesday.Among those who disappeared were an elderly Vietnamese-American couple who fled their native land as "boat people" in 1975.Hue Pham, 71 and his wife, Hue Tran, 67, fled Vietnam 30 years ago with five other family members, spending two weeks floating in the Pacific with little food or water, their son, Son...
By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Navy strove on Saturday to rescue seven crew members trapped 190 meters (600 feet) below the surface before their air runs out. The mini-submarine, itself a rescue vessel, ran into trouble on Thursday when its propeller got entangled in fishing nets and an antenna got hooked during a military exercise off the Kamchatka peninsula on Russia's Pacific Coast, the Navy said. Rescuers tried to drag the AS-28 mini-submarine closer to shallow waters,...
Latest Pacific Reference Libraries
The giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), also known as the North Pacific giant octopus, is native to the North Pacific. It prefers to live at depths of 215 feet, but can be found in more shallow waters. It is thought to be the largest species of octopus with the largest specimen weighing 156.5 pounds, although the seven-arm octopus is a close contender with one specimen weighing 134 pounds. The giant Pacific octopus can reach an average weight of thirty-three pounds with an arm...
