Maldives

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Maldives Floating City Offers Vision of Future

Project could prove that human societies can survive and thrive on open seas

(Newser) - A new city is rising in the Indian Ocean, and it’s not intended as a tourist trap or playground for the wealthy. Per CNN, the project is a joint venture between the Maldives government and developer Dutch Docklands, which hails from a country with deep experience adapting to intrusive...

Maldives Calls Summit Decision 'a Death Sentence'

Island nations say they can't afford to wait for incremental steps to address warming

(Newser) - Small island nations are especially alarmed by the results of the UN climate conference, making the point that they don't have time for small, incremental steps to slow global warming. The crisis has reached their homes. Negotiators declined to commit to taking immediate action to hold global warming to...

China Gambles, Wins With Massive Rocket Re-Entry

Long March 5B burned up over the Maldives

(Newser) - China's space agency said a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and that most of it burned up early Sunday, per the AP . Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracked the tumbling rocket part, said on Twitter, “An...

Couple Gets 'Trapped in Paradise'—Alone

Raul and Olivia De Freitas never expected this

(Newser) - Raul and Olivia De Freitas only planned to stay for six days—and then a pandemic broke out. Which meant the South African couple was stranded at a Maldives resort, all alone with the staff, trapped in paradise. "Everyone says they want to be stuck on a tropical island,...

Maldives Declares 15-Day State of Emergency

Former leader, 2 judges arrested

(Newser) - The Maldives opposition leader and two Supreme Court judges were arrested early Tuesday, hours after the government declared an emergency in the Indian Ocean nation that has been increasingly in turmoil in the days since the court ordered several jailed politicians to be freed. The charges against opposition leader Maumoon...

Groom Dies on Honeymoon: 'I Turned and Andrew Was Gone'
Groom Dies on Honeymoon: 
'He Just Dropped in the Water'
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Groom Dies on Honeymoon: 'He Just Dropped in the Water'

Gill Campion left devastated in the Maldives after Andrew Roddy died while snorkeling

(Newser) - A mystery-turned-tragedy in the Maldives, with a newly married Irish man dead and his bride plunged into a "nightmare." People reports that Andrew Roddy, 30, had been snorkeling in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday while on his honeymoon with Gill Campion, two weeks after their wedding. The two...

Maldives Prez Just Gave Crazy Powers to Police

Police can basically make arrests, search homes without reason

(Newser) - The president of the Maldives declared a state of emergency on Wednesday sharply curtailing key rights of citizens for 30 days following an explosion on his speedboat and the discoveries of a homemade bomb near his residence and a weapons cache. Attorney General Mohamed Anil said President Yameen Abdul Gayoom...

Maldives VP Busted in Crazy Assassination Plot

President says Ahmed Adeeb plotted to kill him in boat blast last month

(Newser) - The Maldives' president appealed for calm Sunday, after his deputy was arrested on suspicion of treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate him with an explosion on his boat. President Yameen Abdul Gayoom, who escaped the Sept. 28 blast unhurt, told reporters it "was not easy" to see the arrest...

7 Places You've Got to See Before They're Gone

Climate change threatens these natural wonders

(Newser) - Thanks to climate change, some of the planet's greatest natural wonders are in danger, Time notes. Megan Gibson lists 10 that you shouldn't miss before they disappear:
  1. Great Barrier Reef, Australia: It could be gone within a century as ocean temperatures climb and the reef suffers from pollution.
...

Maldives Election Trouble: Cursed Coconuts

Police confiscate several thought to have black-magic spells

(Newser) - Residents of the Maldives elect a president tomorrow, and the final week of the campaign has brought the world's weirdest election worry: coconuts cursed with black-magic spells. Police confiscated a coconut inscribed with suspicious-looking symbols that had been found near a polling station on Kaafu Atoll, reports the Australian ...

Islands to Be Built in India ... and Towed to Maldives

Dutch design features private islands, golf course with underwater club

(Newser) - Many of the islands that comprise the Maldives could soon be submerged—so replacements are under way. A Dutch firm is designing artificial islands to join some 1,192 islands that sit an average of five feet above sea level, making the Maldives the world's lowest country. Now, the...

Obama Goofs on Falklands
 Obama Goofs on Falklands 

Obama Goofs on Falklands

He refers to disputed islands as Maldives

(Newser) - Gaffe alert: President Obama fumbled the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands in remarks before the Summit of the Americas. He referred to them as "the Maldives or the Falklands, whatever your preferred term," using the name of an island chain 8,000 miles away in the Indian...

Maldives Ex-President: I Was Ousted at Gunpoint

Protests erupt after Mohamed Nasheed's speech

(Newser) - Protests erupted in Maldives today after Mohamed Nasheed said he'd been forced to resign the presidency at gunpoint. Nasheed stepped down yesterday , handing power to VP Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, saying he was "not a person who wishes to rule with the use of power." But today...

President Out After Mutiny in Maldives

Mohamed Nasheed hands over power to vice president

(Newser) - A police mutiny has pushed Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed to resign, less than four years after he became the first democratically elected leader of the Indian Ocean island nation. Opposition protests erupted weeks ago after Nasheed arrested a judge who, he claimed, was still under the control of previous leader...

Maldives: No, Our Country Isn't Underwater

Satirical 'Telegraph' global warming column irks island nation.

(Newser) - Atlas makers have decided to omit the Maldives from future editions because global warming threatens to submerge the island nation, a climate-change skeptic Telegraph writer claimed in a satirical column . Sound ludicrous? Not to some newspapers and opposition politicians in the Maldives, who took the bogus story seriously and demanded...

Couple Insulted in Foreign Tongue at 'Blessing'

Maldives hotel apologizes for staff's joke

(Newser) - A hotel in the Maldives is expressing remorse today after a YouTube video emerged showing a couple being cursed at in the worst of ways during a ceremony to commemorate their love. The only thing is, they didn't know it. Though their ceremonial guide appeared solemn, in the Dhivehi language...

Maldives Leaders Meet Underwater on Climate

Stop climate change or we're sunk, they say

(Newser) - Members of the Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals today at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on earth. President Mohammed Nasheed and 13 other government officials submerged and took their seats at a table on the sea...

150 Maldive Women to Be Flogged for Affairs

(Newser) - A criminal court in the Maldives has ruled that 150 women will be flogged for having affairs in the Muslim country, reports the Independent. Some 50 men face the same punishment. Earlier this month an 18-year-old woman fainted after being flogged 100 times for having sex with two men, who...

Madonna's the Same Age as Boy Toy's Granny

Parents worry pop star kidnapped son to NY

(Newser) - Madonna is the same age as her latest lover’s grandmother, the New York Post reports. Brazilian model Jesus Pinto da Luz met Madge at a photo shoot, before spending the Christmas holidays with the 50-year-old pop star in the Maldives. The 22-year-old's family thinks Madonna has kidnapped him to...

Island Paradise Seeks New Home

Low-lying islands divert tourist funds to buy land

(Newser) - Under serious threat from rising sea levels, the government of the Maldives is saving funds from the islands' biggest industry—tourism—to finance the purchase of a new national home, the Guardian reports. Much of the country, near India, rises less than 5 feet above the water, and the UN...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>