MALDIVES LIVE

Maldives to support 350 with a 24 hours dive

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:24:00 +0000

350.org is a global campaign dedicated to unite the world to address the climate crisis. The mission of the 350 movement is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis — to create a new sense of urgency. The focus is on the number 350, as in parts per million - the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere. This December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to craft a new global treaty, the predecessor to Kyoto...

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Maldives officials dive for climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:32:00 +0000

GIRIFUSHI, Maldives (AP) -- The president of the Maldives says he's trying to make people realize his low-lying island nation is a "frontline state" facing the threat of global warming. To that end, President Mohammed Nasheed convened a Cabinet meeting today about 20 feet deep at the bottom of a lagoon. The Maldives is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean made up of nearly 1,200 low-lying coral islands. They average 7 feet above sea level. Many fear that climate change could cause sea level to...

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Maldives MPs sink to all new lows

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:27:00 +0000

Politicians in the Maldives have sunk to new lows, as the President and his government ministers donned scuba gear for a cabinet meeting at the bottom of the sea. The stunt was designed to highlight the threat that global warming poses to the low-lying nation. Most of the island nation lies less than a meter above sea level and some scientists have warned it could be uninhabitable in less than 100 years. Source: skynews.com.au

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Maldives Cabinet set for underwater meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:26:00 +0000

The government in the Maldives is set to hold its first underwater cabinet meeting Saturday to attract international attention to the dangers of global warming, a spokeswoman said. President Mohamed Nasheed, dressed in full scuba gear, is to conduct the 30 minute meeting at a depth of six meters (20 feet) just north of the capital Male from 0500 GMT, event coordinator Aminath Shauna said. Most of the island nation, a tourist paradise featuring coral reefs and white sand beaches, lies less...

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Maldives cabinet makes a splash

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:21:00 +0000

The government of the Maldives has held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming to the low-lying Indian Ocean nation. President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet signed a document calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. Ministers spent half an hour on the sea bed, communicating with white boards and hand signals. The president said the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December cannot be allowed to fail. At a later press conference while still...

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Maldives Ministers Dive Into Cabinet Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:17:00 +0000

Ministers in the Maldives are taking part in their first underwater cabinet meeting to draw attention to global warming. The government has arranged a horseshoe-shaped table at the bottom of the sea and they will communicate using white boards and hand signals. The event will be "chaired" by President Mohamed Nasheed and there will be a total of 13 officials meeting under water. Expert divers from the Maldivian military will be on hand to ensure the politicians are safe. The ministers have...

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India sending Dornier aircraft to Maldives for surveillance mission

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:15:00 +0000

NEW DELHI: As part of the overall strategy to prevent China from further spreading its influence in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), India is sending a Dornier aircraft to Maldives to help the country in maritime surveillance. Defence ministry sources said an Indian Navy Dornier would begin its maritime reconnaissance missions from Male over the weekend. This comes in the backdrop of defence minister A K Antony's recent visit to Maldives, where he promised measures to bolster defence cooperation...

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Maldives underwater meeting to address climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:12:00 +0000

Small island nations have much at stake at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The Maldives, along with other islands such as Seychelles and Tuvalu, is organizing a series of activities and events to pressure the international community to take action. On Saturday it will hold an underwater cabinet meeting designed to highlight the danger Maldive faces from rising waters and rising temperatures. Global Voices Online posted a roundup of blogs from Maldive...

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Maldives cabinet rehearses underwater meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:53:00 +0000

Ministers in the Maldives dived in their final rehearsals Friday ahead of an underwater cabinet meeting this weekend aimed at drawing attention to the dangers of global warming for the island nation. Ministers in full scuba gear dived six metres (20 feet) for the dress rehearsal near the Girifushi island, 25 minutes by speed boat from the capital island Male, coordinator of the event Aminath Shauna said. "All arrangements are now in place and we are fully prepared to have Saturday's cabinet...

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All set for underwater Cabinet meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:44:00 +0000

Government ministers in scuba gear prepared Friday to hold an underwater meeting of the Maldives' Cabinet to highlight the threat global warming poses to the lowest-lying nation on earth. The Maldives' president will lead Saturday's meeting around a table on the sea floor — 20 feet (6 meters) below the surface — and ministers will communicate using white boards and hand signals. President Mohammed Nasheed has emerged as a key, and colorful, voice on climate change amid fears that rising ocean...

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Navy to patrol Indian Ocean with Indonesia,Maldives

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:30:00 +0000

In the backdrop of increased piracy related incidents and illegal activities in the Indian Ocean Region, India will join littoral countries, Indonesia and Maldives, to patrol the waters to protect their maritime boundary this month. The navies of India and Indonesia would carry out their 14th coordinated patrolling of Malacca straits region, once a piracy hit area in the Indian Ocean, from October 18 to November 5. The Indian Navy would also deploy a Dornier maritime patrol aircraft in the...

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First Holiday Inn Resort to open in The Maldives

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:14:00 +0000

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) on October 15 announced that it has signed an agreement with Leisure Holidays Private Limited (LHPL), a Hotel Properties Limited (HPL) Group company, to takeover on 1 November 2009 and re-brand Kandooma Maldives to Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma. Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma is the first Holiday Inn Resort in the Republic of Maldives, and will be the second Holiday Inn property in the Republic to carry the look-and-feel and service standards of the refreshed...

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Maldives Coach Istavan Urbanyi Calls For Unity Ahead Of South Asian Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Ahead of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship tournament in December, Maldives coach Istavan Urbanyi wants his team to pull together. The islanders are the reigning champions in the region and want to defend their prize in Bangladesh. “We need to join hands in order to keep the crown. Everyone in this country wants to retain the trophy and we should together work for success,” he told maldivesoccer.com. Maldives are happy to have avoided the hosts and to have been...

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Maldives’ cops learn coastal security in M'lore

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:19:00 +0000

The final session of training for a batch of ten police officers from Maldives, who had enrolled in Mysore police academy, was conducted by Karnataka Coastal Security Police (CSP) in Mangalore on Monday. As Maldives is an island, the batch of police officers were trained in coastal protection techniques through drills planned in Mangalore, Malpe, Karwar and other coastal security police stations. In 1988, Maldives islands attacked by LTTE cadres. Maldives government successfully fought the LTTE...

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Maldives International Boat Show 2009 Ship builders from Sri Lanka will also compete

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:32:00 +0000

The 3rd Maldives International Boat Show,will commence here today,with the participation of several Sri Lankan companies. Managing Director of South Asia Exhibition Services, Arjun Dharmadasa, told the Island Financial Review, that big names in Sri Lanka,such as Solar Marine Lanka,Neil Marine,Barramundi Boat Yard and BTI,will be competing with companies from around the globe,including Europe,Australia and the Middle East. Forty boat builders and suppliers worldwide,would be showcasing a...

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No danger from Al Qaeda to Maldives – Dr. Shaheed

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Ahmed Shaheed has said that Maldives will not face any dangers from terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda owing to Maldives’ announcement to strengthen diplomatic ties with Israel Dr. Shaheed said this responding to a question asked by Miadhu Daily. Highlighting the points noted in the letter sent by Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) to President Mohamed Nasheed, Dr Shaheed said that it was a “crazy” thought that Al Qaeda would attack Maldives because of its ties with...

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Can Mohamed Nasheed save the Maldives – and the rest of the world – from the rising seas?

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:35:00 +0000

The Maldives president roused the Tory faithful at Manchester last week. Next Saturday he will hold an underwater cabinet meeting to highlight the dangers of global warming On a humid, airless night last March, Mohamed Nasheed – the 42-year-old president of the Maldives – opened up his palace in Male for an unusual public event. A projection screen was hung at the back of a ballroom and brightly coloured chairs were arranged in rows. Then the audience was shown in: lawyers, cabinet members,...

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Maldives cabinet to go underwater

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:35:00 +0000

The government of the Maldives is to hold a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the threat of global warming. President Mohamed Nasheed and his cabinet will sign a document during the 17 October dive, calling for global cuts in carbon emissions. An adviser to the president told the BBC the dive was "a bit of fun" but the cabinet intended to send a serious message about rising sea levels. The low-lying island nation says it faces being wiped out if oceans rise. The adviser, who asked not...

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Israel and Maldives move to normalize relations

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:38:00 +0000

As a first step, cooperation agreements were signed in the fields of tourism, health, and education and culture. On Thursday, September 24, in New York, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman and his counterpart from the Republic of Maldives signed three cooperation agreements in the fields of tourism, health, and education and culture. Bilateral ties between the two countries have been put on hold for several years, and these agreements are considered a first...

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Maldives urges UN Member States to take critical action to combat climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:18:00 +0000

The President of the Maldives implored world leaders gathered at the United Nations to urgently help the group of islands he governs in the middle of the Indian Ocean fight the menace of global warming, in a message to the General Assembly today. “The threats posed to the Maldives from climate change are well-known,” President Mohamed Nasheed told the second day of the Assembly’s annual high-level debate at UN Headquarters in New York. As beaches are lost to rising seas, houses to storm...

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World leaders must seize historic opportunity on climate change: Maldivian president

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has called upon world leaders gathering in New York to seize the historic opportunity before the Copenhagen climate summit to be held in December, the Maldivian president's office said Wednesday on its official website. Nasheed on Tuesday told the the UN climate summit, which is the largest high-level climate conference ever held that the world leaders must "discard the habits that have led to 20 years of complacency and broken promises on climate...

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Maldives can't be carbon neutral without killing tourism

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:11:00 +0000

In the 1960s a United Nations report warned the Maldives that, sadly, it was unlikely to attract tourists. Not much grows on lumps of coral in the Indian Ocean apart from coconuts and fish, the report pointed out: the Maldives is largely dependent on imports and the nearest ports are hundreds of miles away. Few of its 1,000-odd scattered islands even had electricity. Yet within ten years, the Maldives had established the reputation it has now, as a holiday paradise for honeymooners, scuba...

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We are sinking, say Maldive islanders, but there is still time to save the world

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:47:00 +0000

The President of the Maldives, the Indian Ocean islands threatened with extinction by rising sea levels, told the United Nations climate-change summit yesterday that the country’s appeals for help had fallen on deaf ears for 20 years. “Once or twice a year we are invited to attend an important climate change event such as this one — often as a keynote speaker,” Mohammed Nasheed told world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York. “On cue, we stand here and tell you just how bad things are....

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Time grows short for climate deal

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:39:00 +0000

The man from the middle of the Indian Ocean, from one of the tiniest of nations, told his fellow presidents he knew "you are not really listening." But a desperate Mohammed Nasheed of the Maldives, a scattering of islands amid the rising seas of global warming, took to the podium nonetheless at Tuesday's U.N. climate summit to urge his global neighbors, after "20 years of complacency," to "seize the historic opportunity that sits at the end of the road to Copenhagen." That opportunity in...

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Climate Change Requires a Real Movement

noreply@blogger.com (Maldives) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:41:00 +0000

Here in the Maldives, it's easy to see why the math of the current climate change debate just doesn't add up -- and why negotiators are going to have to work a lot harder before the Copenhagen climate conference if they're interested in the survival of much of the planet. The Maldives stretches 800 kilometers across the Indian Ocean, an archipelago of 1,200 tropical islands just a few meters above sea level. It is incomparably beautiful but also highly vulnerable. Sea level rise of even half a...

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