The tiny Pacific nation of the Marshall Islands is taking on the United States and the world’s eight other nuclear-armed nations with an unprecedented lawsuit demanding that they meet their obligations toward disarmament and accusing them of “flagrant violations” of international law.

Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga has been ordered to rest after being hospitalised with a health scare, as a senior diplomat said all evidence so far verified his amazing story.

A castaway who says he survived 13 months adrift in the Pacific said he thought about suicide but was sustained by dreams of eating his favourite food — tortillas — and reuniting with his family.

It’s a story that almost defies belief: A man leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months on fish, birds, and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands 8,800km away.

An emaciated man whose boat washed up on a remote Pacific atoll this week claims he survived 16 months adrift, floating more than 12,500km from Mexico, a researcher said.

Israel’s response to the Palestinians’ new UN status is to deprive and humiliate which may maintain the status quo but will sabotage chances of long-term peace, writes Ian Buruma

INVESTIGATIONS are under way into a marine collision in which two bulk tankers sustained minor damage.

THE US has struck a deal with the Marshall Islands to continue using the key missile testing range at Kwajalein Atoll to 2066, officials said yesterday.

Unesco added five cultural sites to its World Heritage List, including the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam.

A tsunami swept into Pago Pago in American Samoa shortly after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 shook the Pacific area.

Somali pirates attacked a tanker in the Gulf of Aden today, but Nato forces chased them down and freed 20 Yemeni fisherman the pirates were holding on another hijacked boat.

The Marshall Islands are in a state of emergency after severe flooding forced more than 600 people out of their homes.

SOMALI pirates have collected more than $150 million (€120m) in ransoms over the past year, Kenya’s foreign affairs minister said yesterday, calling on ship owners not to pay when their vessels are hijacked.

Millions could face poverty, disease and hunger because rising temperatures and changing rainfall are expected to hit poor countries the hardest, the World Health Organisation warned today.

Millions could face poverty, disease and hunger because rising temperatures and changing rainfall are expected to hit poor countries the hardest, the World Health Organisation warned today.

ACCORDING to Wings, BirdWatch Ireland’s magazine, a new long distance flight record has been set.

THREE Mexican fishermen who survived nine months adrift in a small boat in the Pacific Ocean are under investigation for possible links to drug trafficking.

Three Mexican fishermen who say they spent nine months adrift, surviving on rain water, raw fish and faith, were never officially reported as missing, a top Mexican official said.

THREE Mexican fishermen who claim they set out nine months ago from Mexico’s western coast have been rescued near the Marshall Islands — 8,800 kilometres to the west — after surviving on rain water and raw fish.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly yesterday to replace its discredited human rights body with a new Human Rights Council, ignoring US objections that not enough was done to prevent abusive countries from becoming members.

China announced today it was giving a pair of giant pandas to the people of Taiwan, plus concessions on fruit imports and tourism, in a mix of symbolic and concrete gestures as the Taiwanese opposition leader capped a ground-breaking visit to the mainland.

Million of dollars went up in smoke yesterday when the first test in nearly two years of a multi-billion dollar US anti-missile shield failed when the interceptor missile shut down as it prepared to launch in the Pacific.

A swollen creek swept a villager away as Typhoon Aere crashed into mainland China, unleashing torrential rains and prompting the evacuation of a half-million people.

Typhoon Aere whipped northern Taiwan with gusty winds and heavy rain today, while China began evacuating 249,000 people from coastal areas as it braced for the storm that has killed at least seven people.

FOR the 12th consecutive time the UN recently voted to oppose the US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel halt threats to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat but also condemning suicide bombings by Palestinians.

For weeks, the creaky Balkan Sky, loaded with more than 600 tons of explosives, languished off the Turkish coast waiting for orders to set sail for Sudan with tons of explosives.

The floating “atomic bomb” freighter, under arrest in a Greek port with more than 600 tons of explosives on board was today reported to be Irish owned and was detained in a British harbour earlier this year.

Greek coast guards were questioning the crew of a ship found carrying 680 tons of explosives today to see if they have any links to terrorists or criminal gangs.

A very powerful earthquake hit the Solomon Islands today and officials in Hawaii warned low-lying Pacific nations to be ready for the tidal wave that could follow.

ON TUESDAY, Nov 12, the UN voted for the eleventh consecutive time to oppose the US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba.

Greenpeace activists accused of delaying a missile defence test in California have admitted lesser charges.

A US test to knock out a dummy warhead in space has proved a success.

A tropical storm killed three people in China as it swept through the province of Guangdong, wiping out 4,700 homes and causing more than £1bn damage.

An oil tanker has collided with a freight ship off Germany, spilling more than 1,000 tons of oil into the Baltic Sea.