A New Zealand team was set to sail to an erupting South Pacific volcano today to assess the island's condition and prospects for recovering a missing government worker, feared killed in a hail of rock and ash.
It wasn't clear why officials chose to make the three-day sea trip over a much faster helicopter flight, but a helicopter pilot who flew an earlier mission to the island said volcanic ash clouds could make such flights hazardous.
Friday's eruption in one of Raoul Island's three main craters threw rocks and boulders into the air, and buried the nearby area in mud and ash.
Conservation Minister Chris Carter said the missing staffer, whom police identified as Mark Kearney, 32, was almost certainly dead on the remote island in the Kermadec group, 1,000km north of New Zealand.
"He was at the exact epicenter of the massive destruction, including where 5m of ash fell," he said after speaking to a Conservation Department worker who had witnessed the devastation.
An assessment team of police, conservation officials and a vulcanologist was expected to set sail for the island today, said the department's area manager, Rolien Elliot.
New Zealand's main geological group, GNS Science, said seismic activity on the island now consisted of clusters of small earthquakes with "no further obvious volcanic activity."
Elliott said in a statement that the recovery team would only land on the island if they decide it is safe based on visual checks and updates on seismic activity.
Kearney had been part of a small team monitoring the area's weather and plant life from a permanent base on the island. They were inspecting the crater lake when the volcano erupted.
Five surviving Conservation Department staff evacuated on Friday were in good condition but exhausted after their ordeal.
"Understandably, they are upset by having to leave their missing work mate on the island," Elliott said.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS