Asia-Pacific

  • South Pacific islanders strive to rescue their home from toxic legacy

    April 25, 2026

    Today, the UN is supporting the process of making the land safe to walk and build on again, but the risk to public health from corroding munitions is growing. For many years, islanders have suspected that this toxic legacy has been harming them and their children, and now a UN-partnered study has found strong evidence to ...

  • NZDF championed top-level home-made explosive detection exercise for NZ Government and coalition partners

    March 4, 2026

    There’s everything at stake for Wella, a six-year-old black labrador. She’s an Explosive Detector Dog (EDD) with 2nd Field Squadron, 2 Engineer Regiment, Royal New Zealand Engineers, under the direction of Lance Corporal Henry Wallace. She seems barely aware of the long leash as Lance Corporal Wallace manages her through a methodical sweep of a lounge ...

  • New Zealand: Southland man tried to dispose of the explosives that caused his death

    February 9, 2026

    A Southland man died trying to destroy old commercial explosives that he had not been able to safely dispose of elsewhere, a coroner has found. Donald Woodford tried to return the Powergel to the manufacturer and then hand it to police after years storing the explosives in a shed on his Mossburn property. In findings released ...

  • Solomon Islands: Over 6k UXOs disposed off in 2024

    October 30, 2025

    THE Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Unit of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) has safely disposed of 6,121 unexploded ordnances (UXOs) nation-wide in 2024. Of this total, 3,200 UXOs were cleared in Western Province under Operation Render Safe. Officer-in-Charge of the EOD Unit, Ansa Puaraua, revealed the figures during his presentation at the National UXO ...

  • Solomon Islands: World War II era weapons still threatening lives and development

    October 6, 2025

    Last century the remote Solomon Islands was the stage for some of the most intense battles fought during the Pacific campaign of the Second World War. But while Allied troops departed on the heels of victory, the military forces of both sides left a massive legacy of unexploded ordnance (UXO) which is still scattered across ...

  • Deadly threat of unexploded bombs in the Pacific persists 80 years on

    September 6, 2025

    This year is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, but in some countries, the trail of death and destruction continues. Bombs, nearly a century old, are still exploding, killing and maiming people and contaminating land. Four years ago, a group of young people gathered for a barbecue in a residential backyard. ...