A resort is an island and is more than a hotel. A resort features swimming pools, Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Bars, Bungalows or Rooms, Water Bungalows on stilts, Gyms Water Sports, Tennis, Badminton, Football, Skiing, Snorkeling & etc. When we speak of the Resort Hotel, it is of course one resort hotel on one island. There’s no place else like an island in the Maldives for the holiday of a lifetime. Resorts in the Maldives are truly magical. The natural beauties of these resorts are second to none.

Classified in different standards, some of these resorts are the best for diving in the world, whilst some of them have been blessed with exclusive features for the snorkeler and for the sun lovers, sand and the sea. Hotels/resorts are built on uninhabited islands and transfer to these islands resorts is commonly by local boats (dhoni), speedboats and by seaplane. Choose from our specially selected resorts, which are in fact amongst the best in the Maldives.

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An intense wind storm knocked out power to thousands of BC Hydro customers and forced BC Ferries to suspend service between the mainland and Vancouver Island on Sunday. Ferry service was briefly restored Sunday afternoon as the 2 p.m. PT Vancouver to Victoria sailing ran as scheduled, but service was pulled once again just under an hour later.

BC Ferries spokesperson Deborah Marshall said it was not clear if service would be restored by Sunday evening. "We have had to suspend service on the majority of runs between the northern Gulf Islands and also the three major routes connecting Vancouver Island and the mainland. We have had to suspend service there as well," Marshall told CBC News Sunday morning.

"We are closely monitoring the weather situation but ... we will have to wait for the wind to die down."BC Ferries announced Sunday morning all Vancouver-Nanaimo and Tsawwassen-Victoria sailings were cancelled until further notice.

Thousands without power
Environment Canada issued wind warnings for much of the central and south coasts as well as Vancouver Island. Officials warned residents to expect "potentially damaging" wind gusts of up to 100 km/h. The wind storm also knocked out power to just over 20,000 BC Hydro customers on Vancouver Island.

The hardest hit areas were in and around Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay, Sooke, Colwood,Langford, Campbell River and Nanaimo. By Sunday afternoon, power had been restored to about 5,000 customers.

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The state's highest court has ruled that the beach on Dobbins Island is no longer open to the public. The Maryland Court of Appeals Friday overturned a 2010 county Circuit Court ruling that said the beach on the privately owned Magothy River landmark is open to the public because of a 20-plus year history of public use.

Judge Ronald Silkworth also required island owners David and Diana Clickner to take down a barrier they installed along the mean high tide line, which separates public and private property. In the appeals court ruling, Judge Clayton Greene Jr. wrote that Silkworth erred and the public's continued use of the beach was by permission of the owners. The court also ordered the Magothy River Association, which sued the Clickners, to pay the couple's court costs.

David Clickner said he plans to resurrect the barrier along the mean high tide line this spring, before the river is filled with boaters. He also stressed that the barrier might be temporary if people who frequent the area "keep things under control."When the Magothy River Association and Chesapeake Bay Foundation sued the Clickners over the previous barrier, the couple took it down and visitors got the idea that the area was a "free-for-all," Clickner said.

He and his wife have found everything from beer cans and bottles to drug paraphernalia and dirty diapers. The days around Bumperbash and Magothy River Days, which attract hundreds of boaters to the island, is especially troublesome, he said.

"We've never changed the position that people are welcome here," Clickner said. "We just want people to keep things under control. If we see people are under control and (Natural Resources Police) can keep track of where people are, we might take it back down."Magothy River Association President Paul Spadaro was surprised by ruling yesterday afternoon. "I'm pretty disappointed," he said.

The Clickners have been at odds with Spadaro, the Magothy River Association and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation since they bought the island in 2004 and started making plans to build their dream home. Their efforts have been blocked by the environmental groups, who have sued and appealed repeatedly.

Clickner acknowledged that the battle to build his house on top of the island is far from over. "We are glad that we won (the beach issue), but we know there are still many lawsuits and appeals against us," Clickner said. "It's a shame for people on the Magothy that give donations to the Magothy River Association when that money is spent on court things."

Little Island, located not far from Dobbins Island in the Magothy River, also is embroiled in a legal dispute. Michael Wagner built a house around 2001 on the island without county permits. The Magothy River Association and Chesapeake Bay Foundation have appealed a decision by the county Board of Appeals allowing Wagner to keep the house. The organizations argued the foundation should have been allowed to become a party to the dispute before the board. The Court of Special Appeals has yet to rule on that case.

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In December, the Hawai’i County Council passed a bill banning the use of plastic bags on what is known as the “Big Island” of Hawai’i. Yesterday, Mayor Billy Kenoi signed the bill into law. Kenoi had the option to simply abstain and let the bill pass into law, but his signature adds political credibility to the increasing trend of plastic bag bans across the world.

The Big Island now joins the islands of Maui and Kauai in the ban of plastic bags. Honolulu County, which contains the island of Oahu where the majority of the population of the state of Hawai’i lives, has struggled to pass similar legislation, though a new version of a bill that has not passed yet will come before the county council this year.

Kenoi acknowledged plastic bags often become litter when he said, “this bill holds the promise of keeping our island clean, healthy and safe, and we need to finish the job.”Some businesses have misgivings, citing the extra cost of providing paper bags to customers. Realistically, however, businesses are best at reducing costs. With the level playing field of having no plastic bags allowed, businesses might now consider charging 5 or 10 cents for each paper bag given, and providing real incentives for shoppers to bring their own bags.

The bill won’t take effect until January 17, 2013, and businesses on the Big Island will still be able to give plastic bags for one additional year, the extra time given to allow businesses to get rid of any inventory they have and not get stuck with them.

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Reports have suggested that there is new support at the very top of government for an airport in the Thames estuary – an idea floated by Boris Johnson, whose support led to it being nicknamed "Boris Island". But what would the mayor's fantasy island actually look like?

Where would it be?
Various proposals have been put forward in the four decades since the idea was first mooted, including man-made islands in the estuary. But the latest focus has been plans drawn up and unveiled last November by architect Norman Foster to build on the edge of the Isle of Grain – the easternmost point of the Hoo peninsula, opposite Sheerness in Kent.

How big would it be?
The airport could carry 150 million passengers a year – double the current number passing through Heathrow.

How would you get there?
It would be a hub big enough to take connecting flights from Scotland and elsewhere in the UK for transfers to long-haul flights. But most passengers would arrive via high-speed connections – a new rail link straight on to the current London-Folkestone route and HS2, which should appear before Boris Island does.

What else might you need?
A new Thames flood barrier to keep the planes intact. New connecting roads. A new nature reserve to move the abundant birdlife to – and to hope the birds stay out of the way of the planes. Also to work out how to make the SS Richard Montgomery safe. The US warship sank in the area during the second world war with explosives on board equivalent to 2,800 V1 flying bombs and is a problem no one has quite yet dared to tackle.

How much would it cost and who would pay?
It would be a snip at £50bn, allegedly. While the taxpayer is busy forking out £32bn for high-speed rail over the next two decades, there is optimism from Johnson that sovereign wealth funds will step in, possibly China.

Will it happen?
Don't bank on it. Nick Clegg's opposition within the coalition and the RSPB may be vanquished, and BAA may sound relatively relaxed, but the birth of this airport would kill Heathrow – something that might prove politically unacceptable, despite the opposition to third runways.

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The government will name 39 uninhabited remote islands by the end of March to establish the basis of Japan's exclusive economic zone, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Monday. The top government spokesman told a press conference the government has given top priority to naming such islands as the basis for defining Japan's EEZ, an area adjacent to the territorial sea where the country is accorded with rights to natural resources under international law.

As 49 of 99 such remote islands were nameless, the government named 10 of the islands in May last year, Fujimura said. According to the Cabinet Secretariat, the 39 other islands are mostly located around the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, where a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Japan Coast Guard vessel in September 2010.

The government plans to decide on the names with consent from local municipalities and specify them on maps and charts. China and Taiwan lay claim to the Senkaku Islands, which are located in the southern Japan prefecture of Okinawa.

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The uninhabited island, a protected nature reserve lying between the coast of Tuscany and Corsica, has been invaded by thousands of black rats. The rodents are believed to have arrived on the four-square-mile island as stowaways on boats a few years ago but have now multiplied. Authorities are planning to use aircraft to bombard the island with poison pellets in a bid to tackle the infestation. The plan is to drop around 26 tonnes of pellets on the island at the end of this month. Biologists estimate that there is one rat for every square yard of the island and say they pose a grave threat to the ecology of the nature reserve, which is part of a scattered archipelago of islands off Tuscany.

Some conservationists are worried, however, that the pellets could accidentally land in the sea, killing fish and other marine life.They say they could also pose a danger to the 1,000 tourists who are allowed to visit the nature reserve each year, under a tightly-controlled permit system. But the authorities have dismissed those concerns. "No one wants to poison the island," Franca Zanichelli, the director of the national park authority, told Corriere della Sera. "The project will be managed by experts. The poison pellets are similar to those used everywhere to kill rats."

 The pellets will have to be dropped from the air because the island is too rugged for them to be distributed by land. Similar operations on the nearby island of Giannutri and in Sardinia had been a success, Ms Zanichelli said. Similar eradication attempts have been attempted on islands in New Zealand, where rats threaten native flightless birds such as the kiwi, and on islands in the South Atlantic, which are home to tens of thousands of seabirds.

Dumas visited the island in 1842 and chose it as the setting for his novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.
His hero, Edmond Dantes, is wrongfully sent to jail, where he befriends a fellow inmate who tells him that there is a trove of treasure on Montecristo. He finds the treasure, buys himself the title of Count of Montecristo, and proceeds to exact revenge on the men who framed him as a traitor. Dumas was inspired by stories of two 16th century pirates, Dragut and Red Beard, who supposedly buried their haul somewhere on the island.

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The Whitsunday Islands lie off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north eastern corner of the mainland continent. It is neighboured by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. The area was first colonised by Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, who arrived between 40 000 and 65 000 years ago. Later, Queensland was made a British Crown Colony that was separated from New South Wales in 1859. Queensland is often nicknamed the Sunshine State, since it enjoys warm weather and a sizable portion of the state is in the tropics. Their geographic co-ordinates are 20°18S, 148°56E. The Whitsunday Islands are situated between Townsville in the north and Mackayin the south. They are 500 miles north of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland.

The Whitsunday Islands can be divided into four groups; The Whitsunday Group, the Lindeman Group, The Molle's and the Northern Group

The Whitsunday Group includes; Bird Island, Black Island, Border Island, Cid Island, Cowrie Island, Deloraine Island, Dent Island, Dumbell Island, Dungarra Island, Esk Island, Fitzalan Island, Hamilton Island, Harold Island, Haslewood Island, Hayman Island, Henning Island, Hook Island, Ireby Island, Langford Island, Long Island, Lupton Island, Nicolson Island, Perseverance Island, Plum Pudding Island, Teague Island, Titan Island, Whitsunday Island, Wirrainbela Island, Workington Island

The Lindeman Group of islands is located at 20°27'S, 149°04'E. The islands in the Lindeman Group include; Baynham Island, Cornston Island, Gaibirra Island, Triangle Island, Keyser Island, Lindeman Island, Little Lindeman Island, Maher Island, Mansell Island, Pentecost Island, Seaforth Island, Shaw Island, Thomas Island, Volskow Island

The Molle's group include; Daydream Island, Denman Island, Goat Island, Mid Molle Island, North Molle Island, Planton Island, South Molle Island The Northern Group comprises; Armit Island, Double Cone Island, Eshelby Island, Gloucester Island, Grassy Island, Gumbrell Island, Olden Island, Rattray Island, Saddleback Island English is spoken throughout the Whitsunday Islands. The currency is the Australian Dollar. Major credit cards are accepted widely.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. And a divers paradise. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects 70% of the region fostering superb coral formations and an abundance of marine life. The tranquil and turquoise waters are home to whales, dolphins, turtles and manta rays. The Great Barrier Reef stretches nearly 1500 miles along the northeast coast of Australia; it is the largest structure on the planet built by living organisms. It can even be seen from outer space. Up close, however it is truly spectacular. New fish species are found in the Great Barrier area every year. There are approximately 4,000 molluscs and 350 hard, or reef-building, corals. One coral chunk the size of a basketball yielded 1,441 worms from 103 species. The Great Barrier Reef is comprised of more than 2,800 coral reefs. The carnival of colourful marine life that call it home provide some of the best diving and snorkelling in the world. Novice divers find it hard to describe the unforgettable encounter of seeing over a 100 fish per minute. Experienced divers will be moved by this ultimate experience.

Sunny tropical weather is almost guaranteed year round in the Whitsunday Islands. Avoid school holidays for off-peak periods. Yacht charters are cheaper and the Whitsunday Islands are not as crowded. At any time of year, there is usually enough wind for a pleasant sail.

Summer runs from December to March and is warm and humid with rain showers. Winter runs from June to September and is warm by day and cool at night. Trade winds usually blow slightly stronger from May to August. There is a risk of cyclones from February to March. Late September to early November are considered by some to be the best cruising weather in the Whitsunday Islands. The average daily temperature of is 27°C. January is the warmest month averaging 30°C and July the coolest month averaging 23°C. The water temperature remains a pleasant 23 - 27°C with the average year round water temperature being an inviting 24°C.

The months from October through to May are stinger season. Stingers are jellyfish. Jellyfish are the most common wildlife hazard in the area. There are many species of jellyfish in the area; the toxicity of their stings is just as varied. Jellyfish are a problem during stinger season when swimming is not advised at all. An encounter with one is very painful and can be life threatening. You may want to hire or buy a lycra suit to swim in if you plan to swim in the ocean during those months for safety reasons. A stinger suit is usually a full body lycra suit designed to prevent the effects of jellyfish. In recent years a major element in jellyfish injuries is the Irukandji jellyfish.

Tide will be a major factor in planning your sailing day. The tidal flow floods the area to the South, and ebbs to the North flowing around 3 knots. Where the islands are situated close together particularly at the Solway, Fitzallen and Hook Island passages, the tide flows at around 5 knots.

Each island has it's own fringing reef system and you will need to use your eyes carefully when choosing your yacht anchorage. You should aim to anchor before 16.00 while the light is still perfectly OK and you will be able to avoid the coral reefs. Buoy markers and public moorings are located in sensitive areas in several locations around the islands in order to protect the coral. You will find them in on Hook Island, Hayman Island and Daydream Island. You are required to either pick up one of the many mooring balls or anchor outside of the reef markers.

Many yacht charter companies are based in Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. Whitsunday Coast Airport at Proserpine is situated about 10 milers inland from Airlie Beach. Flying times are a 1 hour and 30 minutes and 2 hours 30 minutes from Brisbane and Sydney respectively. As Airlie Beach is located on a peninsula that stretches out to the Whitsunday passage, it is an ideal base. The colourful beach town is focused on serving the needs of the large number of travellers who gather there to embark on a long yacht charter or just a day sail. Airlie Beach provides many of the essential services for sailors. Shopping areas are open seven days a week for provisioning and there are plenty of dining and entertainment options as well.

Whitehaven Beach is one of the most outstanding sandscapes in the world. It is recognized as one of the best beaches in the world it will be a highlight of your sailing holiday. Whitehaven Beach is located on the eastern side of the uninhabited Whitsunday Island; the natural silica sand spans 3 miles. The sand is said to be 98% pure Silica, giving new meaning to sandy white beach. This is a popular spot and you are likely to encounter other yacht charters. There are no moorings at Whitehaven Beach but plenty of space for anchoring the yacht.

Hamilton Island is one of the Whitsunday Islands most well known resorts and offers a vast range of activities and facilities. Hamilton Island has a fifty-acre fauna park featuring kangaroos, koalas, goannas and other local wildlife. The harbour is very impressive and comprehensive: fuel, water, shipwright, electrical and engineering services and a large range of supplies are all available. It is a good idea to contact the harbourmaster a few days in advance to reserve a berth even though there are many berths for both large and smaller boats. The harbour is located on the western side of Hamilton Island and is relatively easy to navigate. With the largest island airport Hamilton Island is very convenient and some large yacht charter companies have their base on the island.

South Molle Island is just 5 miles from the mainland. Take the walking trail, which brings you through lush forests to hilltop lookouts to enjoy stunning views of the surrounding islands. The many trails will provide opportunities to ponder magnificent views. Anchor the yacht on the eastern side of the jetty being sure to leave enough room for the very large water taxis to manoeuvre.

Hook Island is home to a number of quite, sheltered bays that offer some relief from the multitude of yachts sailing the Whitsunday Islands. In the northern bays of Hook Island public moorings are provided and their use is encouraged. These moorings are there to protect the fantastic coral formations fringing the entire northern coast of Hook Island. Hook Island has some of the best sites in the Whitsunday Islands for snorkelling and diving.

Hayman Island is another popular spot for divers. Dolphin Point offers a great diversity of marine life including clown fish, mackerel and trevally with the occasional hammerhead shark. Blue Pearl Bay is very popular with yacht charter boats and again here is much marine life to see.

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On the night of July 12, 1993, the remote island of Okushiri was ripped apart by a huge earthquake and tsunami that now seem an eerie harbinger of the much larger disaster that struck northeastern Japan last March. Islanders still recall with horror how a wall of frothing black water raced out of the darkness to consume entire communities, leaving almost 200 people dead.

In the half decade that followed, the Japanese government rebuilt the island, erecting 35-foot concrete walls on long stretches of its coast, making it look more like a fortress than a fishing outpost. The billion dollars’ worth of construction projects included not just the hefty wave defenses but also entire neighborhoods built on higher ground and a few flourishes, like a futuristic $15 million tsunami memorial hall featuring a stained glass panel for each victim.

But today, as Japan begins a decade-long $300 billion reconstruction of the northeast coast, Okushiri has become something of a cautionary tale. Instead of restoring the island to its vibrant past, many residents now say, the $1 billion spending spree just may have helped kill its revival.

The rebuilding did bring a surge of well-paying construction jobs, residents said. But that was the problem: having grown accustomed to higher salaries, many of the remaining young people refused to return to the hard life of earning a livelihood from the sea, and left the island in search of salaried work elsewhere.

That accelerated the depopulation seen here and throughout much of rural Japan, as people, especially the young, are drawn to cities. The number of islanders has fallen faster here than in other rural areas, experts say, dwindling to 3,160 last year from 4,679 when the 1993 tsunami struck.

“We didn’t use more of that reconstruction money to invest in new industries to keep young people,” said Takami Shinmura, 58, the mayor of Okushiri’s sole township, which bears the same name. “We regret this now.”

Since the tsunami in March, hundreds of officials from local governments in the affected areas, as well as the national news media, have descended on Okushiri, an island about twice the size of Manhattan, to seek lessons from its reconstruction.

But Okushiri’s message does not seem to be making a difference. The country is being driven by an outpouring of national sympathy for those displaced by the latest disaster, even as some Japanese quietly question whether it makes sense to begin an expensive reconstruction of communities that were withering long before the 2011 earthquake.

Okushiri’s miles of stout wave walls give the fishing ports behind them the feel of miniature medieval castle towns, with fishermen able to reach the sea only through heavy steel gates.

The building boom created other white elephants. The fishing port of Aonae, part of the town of Okushiri, boasts a $35 million tsunami refuge that can hold 2,000 people, three times Aonae’s population. The refuge, a raised platform that people would climb up to escape the waves, looks like a huge concrete table overshadowing the boats and docks below.

“We got a great new port, and all these big things, but no one is left here to fish anymore,” said Fumio Sato, 75, a dockworker in knee-high rubber boots and a black baseball cap who stacked plastic crates filled with greenlings and other freshly caught fish.

Yasumitsu Watanabe, the head of Aonae’s fishing cooperative, said that it had been shortsighted to think that the island could go back to its original, fishing-based economy. Even before the disaster, catches were declining from overfishing and global warming. Worse, the number of abalone, the island’s cash shellfish, never recovered from the tsunami, which damaged their habitat in shallow waters.

The number of fishermen on the island has dropped to under 200 from about 750 at the time of the tsunami, he said. “We need a new source of jobs,” he said. “Fishing alone cannot do it anymore.”

Mr. Watanabe said he wished the island had built sheltered coves where fish or shellfish could be farmed. Others said Okushiri could have used the government money to build factories to process locally caught fish, which is now shipped elsewhere, or to foster tourism on the largely pristine island, which has only one modern hotel.

The reconstruction splurge actually made that kind of diversification more difficult, island officials said. Besides using government funds, Okushiri borrowed more than $60 million for its own building projects, a financial burden that the township will not finish paying off until 2027. That has forced it to postpone needed improvements, like replacing its 56-year-old rickety wooden town hall, which many consider an earthquake hazard.

“We have no reserves left, just debt,” said Mr. Shinmura, the mayor. “Tohoku should learn from our experiences,” he added, referring to the northeast region struck by the earthquake and tsunami last year.

Okushiri’s bitter experiences have prompted some analysts in Tokyo to propose radically different approaches for rebuilding the northeast. Yutaka Okada, an economist at the Mizuho Research Institute, said that Japan might fare better if it just gave lump sums to the tsunami victims. Some might pocket the money and leave, he said, but others would use it to start new businesses, the sort of private sector innovation that Japan often lacks.

“The private sector would come up with better solutions than just building white elephants,” Mr. Okada said. On Okushiri, the end of the reconstruction boom has belatedly forced that sort of entrepreneurship.

To find new ways to earn money, Okushiri’s largest construction company, Ebihara Kensetsu, has branched out, buying the sole tourist hotel, selling bottled spring water and even opening the island’s first winery.

“We can no longer depend so much on the central government,” the company’s president, Takashi Ebihara, said. “This is true not only here, but in Tohoku and everywhere.”

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SANTA CRUZ ISLAND, Solomon Islands — Santa Cruz Island in the South Pacific has rocked by a magnitude-6.6 earthquake, but there have been no reports of injuries and authorities say there is no threat of a tsunami.

The United States Geological Survey reported that the temblor struck Monday afternoon about 219 miles (353 kilometers) east of the town of Kira Kira in the Solomon Islands. Santa Cruz and surrounding islands are remote and sparsely populated.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement there was no threat of a regional tsunami. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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