LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Christmas Island
built 669 days ago
Christmas Island, discovered by the Dutch explorer W. Mynors on Christmas Eve 1743, is annexed by the United Kingdom in 1888. It becomes part of the Straits Settlements, later Singapore, in 1900. This continues - interrupted by a Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945 until 1957. Starting 1958 Christmas Island becomes an Australian territory and is governed as part of mainland Australia.
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The Christmas Island detention centre ... was re-opened for the Vietnamese asylum seekers - who are now living in the Australian community under refugee protection status. The 54 Vietnamese people were detained for over two years were fleeing political persecution. The federal government granted protection visas (TPVs) to the Vietnamese detainees in July this year.
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In 1995, the Republic of Kiribati unilaterally moved the international date line to the eastern boarder of the island nation so that it would no longer be divided by the date line. As a result, Christmas Islanders were the first to celebrate the new millenium.
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There is a new recreation centre at Phosphate Hill operated by the Shire of Christmas Island. There is ... a taxi service. The road network covers most of the island and is generally good quality, although four wheel drive vehicles are needed to access some more distant parts of the rain forest or the more isolated beaches.
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October 22: A ship carying 350 people set sail from Indonesia drowned after the vessel sank off the island of Java. 44 survivors were rescued by local fishermen on Saturday, after spening hours in the water. The ship's destination was unknown but thousands of migrants leave southeast Asia and Indonesia every year on boats trying to reach Australia. Survivors told workers for the International Organization for Migration that the ship left Java on Thursday with 421 people on board. Australia has demanded Indonesia do more to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants.
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There are fears for the future of two small island nations in the Pacific after the only airline that flies there had its sole plane seized. Air travel to and from Nauru and Kiribati is now nearly impossible after the Air Nauru airline got into financial difficulty.
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Christmas Island