Nauru, a south-seas island, has dissolved into chaos. Nauru used to be one of the righest nations in the world, until its lucrative phosphate mines dried up, leaving a "moonscape" behind. No one on the island had been paid since last year, and the plan to become an offshore tax haven resulted in the nation becoming a money-laundry for the mob. There seems to have been a presidential coup on Jan 8, and all communications with the island have been cut off since then, except when visiting ships dock long enough to gather bits of news like the fact that the presidential palace has been burned to the ground.
The problem is so bad that more than 400 banks were registered to one mailbox alone, international investigators say.
The island has also begun interning asylum seekers while their applications to live in Australia are processed, in return for aid from Canberra.
However this appears to have gone badly wrong.
Late last year, Australian immigration officials admitted that the asylum seekers, mainly Iraqis, had been running their own detention centre since officials abandoned the site following a riot.
"Effectively you could call it a self-managed centre," a senior Australian immigration official told an inquiry.
(Thanks, Paul!)
