Island Stories

Uncovering the lost names and stories of people buried in New York's Hart Island cemetery

On a South Pacific island, a British prince is a god

Some 40 years ago, Prince Philip visited the South Pacific island of Vanuatu with his uncle, Lord Montbatten.

Vice President Biden responded to China's weekend declaration of an air defense identification zone over the disputed islands know as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

Cuddly Rabbit Island in Japan has something of a sinister past

Pyongyang is warning that the two Koreas are inching closer to nuclear war. It’s a threat that many South Koreans have been hearing over the years. 

The bronze statue of Sleeping Eros is said to have come from the Greek island of Rhodes.

It’s 2,000-year-old life size sculpture is now on exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The subject is a young boy, who’s been out shooting arrows all day, and he’s fallen asleep.

The arrows have golden tips … that aren’t deadly as much as powerful. Supposedly they cause victims to suddenly be overcome with feelings of love.

The usual depictions of Eros show him looking like Cupid, the pudgy infant with wings who’s poised to shoot his gold tipped arrows. Sean Hemingway, curator of Greek and Roman Art at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, says the Eros depicted in this 2,000-year-old statue has just dozed off. He’s resting from his labors of love, and that posture reveals the innocence and purity of love.

Bronze statue of Eros sleeping (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

A motorcyclist in Cuba is leading a group of bikers on a ride across the island from Havana to Guantanamo.

Tuesday, they stopped to fill up their tanks in Clenfuegos, a city on Cuba’s southern coast.

The motorcycle route around Cuba (Photo: Motodiscovery)

Christopher Baker is leading the first-ever all-Cuba exploration by a US motorcycle group, MotoDiscovery, which the US Treasury Department granted a license to legally run Cuba trips.

In addition to touring Cuba, Baker says one of the aims of the people-to-people exchange is to meet up with Havana’s harlistas, Cuba’s fanatical Harley-Davidson owners.

Check out a few snapshots taken by motorcyclist Don Toothman in Cuba:

Cuba by motorcycle (Photo: Don Toothman)

Cuba by motorcycle (Photo: Don Toothman)

Cuba by motorcycle (Photo: Don Toothman)

Cuba by motorcycle (Photo: Don Toothman)

Internet service in Cuba is in transition.

Analysts monitoring internet usage on the island say Cuban officials appear to have activated an undersea cable line linking the island to the internet via Venezuela, as opposed to the slower satellite-based access the island has had for years.

Marco Werman finds out more from Doug Madory of the Internet monitoring company Renesys.

The secret to longevity could be in a person’s genes, or maybe it’s all about exercise and eating right.

But what if has something to do with where you live?

Health researchers have looked at communities in Okinawa, Japan and on the Italian island of Sardinia for example.

In these so-called ‘blue zones’ people typically live longer and in better health than the rest of us.

On the small Greek island of Ikaria, residents live 10 years longer — on average — than other Europeans.

Perhaps the best evidence of this island’s health is its 8,000 residents. More than twice as many people living on the island reach the age of 90 as in the US.

The BBC’s Andrew Bomford recently visited the Greek island to find out what their secret to long life is.