French Polynesia is made up of some 200 islands -- the Society, Tuamotu, Gambier, Austral and Marquesas groups -- spread over 4.1 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean: an area roughly eight times the size of France.

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Officials have been planning to ditch the station in a controlled descent that will send it hurtling into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, 1, 500-2, 000km east of Australia.

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Officials are now planning to ditch the station in a controlled descent that will send it hurtling into a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, 1, 500-2, 000km east of Australia.

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The historic property, arranged around a central lawn and pool area overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is just two blocks from the Carmel town centre and close to Pebble Beach and Monterey Bay.

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And he describes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an enormous expanse of the Pacific Ocean where currents concentrate the trash over a continent-sized area.

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