Nauru

== Nauru ==
Nauru (/nɑːˈuːruː/ nah-OO-roo, /ˈnɑːruː/ NAHR-oo, or /ˈnæruː/ NARR-oo),[4][5][6] officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island
 in Kiribati, 300 kilometres (186 mi) to the east. With 9,488 residents 
in a 21-square-kilometre (8.1 sq mi) area, Nauru is the smallest state 
in the South Pacific and third smallest state by area in the world, behind only the Vatican City and Monaco.
Settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese
 troops, who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. 
After the war ended, the country entered into trusteeship again. Nauru 
gained its independence in 1968.
Nauru is a phosphate rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allow easy strip mining operations. It has some phosphate resources which, as of 2011, are not economically viable for extraction.[7]
 Nauru boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign 
state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s. When the 
phosphate reserves were exhausted, and the island's environment had been
 seriously harmed by mining, the trust that had been established to 
manage the island's wealth diminished in value. To earn income, Nauru 
briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre. From 2001 to 2008, and again from 2012, it accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for hosting the Nauru detention centre.
The president of Nauru is Baron Waqa, who heads a 19-member unicameral parliament. The country is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Asian Development Bank and the Pacific Islands Forum. Nauru also participates in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Recently Nauru became a member country of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
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