program
pp. 6-7 · Read in the full issue
Marshall Islands
Starwars program
The United States has announced plans for a major expansion of its anti-missile testing program in the Pacific. The proposed centre of the US army’s Space and Strategic Defence Command is Kwajalein Atoll, which is already a major military base.
The US army says Kwajalein's uninhabited and remote location allows for a full range of tests on inter-continental and sea-launched ballistic missiles. It says anti-missile program aims to produce a shield to ward off nuclear attacks.
If the plan goes ahead, Kwajalein range will become home to nearly 1700 more US scientists and technicians. The base at Kwajalein currently injects more than US$25 million into the Marshall Islands' economy more than a third of the country’s annual budget.
Mystery
drug find
Two young Marshall Islands men have pleaded guilty to charges of using cocaine from a packet washed up on a beach at a remote atoll. Reports say their arrest was the largest development in a puzzling scries of discoveries of plastic wrapped packets of cocaine and heroin on some of Marshall Islands’ remotest atolls. The attorney-general’s office an nounced it would pay up to LSSSOO reward to anyone who
turns in illegal drugs.