Pacific Region News

Pacific satellite launch suffered setback

CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Kiribati—Sea Launch, a project to fire satellites into space from a Pacific based floating platform near the equator has suffered a setback.

A Russian-Ukrainian rocket carrying a British communications company’s satellite fell into the Pacific after liftoff.

The failure occurred on the system’s third launch, which followed successes with an initial dummy satellite a year ago and a television satellite in October.

The rocket is believed to have plunged into the sea about 2,400 miles from the launch site, about 220 miles from Christmas Island.

Marshalls seeks more US nuke testing compensation

MAJURO, Marshall Islands-Foreign Minister Alvin Jacklick, during a Nuclear Victims Day ceremony, said it was not only the four atolls that were exposed to nuclear test fallout from the 67 American nuclear tests at Bikini and Enewetak, but other islands to the south and west of the country as well.

Even Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia was affected, he said.

Jacklick said the new government plans to petition the U.S. Congress for increased compensation and medical care for Marshallese, the Marshall Islands Journal reported.

Fifteen years ago, when the first U.S-Marshall Islands compact and its compensation provisions were negotiated, he said detailed information on U.S. nuclear testing effects in the Pacific was not available. This information has only become available in the past several years, he said.

Special meeting of Pacific leaders this week

HONOLULU, Hawaii—The President of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, will convene a special meeting of the Standing Committee of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders Thursday at Honolulu’s East-West Center.

Among the key matters to be considered during the two-day session is the preparation of a memorandum of understanding outlining the PICL’s formal relationship with the East-West Center and its Pacific Islands Development Program.

Other agenda items include development of a strategic plan for PIDP and the economic and social development work that it should perform on behalf of the Pacific Islands region.

PIDP director Dr. Sitiveni Halapua said President Mara, one of the founders of the Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders in 1980, agreed to convene the special meeting in the absence of a current chairman. (Pacific Islands Report)