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SUVA, Fiji (Fijilive, Jan. 8) – Carpenters Fiji Ltd., a Suva-based business conglomerate with holdings across the Pacific, has begun calling for tenders for the construction of a 21-storey building in central Suva.

The project will be the tallest building in the Pacific.

Carpenters properties manager Daniel Whippy says the tenders have also been extended to overseas companies.

Whippy says a number of companies have submitted tenders which will close at the end of the month. He says it will take another month to scrutinize the tenders before a contract is awarded - and it may take another month before the contractor can start work.

Whippy expects construction to begin by early May. He's hopeful that the construction of the 21-storey building will take 18 months to complete.

Whippy says they published the tenders overseas because local companies are busy and the fact that Fiji currently faces a shortage of skilled tradesmen.

The building,...

By Giff Johnson

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, Jan. 10) — The Bush Administration has told the U.S. Congress that it should not give more nuclear test money to the Marshall Islands.

"There is no legal basis for considering additional payments," the State Department’s undersecretary for political affairs Marc Grossman said in a January 4 letter to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) released over the weekend. Grossman transmitted a 66-page report that aims to derail an effort by the Marshall Islands to get the Congress to fund at least $3 billion in extra compensation for islanders affected by 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted in this central Pacific nation between 1946 and 1958. These tests included the March 1, 1954 ‘Bravo’ shot, at 15 megatons the largest United States’ nuclear weapons test ever. It spewed radioactive fallout on unsuspecting islanders and American servicemen on downwind islands.

The Bush Administration report says that the...

By Haidee V. Eugenio

SAIPAN, CNMI (Marianas Variety, Jan. 10) – Five years after residents were banned from eating Tanapag land crabs because they carried high levels of the toxic substance polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is retesting the crabs.

Land crabs used to be a regular staple of the local diet in Tanapag and elsewhere on Saipan.

The Department of Public Health issued a consumption ban for Tanapag land crabs in 2000 due to suspected cancer-causing PCBs found in crab samples.

EPA’s latest statement was in response to a request from Health Secretary Dr. James U. Hofschneider to do a follow-up study on the safety of land crabs.

The request also came after the federal clean up of over 40,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil in Tanapag.

John McCarroll, manager of EPA Pacific Island Office, said he agrees with Hofschneider that enough time has passed since the removal of PCB-contaminated soil in the...

PAPEETE, Tahiti (Tahitipresse, Jan. 8) – The French Polynesia Assembly approved two more measures Friday aimed at boosting Tahiti’s economy.

One measure involves commercial fishing sector subsidies. The second involves relaunching home improvement projects through subsidized lower bank interest rates, boosting small construction work.

[The action follows approval by the Assembly – currently operating at less than half its full membership pending special elections next month – of government subsidized auto and home purchase loans in French Polynesia.]

The latest measures were announced by Commercial Fishing Minister Tearii Alpha and Economy Minister Teva Rohfritsch.

The two measures were rapidly approved Friday when the only Assembly opposition member present was Hiro Tefaarere, the interim speaker.

[The flurry of legislation has come under the leadership of President Gaston Flosse, whose tenure following the ouster of former president Oscar Temaru...