Marshall Islands

MAJURO, Marshall Islands -- A half-dozen people, birth mothers and baby sitters, sat on couches or on the floor in a modern house, holding gurgling newborns destined for adoption by American couples. Some of the infants already had been matched with...

Last of two parts The LNG Aquarius was built in the United States because it is one of the most technically sophisticated cargo ships afloat. And American shipyards are the best in the world. The 936-foot tanker was registered, or "flagged," in the...

A detailed proposal by the U.S. Department of Labor to regulate the traffic in indentured workers from Micronesia and the Marshall Islands was shunted aside in recent talks to extend the Compact of Free Association, after the chief U.S. negotiator ignored...

For Valerie Shefik, the effort to adopt a second Marshallese child led to what she calls one of the most heart-wrenching experiences of her life. Valerie, 44, and her husband, Robert, 46, first adopted a Marshallese child in late 1997 through the TLC...

MAJURO, Marshall Islands - With four young children and a fifth on the way, a visibly pregnant Neji Johnny was an easy target for a recruiter for Adoption Choices, an American agency that scours the poverty-scarred streets of this remote Western Pacific...

SARASOTA, Fla. - For two families in Florida, the pain of an adoption gone wrong is plainly visible on their faces. Carmen and Darlene Scoma talk sadly about the child from the Marshall Islands they thought they had legally claimed in Hawaii in 1997. For...

A week after disclosures that "body brokers" were collecting up to $5,500 for each Pacific islander they deliver under contract to American nursing homes and amusement parks, officials of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands say they are investigating...

Donald Finn, Naples, Fla., founder and owner of Guardian Solutions and Medical Placement Services. Clients: Nursing homes. Finn, believed to be the first to recruit Micronesians, has placed hundreds of foreign workers in health care facilities in the...

For tourist information on select foreign destinations, contact the government offices below. For a country not listed, call the United Nations at (212) 963-1234, dial 0 and ask for the country's U.N. mission or delegation. Anguilla: Anguilla Tourist...

MAJURO, Marshall Islands - She sits on the grass on a warm, windy afternoon, with the Pacific tide rolling gently on the rock-strewn beach behind her. The placid scene contrasts sharply with the part of her young life she is describing. Five years ago,...

Here is a list of selected government tourist offices. For information about a country not listed, call the United Nations at (212) 963-1234; dial 0 and ask for the number of the country's U.N. delegation. -------------------- FOR THE RECORD The...

After journeying across an ocean and a continent - from the tiny Pacific isle of Chuuk to rural Ashburn, Ga. - Gloria Likiche was surprised to find herself working the graveyard shift at a nursing home, emptying bedpans for $5.50 an hour and eating so...