Its scheduled stops -- in places such as the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Kiribati -- will be symbolic too, allowing the team to raise awareness of places that are particularly vulnerable to changing environmental conditions, such as rising sea levels.

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America has also encouraged small countries with large shipping registries such as Liberia, Panama, the Marshall Islands and the Bahamas to mandate prudent self-protection by vessels.

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Kwajalein atoll, in the Marshall Islands, bristles with radar, optical sensors, telemetry-receiving stations and other ballistic-missile testing equipment.

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The company's Pegasus XL rocket was flown to a launch altitude of about 39, 000 feet by a specially configured L-1011 "Stargazer" jetliner taking off from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, near the equator about halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

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Last week's move by French Polynesia overtook the Marshall Islands' area, outlined in late 2011, as the world's largest - and the Cook Island's claim adds 40% more area to that title.

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There are two others in the Caribbean (St Kitts-Nevis and St Vincent) and four in the Pacific (Niue, Nauru and the Cook and Marshall Islands), as well as Panama and Liechtenstein.

ECONOMIST: All havens in a storm | The