News In Brief

Secret US base in S. Pacific being evacuated in hurricane$95;Honolulu

With Hurricane Keli bearing down, authorities ordered evacuation of Johnston Island, a top-secret US military installation in the mid-Pacific where 13,000 tons of mustard gas and other lethal chemicals are stored.

The military has said there is almost no possibility anything could cause a life-threatening leakage of the gas, which is stored in earth-covered bunkers on 41 acres of the island.