U.S. court nixes suit to protect dugong from Okinawa base relocation

A U.S. district court has dismissed a lawsuit by environmentalists seeking to halt the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps air base in Okinawa, southwestern Japan, due to the potential impact on endangered dugong.In a decision on Wednesday, the court of the Northern District of California ruled in favor of the defendant, the U.S. Department of Defense, saying the department "reasonably concluded it was unlikely" that the construction would harm the Okinawa dugong.The ruling comes at a time when the envisaged transfer of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa has come under a ren…READ FULL ARTICLE