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Public Hearing to Consider Thousands of Nuclear Waste Shipments Through California
LONE PINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1999--
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/991104/ca_commssn_1.html
Map of Cask Shipments
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/trans/images/18-1b.gif
On November 4th, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will conduct a public hearing on a program that would, if implemented, result in the shipment of thousands of tons of deadly radioactive wastes on interstate highways and railroads in California. The hearing, which is billed as an opportunity to comment on DOE's draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada high-level nuclear waste repository, will be held at the Statham Hall in Lone Pine, California from 12 noon to 3:00pm and from 7:00pm to 10:00pm.
Much more than the construction and operation of a waste disposal facility in Nevada is at issue, according to Bob Loux, Executive Director of the Nevada Governor's Agency for Nuclear Projects. ``The Yucca Mountain project involves a massive and unprecedented nuclear waste shipping campaign that will directly impact millions of people in thousands of communities,'' Loux said.
According to Loux, DOE has failed to disclose the shipping routes and the true scope of transportation impacts, even though this information is known.
In a preliminary review of DOE's draft Environmental Impact Statement, the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects found that:
74,000 truck shipments, about three-quarters of the total, could traverse Southern California under DOE's mostly truck scenario.
Even under a ``best case'' scenario that assumes the use of larger rail shipping containers, there still would be more than 26,000 truck shipments and more than 9,800 rail shipments through California.
The most probable rail routes for waste shipments would impact Sacramento, the Los Angeles area, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, San Bernadino, Fresno, Bakersfield, Barstow and other smaller cities and communities. Highway shipments will affect Sacramento, Los Angeles, Eureka and all of the communities along Interstate 5 and Interstates 210 and 10 from Los Angeles to Arizona. A map of likely routes can be found on the web at http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/trans/images/18-1b.gif. The number of shipments in the first year alone will substantially exceed the total number of such shipments nationally during the entire history of the U.S. nuclear power industry.
Shipments could become attractive targets for sabotage and terrorism - something the nation learned about first hand at Oklahoma City and the Atlanta Olympics.
Nuclear waste transportation expert Robert J. Halstead is available to provide additional information on spent fuel shipments and related matters. Halstead can be reached at (608) 742-3973.
Contact:
Robert J. Halstead, 608/742-3973
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Company Seeks Funds To Buy Uranium
By Katherine Rizzo Associated Press Writer, Nov. 4, 1999; 5:40 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline174012_001.htm
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has been advised a deal to buy Russian uranium and keep it away from other nations or terrorists is no longer profitable for the U.S. company handling the transaction.
The United States Enrichment Corp. said Thursday that it has informally notified the government that it believes a $200 million infusion of government money will be needed to keep up its part of the bargain to buy uranium removed from Russian warheads.
"The company stated at its annual meeting yesterday that the shareholders of USEC cannot continue to subsidize the United States government," company spokesman Charles Yulish said.
The privatized government-created corporation estimates that $200 million is the difference between current world uranium prices and the amount USEC is contracted to pay Russia on the balance of its agreement.
The corporation's desire for taxpayer help was first reported Thursday by The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. USEC operates two uranium enrichment plants in Ohio and Kentucky.
The corporation's statements led a longtime congressional critic to promise some harsh questioning as part of the House Commerce Committee's investigation of the way USEC has handled the nation's uranium enrichment business.
"Privatization is a rip-off," said Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Ohio. "The taxpayers are getting socked for millions of dollars, the Russian deal is in some jeopardy and they (at USEC) are paying out generous dividends to their stockholders."
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson also has become a critic of USEC.
Yulish said the company has answered a series of pointed questions Richardson submitted in a letter that suggested USEC might be too inefficient and called into question the data on which the $200 million estimate was based.
"We believe the true financial need may be much lower, or zero," Richardson said.
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Russia Shows Off Nuclear Force
By Vladimir Isachenkov Associated Press Writer Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999; 3:01 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline150155_000.htm
MOSCOW -- With saber-rattling reminiscent of the Cold War, Russia's military has been making a rare show of its nuclear forces as Moscow denounces U.S. calls to amend a key nuclear arms limitation treaty.
In recent days, the military staged a well-publicized firing of an anti-missile rocket, talked of putting multiple warheads on missiles capable of reaching the United States and acquired more strategic bombers.
The moves are widely seen as a reaction to Washington's call to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow both nations defenses against limited nuclear attacks by other states. Russian leaders say the U.S. move could unravel decades of nuclear arms control and push the world into a new arms race.
Russian leader Boris Yeltsin said in a recent letter to President Clinton that the U.S. plan would have "extremely dangerous consequences for the entire disarmament process."
To underline the political protests, the Russian military fired an interceptor missile designed to knock down ballistic missiles - the first such test in years.
Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces chief, said Tuesday's test confirmed that the weapon remains combat-ready.
"This test is a reminder that Russia has an operational missile defense system," said Ivan Safranchuk, an analyst with the PIR-Center for Policy Studies in Russia, an independent think tank. "And there is also an underlying statement that Russia may also decide to modernize it."
Yakovlev hinted at that, saying the test must be viewed in the context of Russia's "possible symmetrical and asymmetrical response" to U.S. calls to amend the ABM treaty.
The Russian missile is one of dozens deployed around Moscow in accordance with the treaty.
The treaty allowed the United States and the Soviet Union to protect two areas with interceptor missiles, a subsequent protocol limiting it to one. It banned the further development of such defenses on the assumption that fear of mutual destruction would stop either side from launching a nuclear attack.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said Russia's announcement that it had tested an anti-missile interceptor did not necessarily signal further strain in U.S.-Russian relations. Cohen said the test - which he said he could not confirm took place - would only underline that Russia has long had an ABM system to protect Moscow while the United States has none.
"I'm not sure what point they were trying to make," Cohen said.
Washington says it wants to amend the ABM treaty to allow both nations to defend themselves from possible nuclear attacks by "rogue" nations such as North Korea. It has insisted that such systems would be small and not capable of providing a shield against a massive missile attack like Russia can launch.
In Moscow, the argument is viewed with suspicion as the first step in undoing all nuclear arms control treaties. Moscow believes it must keep its nuclear forces effective because they are Russia's main claim to be seen as a world power.
Moscow fears that Washington may develop defenses that could defeat a Russian nuclear attack, making their atomic forces useless. Russia, with its economy and military in tatters, has no way of developing major new defenses.
The military tacitly acknowledges that, and says their likely response to any breech of the ABM treaty would be to fit multiple nuclear warheads to its new Topol-M missiles. Topol-Ms currently carry just one warhead each, in line with the START II treaty.
This week, the Russian military was playing up its latest deployment of Topols, expected to enter front-line service by December. With multiple warheads, the Topol would be able to easily penetrate U.S. missile defenses, military officials claimed.
"The history of weapons suggests that the shield is always weaker than a sword," Yakovlev said sardonically in a recent interview.
And in another highly publicized move, Russia said it would acquire 11 Soviet-built strategic heavy bombers from Ukraine. All the bombers can carry nuclear cruise missiles, and eight are supersonic Tu-160s, the Soviet equivalent of the U.S. B-1 bomber.
Russia now has just six Tu-160s, and the deal significantly increases the air force's nuclear strike capability. The first two bombers, a Tu-160 and a Tu-95, were to fly to Russia on Friday.
Yeltsin agreed in June to Clinton's proposal to discuss amendments to the ABM treaty, but the talks have made no progress.
"It could be that Russia is trying to take a tough line to later bargain for some concessions," said Safranchuk, the military analyst.
He said Russia may want to end the ban on land-based multiple nuclear warheads and put ceilings on sea-launched missiles, which account for a sizable component of the U.S. nuclear arsenal but not Russia's.
--- Russia Test-Fires Interceptor Missile
Military Lobs Warning Shot to Counter Talk of U.S. National Defense System
By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 4, 1999; Page A25
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/04/173l-110499-idx.html
MOSCOW, Nov. 3-Russia announced today that it had tested a short-range interceptor missile for the Moscow anti-ballistic missile system in what appeared to be a symbolic warning to the United States not to go ahead with a national missile defense system under consideration.
Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, commander of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, told the Interfax news agency that the Tuesday launch at the Sary-Shagan testing ground in neighboring Kazakhstan was the first of its kind since 1993.
Russia has been warning in recent weeks that if the United States goes ahead with a national missile defense system, Russia will take countermeasures. Today's announcement seemed to be a bit of muscle flexing.
Russian officials recently released a list of actions they might take in response to a U.S. decision to deploy a missile defense system. Some of the measures, if undertaken, would reverse commitments made in arms control treaties in recent years, such as the ban on multiple-warhead missiles. But it is not known whether cash-strapped Russia can afford to carry out its threats.
The test missile was not identified, but it is among those installed in the Moscow anti-ballistic missile system of radars and missiles built around the capital in the Soviet era. The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty allowed two such systems, and a subsequent protocol limited it to one.
The Moscow anti-ballistic missile system, known as A-135, includes the full complement of 100 interceptor missiles permitted by the treaty. The system has a dual defense against ballistic missiles, according to Air Force Magazine.
If the radars spot incoming missiles, Russia could launch up to 36 longer-range SH-11 Gorgon missiles. Should any missiles penetrate this layer, the system also has 64 short-range SH-08 Gazelle missiles, which are quick-reaction, high-acceleration interceptors.
Yakovlev said the tests confirmed the combat readiness of the missile and that the Strategic Rocket Forces would extend its service life to 12 1/2 years, which suggests that the test involved missiles that have been deployed for some time.
Originally, the interceptors around Moscow were armed with low-yield nuclear warheads. The missiles were not intended to hit incoming missiles but rather to explode near them. However, news reports in the last year have said that Russia removed the nuclear warheads from the interceptors around the capital.
The test-firing capped a string of recent warnings to the United States that Russia will oppose any major changes in the ABM treaty, which Presidents Clinton and Boris Yeltsin agreed earlier to discuss. The Russians have been ratcheting up a rhetorical campaign against major changes to the document in anticipation of a U.S. decision on whether to proceed with a missile defense system.
On Tuesday, the same day as the missile test, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin delivered a letter from Yeltsin to Clinton at a ceremony in Oslo. According to a Kremlin statement, Yeltsin called for "faithful adherence" to the treaty, and said that would be the best way to counter missile threats from other countries. The United States is considering building a missile defense system in response to perceived threats from North Korea, Iran or Iraq.
The Clinton administration has said it will make a decision next June on whether to build such a system, which initially would be based in Alaska and North Dakota.
Some Russian policy experts say they could envision limited changes in the ABM treaty in exchange for sharp cuts in strategic offensive arsenals. But the Russian military has taken a harder line. In a television interview last week, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, chief of the military's Central Research Institute and one of Russia's top strategists, said the threats from North Korea, Iran or Iraq are "grossly exaggerated."
Speaking of the "inviolability" of the ABM treaty, Dvorkin said, "If that stone is removed, the whole system of treaties will collapse."
"The ruins will be as follows," he added. "START I will be dead, all mutual exchanges of information will be ended, hundreds of verification missions that both sides carry out on a reciprocal basis will be discontinued."
"We won't know the state of the U.S. strategic forces and they won't know what we are doing," he added. "This will upset the balance of nuclear forces."
Specifically, Russia has threatened to prolong the life of multiple-warhead missiles outlawed by START II, and change the new single-warhead Topol-M missile to a multiple-warhead delivery vehicle. (The START II treaty signed in 1993 has never been ratified by the Russian parliament.) Dvorkin also said Russia would use "modern means of penetrating anti-missile defense and these are measures that we can afford." One such measure reportedly is deployment of dummy warheads on the new Topol-M missile.
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U.S. and China Near Agreement On Military Ties
Visit to Washington Planned For High-Ranking Army Officer
By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 4, 1999; Page A25
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/04/178l-110499-idx.html
BEIJING, Nov. 3-The United States and China are close to agreement on resuming military contacts, which were suspended by Beijing after the May 7 bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia, sources here said.
Following the visit of U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering to China last week, Chinese officials indicated that they were ready to resume those ties, the sources said. This would mark a major step in repairing U.S.-China relations.
Sources said Lt. Gen. Xiong Guangkai, a deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, could travel to Washington as early as December. Xiong would be visiting the United States for the third in a series of annual consultations started by the Pentagon and China's Defense Ministry. Xiong, the former chief of military intelligence who is believed to be close to President Jiang Zemin and is known for his somewhat anti-American views, is considered the gatekeeper on U.S.-China military ties.
Two sources stressed that Xiong's trip is still in the planning stages. It appears, they said, that China's all-powerful Standing Committee of the Communist Party Politburo has yet to meet to approve the visit formally. One source said Xiong's trip might be delayed until January.
In response to the attack on its embassy in Belgrade, China suspended its dialogue with the United States on arms control and human rights and shelved high-level military contacts. It canceled a visit by the outgoing commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Gen. Charles Krulak, and Defense Secretary William S. Cohen.
China took these actions after American planes destroyed China's embassy and killed three Chinese citizens living in the building during the NATO air war over Yugoslavia. The U.S. government said the attack was an accident. China's state-run media, led in part by the military, charged that the bombing was deliberate, and a week of anti-American protests erupted in Beijing and other cities. Washington has paid compensation to the families of the embassy victims and is discussing payment of damages to Beijing for the building.
A resumption of visits, however, will not mean that U.S.-China military ties are entering a new period of cordiality. Many issues divide the defense establishments of the two countries--including theater missile defense, Taiwan, closer U.S. defense ties with Japan, continued Chinese missile technology exports to Pakistan and other countries and China's close military links with Russia.
However, one Chinese analyst said the U.S. Congress' decision to postpone until next year consideration of the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, legislation that would strengthen U.S. military ties with Taiwan, could help improve military ties between Beijing and Washington. Beijing contends that Taiwan, which has its own democratic government and a strong economy, is a province of China and condemns any American arms sales to Taiwan as interference in its internal affairs.
Other divisive issues involve what American officers say is the unequal treatment of American and Chinese officers visiting each other's country. When U.S. officers come to China, they say, the Chinese show them insignificant installations, provide hackneyed security briefings and limit access to line officers. When Chinese officers go the United States, they often are treated to in-depth briefings and sometimes are given tours of sensitive military facilities.
In some areas, there appears to be hope for cooperation. China has said it firmly opposes the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula and has made at least limited efforts to encourage North Korea to forgo testing a second ballistic missile. A North Korean missile test in August 1998 sent shock waves through Asia and contributed in part to Tokyo's decision to approve closer military ties with Washington.
Signs of a thaw emerged earlier this week in Hong Kong when China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved a port visit for the first U.S. Navy warship since China suspended ties. The destroyer USS O'Brien called at Hong Kong's port on Oct. 31. Since China suspended ties, 10 ships have been blocked from making Hong Kong port calls. China has approved two other American ships--an oiler and an ammunition vessel--but neither was a warship. So far, the foreign ministry has yet to permit American surveillance planes to land in Hong Kong. It has allowed five other U.S. military flights to land.
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Canadians protest nuclear fuel shipment
UPI Updated 9:36 PM ET November 4, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991104/21/international-nukeprotest
CORNWALL, Ontario, Nov. 4 (UPI) Residents of Cornwall, Ontario, and nearby communities turned out Thursday to join anti-nuclear activists protesting plans to import weapons-grade plutonium from Russia for a test burn in Canadian reactors.
Among the protesters were the town's mayor and councilors, along with Aboriginals from nearby reserves who arrived for the demonstration in a long convoy of vehicles.
The plan to import the plutonium has been approved by Prime Minister Jean Chretien in support of the world disarmament program, in which Russia and the United States are to dismantle nuclear weapons built during the Cold War.
A vessel carrying a small shipment of Russian plutonium is expected to dock shortly at the St. Lawrence River port of Cornwall, some 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Ottawa.
From Cornwall, it will be moved overland to a Canadian test reactor at Chalk River, about 90 miles (140 km) northwest of the Canadian capital.
Small amounts of plutonium from U.S. weapons are also expected to be moved overland to Chalk River, after entering Canada at Sault St. Marie, Ontario.
Canadian officials say the shipments will be safe, but anti-nuclear activists, including some from the environmental group Greenpeace, have vowed to hold protests all along the routes being used to ship the nuclear material.
The protesters said it was simply too dangerous for the plutonium to be imported into Canada, as accidents could occur along the way, and a spill would endanger the health and safety of Canadians.
The activists, backed by some Canadian scientists, say Canada does not need plutonium mixed oxide, or MOX, as fuel for its reactors. Canadian power plants use uranium, which is cheaper and easier to handle.
Under current plans, if the tests at Chalk River prove that the plutonium can be used in Canada's CANDU reactors, several tons of the material will be imported into the country as part of the world disarmament program.
Officials say it is too dangerous to allow the plutonium to remain in Russia, where even a few ounces (grams) falling into the hands of terrorists could result in a dangerous situation.
Greenpeace has dismissed that argument, saying Moscow has experts who know how to handle the nuclear material, and Russia is the safest place to keep Russian plutonium.
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Hill Study Warns of N. Korean Arms
Washington Post 11/04/99
North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction is posing an increasing threat to the United States and its allies, according to a congressional study.
In addition to chemical and biological weapons, there is "significant evidence" that North Korea is continuing to develop nuclear weapons despite a commitment five years ago to remain nuclear-free, the report found.
Also, a dramatic improvement in North Korea's missile capabilities now permits the country to reach U.S. territory with a "high explosive chemical, biological, or possibly nuclear weapon," according to the report. "Currently, the United States is unable to defend against this threat."
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Washington Post 11/04/99
"START I will be dead, all mutual exchanges of information will be ended, hundreds of verification missions that both sides carry out on a reciprocal basis will be discontinued."
-- Russian Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, warning the United States about the repercussions if it builds a missile-defense system. --Page A25
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Hackers Break Into DOE Web Site
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer Thursday, November 4, 1999
http://www.abqjournal.com/scitech/1hack11-03-99.htm
Cyber vandals calling themselves the "Pakistan Hackerz Club" broke into a computer at the Department of Energy's Albuquerque Operations Office on Monday, defacing the Web site of the nuclear weapons management center with a "Save Kashmir" message.
It's the third Internet break-in in a week at the Department of Energy, which is in the midst of a cyber security shake-up in the wake of allegations of lax security and espionage.
No sensitive information was compromised, department spokesman Al Stotts said.
"It's as if we got graffitied," Stotts said.
It's the latest in a surge of "hacktivism," in which hackers break into Web sites and leave political messages.
The vandal broke in Monday around 5 p.m., and the modified Web page was visible for about an hour before Energy Department technicians disconnected the machine from the Internet, according to Stotts.
On Oct. 26, a vandal going by the name "flipz" broke into Web sites at the department's Hanford nuclear plant in Washington state and the Web site run by the department's Office of Procurement and Assistance Management.
The attacks are part of a storm of recent break-ins at government and military computers running Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, said Brian Martin, a computer security consultant who tracks hacker attacks.
Last week, "flipz" hacked a White Sands Missile Range Web site, leaving a profanity-laced rant about lax Army computer security.
In response to e-mail inquiries from the Journal, a person going by the name "Doctor Nuker" said the DOE Albuquerque Web page was defaced to raise awareness about problems in Kashmir, where rebels are fighting for independence.
"Doctor Nuker" was named on the defaced Web page as the founder of the Pakistan Hackerz Club, one of the most consistently active groups breaking into and defacing Web sites around the world of late.
Albuquerque was targeted, "Doctor Nuker" said, because "it's not only a government site but also involved in nuclear programs."
According to an archive maintained by Martin, the group is responsible for 85 such incidents since the rampage began with a break-in to the Karachi Stock Exchange Web site July 4.
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Russia Test-Fires Interceptor Missile
Military Lobs Warning Shot to Counter Talk of U.S. National Defense System
Washington Post Thursday, November 4, 1999; Page A25 By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/04/173l-110499-idx.html
MOSCOW, Nov. 3-Russia announced today that it had tested a short-range interceptor missile for the Moscow anti-ballistic missile system in what appeared to be a symbolic warning to the United States not to go ahead with a national missile defense system under consideration.
Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, commander of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces, told the Interfax news agency that the Tuesday launch at the Sary-Shagan testing ground in neighboring Kazakhstan was the first of its kind since 1993.
Russia has been warning in recent weeks that if the United States goes ahead with a national missile defense system, Russia will take countermeasures. Today's announcement seemed to be a bit of muscle flexing.
Russian officials recently released a list of actions they might take in response to a U.S. decision to deploy a missile defense system. Some of the measures, if undertaken, would reverse commitments made in arms control treaties in recent years, such as the ban on multiple-warhead missiles. But it is not known whether cash-strapped Russia can afford to carry out its threats.
The test missile was not identified, but it is among those installed in the Moscow anti-ballistic missile system of radars and missiles built around the capital in the Soviet era. The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty allowed two such systems, and a subsequent protocol limited it to one.
The Moscow anti-ballistic missile system, known as A-135, includes the full complement of 100 interceptor missiles permitted by the treaty. The system has a dual defense against ballistic missiles, according to Air Force Magazine.
If the radars spot incoming missiles, Russia could launch up to 36 longer-range SH-11 Gorgon missiles. Should any missiles penetrate this layer, the system also has 64 short-range SH-08 Gazelle missiles, which are quick-reaction, high-acceleration interceptors.
Yakovlev said the tests confirmed the combat readiness of the missile and that the Strategic Rocket Forces would extend its service life to 12 1/2 years, which suggests that the test involved missiles that have been deployed for some time.
Originally, the interceptors around Moscow were armed with low-yield nuclear warheads. The missiles were not intended to hit incoming missiles but rather to explode near them. However, news reports in the last year have said that Russia removed the nuclear warheads from the interceptors around the capital.
The test-firing capped a string of recent warnings to the United States that Russia will oppose any major changes in the ABM treaty, which Presidents Clinton and Boris Yeltsin agreed earlier to discuss. The Russians have been ratcheting up a rhetorical campaign against major changes to the document in anticipation of a U.S. decision on whether to proceed with a missile defense system.
On Tuesday, the same day as the missile test, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin delivered a letter from Yeltsin to Clinton at a ceremony in Oslo. According to a Kremlin statement, Yeltsin called for "faithful adherence" to the treaty, and said that would be the best way to counter missile threats from other countries. The United States is considering building a missile defense system in response to perceived threats from North Korea, Iran or Iraq.
The Clinton administration has said it will make a decision next June on whether to build such a system, which initially would be based in Alaska and North Dakota.
Some Russian policy experts say they could envision limited changes in the ABM treaty in exchange for sharp cuts in strategic offensive arsenals. But the Russian military has taken a harder line. In a television interview last week, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, chief of the military's Central Research Institute and one of Russia's top strategists, said the threats from North Korea, Iran or Iraq are "grossly exaggerated."
Speaking of the "inviolability" of the ABM treaty, Dvorkin said, "If that stone is removed, the whole system of treaties will collapse."
"The ruins will be as follows," he added. "START I will be dead, all mutual exchanges of information will be ended, hundreds of verification missions that both sides carry out on a reciprocal basis will be discontinued."
"We won't know the state of the U.S. strategic forces and they won't know what we are doing," he added. "This will upset the balance of nuclear forces."
Specifically, Russia has threatened to prolong the life of multiple-warhead missiles outlawed by START II, and change the new single-warhead Topol-M missile to a multiple-warhead delivery vehicle. (The START II treaty signed in 1993 has never been ratified by the Russian parliament.) Dvorkin also said Russia would use "modern means of penetrating anti-missile defense and these are measures that we can afford." One such measure reportedly is deployment of dummy warheads on the new Topol-M missile.
---
US, China May Resume Military Ties
By Robert Burns AP Military Writer Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999; 4:15 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline161531_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- China, which broke off military relations with Washington after the United States bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, now wants to restore relations, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday.
"They have indicated they would like to re-establish these contacts," Cohen told reporters at the Pentagon.
"Having said that, however, there have been no concrete steps taken to re-establish the contacts," he added. "I am hopeful that can come about soon."
Cohen's spokesman, Kenneth Bacon, said later that Kurt Campbell, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian affairs, is scheduled to travel to China this month, trying to set the stage for talks that might start in January.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Lt. Gen. Xiong Guangkai, a deputy chief of staff of the People's Liberation Army, could travel to Washington as early as December. The Post described Xiong as close to President Jiang Zemin and the gatekeeper on U.S.-China military ties. Bacon said he could not confirm that such talks would take place in December.
The Chinese first indicated a willingness to restore military contacts last week during a visit to Beijing by Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering, Bacon said. Even before the embassy bombing in May, U.S.-China military relations were relatively limited, largely because of Chinese suspicions of U.S. motives.
A restoration of military-to-military contacts would mark an important step toward improving overall U.S.-China relations. They are strained over numerous issues including the Clinton administration's push to develop ballistic missile defenses that Beijing views as a threat to its own security.
In his remarks at the Pentagon, Cohen repeated the administration's view that a U.S. national missile defense system would not undermine the strategic value of Russia's large nuclear arsenal or pose any threat to China. The U.S. system would be designed to defend against only a few incoming missiles at a time - the sort of limited attack that Iran or other "rogue" states might be capable of one day.
China also is upset at the possibility of the United States providing missile protection for Taiwan, the island nation that Beijing worries is bent on seeking independence from the mainland.
Cohen said Moscow's announcement Wednesday that it had tested a missile interceptor for its anti-ballistic missile system was not a cause for concern. "It only confirms that they have an ABM system and we do not," he said. "I'm not sure what point they were trying to make."
Russian officials said the missile test should be seen as one of several possible "response measures" if the United States withdraws from the 1972 ABM treaty, which prohibits nationwide defenses against ballistic missile attack but permits single-point defenses of a national capital or a missile field.
Meantime, Cohen said he looked forward to traveling there "when the conditions permit." He was to have visited China earlier this year before the NATO air war against Yugoslavia began, but China canceled the visit in protest of the war. All military-to-military contacts were severed after the embassy bombing.
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Egypt Officers' Trip Was Official
The Associated Press Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999; 5:43 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline174324_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- Most of the 33 Egyptian military officers aboard the doomed EgyptAir Flight 990 were in the United States to meet or train with U.S. defense contractors, the Pentagon said Thursday.
Spokesman Kenneth Bacon gave a breakdown of the officers that he said was provided by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Nothing about the officers suggests they were targets of terrorists, he said.
Bacon said there were five separate groups on official business sponsored by the Egyptian Ministry of Defense. Five other officers were in the United States on personal business, possibly as tourists.
Of those on official business, six were visiting a commercial contractor in Boston that was providing network planning and communications analysis services to the Egyptian military under a private contract.
Seven more officers was receiving and testing two H-3 helicopters from a contractor, Bacon said. They had stayed at Fort Rucker, Ala.
Six people in a third group were in California receiving training from a private contractor on high frequency telecommunications equipment, Bacon said. Three other officers were in Florida for training on telecommunications equipment, also under a commercial contract.
The six people in the fifth group were attending a conference related to repairing Chaparral missiles, Bacon said.
The five officers who were in the United States on personal business had visas not sponsored by the Ministry of Defense, he said.
The number of Egyptian military officers who visit the United States each year varies but in recent years has averaged about 1,000, Bacon said.
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House Republicans see N. Korea as nuke threat
By Toni Marshall and Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES November 4, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news2.html AP Story: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-US-North-Korea.html
House Republicans, in a looming showdown with President Clinton over North Korea, warned yesterday that the communist state is secretly attempting to develop nuclear-armed missiles capable of hitting the United States.
"There is significant evidence that nuclear weapons development is continuing," said a 75-page report by a Republican-led advisory committee.
The report cited North Korea's recent development of a multi-stage rocket that is capable of reaching the United States, adding that the missile could deliver "chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons."
The report came in response to recommendations by former Defense Secretary William Perry, who in a recent policy review urged the Clinton administration to work with North Korea's rulers instead of trying to undermine them or promote internal change.
On Mr. Perry's recommendation, the president eased economic sanctions against Pyongyang in September after it agreed to suspend long-range ballistic missile tests.
A key member of the House advisory committee, Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican, went further than the report in charging that North Korea is attempting to craft nuclear warheads to be placed atop its missiles.
"There is no abatement in missile development, and furthermore, there is still ongoing work on the development of the nuclear warheads themselves," said Mr. Cox.
Mr. Cox said in an interview later that North Korea is developing the nuclear warheads as part of its weapons and missile programs.
"It's the physics package," he said, referring to the warhead-development program.
A House national security aide said the most likely source for know-how on nuclear warheads is China. "We know there is an association with China, and China has access to special warheads so it is likely the North Koreans have access to that technology."
The continuing North Korean nuclear-weapons program is being carried out on a small scale and includes preparations for putting nuclear warheads on missiles, the aide said.
A 1994 deal between the United States and North Korea, known as the Agreed Framework, successfully froze nuclear activities at the Yongbyon facility north of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the report said.
But a U.S. official, confirming one of the report's most alarming conclusions, said that "other work" related to missiles and nuclear weapons has been detected. The official declined to elaborate.
Under the framework, the United States, South Korea and Japan agreed to build two modern nuclear power plants worth about $5 billion if North Korea mothballed its facilities at Yongbyon.
Apart from efforts to build nuclear weapons, North Korea emerged as a maker of long-range ballistic missiles in August 1998 with the successful launch of a multistage rocket.
Last week, The Washington Times cited intelligence reports that indicated North Korea had not stopped developing long-range missiles despite a recent pledge not to test them.
One classified report issued Oct. 19 stated that Pyongyang is continuing to refine its multistage Taepo Dong missile.
The Times' article quoted sources, who classified the Taepo Dong-2 missile as an intercontinental ballistic missile and concluded that North Korea's confidence in the rocket may be high enough to deploy the weapon without any flight testing.
The House report was commissioned by Speaker J. Dennis Hastert who said yesterday: "Contrary to repeated [Clinton] administration statements, North Korea has not terminated or frozen its nuclear weapons program."
The Illinois Republican said North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile program now poses a threat to the United States and the American people, and their transfer of missiles and technology to rogue states in the Middle East threatens U.S. allies in that region.
Mr. Hastert also said North Korea is abusing international famine relief to "sustain this authoritarian regime."
The report said North Korea's missile "capabilities and proliferation activities have increased dramatically in the last five years," even as the United States has replaced the Soviet Union as Pyongyang's principal benefactor by providing $645 million in aid.
It also stated North Korea has produced, deployed and exported missiles to Iran and Pakistan.
The congressional report adds fuel to a dissatisfied Republican-led Congress, which has slammed the White House for "appeasing" Pyongyang.
Rep. Tillie Fowler, Florida Republican, said if North Koreans were truly interested in providing electricity to its citizens, and interested in peace, then they would be seeking conventional electric power plants instead of the light-water nuclear reactors promised in the 1994 deal.
The House report warned that the Western nuclear reactors, once operational, would produce enough plutonium to make at least 100 nuclear weapons a year.
But a scientist at the Institute for Science and International Security, which was cited as a source in the House report, said that House Republicans had "hyped-up" the proliferation danger from Western-style reactors.
David Albright, a physicist at the institute, said the report used only a portion of material from his institute.
"North Korea lacks the facilities and expertise to separate this plutonium from the residual, highly radioactive spent fuel," said Mr. Albright. He added that the North Koreans would have to build a "huge facility" to undertake such an operation.
He called the report a disservice and said members of the group used worst-case assessments portraying them as facts. "You can't trust their conclusion. . . . That part of the report is exaggerated and oversimplified."
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Iraq Rules Out New Monitoring Tied to Suspension of Sanctions
By ELIZABETH OLSON November 4, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/110499iraq-us.html
GENEVA, Switzerland -- Iraq's foreign minister said Wednesday that his government would reject any U.N. move to suspend economic sanctions in return for Iraq's cooperation with a new weapons-monitoring program.
"They are saying they might suspend sanctions but Iraq has to accept a long list of new conditions," the minister, Muhammad Said al-Sahaf, told reporters. "No Iraqi would accept that."
Iraq insists that sanctions be completely lifted, not suspended, Sahaf said. France, Russia and China have submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for the suspension of sanctions if Iraq accepts a new commission to monitor its weapons programs.
Earlier Security Council resolutions "say clearly that sanctions are to be lifted," he said. "Now they want to rewrite the resolutions for their own purposes."
He also denied that Iraq had any forbidden weapons, declaring that it had met its obligations under U.N. resolutions that call for eliminating biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. "Nothing in Iraq has anything to do with prohibited weapons," he said.
The 15-member Security Council is trying to decide how Iraq must account for its weapons of mass destruction to secure the end of the sanctions imposed on the country after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in January 1990.
Intensive negotiations have been going on among the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China -- on whether to reconstitute an arms-inspection commission as a step towards easing sanctions.
The U.N. inspection program in Iraq was suspended last December. A short time later, the United States and Britain began a bombing campaign against Iraq for its refusal to cooperate with international inspectors. "The monitoring system was there since 1994," Sahaf said. "Then they came and bombarded it. They destroyed the system they built."
The United States and Britain had also been pressing for the dismissal of the U.N. relief coordinator in Iraq, Hans von Sponeck of Germany, although Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided this week to reappoint him.
They have criticized Sponeck, who oversees programs that allow Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine as exceptions to the sanctions, on grounds that he has allowed Iraqi officials to stockpile these goods.
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German Minister Has Nuke Concerns
By David Briscoe Associated Press Writer Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999; 11:34 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline113407_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- Europe is fearful that the Senate vote against the nuclear test ban treaty could signal a change in American strategy as the world's only superpower, Germany's foreign minister said today.
"This would make us all very unhappy," Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters at the German ambassador's residence before meeting with administration officials and members of Congress.
Fischer also called for consideration of a lifting of sanctions against Yugoslavia even before democracy is established as long as it would help the opposition and not Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Overall, he praised the Clinton administration for its efforts to bring peace and stability to the Balkans, the Mideast and the Aegean Sea. He said all three efforts hold promise.
But he sharply criticized the Senate's rejection of the nuclear test ban treaty, saying it sends a bad message to other nuclear states.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has written world leaders giving assurances that the United States will observe the treaty that failed in an Oct. 13 Senate vote, 51-48 - 18 short of the two-thirds needed. President Clinton strongly supported it, but Republicans said it would hurt U.S. security interests.
"We hope this is not reflecting a shift in the basic strategy of the United States," Fischer said. "This would be very serious. We need a strong United States with a leading role in the world of tomorrow."
Non-nuclear states are looking to America to provide "some sort of order" in a nuclear world, he said, adding that some Americans are seeking 19th century answers to 20th century challenges.
On the Balkans, Fischer said peace can only come when the policy of Milosevic of trying to establish a greater Serbia is rejected. If he hadn't been stopped in Kosovo, the next war would be just around the corner, he said.
Fischer said the West cannot defeat Milosevic with the dual strategy of allowing him to create a besieged fortress and, at the same time, trying to open up Serbian society and foster democratic opposition. "Both won't work," he said, but he planned to discuss the second goal as an option with U.S. officials.
The lifting of sanctions is a tool that might be used, he said.
"But I am against lifting sanction if this will strengthen Milosevic," he said, adding that his splintered and weakened opposition must first show that it is unified and has a credible leadership.
Fischer said this must happen fairly quickly, with financial and technical help from the West. He ruled out any military assistance for anti-Milosevic Serbs, however, saying the Serb military must fall from the inside, not the outside.
"They are strong enough to suppress any opposition group," he said.
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'Dangerous Consequences'
ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE November 4, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/110499safi.html
WASHINGTON -- In Oslo the other day, the ex-K.G.B. man who is Russia's Prime Minister of the month delivered a letter from President Yeltsin to President Clinton:
"Dear Bill," I am told it began, "I would like to share with you, in confidence and with the utmost candor" -- and then a Kremlin spokesman put out, in less confidence, the guts of the letter: that if the U.S. proceeded to mount any defense of its territory against nuclear missiles, "it would have extremely dangerous consequences for the entire arms control process."
That threat -- signed "Respectfully, B. Yeltsin" -- puts Clinton in a bind. He is acutely aware of the dilemma that is likely to face his successor:
A rogue state invades its neighbor, threatening some vital U.S. interest. The U.S. president mobilizes a strike force to stop the aggression. The dictator responds with a threat to fire a nuclear missile at New York.
That U.S. president turns to the director of central intelligence, who says: "We suspect that state may have an untested nuclear device. We know that it has a stolen intercontinental missile. The odds are 50-50 that he is bluffing. Of course, because we adhere to the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, we have no defense against such an incoming missile."
What do you decide, Mr. President? Do you call the possible bluff, resolutely defending our interests abroad at the risk of losing an American city? Or do you prudently back down, blaming Bill Clinton for his legacy of leaving this country naked to its new enemies?
This is not a novel or a movie plot. As states like Iraq, Iran, Sudan and North Korea develop the technology of terror, and as well-financed terrorist organizations buy the components of nuclear missiles, that agonizing choice is more likely than not to face our president -- unless we start now to deploy a defense that can shoot down a score or two of incoming missiles. That would counter the threat before it materializes.
Why do Yeltsin's manipulators pretend to see this as a strategic threat to their thousands of missiles? Why are they enlisting China and the U.N. in a campaign to deny the U.S. this rudimentary protection from rogue states? Why do they ostentatiously test their SS-19's and antimissile missiles, threatening an end to strategic arms control if we build a tactical umbrella for a nuclear-rainy day?
On the surface, the Yeltsin position seems irrational. The Russians know a defense against individual missiles would not challenge their nuclear superpower status. They know that the development of missiles that kill missiles -- which they could steal from or wheedle out of us -- would protect them from a growing threat from Iran's Islamic fundamentalists on their border and in Chechnya. Then why their fuss?
Answer: It's their main leverage on us. Using our outdated treaty with a U.S.S.R. that no longer exists, Russia will extort the highest price it can in economic and military aid for graciously granting America permission to defend itself against rogue-state missiles. By posing ABM as a matter of principle, B. Yeltsin will respectfully hold us up for all he can.
Clinton's approach is to buy the Russians off with economic aid and improvements on their radar. He sees John McCain making our nuclear nakedness a campaign issue, and George W. Bush will deal with it in his Nov. 19 foreign policy address at the Reagan Library.
Accordingly, Clinton will weigh the state of our antimissile technology, the budget-busting cost of a limited system, the growing threat from rogue states and the attitude of allies like Japan toward theater defenses. Then I'll bet he will offend the Democratic left with a decision in early summer to deploy a limited system -- just in time to strike a tough pose for the political conventions.
Hard-liners here are having none of this time-consuming, unnecessary and expensive negotiation. President Nixon made sure the ABM treaty had a withdrawal clause. If we now tried to buy minor alterations to the old treaty, we would undercut our ability to soon build an effective land- and sea-based, space-monitored defense.
This is no time for dancing with bears. Too many American lives are at stake. We need National Missile Defense now.
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Sniffing Out New Ways to Uncover Land Mines
By CATHERINE GREENMAN November 4, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/circuits/articles/04mine.html
For decades, the United States military and international relief organizations have been searching for low-cost, effective ways to rid the world of land mines. There are more than 100 million mines buried in 70 countries, and they kill or maim more than 2,000 people per month, according to United Nations estimates.
Experts agree that existing methods of detecting land mines are costly and inefficient. Metal detectors, which are commonly used, have high rates of false alarms due to the abundance of unrelated scrap metal in the soil. And many mines are composed primarily of plastic, which metal detectors cannot recognize.
Other methods are problematic as well. Ground-penetrating radar, which transmits high frequency energy into the ground from an antenna, can detect large anti-tank mines but cannot find anti-personnel mines, which are often no larger than two inches in diameter. And although dogs can be trained to sniff out explosives in the ground, they have short attention spans and tire after a couple of hours.
"The ideal system finds every land mine with no false alarms, doesn't cost very much, uses almost no power and contains almost no volume," said Dr. Regina Dugan, head of the Defense Applied Research Projects Agency, a division of the United States Army that is financing several research projects in land mine detection.
Building a detection system that meets Dr. Dugan's criteria has been an uphill struggle. But one of the most promising projects uses a technology called nuclear quadrupole resonance, or N.Q.R. Unlike metal detectors, N.Q.R. detectors seek out the explosive material rather than the metal surrounding the land mine.
The defense projects agency is working with Quantum Magnetics and Information Systems Laboratories, both based in San Diego, to develop portable nuclear quadrupole resonance devices that can detect large and small mines.
The detectors work by sending low-frequency radio wave pulses into the ground. Different types of explosives produce characteristic responses in the signals which are then picked up by the detector.
Nuclear quadrupole resonance is similar in principle to nuclear magnetic resonance, the type of technology used in hospital imaging systems. But where the hospital systems use large magnets to generate a nuclear magnetic response, N.Q.R. uses a radio wave antenna that has a magnetic field associated with it.
Although the technology has been effective in detecting the explosive RDX, it has been less successful in detecting the most common explosive, TNT. But Dr. Dugan says the system will soon be perfected to detect TNT.
The agency plans to develop a quadrupole resonance device that can detect virtually every type of explosive, and to incorporate metal-detecting capabilities into the system. "We believe that N.Q.R. may well represent the first breakthrough we've had in land mine detection since the invention of land mines," Dr. Dugan said. "We'll know in the next couple of months if we've solved the problem."
The prototype N.Q.R. devices resemble metal detectors -- waist-high poles with search coils at the base. The device is connected to amplifiers and a computer that are mounted on racks on a flatbed truck.
The goal is to produce a system that weighs about 25 pounds, uses 20 to 50 watts of electricity and fits into a backpack. They will cost $5,000 to $10,000 if produced in volume, said Dale Sheets, president and chief executive of Quantum Magnetics. Although this is a reasonable amount for a military budget, it may be too expensive for many nongovernmental organizations.
"The next step is to reduce the cost and make it rugged enough for heavy use for both military and humanitarian demining purposes," Sheets said.
Although attempts to use N.Q.R. to detect land mines date back to the Vietnam War, the technology lacked accuracy, which resulted in too many false alarms.
The agency is also financing research projects with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nomadics Inc., a company based in Stillwater, Okla., toward the development of an electronic sniffer that mimics the olfactory capabilities of dogs and other mammals.
A handheld device being tested contains a small pump that draws air containing TNT vapor from the ground across an amplifying fluorescent polymer. Any TNT vapor in the air binds to the polymer, diminishing the fluorescence. The diminished fluorescence is detected by a microprocessor and other electronics inside the device.
"Until now, it's been virtually impossible to detect TNT in the field with an instrument," said Colin Cumming, president of Nomadics. "At this point, we're optimistic we'll have a working prototype within a year."
In addition to various detection technologies, efforts are being made to standardize information on land mines that is being collected by international organizations. With the help of the United Nations Mine Action Service, many organizations are entering information about the location of mines. The maps can be overlaid with additional information about the area, including the locations of bridges, hospitals and water sources.
Tore Skedsmo, chief of the Mine Action Service, said digital mapping programs have helped organizations analyze data about mines according to their location, rather than their quantity. The removal of 5 or 10 mines close to a town or bridge, for example, takes priority over hundreds of mines in a remote field.
"Four or five years ago," Skedsmo said, "we were much more interested in the number of mines in a given area. By looking at the spatial relationships on the maps, we're able to look more closely at the impact the mines have on the health and economic situations, and to base demining action on these factors."
The service is developing an information management system with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining, a nongovernmental organization. This database and mapping software has been developed for use worldwide and provides a repository for data on hazardous areas and other mine-related information.
"There can be many different organizations, including peacekeepers, working in a mine-affected country," said Alastair McAslan, a British army colonel working with the Geneva group, "so we want to encourage a standard database and digitized mapping. Access to accurate maps is essential, but in many cases it's not possible to obtain Government-controlled maps on the open market."
Colonel McAslan said the short-term goal is to establish an international clearinghouse of maps and satellite images of countries where there are land mines that participating organizations could view on the Internet. "It would be a mechanism to exchange information between governments and organizations that share a common interest," Colonel McAslan said.
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China: U.S., Russia Start Arms Race
The Associated Press Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999; 10:06 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline100650_000.htm
BEIJING -- China today said U.S. efforts to set up an anti-missile defense shield provoked Russian into testing a new missile and restarting the arms race.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said she had no details and thus could not confirm Tuesday's test-firing of an anti-missile missile, reported by the Interfax news agency.
But she said the reported test grew out of Washington's plans to amend the 27-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and build a national missile defense system, known as NMD.
"It must be pointed out that this is a direct consequence of the U.S. attempt to revise the ABM and develop NMD," Zhang said at a regular media briefing. It will "undermine the strategic balance and stability and spark a new round of an arms race."
China has repeatedly opposed U.S. plans to build missile shields either at home or for East Asian allies, fearing that an arms race could derail Beijing's economic modernization.
Washington wants to revise the ABM, a cornerstone of Cold War arms control, so it may build a defense system to protect against missiles from small, rogue states - not against countries like Russia with large nuclear arsenals. But Russia has strongly opposed any changes to the 1972 treaty.
Interfax, in its Wednesday report of the missile test, quoted the commander of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces, Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev, as saying the missile test should be seen as one of several possible "response measures" if the United States withdraws from the ABM treaty.
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Cos. Angle for China Internet Market
By The Associated Press November 3, 1999 Filed at 11:55 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-China-Internet.html
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Rapid growth in China's Internet industry has touched off a stampede among technology companies hoping to tap what is expected to become one of the world's biggest and potentially most lucrative markets.
But foreign companies trying to position themselves at ground zero of the country's Internet explosion face serious obstacles, analysts and industry executives say.
Looming largest of all is uncertainty about the role China will allow foreign corporations to play. And if they are allowed to compete freely, can they make money in a country that -- despite great progress -- still is struggling to lift itself into the modern world?
``The foreign business experience in China is a road littered with broken dreams. We should all be wary of get-rich schemes in China,'' said James Mulvenon, a telecommunications analyst with Rand Corp. in Washington D.C.
``The other caveat is, how difficult has it been to make money on the Internet in the United States?''
The lure of China's potentially huge market is compelling. Internet users in China doubled during the first six months of 1999 to about 6 million. The number is expected to increase to more than 20 million by 2003, according to International Data Corp.
The outlook for U.S. companies hoping to profit from the growth has been clouded in recent weeks by repeated public statements by government officials that a 1993 law bans foreign companies from investing in ventures that provide access to the Internet or provide content.
China's official position was reiterated this week when a telecommunications regulator told an audience of high-tech executives and venture capitalists that the Internet investments remain off limits.
``Right now, only Chinese companies can do that,'' Chang Xiaobing, deputy director general of telecommunications administration in China's Ministry of Information Industry, told an audience at the China Telecom 2000 conference.
So far no foreign companies have been ordered to divest, but the statements have cast a shadow over investments in Internet content sites and Web portals by major U.S. companies, including Intel Corp., Yahoo! Inc. and America Online Inc..
The concern is great enough to prompt some companies to put plans on hold until China completes work on a new set of regulations that could end the ban.
Level 3 Communications, a Broomfield, Colo.-based company creating a global fiber-optic network to handle, among other things, Internet communications, is among those waiting.
``Any irregular, backdoor entrance is very dangerous,'' said Guobin Zhao, a Level 3 executive who attended the conference.
There is good reason for caution, said Mulvenon. In a similar situation, China last year abruptly banned foreign investment in joint ventures with China Unicom, the country's second-biggest telecommunications company. More than 40 foreign companies, including Motorola Inc., still are trying to recoup $1.4 billion they poured into China Unicom deals.
The joint ventures were used mainly to finance the expansion of mobile telephone networks, not the Internet. But the government's action set a precedent for quick and damaging action against foreign companies, said Mulvenon.
``It is a warning for U.S. companies that the regulatory and legal environment in Chinese telecom is just as squishy as it is in any other area,'' he said. ``Given how ambiguous the Internet environment is now, you're really taking your company's interests in your own hands if you put money into this.''
Whether China is equally serious about Internet investment is unclear.
China has built state-of-the-art fiber optic networks linking major cities that provides a strong backbone for Internet development. But there is genuine uncertainty among government leaders about how to regulate it, said Jeanette Chan, a Hong Kong-based attorney specializing in Chinese telecommunications policy.
Another possibility is that Beijing is using the investment ban as a means of boosting its bargaining clout in negotiations to join the World Trade Organization.
``If they've already given this up, then what chips do they have to bargain with?'' Ms. Chan said in an interview. ``Even within the government, there's no clear indication how to regulate the Internet, so the easiest thing to say is you cannot invest.''
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Russia Power To Be Manual on Y2K
Filed at 9:24 p.m. EST November 3, 1999 Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Y2K-Russia.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's electricity monopoly will shift its huge grid to manual control on Dec. 31 to ensure it avoids ``millennium bug'' outages, system officials said Wednesday.
Russia is considered one of the countries most vulnerable to potential problems when the changeover from 1999 to 2000 is expected to effect many computers whose chronometers cannot distinguish between the years 2000 and 1900.
Although Russia has proportionately fewer computers than more developed countries, it also apparently has done less to prepare them for the new year than have Western countries.
Managers at United Energy Systems, the country's electricity monopoly, said at a news conference that they are 95 percent ready for the date flip-over.
The company has checked about 50,000 computer systems which guide the flow of power across the country.
The company allotted less money than engineers asked for in 1998 in order to fix the problem, officials said. Planners wanted $28 million but UES allotted only $8 million.
UES deputy chairman Alexander Remezov said the company made up for the shortfall with a plan to use manual controls.
``We can't give a 100-percent guarantee that not one of these many systems will fail,'' said Remezov. He said generating plants will have a week of coal or fuel oil reserves on hand at the New Year.
Earlier, authorities have said that nuclear power plants are safe from potential problems computer problems.
There has been wide concern about electricity and other infrastructure failures in Russia with the year change, prompting the U.S. Embassy to tell non-essential American personnel to spend the year-end holidays outside the country.
But Russians themselves have shown relatively little concern. Service interruptions almost matching worst-case scenarios for Jan. 1 strike Russia frequently for other reasons.
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Russia Fires Warning Shot Over ABM Treaty
Reuters Updated 10:12 AM ET November 3, 1999 By Peter Graff
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/991103/10/international-russia-missile
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has test-fired one of its short-range anti-missile rockets for the first time in six years and a general linked the test to an arms control dispute with the United States, Interfax news agency said Wednesday.
Interfax quoted Russia's Strategic Missile Forces as saying they launched the missile from a base in Kazakhstan Tuesday.
The forces' commander, Vladimir Yakovlev, said the launch could be seen in the context of possible Russian responses if the United States withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) arms treaty.
The launch came amid mounting invective over ABM, which Moscow calls the bedrock of the entire arms control process but which Washington wants changed to allow deployment of a new anti-missile defense system.
Tuesday, Russian President Boris Yeltsin sent President Clinton a warning of "extremely dangerous consequences" if the United States proceeded with its anti-missile plans.
That followed statements last month by a Russian general that Moscow might deploy more nuclear missiles if Washington broke the ABM treaty, remarks that prompted Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to say she was "troubled."
The Cold War-era ABM treaty banned defense systems designed to shoot down enemy missiles, under the logic that such shields would only have tempted the United States and the Soviet Union to build ever bigger arsenals of nuclear warheads.
Washington says it wants to amend the treaty to allow it to deploy a system to protect itself and its allies from an attack by "rogue states," such as Iran and North Korea, believed to be developing missile technology.
Some U.S. hawks, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, want ABM scrapped altogether.
But Russia says any weakening of ABM would undermine the entire arms control system, including subsequent historic pacts, such as the START Strategic Arms Reduction deals that have already led to thousands of warheads being scrapped.
Yakovlev was quoted by Interfax as saying the latest test was a check of the anti-missile rocket's military readiness and meant its working life could be extended. Russia regularly conducts such tests with aging armaments.
But he also said the test could be seen as one of the possible "symmetrical and asymmetrical response measures," if the United States quit the ABM treaty.
"It is not clear who it would be worse for, if someone were to pull out of the 1972 ABM treaty," he said.
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Colombian Rebels Tap E. Europe For Arms Guerrillas' Firepower Superior to Army's
By Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service, November 4, 1999; Page A01
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/04/284l-110499-idx.html
BOGOTA, Colombia-Despite Colombian and U.S. efforts to stem the flow of drugs and guns that have helped build Latin America's most powerful guerrilla insurgency, the Marxist-led rebels are amassing a sophisticated arsenal from new sources in the the former Soviet Bloc that is rapidly changing the balance of power in Colombia's civil war, officials say.
The rebels' new firepower was first put on public display last fall, when guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) emerged from the jungle for the opening of peace talks. Colombian and U.S. officials were stunned to see parading rebels carrying thousands of new AK-47 assault rifles, Dragunov sniper rifles and other weapons from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
"We thought the parade was a special group sent out to impress us, and it did," said a U.S. official. "But it has become clear they have access to a whole new supply of weapons, and it is a serious escalation. They are far past what the army has."
Colombian, U.S. and Russian intelligence officials say that new weapons from Eastern Europe are surging into Colombia. Largely out of fear that the FARC is gaining the upper hand in the conflict, the United States is rapidly escalating aid to the Colombian army. In addition to $289 million in aid already committed for fiscal 1999, the Clinton administration is seeking a $2 billion package over the next three years.
The rebels' arms purchases have increased in part because of growing cocaine consumption in Europe, especially in former Soviet Bloc countries, coupled with the widespread availability of weapons for sale across Eastern Europe.
"What we are seeing is a heavy push of cocaine into Europe and at the same time we are seeing Russian criminal groups seeking new alliances with Colombian cartels," said Gen. Rosso Jose Serrano, Colombia's national police chief. "We don't know how much is guns for drugs and how much is just taking their vast wealth to the black market and buying weapons, but it is a serious situation for us."
The result, according to U.S. and Colombian officials, is that the FARC and paramilitary groups organized to combat the guerrillas have a secure arms pipeline. The officials say the pipeline delivers vast quantities not only of assault rifles but also of heavy machine guns, hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, small artillery, explosives, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades, significantly altering the balance of power against the government in Colombia's civil war.
Colombian and U.S. officials also cited consistent intelligence reports that the FARC possesses SA-14 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, although none has been captured. The use of such missiles, said one U.S. official, "would change the threat envelope considerably" for the U.S.-backed military and the estimated 200 U.S. trainers who routinely rotate through Colombia and use helicopters to move around the country.
In addition to the Eastern European weapons, the FARC has significantly upgraded its communications equipment, buying Japanese and European encryption technology, voice scramblers and other technology that makes interception of their communications almost impossible, Colombian and U.S. intelligence analysts said. The group also has a fleet of single-engine airplanes and several helicopters.
In recent months the Colombian anti-drug police found a shipment of 480 new Ukrainian-made AK-47s near the Caribbean port of Turbo, an area controlled by the right-wing paramilitary groups.
For most of its 35 years, the FARC was a ragtag, rural Marxist band relying on outdated weapons bought on the black market and from disbanded Central American insurgencies. But today the FARC is deeply involved in the drug trade in Colombia, which produces 80 percent of the world's cocaine, and is able to spend the profits on supplying its 15,000 fighters. The FARC makes millions of dollars a year from taxing the production of cocaine, as well as charging to protect clandestine laboratories, airstrips and drug-trafficking routes.
Peace talks begun last year between the government of President Andres Pastrana and the FARC were suspended in July. However, the talks were reinitiated on Oct. 24 when the two sides were to discuss a 12-point agenda on how to end the war, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians. The paramilitary groups, about half the size of the FARC, are more directly involved in drug trafficking, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). They operate cocaine laboratories and are partners of important international drug-trafficking organizations, according to DEA intelligence reports.
Barry R. McCaffrey, the Clinton administration's drug policy coordinator, said Europe now consumes between 80 and 130 tons of cocaine a year, a sharp increase in the past year. Colombian intelligence officials estimate that at least 10 tons are shipped through Russia.
Some of the cocaine stays there to meet growing Russian demand. But most is shipped into Europe from the east. Russian criminal groups reap enormous profits either way by controlling the routes.
Drug traffickers pay cash or exchange cocaine for weapons and bring the guns back in the same transport containers they use to bring the drugs over.
"The Russian military has been involved in gray market sales of weapons since the fall of the Soviet Union," said Rens Lee, president of Global Advisory Services and an expert on Russian arms sales. "They want to make money and are not fastidious about whom they sell weapons to. Military profiteering is very important."
The drug traffickers either auction off weapons to the highest bidder or turn them over to a group that has paid in advance, intelligence officials said.
Dimitri Belov, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy here, said Russia is working closely with Colombian police.
"We are not satisfied with the current situation but in some ways it is exaggerated, too," Belov said. "We feel the situation between Russia and Colombia is under control."
Colombian intelligence reports show that most of the guerrillas' weapons are delivered from Ecuador by river or small airdrops into the southern Putumayo and Caqueta regions. Several large airdrops of several hundred weapons each have been detected in the past three months, intelligence officials said. The paramilitary groups are largely supplied by ships that unload their cargo in small, uncontrolled ports in northern Colombia, mostly in the Cordoba region.
Colombian intelligence reports say the arms network is an extension of contacts between Colombian and Russian organized crime groups.
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Experts Give Final Advice on Y2K
By Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer Thursday, Nov. 4, 1999; 4:19 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991104/aponline161943_000.htm
WASHINGTON -- The first of January will neither usher in the end of the world nor the end of all problems, the White House senior adviser on the Y2K computer issue told a House hearing Thursday.
John Koskinen said that among the Y2K "myths" that must be dispelled are "doomsday" scenarios that nuclear weapons will launch themselves or that the federal government is using the computer problem as an excuse to take control over other institutions.
Another myth, he said is that Jan. 1, the arrival of the new millennium, will be the all-or-nothing day for computer problems, and that people can close the books on Y2K after that. Businesses and governments are already having to use year 2000 dates in their operations and will continue to do so into the new year, and there will be a continued need to watch for slow degradations in service, he said.
"It is important for the public to know that Jan. 1 is just one of the important dates in the life of the Y2K issue."
The hearing on the myths and realities of the Y2K problem was probably the last in the House before the arrival of the new millennium. Panels of the House Government Reform and Science committees have held dozens of such hearings over recent years to discuss the ramifications of computers that read only the last two digits of a year and could mistake 2000, or "00," for 1900.
Another myth, Koskinen said, is that industry assurances that they are ready for Y2K can't be believed because they did their own reporting. The basic infrastructure is in good shape, he said, with electric power grids, telecommunications networks, financial systems and key transportation systems expected to function normally.
Asked by Rep. Constance Morella, R-Md., about criticisms that he was overly optimistic, Koskinen said none of those "predicting the end of the world as we know it" had come up with evidence that Y2K glitches will cause major problems in this country.
Some developing countries are likely to experience Y2K-related failures, but "there is no indication that these problems will have a negative impact on the overall U.S. economy."
Joel Willemssen of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, agreed that there had been substantial progress at the federal level since the GAO in early 1997 identified Y2K as a high-risk area.
The Social Security Administration has led the way in preparing, while the Veterans Affairs and Education departments have made major strides after slow starts, he said. The Pentagon, the IRS and the agencies that oversee Medicare and aviation still have a few problems to work out and the states still have work to do in such areas as Medicaid, food stamps and child support enforcement. Education and the health care industry are other areas that demand attention, he said.
Among the realities, Koskinen said, are that major public services will work but there will be some problems. He said any disruptions "will be short-lived, like temporary problems caused by storms."
His office, the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, has put out a preparedness checklist which advises people to have at least a three-day supply of food and water and keep copies of important records.
His office will operate an Information Coordination Center to receive status reports from the private and public sectors. It will begin 24-hour monitoring operations on Dec. 28.
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Nuclear Reactor Back Online (Louisiana Headlines)
Thursday November 4 5:11 AM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/local/state/louisiana/story.html?s=v/rs/19991104/la/index_1.html#4
(ST. FRANCISVILLE) -- The River Bend Nuclear Power Plant is slowly coming back online after the reactor generator suddenly shut down five days ago. Plant engineers say the generator automatically jumped off the multi-state power grid. They believe repair workers tripped it from a nearby power transmission site. While officials reported no outages this time, Entergy directors say they are concerned after a summertime record of brownouts in south Louisiana.
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Global Water Technologies' Subsidiary Completed Installation of Its Proprietary Environmentally-Sound Water Treatment System At a Nuclear Power Station
GOLDEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 4, 1999--
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/991104/co_global__1.html
Global Water Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB:GWTR - news) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Applied Water Technologies, Inc. (AWT), has been awarded a contract and has completed the installation of its proprietary environmentally-sound water treatment program for Commonwealth Edison Inc.'s Zion Nuclear Power Station.
The AWT total water management system employs leading-edge technology to treat water versus the traditional chemical-based water treatment programs. AWT was awarded the contract based upon a thorough evaluation of AWT's technology and Commonwealth Edison's desire to reduce maintenance costs and the use of hazardous chemicals in their water treatment program. GWT's other subsidiary, Psychrometric Systems, Inc. (PSI), also previously supplied the cooling towers for this same site.
Commonwealth Edison's Mr. Ray Brooks, Design Engineer, stated, ``We selected the AWT water management program because of the environmental and maintenance aspects of the alternative technology.''
Mr. George Kast, President and Chief Executive Officer of GWTR stated: ``We are pleased that Commonwealth Edison has selected our proprietary technology over conventional chemical water treatment. I believe it demonstrates Commonwealth Edison's desire to be a `Green Supplier' and reduce their usage and discharge of chemicals. I am also confident that other industries will see the benefit of our system and select AWT to be the supplier of choice when it comes to their water treatment needs.''
AWT markets their total water management system to both industrial and middle market customers. The system benefits will enable them to reduce chemical dependency, reduce water and chemical discharge as well as reduce water usage. The water treatment industry is currently over $300 billion per year and growing rapidly, as only ten percent of the world's water is currently treated. Furthermore, water and water discharge costs have gone up significantly in the last five years, causing industry to seek more environmentally-sound water treatment programs to reduce water usage.
Global Water Technologies, Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary, Applied Water Technologies, Inc., provides its customers with proprietary environmentally-sound water treatment systems and services which are designed to meet the growing need for water purification and re-use worldwide. Global Water Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GWT, will bring total cooling water solutions and service programs to its customer base including cooling water systems and water treatment services. Psychrometric Systems, Inc., another wholly owned subsidiary, provides process cooling water primarily through the design, engineering and project management of cooling towers to industrial and manufacturing clients worldwide. Global Water Technologies, Inc. trades over-the-counter bulletin board under the symbol ``GWTR''.
Contact:
Global Water Technologies, Inc. George A. Kast, President and CEO Phone: 303/215-5117 Facsimile: 303/215-0595 www.gwtr.com
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AP Corrects NATO Story
The Associated Press Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1999; 5:37 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991103/aponline173705_000.htm
MOSCOW -- The Associated Press erroneously reported Nov. 2 that Francois le Blevennec, a spokesman at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, said the current strategic balance in Europe makes it unnecessary for Hungary to deploy nuclear missiles. Le Blevennec did not speak of any strategic balance, saying only that when Hungary joined NATO this year deploying nuclear missiles in that country was considered "undesirable and unnecessary."
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Bulgaria gives in to EU pressure over N-plant
10:43 a.m. Nov 04, 1999 Eastern By Liliana Semerdjieva
SOFIA, Nov 4 (Reuters) - http://infoseek.go.com
Bulgaria gave in on Thursday to pressure from the European Union and said it was ready to negotiate early closure of four old reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear plant in exchange for financial compensation.
Parliament, after a fierce debate, voted 146-68 to give a mandate to the government for talks with the EU over the closure of the Soviet-designed reactors which the West deems unsafe.
The EU has made early closure of the reactors a precondition for extending an invitation to the impoverished Balkan state to start direct membership talks with the bloc. The decision is expected to be taken at a EU summit in December.
``We will negotiate favourable conditions for Bulgaria,'' Prime Minister Ivan Kostov told the chamber. ``The mandate will not lead to an early closure of the reactors without getting compensation for the losses.''
Under Bulgaria's energy strategy, approved in March, reactors one and two should be decommissioned in 2004 and 2005 respectively, and reactors three and four in 2008 and 2010.
Bulgarian officials have argued that earlier closure of the 440-megawatt reactors would cut the country's export earnings and force it either to import expensive power or use more environmentally harmful coal power plants.
The Kozloduy plant on the Danube River also has two more modern 1,000 megawatt reactors and produces over 40 percent of Bulgaria's electricity.
Ordinary Bulgarians are afraid that they may suffer power cuts and rationing after losing such a power source.
Kostov said Bulgaria, severely hit by the crisis in Kosovo which had hampered transport and trade ties with central Europe, could not bear additional losses from the closure of the reactors which produce the country's cheapest energy.
``Without compensations the structure of the Bulgarian energy would be jeopardised,'' Kostov said.
It may also affect the deals already reached over electricity exports to Turkey and undermine revenues of the National Electricity Company, he added.
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FOCUS-France among 6 states best prepared for Y2K
12:48 p.m. Nov 04, 1999 Eastern
By Gillian Handyside PARIS, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Infoseek
France stands alongside Australia, Britain, Ireland, Singapore and Hong-Kong as one of the six countries best prepared for the millennium bug, according to an international group studying countries' readiness for Y2K.
But the group, Global 2000, said nine states out of 49 studied in September still needed to make ``significant improvements'' to ensure energy, water and other key sectors were not disrupted by the dawn of the new millennium, which could wreak havoc with computers unable to recognise the 2000 date.
These included Russia and a handful of countries in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe, Global 2000's Jim Devlin told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Devlin said the United States was not in the top six because it had a water distribution problem. He gave no further details.
Because of the sensitivity of the issue Devlin declined to name the countries on the red list, other than Russia, which he said was viewed as the most serious case by all organisations studying the millennium bug. ``They (the Russians) have admitted their attitude is 'we'll fix it when it breaks','' Devlin said.
Global 2000 is an informal organisation of banks, securities firms and insurance companies, set up to minimise the risks to the global financial markets arising from the change of century.
It regularly updates a survey of Y2K readiness in seven sectors -- financial firms, clearing and settlement bodies, telecommunications, transport, water, energy and government administrations -- in the 49 countries it considers to be most important for global financial markets.
Devlin said that while Y2K preparedness was ``satisfactory'' in the large majority of countries monitored, at the time of the last survey in September there were still nine countries on Global 2000's red list of areas requiring ``significant improvement.'' Problems covered a total of 15 sectors, he said.
RUSSIA, ENERGY AND WATER STILL MAJOR CONCERNS
``Most of these are in the energy and water sectors. We are concerned that at this late date countries are not paying attention to this,'' he said, pointing out that power failures and a lack of water for fire safety and sanitation could oblige businesses to close.
Russia was on the red list for all seven sectors, he said. Six states had energy problems, including ``two small states'' in Latin America and several in Asia-Pacific. Five countries in Latim America, Asia and Eastern Europe had water problems.
There were no serious problems in the financial services sector, which is subject to stiff regulatory control, he said.
In the energy field, the main problem was with embedded chips, which are found in the control equipment of both nuclear and non-nuclear systems, Devlin said.
``Failure to deal with this could cause energy sources to cut out, leaving people without heat or power. We are not talking about reactors blowing up,'' he said.
Without saying whether they were on the red list, Devlin said neither China, India and Indonesia was sufficiently prepared for the millennium bug, including in the energy sector.
China and Indonesia were ``moving in the right direction'' but Indonesia was ``still a concern,'' he said, in spite of some improvements in financial services. He said energy problems were ``not so much nuclear in the case of China and India.''
French Industry Secretary Chrisitan Pierret said on Thursday France had spent 120 billion francs ($19.18 billion) since 1997 on the millennium bug. Large enterprises, major public services, the administration and the Parisian financial market were all prepared for the change of century, Pierret said.
((Paris newsroom + 33 1 4221 5343, f+ 33 1 4236 1072, paris.newsroom+reuters.com))
($1-6.257 French Franc)
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UK court vindicates Mauritania PM over nuke claim
10:04 a.m. Nov 05, 1999 Eastern Infoseek
LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - An Arabic language newspaper apologised to Mauritanian Prime Minister Cheik El Avia Ould Mohamed Khouna in a London court on Friday for saying he had promised to let Israel bury nuclear waste in his country.
Al Quds Al Arabi retracted its claims in a settlement at London's High Court, publicly apologising to Khouna -- who accepted the withdrawal.
The paper had alleged that as Mauritania's Foreign Minister, Khouna had ``entered into clandestine negotiations'' with the Israeli government while on an official visit there just days before he was appointed prime minister a year ago.
It claimed he promised to allow Israel to bury its nuclear waste and possibly carry out military exercises in Mauritania.
``The defendants accept that Cheikh Khouna has never disregarded Mauritania's obligations as a signatory to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty or otherwise acted so as to expose the people of Mauritania and neighbouring countries to the dangers of nuclear radiation,'' Khouna's lawyer Cameron Doly told the court.
Mauritania's government last month established full diplomatic relations with Israel to help support the Middle East peace process, incurring criticism from the Arab League and some Arab states.
Among these, Iraq strongly denounced Mauritania's move, and on Thursday Nouakchott broke off diplomatic ties with Baghdad, which it had previously accused of planning to destabilise its government.
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U.N. adopts draft against U.S. anti-missile defense
05:41 p.m Nov 05, 1999 Eastern
By Anthony Goodman UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - infoseek
A resolution sponsored by Russia, China and Belarus aimed at pressing the United States not to proceed with building an anti-missile defence was adopted by a U.N. committee on Friday by a vote of 54 to four with 73 abstentions.
The resolution, which now goes to the General Assembly for endorsement, calls for continued efforts to strengthen and preserve the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty between the United States and the then-Soviet Union, which Washington wants to amend.
The treaty limits defence systems designed to shoot down enemy missiles, on the theory that such shields would only tempt the other side to build more missiles to overwhelm the defences.
The United States wants to amend the treaty to permit it to build a limited defence against any attack on the United States or U.S. troops stationed abroad by what it regards as ``rogue states,'' such as North Korea and Iran, with a growing capacity to launch weapons of mass destruction.
The U.N. resolution calls on the parties to the treaty ``to refrain from the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems for a defence of the territory of its country and not to provide a base for such a defence.''
The treaty parties are also called on not to transfer to other states, or to deploy outside their national territory, ABM systems or their components limited by the treaty.
Under the 1972 treaty, Russia has long had an ageing ABM defence to protect only Moscow. But neither country has a national missile defence such as the one the United States wants to deploy on a limited scale that would not be sufficient to neutralise Russia's large nuclear force.
As an apparent warning to Washington, Russia on Tuesday test fired one of its short-range anti-missile rockets for the first time in six years, and on Thursday it test-fired an old nuclear-capable tactical missile, to show its shelf-life had not expired.
On Tuesday Russian President Boris Yeltsin also sent U.S. President Bill Clinton a warning of ``extremely dangerous consequences'' if Washington went ahead with anti-missile plans.
Voting against the Russian-Chinese-Belarus resolution, together with the United States, were Israel, Latvia and Micronesia.
Thirteen of the 15 members of the European Union abstained while the other two, France and Ireland, voted for the resolution.
The large number of abstainers also included Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Korea as well as most East European nations such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.
The resolution calls for ``renewed efforts by each of the states parties to preserve and strengthen the ABM Treaty through full and strict compliance.''
It considers that any measure undermining the purposes and provisions of the ABM treaty ``also undermines global strategic stability and world peace and the promotion of further strategic nuclear arms reduction.''
The resolution's sponsors say the ABM treaty is the cornerstone of global nuclear deterrence, which would be unravelled by the construction of an anti-missile defence.
Before the resolution was adopted, a French amendment urging support for efforts to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery was approved by 22 votes to one, with the unusually large number of 95 abstentions.
The United States cast the sole negative vote against the amendment, which appeared to be a bid to make the resolution more attractive to waverers. The sponsors of the resolution -- Russia, China and Belarus -- were among the abstainers.
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Planned Turk nuke plant imperils eastern Med -foes
01:05 p.m Nov 05, 1999 Eastern By Michele Kambas NICOSIA, Nov 5 (Reuters) - infoseek
A nuclear power plant to be built near a seismic fault line on Turkey's southern coast could have devastating effects in the eastern Mediterranean in the event of an earthquake, anti-nuclear campaigners said on Friday.
The massive earthquake that hit northwestern Turkey in August and killed about 15,000 people should serve notice that creating nuclear facilities in a tremor-prone region is too dangerous, they said.
``It is like creating a pool of gasoline in the Middle East and an earthquake being the matchstick,'' said David Martin, research director of the Canada-based Nuclear Awareness Project, a nongovernmental organisation.
The project at Akkuyu Bay, which has been on the drawing board for years, is part of Turkey's efforts to diversify energy resources to meet rapidly growing domestic demand.
It is strongly opposed by environmentalists but also locals, the campaigners told a news conference in Nicosia, Cyprus.
The eastern Mediterranean island is 140 kilometres (87 miles) south of the proposed site for the Akkuyu plant.
Turkey collected bids in 1997 from three international consortia, led by the American White Westinghouse, Canada's AECL and Franco-German Nuclear Power International (NPI). The government has put off deciding on bids until the end of 1999.
REAL QUAKE RISKS IGNORED, LOBBYISTS SAY
Martin, heading up a lobby in Canada that wants to see government-controlled AECL pull out of the bidding process, said the real earthquake risks at Akkuyu had been overlooked.
However, he said the project was strongly backed by the Canadian government.
Martin presented a report suggesting that construction specifications drawn up on the basis of Turkish technical studies in the region were inadequate because they would withstand only mild earthquakes.
Those specifications assume that the worst earthquake would cause horizontal shaking equal to 25 percent of the force of gravity, but should be upgraded because horizontal shaking of between 50 and 70 percent could potentially occur, it said.
Recent research has indicated that the active Ecemis fault runs close to the planned plant but such evidence has been disregarded by authorities because it would mean further delays in construction and higher design costs, the report said.
That finding is disputed by the bidders.
More than 31 earthquakes measuring from between 2.9 to 4.7 on the Richter scale have been recorded within a vicinity of 99 kilometres (55 miles) of Akkuyu since 1973, the report added.
``If there is an accident from an earthquake at an Akkuyu plant it would make the Chernobyl accident look like a motorway car pileup,'' said Jim Karygiannis, a liberal member of the Canadian parliament.
The lobbyists said they would visit Lebanon and Israel next to canvas support for their campaign against the plant.
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Stockholm court rejects Sydkraft N-power complaint
06:29 a.m. Nov 05, 1999 Eastern
STOCKHOLM, Nov 5 (Reuters) - infoseek
Stockholm city court on Friday turned down a complaint by power group Sydkraft, bringing a Swedish nuclear reactor shut-down plan one step closer to reality.
The court rejected Sydkraft's call for it to force Swedish government to postpone a plan to close its two Barseback nuclear power units in southern Sweden until after a European Commission ruling on the issue.
Sydkraft, Sweden's largest private power group, said it would appeal the decision in a higher court.
``To ensure Sydkraft's best interest, we need to take legal action to protect us against any possible situation which might arise,'' Sydkraft chief executive Lars Frithiof said in a statement.
The first reactor is due to shut by the end of November and the second in 2001 as part of a long-term government programme to end nuclear power production in Sweden.
There is no deadline for the Commission to rule on complaints about discriminatory decisions that affect business.
Sydkraft filed a complaint to the European Union last year, asking it to examine a Swedish government plan to close its Barseback power plant. It said closure would give an advantage to its main competitor, state-owned Vattenfall.
``If we close the reactor and we are proved right at a later point, Sydkraft risks serious and irreparable damages,'' Frithiof said, noting ``constructive'' talks with the government.
``Negotiations between the government and Sydkraft over a voluntary shutdown of Barseback one has been reopened in a constructive spirit,'' he said.
There are no specific plans to shut down any of Sweden's other 10 nuclear power reactors.
Sweden's controversial shutdown plan dates back to a 1980 referendum, which laid the groundwork for a nuclear power phase-out programme to be completed by 2010.
Around 46 percent of Sweden's power output is nuclear power.