* Prof. Youri Bandazhevsky, Director of the Medical Institute in Gomel, Republic of Belarus, has been imprisoned since July 13th, needs help
* FEATURE-Russia, US ignore tensions to ease Y2K fear
* Clinton Offers to Vacate Vieques Target Range in 5 Years
* China Jails Stanford Researcher for Leaks
* China Sentences Scholar, Says He Leaked Secrets
* NATO allies emphasise transatlantic link
* Europe Plans Bigger Defense Role
* Strong Storm Kills 14 in Europe
* North Korea Agrees to Resume Talks With Japan
* India-Pakistan Fight Hurts Y2K Plan
* CORRECTED-Turkey set for first nuke plant
* Finnish PM defends EU hopefuls over nuclear plants
* Hackers Break Into DOE Web Site
* FirstEnergy Completes Asset Transfer With Duquesne Light
* Newberg-Perini Awarded $300 Million Contract To Support Entire ComEd Nuclear Power `Fleet'
* River Dirge
* Y2K-RUSSIA-NUCLEAR
* Key Points at the Conference (WTO)
* WTO Ends Conference Well Short Of Goals
* LatAm Calls for Open Trade
* Daley: Too Many Obstacles to Launch Trade Round
* Seattle Recovers From WTO Meetings
* Keyes: WTO Threatens Liberty
* Global Trade Talks End in Failure
* Seattle Faces Criticism for WTO Woe
* Long Agenda, Short Time Doomed WTO Trade Talks
* Internet Plan Falls Victim to WTO Failure
* Bad Planning Hit in Trade Talks Collapse
* Clinton Singled Out in WTO Blame Game
* WTO Failure Setback to Farm Trade Hopes
* Nations Call for WTO Reforms
* Protesters, WTO Nations Claim Win
----------
Prof. Youri Bandazhevsky, Director of the Medical Institute in Gomel, Republic of Belarus, has been imprisoned since July 13th, needs help
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 11:00:32 +0100 From: FERNEX <solange.fernex@wanadoo.fr>
We wanted to ask for your very urgent help in favour of Prof. Youri Bandazhevsky, Director of the Medical Institute in Gomel, Republic of Belarus.
Prof. Bandazhevsky has published outstanding research on the chronic effect of low doses of radiation, due to incorporated radionucleides, especially Cs137 and Sr 90 with food, in the region of Gomel, heavily polluted by Chernobyl More than 20 thesis on this topic have been presented by his students and accepted in the Moscow Academy.
This spring, Prof. Bandazhevsky criticized heavily-subsidized studies by a Medical Institute close to the Health Minister in Minsk, which supports the new official Belarussian policy of removing all restrictions on food, and leaving citizens with the free choice of taking or not individual precautions for contaminated food and goods.
He has been imprisoned since July 13th, he is in very bad health condition (heart and gastric diseases), and has not been informed yet of the charges raised against him. Rumours being circulated say that student have "bribed" him. The reality is that forged self accusations of "having paid to be admitted to the Medical Institute" have been solicited from students and their families. Amnesty International is going to admit Prof Bandazhevsky as a prisoner of conscience.
1. Very polite letters should be adressed to President A. Lukashenko through the Belarussian Embassies in each country's capital, asking that Prof. Bandazhevsky - get proper medical care - be presented immediately to a judge to learn of the charges against him - be able to see his lawyer and his family very regularly, or, according to the law, be able to stay in Gomel in his home waiting for his appearance in the court.
2. We are looking for means to publish the practically ignored work of Prof Bandazhevsky and his team (20 doctorates) in the West: good medical journals. Potential "medical writers" should be found to help this team. We are trying to raise money for this.
The work of the Gomel Medical Institute has to be known very widely. The fact is that, as Prof. Bandazhevsky pointed out, the population is dying out in the contaminated regions: 90% of the children are not healthy, the cancer epidemic is starting, incorporated Cs 137 is causing heart dysfunctions; all the systems are impaired, cancer being only the tip of the iceberg. Of special concern are the genetic and teratogenic birth defects. They are on a sharp increase. The birth rate has diminished by 30%.
We must not allow the pro-nuclear lobby to destroy this work, important for the whole world.
Dear colleagues, could you disseminate this appeal to other potential interested groups and send us your ideas and advise,
Thanking you in advance Yours very truly
Prof. Michel Fernex, IPPNW Switzerland Solange Fernex, WILPF France - solange.fernex@wanadoo.fr
-------- russia
FEATURE-Russia, US ignore tensions to ease Y2K fear
Reuters 09:05 p.m Dec 04, 1999 Eastern By Martin Nesirky
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a2177LBY574reulb-19991204&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
MOSCOW, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Few people doubt Russia has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world but many still need convincing the missiles will stay put when midnight chimes on December 31.
The United States and Russia, despite relations being at a post-Cold War low, are both eager to oblige as they prepare for the so-called millennium bug which may cause some computers to confuse 2000 for 1900.
``Doomsday is not going to happen,'' Sergei Rogov, director of the USA/Canada think-tank in Moscow, told Reuters. ``But my television set might go off.''
That succinctly sums up Russia's conundrum.
The world's largest country and second largest nuclear power is less dependent on commercial computers than many others, particularly in defence, but is less prepared for Y2K because it woke up to the problem late and has little cash to spend on it.
Western governments predict Russians could find that the lights go out, yet are surprisingly more upbeat about the safety of Russia's vast nuclear arsenal -- kept in prowling submarines, on land in silos or on mobile launchers and aboard long-range aircraft.
That confidence stems largely from a Russian and U.S. decision to sit together at a Colorado command centre over the New Year to monitor the effect of Y2K on nuclear forces and prevent each from thinking the other has launched a strike.
Russia has 2,000 nuclear-tipped missiles on permanent alert compared with 2,440 in the U.S.
WATCHING Y2K AROUND THE CLOCK
Eighteen Russian defence specialists will fly to Colorado on December 23 and start their joint watch with U.S. colleagues on December 27. They will work shifts together around the clock for three weeks at Peterson Air Force Base, headquarters of the U.S. missile-tracking Space Command.
``This sharing will reduce the chance that a turn-of-the-millennium computer error will create an end-of-the-year security incident,'' U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen said recently.
It is a measure of the significance both sides attach to the problem -- and to calming public nerves -- that the joint Y2K watch is going ahead despite diplomatic tensions which, ironically, include U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile shield.
Earlier this year, the Russians temporarily called a halt to cooperation because of Moscow's anger over the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. But things got back on track.
With less than a month to go, the Russians are close to completing their pre-Colorado training and the centre is ready. The aim is to spot any unannounced missile launches, not just from the two main nuclear powers, or aircraft off course.
RUSSIAN MILITARY UPBEAT, CIVILIANS LESS SURE
Back in Russia, defence officials sound optimistic about their own equipment and safeguards.
``Security systems, systems which control armaments, including nuclear weapons, use sophisticated technology which will not be affected by computer malfunctions,'' Yuri Bogun, spokesman for the Pacific Fleet, told Reuters. ``The Y2K problem will not affect the fleet.''
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, the government's Y2K supremo and also the man in charge of Russia's defence industry, expects nothing more than minor glitches in the civilian arena despite a severe lack of money and gloomier predictions abroad.
The military has less than $4 million to fix Y2K problems -- even individual companies in the West are spending more. The Pentagon is shelling out $3.8 billion.
``As always there is not enough financing,'' Klebanov said. ``(But) I can boldly declare that nothing anywhere near as terrible will happen as we are presently being frightened with.''
Power failures could hit the defence sector too, but missile bases have their own generators, military experts say.
``There may be much larger problems in the energy system but the strategic forces, because they are ready to fight a nuclear war, can operate for some time using their own energy supply,'' said Rogov.
NUCLEAR RISK GALVANISED TWO SIDES
Although not linked to the nuclear arsenal, Russia's atomic power stations, especially those like the Soviet-era Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, worry many in the West. Western governments see the risk of a Y2K nuclear accident in the East as minimal but greater than in the West.
Yet it was the prospect of a failed early warning system or an inadvertent missile launch that galvanised Russia and the United States to cooperate in a way that would have been unthinkable before.
Joshua Handler, a nuclear researcher based at Princeton in the United States, said Washington was particularly keen to have the Russians sitting in Colorado so there was no misunderstanding about U.S. Trident submarine movements if the Russian early warning system goes down.
``The U.S. worries that the Russians may not be able to see what the U.S. is up to and so may make a mistake,'' he said.
Rogov said there had been near misses in the past.
``It is impossible to deny Y2K is a problem and of course one should take into account a long record of technical mistakes both in the United States and the (former) Soviet Union and Russia in evaluating data,'' he said, referring to times when the sides came close to retaliating to false alerts.
``Right now as far as the Strategic Rocket Forces and other components of the Russian strategic triad are concerned this problem has been admitted by the military and they have in the last several months focused on some of the technical issues.''
WILL RUSSIAN MISSILES WORK NEXT YEAR?
One of those problems was the discovery that all but one of seven Cold War-era ``hotline'' links between Washington and Moscow needed fixing because of Y2K. Specialists from both sides have been working to update equipment.
If, despite all the tests and planning, Russia's military chiefs have any last-minute doubts about their missiles they may opt for a drastic, if somewhat prosaic, tactic.
``As far as I can tell people in the Rocket Forces or the General Staff, if they feel their systems are in any way vulnerable to this problem, to Y2K, they will just turn them off for a day or two or a week,'' said nuclear expert Pavel Podvig.
Yet intriguingly, the reverse could also turn out to be true, Handler said, even though the Russians say their nuclear arms systems rely on computers with no Y2K-style date stamp.
``In terms of missiles, the main problem is that they will not work -- not that they will somehow inadvertently shoot off,'' Handler told Reuters. ``I would say the same for the other weapons and stored warheads as well.
``Come January 1, 2000, the Russians may find themselves with some or a large portion of their nuclear force non-operational.''
-------- puerto rico
Clinton Offers to Vacate Vieques Target Range in 5 Years
Washington Post Saturday, December 4, 1999; Page A04 By Roberto http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/04/077l-120499-idx.html
Offering major concessions to Puerto Rican authorities and protesters, President Clinton yesterday agreed to halt live-fire exercises on the island of Vieques and promised that within five years the Navy will abandon the bombing range, a key training ground since World War II.
As part of the deal, Clinton proposed a $40 million aid package for the island's 9,300 inhabitants and promised that the administration would "take all possible steps" to repair strained relations between the Navy and Puerto Rico in hopes of eventually persuading authorities there to allow a resumption of live bombing.
But Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello, who has repeatedly demanded that the bombing range be shuttered immediately, rejected the offer as not going far enough.
"I am very disappointed by the president's proposal," he said. "It is unacceptable." For more than 20 years a variety of Puerto Rican politicians have criticized the Navy for dealing with islanders in a high-handed manner and for failing to remedy the economic and environmental damage done by its target practice. The breaking point came last April when two errant bombs killed a civilian security guard on Navy property. Faced with angry protests, the Navy suspended use of the target range.
Top military officials characterized the administration's plan as an effort to buy time and win over the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico so that the Navy and Marines could again make use of the 52-square-mile island. The Pentagon insists that Vieques is the only place the Atlantic Fleet can practice amphibious landings with jets dropping bombs and ships firing live ammunition as Marines advance inland.
"I don't think any of us disagree that Vieques is an irreplaceable asset," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jay Johnson said at a Pentagon briefing.
"It's the crown jewel of live-fire, combined-arms training. It's the world standard," Johnson said. "We do not want to leave Vieques."
Johnson added that the Navy would conduct exercises on Vieques with nonexplosive ammunition, or dummy bombs, but only as an interim step while pressing for the resumption of live-fire training.
As Clinton personally attempted to negotiate a deal acceptable to Puerto Rico and the Pentagon over the past three weeks, he found himself stymied by hundreds of protesters who are camping on the bombing range. He was also under pressure to forge a solution in time for training due to begin next week in Vieques.
"Even with the governor's support we would not have had a peaceful situation at this point," a senior administration official said. Rossello yesterday called for continued talks, but made clear that what was on the table was unacceptable.
Attorney General Janet Reno advised Clinton this week that even with a substantial deployment of federal agents, an attempt to remove the protesters could lead to violence.
"The attorney general was quite strong in her view that the FBI would be quite unlikely to be able to control the situation and that we needed a breathing space to build consensus behind this plan," the official said.
Nervous about conducting exercises under such circumstances, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen agreed to cancel the imminent exercises involving a battle group and amphibious forces led by the aircraft carrier Eisenhower. Instead, the ships will complete their training in Europe, using a target range in Scotland and Mediterranean beaches. But Pentagon officials insisted that this was a one-time fix.
Another deadline looms soon. A Navy and Marine flotilla led by the George Washington is scheduled to train at Vieques in the spring. Cohen said in a letter to Clinton yesterday that the proposed agreement "will be impossible to implement" if the George Washington and its escorts are denied access to Vieques. Cohen added an even more menacing touch by stating that top military officials have advised him that "the end of training on Vieques would mean a total reassessment of the other military activities in Puerto Rico."
Pentagon officials said the Navy would be likely to recommend closing the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, an important source of jobs and revenue for Puerto Rico, if it could not resume firing on Vieques.
"We've accomplished two things with this proposal," the senior administration official said. "We have avoided a confrontation this December that the attorney general believed would become unmanageable, and we have created the outlines of a proposal that meets the military needs and is less offensive to the people of Puerto Rico than the previous situation. Now we have to get a dialogue going."
But in Puerto Rico, Independence Party president Ruben Berrios, who has been camped on the firing range for nearly eight months, expressed guarded optimism over the development, which he attributed to the protest movement on Vieques and Puerto Rico's consensus that the Navy should leave.
"Now is the time to strengthen our resolve behind our stand of 'not one more shot,' which has gotten us this far," Berrios said.
The protesters have weathered two hurricanes, and heavy rains this week damaged their camps. But the movement has been growing and receiving more support in anticipation of a presidential decision and possible arrests.
Protesters got a boost this week when a Roman Catholic deacon established a church camp on Navy land. All five local Catholic bishops, including Archbishop of San Juan Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, have thrown their support behind the protest. The church published thousands of pamphlets and began handing them out to parishioners this week.
Administration officials said they hoped the promise to leave Vieques in five years would be taken by Puerto Rico as a substantial show of good faith, and they expected to lure Puerto Rican leaders to the negotiating table with the promise of economic aid, the posting of a senior admiral to San Juan to handle discussions, and an offer to gradually give up Navy land worth hundreds of millions of dollars for development.
The proposal, Clinton said, "provides some breathing space so that the people on the island and the Navy and the Marine Corps can proceed in an orderly and mutually respectful fashion."
Correspondent John Marino and staff writer David Vise contributed to this report from San Juan and Washington.
-------- china
China Jails Stanford Researcher for Leaks
New York Times December 4, 1999 By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/04/news/world/china-stanford.html
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A Stanford University researcher who had been an official in China's missile program has been sentenced to 15 years in a Chinese prison after having been convicted of leaking state secrets, Stanford officials said Friday.
The president of the university, Gerhard Casper, said Stanford learned this week that the scientist, Hua Di, 63, a research associate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, which is part of the university, had been convicted by a court of leaking secrets and sentenced to 15 years.
Hua was arrested a year ago in Beijing while on his first visit to his homeland in many years.
Hua's family relayed the news of the his conviction to his colleagues here.
Hua, whom the university said was a former high-ranking official of the missile program, became an associate at the center in July 1989 and worked on Asian-Pacific issues.
He is a permanent resident of the United States and had plans to become a citizen, his colleagues said.
---
China Sentences Scholar, Says He Leaked Secrets
Washington Post Saturday, December 4, 1999; Page A16 By John http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/04/156l-120499-idx.html
BEIJING, Dec. 3-A Chinese scholar has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaking "state secrets" about the country's missile program in research done at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., the university said today.
Stanford President Gerhard Casper said the school learned this week that Hua Di, a 63-year-old former official in China's missile program who is also suffering from a rare form of male breast cancer, had been sentenced by a Beijing court to the heavy prison term. Hua was arrested after returning to China last year to attend a family funeral. Chinese authorities had told him in Hong Kong that he would have no troubles on the mainland, sources close to Hua said.
Hua's sentence will send a chilling signal to Chinese scholars who collaborate with Americans on security-related projects. Chinese authorities have become increasingly uncomfortable about such cooperation, fearing it will both reveal important strategic weaknesses in China's military modernization drive and highlight the few pockets of excellence, such as missiles, in China's arsenal.
Hua moved to the United States in 1989 and was prominent at the time because he was one of only a few former Chinese officials with a military background who vociferously opposed the June 4 crackdown on pro-democracy students around Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Hua joined Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation in July of that year.
At the center, Hua worked closely with John W. Lewis, a Stanford professor who has been criticized in the American academic community for his cultivation of the sons and daughters of high-ranking Chinese Communist officials and his association with a company that sold high-tech communications equipment to a firm owned by China's military.
Hua co-authored several articles with Lewis, including a 1992 study of China's ballistic missile program.
A Hong Kong-based human rights organization said last June that Chinese authorities suspected Hua of leaking missile secrets to the U.S. military and specifically mentioned the 1992 article about China's missile program published in a U.S. journal, International Security.
Stanford's provost, Condoleezza Rice, said in a statement after Hua's arrest that Lewis "had provided evidence to the fact that the source materials for publications written by him and Mr. Hua were provided by approved Chinese authorities or already were available through the Stanford University library."
Hua was a permanent resident of the United States, and it was believed he was about to receive citizenship when he was arrested upon his return to China.
-------- nato
NATO allies emphasise transatlantic link
Reuters 07:36 a.m. Dec 02, 1999 Eastern By Douglas Hamilton
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a1072LBY591reulb-19991202&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The NATO allies on Thursday said their missions in Bosnia and Kosovo would have been impossible without the transatlantic link and pledged that nothing would be done to weaken it.
At a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels, they issued a communique which also said they remain committed to the central treaties on disarmament and to their implementation.
The declarations were made in a spirit of mutual reassurance, as the European Union moves to build up a distinct military identity and the United States inches towards creating a national missile defence system.
Both aims have raised concerns about the risk of loosening the alliance's cohesion, creating a fortress America and a two-tier NATO in which Europeans equip to take on softer peacekeeping tasks but not high intensity defence missions.
``We reaffirmed the enduring importance of the transatlantic link,'' the defence planning committee statement said. The Bosnia and Kosovo operations ``could not have been undertaken without our integrated military structure and our well-established mechanisms for collective planning.''
``We shall ensure that collective defence planning continues to address the requirements needed for the full range of alliance missions.''
The language was crafted to underline NATO's primacy and experience as the European Union sets out to develop a military capability which is intended to complement NATO but which some critics see as a potential rival.
The emphasis on the ``full range of alliance missions'' underscores NATO's determination not to allow its combined capability to disintegrate into a two-speed defence pact.
MODERN, MOBILE FORCES
The ministers said they had adopted a five-year force plan which focused on areas where the European partners need to improve their contribution of modern, mobile forces, which will require money.
``All allies expect continued growth in GDP but, on the basis of current plans, only a few expect to increase defence expenditure. We shall need to keep this aspect under review,'' the communique said.
``We remain determined to seek the resources necessary to ensure that our forces are properly manned, equipped, trained and sustained for the full spectrum of alliance roles and missions.''
The Kosovo air campaign from March to June depended very heavily on American military capabilities, throwing a harsh spotlight on European shortcomings as never before.
Alliance secretary-general Lord George Robertson, reminding the 19-member organisation that the most pressing practical task facing it was closing that gap, said Europe at present had ``paper tiger'' forces.
The communique said ministers had exchanged initial ideas on adapting the NATO defence planning system to accommodate the European Union's commitment to a higher profile in crisis management, including a rapid reaction force of 50,000.
But it added: ``We attach the utmost importance to ensuring the cohesion and integrity of the alliance's defence planning process for the whole range of missions.''
RISK FROM ``ROGUE STATES''
U.S. Secretary of Defence William Cohen told the allies an American anti-missile shield was necessary to counter potential threats from ``rogue states'' with ballistic weapons, but assured them it would not wreck key nuclear arms treaties with Russia or decouple the defence pact.
``We reviewed evolving threats from proliferant states,'' the communique said. ``All allies support the central treaties related to disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and are committed to full implementation of these treaties.''
Russia, which declined to attend the conference, has warned it might tear up arms treaties if the U.S. plan for a missile defence went ahead unilaterally.
NATO ministers said the alliance would continue to maintain adequate nuclear forces in Europe, at a minimum level, not only as a deterrent but as ``an essential political and military link between the European and North American members.''
The use of nuclear weapons by NATO was ``extremely remote,'' they said. But they expressed ``concern that Russia appears to be moving towards a greater reliance on nuclear weapons to ensure its security.''
---
Europe Plans Bigger Defense Role
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 11:45 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/p/AP-McCain-Arizona.html
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- For years, the United States pressed its European allies to shoulder more of the burden of their own defense. Now Europe is forging ahead with a plan to do just that, and Washington suddenly is worried it could split the NATO alliance.
Tidal changes are washing across the continent. People whiz past borders without even slowing down. Free trade within the European Union is a virtual reality. A single currency was launched by 11 EU countries last January.
So it was inevitable another step in European integration would be defense.
That's fine, Washington says, as long as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization remains at the heart of European security.
Some fear the European Security and Defense Identity, a NATO program to be formalized at this week's European Union summit in Helsinki, Finland, is the first crack in the solidarity that has kept the peace in Europe for 50 years.
In the extreme, some Americans see ESDI as an insidious French plot to drive the United States out of Europe. On the other side, some Europeans view Washington's plan for a new national missile defense system as the first step toward abandoning Europe and withdrawing into isolationism.
``I recognize some people think that way. They're wrong,'' said NATO's new secretary-general, Lord Robertson of Britain.
``My job is to reassure the Americans that what we're doing is in the interest of the alliance, and to reassure the Europeans that the Americans are going to continue to be linked to Europe because it is in America's interest to do so,'' he said.
One thing is certain: The face of European security is changing. The nature of the beast that kept fingers on triggers from Norway to Portugal to Turkey has been transformed from a fearsome Soviet bear to a faceless terrorist, a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, regional instability, ethnic strife and the forces of nature.
For more than 40 years, NATO prepared to defend against a Soviet armored onslaught across the plains of central Europe. Today's threats require a different kind of army -- tougher, faster, more flexible.
While territorial defense can't be abandoned altogether, it is less important than small, mobile units with sophisticated weaponry needed for new challenges.
``Actual combat operations, if you forget the Gulf and Kosovo, tend to focus on ... keeping order in society,'' said Espen Barth Eide, military expert at the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Policy. ``From winning territory, it's about maintaining civilized behavior within a territory.''
Which is not to say Russia can be forgotten.
The Russians, everyone says, are no longer the enemy and must become partners with the West in maintaining European security.
Nonetheless, the draft of a new Russian military doctrine is causing concern. People who have seen it say it is much more aggressive and confrontational than the previous one, portraying greater competitiveness with the West.
Some see attitudes hardening in Moscow, with the military gaining greater influence in decision making. As examples, they point to Russia's war in Chechnya and to the standoff at Pristina airport in Kosovo, where Russian soldiers rushed in to pre-empt NATO's peacekeeping operation.
``It doesn't mean a revival of the Soviet threat, but a predictable revival of Russian national assertiveness,'' said Gordon Adams, director of security policy studies at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. ``Anybody who thought the Russians would just go home hasn't been reading history.''
Not everyone believes Europe's new assertiveness is for real either. The European allies long have pledged to do more on defense, but haven't.
The Kosovo air campaign clearly embarrassed them, however. The United States provided 85 percent of the punch in airstrikes against Yugoslavia. Then, with more than 2 million men and women in uniform, European states struggled to find 50,000 to send to Kosovo.
At its Washington summit in April, NATO launched its Defense Capabilities Initiative, which set upgrade objectives for the Europeans. This coincided with the EU's decision to move into the defense business.
The desire in many capitals for a more European flavor to NATO still may founder. While there is a lot of talk about spending more effectively, the upgrading would bring a big price tag.
The French and British have proposed starting with a European corps of 50,000 to 60,000 men armed to the teeth, backed by 300 to 500 aircraft, 15 or so naval vessels, and able to deploy on very short notice.
Less clear is the potential mission for such a large force. It is difficult to imagine a European crisis that would require the corps and not be of interest to the United States.
Robertson noted that such a force would also be available to NATO.
Building effective European militaries not only is going to be expensive, it is going to take time, and a lot more debate.
``The next years are going to be dominated by a dialectic between the theory of increased European responsibility and the reality of increased challenges in the Balkans and perhaps elsewhere,'' said Gen. Wesley Clark, the American who serves as NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe.
The United States has expressed its support for the European Security and Defense Identity, saying a stronger Europe is in America's interest. But some Americans are worried the day may come when Europe won't bother to ask Washington if it wants in on an operation.
``We would not want to see an ESDI that comes into being first within NATO but then grows out of NATO and finally grows away from NATO,'' U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott told a London conference.
Adams, the George Washington University professor, said some American officials are alarmed by the French-British collaboration now driving ESDI.
``The French are dancing with the British and seducing them away from their natural trans-Atlantic tendencies,'' he said. ``In parts of Washington the paranoids are out, more in the executive branch than in Congress.''
Robertson insists Europe is incapable of taking any major action without NATO and says all the concern ``is a bit of a storm in a teacup.''
``The Europeans only contributed 15 percent toward the air power in the Kosovo conflict,'' he said. ``Let us say that we doubled that -- and that would require heroic efforts to be made in terms of planes and guided missiles as well as electronic warfare and tankers. With 30 percent, you still couldn't start World War III.''
The reality is the Europeans need the fig leaf of autonomy for pride. They also need it for practical reasons. Building European punch for European reasons is easier to sell at home than pushing for it because the Americans say so.
-------- sweden
Strong Storm Kills 14 in Europe
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 1:31 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Europe-Storm.html
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) -- A strong storm blasted across northern Europe, killing at least 14 people, injuring dozens more, and leaving thousands Saturday to clean up debris-strewn streets, felled trees and flooded homes.
Packing gale-force winds that toppled trees and construction cranes with ease, the storm swept Friday across Britain and continuing eastward over Denmark, northern Germany, southern Sweden and Poland.
Experts in several countries called it one of the strongest storms of the century, and damage was estimated in the tens of millions of dollars across the area.
By Saturday, the skies were sunny and bright blue in much of the region. Weather officials said the storm passed over the Baltics and was in western Russia by the evening, but with significantly weaker winds of only about 56 mph.
Officials throughout the region worked to repair power lines cut to thousands of homes and businesses.
Six people died in Denmark, which was hit hardest by the storm. Three of the victims died in separate locations when they crashed their cars into fallen trees. At least three people died in Poland, three more died in Britain and two more in Germany.
Numerous injuries were reported throughout the region, mostly caused by fallen tree branches or roof tiles tossed about by the rough weather.
Many hospitals were forced to use generators, while authorities worked to repair power lines cut by flying branches or felled trees.
An estimated 160,000 homes in Denmark and Sweden were without electricity Saturday, local media reported. A nuclear reactor at the Barsebaeck power plant in southern Sweden was shut down overnight. The shutdown was described as routine, and did not pose a safety threat.
In Copenhagen, large chunks of the roof of the parliament building crashed on the square, prompting police to seal the area off.
The storm also brought flooding to low-lying areas. Dozens in southwestern Danish towns were forced to evacuate, as the sea rose more than 16.5 feet above normal level.
Residents in parts of the northern German port city of Hamburg, where water rose almost 20 feet above normal, were told to go the upper floors of their buildings.
The storm also played havoc with Saturday's football matches in Scotland, where only one game escaped cancellation.
And travel was disrupted throughout the region, with streets clogged with tree branches and railway lines lacking power.
Authorities closed some bridges and highways in Denmark and southern Sweden, and planes were grounded at Denmark's two main airports in Copenhagen and the western town of Billund. They resumed flying Saturday.
Roads were temporarily closed in the center of Cardiff, Wales, on Friday after a flagpole crashed on the roof of a Welsh Assembly building.
Two Polish border crossings to Russia were closed because of fallen trees. Many local trains in the region were canceled or rerouted, delaying trips up to three hours.
West of Germany's Sylt, the Liberian freighter ``Lucky Fortune'' suffered a breakdown in the rolling seas and went out of control before it was able to be towed to safety Saturday morning.
An Irish Air Corps helicopter on Saturday evacuated 17 people who had been stranded for six days by storms on Tory Island, off the coast of County Donegal in northwestern Ireland.
And in Danish and Polish shipyards, huge cranes were blown over by the gales, but no one was injured.
-------- korea
North Korea Agrees to Resume Talks With Japan
New York Times December 4, 1999 By CALVIN SIMS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/120499nkorea-japan.html
Related Articles
North Korean, at U.N., Urges U.S. to Lift Economic Embargo (Sept. 26, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/092699nkorea-un.html
North Korea Agrees to End Missile Testing in Exchange for Economic Aid (Sept. 13, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/091399nkorea-missiles.html
Tokyo and Seoul Unite to Confront North Korea Arms (Aug. 4, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/080499korea-missile.html
SEOUL -- North Korea, one of the most isolated and bellicose countries in Asia, has made some unexpected diplomatic overtures in recent months, suggesting that its Communist government is itching to come out of its shell, or at least see what the rest of the world has to offer.
At a meeting on Friday in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, leaders from North Korea and Japan announced a breakthrough agreement to resume talks on establishing diplomatic relations. The talks have been stalled since 1992.
The talks, which may lead to the reinstatement of Japan's food aid to North Korea, are expected to begin before the end of the year in Tokyo, Beijing or Pyongyang, a joint statement said.
The agreement is part of a recent effort by North Korea to improve its relations in order to gain more economic aid, which it desperately needs to rebuild its shattered economy and feed its starving people, who have suffered greatly during years of food shortages.
Political analysts said that while North Korea's new diplomatic tack is likely to reduce tensions in East Asia, the country remains as unpredictable as ever and has demonstrated no intention to reform its repressive policies.
"North Korea is definitely trying to normalize its relations with the outside world because it needs external support to overcome its economic crisis," said Kim Yeon Chul, a researcher for the Samsung Economic Research Institute.
"But this does not mean that North Korea has a strong appetite for major reforms," Kim said. "They are simply trying to solve short-term problems, and from a long-term perspective, they are not going to significantly change their fundamental hard-line principles."
Only a few months ago, North Korea was widely considered the bane of Asia after it threatened to test-launch a long-range ballistic missile.
But anxiety eased considerably when North Korea agreed to suspend the tests if the United States relaxed trade restrictions imposed at the end of the Korean War.
United States and North Korean representatives have been meeting in Berlin on and off for several months to address bilateral concerns and improve relations. North Korea has also held talks with British officials in London and European Union officials in Brussels.
Driving North Korea's push to improve its diplomatic ties is President Kim Jung Il, who analysts say has successfully consolidated his control over the military, the bureaucracy and Parliament in the past year, after a period of uncertainty following the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994.
With the worst of the food shortages and natural disasters like flooding easing, the analysts said, Kim is seeking to place his country on sound economic footing through better diplomatic ties.
Beyond diplomacy, North Korea appears to be opening up in other ways that few people ever considered. The country has permitted an unprecedented number of cultural and athletic exchanges with South Korea in the past year that are intended to promote unity between the two nations, which are technically still at war.
On Sunday a group of South Korean and American entertainers, including President Clinton's half brother, Roger, are to participate in a "Year 2000 Peace and Friendship Concert" in Pyongyang.
In what could be another breakthrough agreement, a leading South Korean manufacturer of jeans, the Nix Company, said that after months of negotiations, it has convinced North Korea to accept a donation of 10,000 pairs of jeans and 5,000 sweaters to be distributed to young people. In the past, North Korea has banned blue jeans, which it considers the ultimate symbol of "capitalism" and "Western decadence," said Park Sung Eun, Nix's public relations manager.
Indeed, organizers of excursions to the Korean demilitarized zone do not permit visitors to wear jeans or T-shirts because North Korean soldiers have taken photos of visitors wearing faded jeans to be used later as proof of hard times in the West.
Ms. Park said North Korean officials approved the donation only after they were assured the jeans would be black and loose fitting.
"I guess they didn't want jeans that showed off certain features, mainly because they want to use them as work clothes," Ms. Park said.
The deal to resume diplomatic talks with Japan followed a meeting of 16 Japanese lawmakers led by a former prime minister, Tomiichi Urayama, and a North Korean team led by Kim Yong Sum, secretary for international affairs of the Workers Party of Korea.
-------- india/pakistan
India-Pakistan Fight Hurts Y2K Plan
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 1:28 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Y2K-Nuclear-India.html
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Early this year, when relations were on an upswing, the leaders of India and Pakistan pledged to cooperate on sharing technology and reducing the risk of accidental nuclear war.
Three months later, the two countries were engaged in their worst fighting in almost three decades and were on the brink of their fourth full-scale war since both won independence from Britain in 1947.
Among the casualties of that episode was a plan for Indian experts to visit Pakistan to work on technical problems, possibly including cooperation on the unpredictable Y2K computer glitch.
``The visit didn't take place,'' said G. Parthasarthy, India's ambassador to Pakistan.
Nineteen months after both countries proved they were ready to produce nuclear arsenals, there is concern that still-developing controls on their nuclear devices could be disrupted come the New Year, when digital clocks on untreated computers turn from 99 to 00.
In India, no one seems overly concerned.
``I don't think that the two sides have reached such sophistication that Y2K should be a major problem,'' K. Subrahmanyam, a member of India's National Security Council, told The Associated Press.
In Pakistan, although scientists at the Atomic Energy Commission say their nuclear facilities are now Y2K compliant, there is uncertainty about India.
``We just don't know what our neighbor has done to handle this problem,'' one scientist told the AP, speaking on condition he not be identified.
An Indian nuclear expert, Brahama Chellany, said he believed the danger of the Y2K bug causing either country to fire a missile accidentally is ``absolutely nonexistent'' because neither possesses a system in which a missile is automatically fired after detecting a launch by an adversary.
``The missiles are absolutely safe and secure,'' said Chellany, of the independent New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research. ``To fire them, you have to first load the fuel, activate various systems and then fire them.''
Pakistan's military, which seized power in an Oct. 12 coup, is not disclosing any information on its millennium bug readiness, says that country's Y2K coordinator, Ijaz Khawaja, beyond assuring him it is compliant.
In India, the government's Y2K Action Force says the defense sector has done ``impact analysis'' on most systems and that rectification and testing was done ``wherever necessary.''
The task force says 11 critical sectors in India -- including banking, telecommunications, railroads, the space program, petroleum and civil aviation -- have achieved complete readiness. However, sectors including water supply, sewage and health, continue to be of concern.
``The critical thing for water supply and sewage is power,'' said the task force's chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia. ``And we are pretty assured that on the power side we won't have problems.''
Some foreign governments and independent analysts, however, are not so sure of India's readiness.
``The situation was quite bad six months ago, especially in the power sector,'' said Dewand Mehta, director of the National Association of Software and Service Companies. ``Things have considerably improved in most of the 11 core sectors.''
Mehta said, however, that ``because of the late start, the testing process is yet to be completed.''
International Y2K experts have expressed concerns about the level of preparation of India's air traffic control systems, and many airlines have decided to cancel flights over the region during the crucial New Year's rollover period.
H.L. Khola, director-general of civil aviation, said the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. body, tested Y2K compliance at New Delhi airport and will submit a report on Dec. 15 after testing facilities at the three other major airports.
As a contingency measure during the rollover period, all international flights will fly above 27,000 feet, domestic flights below that height. The longitudinal separation between any two planes also will be increased from 10 to 15 minutes, and all planes will carry extra fuel.
Under normal circumstances, some 1,200 aircraft operate in Indian airspace daily, half of them landing or taking off from its airports.
-------- turkey
CORRECTED-Turkey set for first nuke plant
Reuters 08:33 a.m. Dec 04, 1999 Eastern By Ercan Ersoy
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a0694reuff-19991204&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
ANKARA, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Energy-hungry Turkey appears eager to finalise a tender by the end of this month to build its controversial first nuclear power plant, ending a three-decade-long saga fraught by protests and cancellations.
``We have decided to intensify our efforts to conclude work on the nuclear power plant tender,'' Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told reporters on Thursday night after a six-hour meeting of government coalition leaders.
``The government has made a decision to go ahead with the nuclear power plant,'' he said.
Turkey, which cancelled two previous tenders in the past three decades, collected bids for the plant, to be located near the Mediterranean coastal village of Akkuyu, from three international consortia in 1997.
The companies agreed to extend their bids to December 31, 1999, following a request by the government, which failed to finalise the tender assessment by October 15, 1999, the original deadline put forward by the consortia.
Energy Minister Cumhur Ersumer has said if the government failed to award the tender again, ``this will give the world the message that Turkey will never be able to build any nuclear power plant in the future.''
Turkish state electricity producer TEAS, which will be operator, said technical assessment of the project was completed and it was now up to the government to move.
ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGN
The project has been severely criticised by local residents, environmentalists, the influential chamber of electrical engineers and some politicians.
The Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine in 1986 encouraged such groups to anti-nuclear campaign.
A strong earthquake that killed about 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in August also raised questions about the location of the plant, which some experts said lay near a seismic fault line.
Ethem Torunoglu, head of the Chamber of Environmental Engineers, said Turkey was criss-crossed by active fault lines and there were legal barriers to building the plant.
``A fault line is passing some 25 km (16-mile) to the east of the plant site. Also, the project does not have a key document, called the environmental assessment report, for it to go ahead,'' he told Reuters
But a housing ministry map suggested the site was in one of the safest locations in terms of exposure to earthquakes.
Thursday's meeting was prompted by a series of gas and power cuts in Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa this week after gas pressure in the pipeline from Russia dropped.
Melda Keskin, head of Greenpeace's Mediterranean Energy Campaign, told a news conference the timing of the power cuts was significant. ``They are trying to scare people off by using darkness and cold weather in order to conclude the nuclear tender,'' she said.
Turkey, which will consume 117.3 billion kiloWatt-hours (kWh) of power this year against 115.3 billion kWh generated, imports electricity from Iran, Georgia and Bulgaria to make up for the shortage.
BIG NAMES AMONG BIDDERS
The project is expected to cost up to $5 billion and is planned for completion in 2007. The three bidding consortia are led by Westinghouse Electric Co -- a unit of Britain's BNFL-- Canada's AECL and French-German NPI (Nuclear Power International).
The best bidder in terms of per unit costs energy generation is NPI, which includes Siemens Framatome, Alstom Campenon Bernard, Hochtief, Turkey's Garanti Koza, Simko, STFA and Tekfen.
Its first bid is for a 1,482-MegaWatt (MW) plant that will generate power for 2.56 cents per kWh and cost $2.393 billion. The second alternative is a 2,964-MW, $4.48 billion plant that will produce power at 2.28 cents per kWh.
Canada's AECL has Anglo-Norwegian Kvaerner John Brown, Hitachi, Turkey's Guris, Gama and Bayindir as partners. The consortium proposed a 1,339 MW, $2.572 billion plant and pledged a unit cost of 3.3 cents/kWh.
The consortium led by Westinghouse includes Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Raytheon and Turkey's Enka. Its bid for a 1,218-MW, $3.279 billion plant envisages a 3.35 cents/kWh unit cost.
-------- finland
Finnish PM defends EU hopefuls over nuclear plants
Reuters 06:07 a.m. Dec 03, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=a0825LBY506reulb-19991203&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
HELSINKI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen criticised the European Commission and Austria on Friday for putting pressure on some EU candidate countries to close their Soviet-style nuclear plants.
Finnish STT news agency quoted Lipponen as saying that the EU had no right to make such demands, calling them imperialist.
``It is against EU principles to have different rules for the applicant countries and the current members,'' Lipponen said.
Finland holds the rotating EU presidency and will host the bloc's summit in Helsinki next week which is expected to double the number of mostly East European countries negotiating entry.
The Commission and nuclear-free Austria have pressed to tie the start of negotiations with concerns over the safety of nuclear plants in some candidate countries -- some of which are similar to the Chernobyl reactor in Ukraine which exploded in 1986.
Last month the Commission demanded that Bulgaria set a firm deadline to shut four units at its Kozloduy nuclear plan before joining membership negotiations, but Lipponen said the demand was hard to understand.
``The Commission has to make it clear why it is demanding that the plant be shut down,'' STT quoted him as saying at the end of a pre-summit tour of EU capitals.
Taking a swipe at Austria, which has threatened to block neighbouring Slovakia's entry to the EU unless it shuts a Soviet-style nuclear reactor, Lipponen said:
``You cannot force the applicant countries to accept an energy policy model of one of the EU members. Were that done, we would be talking of imperialism.''
Finland relies heavily on nuclear power and two of its four reactors were made in the Soviet Union, but safety levels in Finland are considered to be very high.
-------- us nuc weapons facilities
Hackers Break Into DOE Web Site
Albuquerque Journal Thursday, November 4, 1999 By John Fleck
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.
-------- us nuc power facilities
FirstEnergy Completes Asset Transfer With Duquesne Light
Business Wire Saturday, December 4, 1999
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=BW0179-19991203&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
AKRON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 1999--FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) announced the completion today of an exchange of 1,436 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity owned by Duquesne Light Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for 1,328 MW owned by FirstEnergy electric utility operating companies.
The transfer, announced in October 1998, provides FirstEnergy with Duquesne's ownership in five jointly owned power plants: 187 MW of the 2,233-MW W.H. Sammis Plant in Stratton, Ohio; 186 MW of the 597-MW Eastlake Power Plant in Eastlake, Ohio; 164 MW of the 1,194-MW Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Perry, Ohio; 401 MW of the 2,360-MW Bruce Mansfield Plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania; and 498 MW of the 1,630-MW Beaver Valley Power Station, also located in Shippingport.
In exchange, Duquesne receives three coal-fired power plants owned by FirstEnergy's operating companies: the 743-MW Avon Lake Plant in Avon Lake, Ohio; the 246-MW Niles Plant in Niles, Ohio; and the 339-MW New Castle Plant in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Orion Power Holdings of Baltimore, Maryland, recently agreed to purchase these plants from Duquesne in a transaction that is expected to close in the spring of 2000.
FirstEnergy's subsidiary, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) will operate the Beaver Valley Plant, along with FirstEnergy's other nuclear power plants: Perry in Perry, Ohio, and Davis-Besse, in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Units at the Sammis, Eastlake, Perry and Mansfield plants that were partially owned by Duquesne will continue to be operated by FirstEnergy companies.
The asset transfer was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Acquisition of Duquesne's ownership in these generating units will not increase the amount of transition cost recovery that FirstEnergy will request in its transition plan as part of Ohio's recently passed electric deregulation law.
FirstEnergy, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, is a diversified energy services holding company with more than $18 billion in assets and nearly $6 billion in annual revenues. Its electric utility operating companies -- Ohio Edison and its Pennsylvania Power subsidiary, The Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison, comprise the 10th largest electric system, serving 2.2 million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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Newberg-Perini Awarded $300 Million Contract To Support Entire ComEd Nuclear Power `Fleet'
Business Wire 11:29 a.m. Dec 03, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=BW1229-19991203&qt=%2Bnuclear&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 1999--Perini Corporation (AMEX:PCR) announced today that it had received a contract valued at $300 million from Commonwealth Edison Co. of Illinois, one of the nation's leading nuclear power generators, to supply construction management services for maintenance and modification work required for all of ComEd's nuclear plants for a five year period. Newberg/Perini, a division of Perini Corporation, will perform the work under an existing 50/50 joint venture with Stone & Webster, Incorporated in support of ComEd's nuclear services program.
Under the agreement, the Newberg/Perini and Stone & Webster team will provide construction, maintenance and support services to ComEd's Braidwood, Byron, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities nuclear generating stations.
Newberg/Perini has worked for ComEd on their nuclear sites since the construction program started in the 1960's, providing construction and maintenance/modification services. Newberg/Perini, in joint venture with Stone & Webster of Boston, Massachusetts, is currently performing the maintenance/ modification contract at ComEd's Braidwood and Dresden nuclear sites.
Perini Corporation provides construction management and general contracting services to private industry as well as federal, state and local agencies throughout the United States and select international locations.
The statements contained in this Release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding the Company's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other factors that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the continuing validity of the underlying assumptions and estimates of total forecasted project revenues, costs and profits and project schedules; the outcomes of pending or future litigation, arbitration or other dispute resolution proceedings; changes in federal and state appropriations for infrastructure projects; possible changes or developments in worldwide or domestic, social, economic, business, industry, market and regulatory conditions or circumstances; and actions taken or omitted to be taken by third parties including the Company's customers, suppliers, business partners, and competitors and legislative, regulatory, judicial and other governmental authorities and officials.
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River Dirge
WHAT ON EARTH? A WEEKLY LOOK AT TRENDS, PEOPLE AND EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD
Washington Post Saturday, December 4, 1999; Page A11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/04/049l-120499-idx.html
More than half of the world's major rivers have become seriously depleted and polluted, degrading and poisoning the surrounding ecosystems, according to the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century. This continual damage threatens the health and livelihood of people who depend upon the rivers for irrigation, drinking and industrial water, says the commission, which is sponsored by the United Nations and the World Bank.
Rivers are in trouble because of excessive dam construction or river diversions for farming, excessive water withdrawal and the draining of wetlands as well as pollution. The commission offers a few examples of the virtual destruction of some rivers.
Yellow River
More than 400 million people depend on the Yellow River, which ran dry in its lower reaches 226 days in 1997. Farmers are depleting aquifers, and the Yellow River and its tributaries are severely polluted.
Nile
More than 90 percent of the natural flow is used by irrigation or is lost through evaporation. What reaches the Mediterranean is heavily polluted by fertilizer and industrial and municipal waste.
Amu Darya and Syr Darya
The two rivers' flow has been cut by three-quarters, causing a drop of the Aral Sea's water level by 53 feet. The exposed salt flats pose health hazards to the population.
Volga
Just 3 percent of the water is considered an environmentally safe source of drinking water. Some 42 million tons of toxic waste pile up each year in the basin, causing huge health problems.
The world's population derives 40 percent of its food from irrigated lands.
SOURCE: World Commission on Water for the 21st Century
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Y2K-RUSSIA-NUCLEAR
BY MARTIN NESIRKY, GENERAL FEATURE, 1,130 WORDS)
Reuters Saturday, December 4, 1999 (Infoseek)
With less than a month to go before the New Year, Reuters is taking a look at how the millennium bug may affect various sectors. In the following feature Martin Nesirky reports on Russia's efforts to calm fears about the impact of Y2K on its nuclear arsenal.
MOSCOW - Few people doubt Russia has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world but many still need convincing the missiles will stay put when midnight chimes on December 31.
The United States and Russia, despite relations being at a post-Cold War low, are both eager to oblige as they prepare for the millennium bug which may cause some computers to confuse 2000 for 1900.
Western governments are surprisingly upbeat about the safety of Russia's vast nuclear arsenal because Russian and U.S. officials will sit together at a Colorado command centre over the New Year to prevent each from thinking the other has launched a strike.
-------- wto
Key Points at the Conference By Steven Pearlstein
Washington Post Saturday, December 4, 1999; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/04/153l-120499-idx.html
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WTO Ends Conference Well Short Of Goals
Ministers May Resume Talks Early Next Year
Washington Post Saturday, December 4, 1999; Page A01 By John Burgess and Steven Pearlstein
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/04/164l-120499-idx.html
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LatAm Calls for Open Trade
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 11:43 a.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-economy-lata.html
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Daley: Too Many Obstacles to Launch Trade Round
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 1:55 a.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wto-daley.html
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Seattle Recovers From WTO Meetings
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 6:16 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-World-Trade-Scene.html
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Keyes: WTO Threatens Liberty
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 4:47 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/p/AP-Keyes.html
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Global Trade Talks End in Failure
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 1:33 a.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wto-issues.html
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Seattle Faces Criticism for WTO Woe
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 11:46 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-World-Trade-Seattle.html
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Long Agenda, Short Time Doomed WTO Trade Talks
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 5:28 p.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-wto-rea.html
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Internet Plan Falls Victim to WTO Failure By Reuters
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 5:23 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wto-internet.html
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Bad Planning Hit in Trade Talks Collapse
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 5:24 p.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wto-leadall.html
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Clinton Singled Out in WTO Blame Game
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 5:39 p.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wto-blame.html
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WTO Failure Setback to Farm Trade Hopes
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 5:39 p.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-wto-agricult.html
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Nations Call for WTO Reforms
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 3:06 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-World-Trade.html
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Protesters, WTO Nations Claim Win
New York Times December 4, 1999 Filed at 12:51 p.m. EDT By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-World-Trade-Winners--Losers.html