------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
CZECH REPUBLIC: WARNING TO AUSTRIA
Impact of use of depleted uranium shells in Kosovo studied
Depleted uranium seized, 2 scrap dealers held
Police
U.S. cites 'gaps' in missile talks
Search Effort Likely to End on Russian Sub
Russia Ends Kursk Submarine Salvage Operation
Kursk recovery ends unfinished
Taiwan Opposition Steps Closer to Ousting Chen
Taiwan OKs Presidential Recall Vote
Diablo Canyon Quandary Plans for open-air storage of spent fuel rods
Conneticut
The shades of difference that may decide poll

MILITARY
Clinton Concerned about Ecstasy Imports
Drug traffic taints port
NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS
TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING
Kursk Recovery Effort Ended
Pie in the sky
Scientists Downplay 'Space Object'
IRAQ: TRIAL IN U.N. DEATHS
States

OTHER
The Court's Clean Air Case
Justices Consider Clean Air Act Issues
David Brower, an Aggressive Champion of U.S. Environmentalism
States
Program under way to protect wild deer
Jury Rejects Church Claims Over '95 Melee With Police
Oregon
The Leaks Veto
Ex-spy chief seeks deal, says lawmaker
A Glimpse at the Alliances of Terror

ACTIVISTS
PQ, Bloc offices target of anti-merger protest
IRAN: PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTEST



-------- NUCLEAR

-------- czech republic

New York Times
November 7, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/world/07BRIE.html

EUROPE

CZECH REPUBLIC: WARNING TO AUSTRIA Prime Minister Milos Zeman warned Austria that a partial removal of border blockades staged over the disputed Temelin nuclear power plant was not enough and threatened to break off talks on the matter. Austria fears that the Soviet-designed Temelin plant, just 30 miles from its border, is unsafe and has called for safety and environmental impact studies. (Reuters)

-------- depleted uranium

Impact of use of depleted uranium shells in Kosovo studied

11/07/00
Earth Times News Service
http://www.earthtimes.org/nov/environmentimpactofusenov7_00.htm

A group of experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have arrived this week in Kosovo to assess the impact of ordnance containing depleted uranium (DU) used during last year's Balkans conflict.

The team will measure radioactivity levels and take soil and water samples to test for the heavy metals that result when DU breaks down. The experts are hoping to determine if there are health or environmental risks now or in the future due to the use of DU during the conflict, and to publish a report on the findings.

The team includes a total of about 12 experts from Finland, Italy and Switzerland; the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute; Bristol University in the United Kingdom; the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); and UNEP.

The team's final report is expected to be available sometime in January. The assessment work on depleted uranium is being financed by donors, with Switzerland being the main contributor.

The United Nations was given the information of which sites to study by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The sites chosen for measurement work are in the western part of Kosovo.

---

Depleted uranium seized, 2 scrap dealers held

The Hindu
Tuesday, November 07, 2000
By Our Special Correspondent
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/11/07/stories/0407403k.htm

HYDERABAD, NOV. 6. An unspecified quantity of `depleted' uranium, used for treating cancer patients, was seized from two scrap merchants in the old city here on Monday. The dealers were scouting for customers to sell it, but the police who got wind of their plan moved in swiftly and arrested them.

The seized uranium tablets were stated to be within `safe limits' and were not expected to cause dangerous radioactive contamination, Mr. K. Narasimha Rao, Deputy Commissioner, Detective Department said, quoting a report given by Dr. D.R. Singh of the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC).

The scrap dealers, Mohammed Ghouse Mohiuddin and Khaja Moinuddin told police that they found the uranium tablets in a machine which they purchased from a hospital specialising in cancer treatment. The machine, ``Cheratron'', which was believed to have been gifted by a foreign charity organisation was sold to them in 1998 as it was `unusable'.

The dealers, who expected to find some lead components, broke open the `Collimator', a compartment, and found the tablets with the name uranium name printed on them. They thought that it could fetch them hefty sums. But the police, after extensive enquiries through decoys, raided the dealers' shop.

It is stated hospitals were not supposed to sell cancer treatment machines to scrap dealers according to the restrictions imposed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). ``We are trying to find out how the hospital sold the machine to scrap dealers'', Mr. Rao said.

Immediately after the seizure, police sought the NFC help in finding out whether there was any radioactive contamination. But Dr. Singh today certified that there was no harmful emission. The expert told the police that the seized material was `depleted' uranium.

---

Police

Reuters
November 7, 2000 Filed at 1:44 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-crime-i.html

HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Indian police have seized 57 pounds of uranium from a home in the southern city of Hyderabad and arrested two men who had been trying to smuggle the radioactive material out of the country.

A senior police official told Reuters late on Monday that the two men had stumbled upon the uranium when they bought a vast quantity of scrap from a private hospital in Andhra Pradesh state for 60,000 rupees ($1,285) in 1998.

The men, who separated the scrap from the uranium, had been trying to smuggle out the material, which would fetch millions of dollars in the international market, police said.

``They were trying to dispose of two parts of radioactive material containing uranium...weighing about 26 kg in Hyderabad city,'' the city's Police Commissioner S.R. Sukumara told Reuters.

Police officials said they were investigating how the hazardous material left the hospital.

The radioactive material had been used in the treatment of cancer patients and was supposed to have been returned to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Bombay.

``Any installation of sensitive equipment containing radioactive material in any institution or its disposal should be done with the approval and under the supervision of BARC since any exposure of this radioactive material is likely to be hazardous,'' Sukumara said.

-------- korea

U.S. cites 'gaps' in missile talks

Bergen Record
Tuesday, November 7, 2000
The Associated Press
http://www.bergen.com/morenews/nkorea7200011076.htm

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Monday that "there are gaps" between the United States and North Korea in missile talks despite substantial progress in recent meetings.

President Clinton decided Saturday not to travel to North Korea this month as part of a journey to an Asian summit in Brunei and a four-day stop in Vietnam. However, Clinton left open the possibility of going to North Korea during the final two months of his term.

A key question is whether North Korea will agree to limit its missile development program.

"We've made some substantial progress in the discussions on missiles, and we're doing that in a systematic way," presidential spokesman Jake Siewert said. "We want to be perfectly clear about where we are and where the North Koreans are."

Siewert said the talks have been useful in clarifying the positions of the two countries "but there are gaps there."

North Korea has stated publicly that if it were to stop missile exports, it must receive $1 billion annually as compensation for the lost income. And it has said that in exchange for ending or constraining its domestic production of missiles it would require international assistance in launching North Korean satellites.

The possibility of a deal to constrain North Korea's missile program arose in July when Russian President Vladimir Putin said Korean ruler Kim Jong Il told him he would be willing to end long-range missile production if other countries would launch North Korea's satellites.

-------- russia

Search Effort Likely to End on Russian Sub

New York Times
November 7, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/07WIRE-SUB.html

MOSCOW, Nov. 7 -- Divers looking for bodies in the wreck of Russia's Kursk submarine stopped dangerous recovery work on Tuesday and navy officials made clear the operation would be halted altogether.

A Northern Fleet spokesman said the divers, who were trying to recover sailors' bodies from section four of the nuclear-powered submarine that sank in the Arctic Barents Sea with 118 crew on board in August, had to give up their efforts.

"Divers could only go about two metres (yards) into the fourth section and it was very dangerous for them...so it was decided to stop work," he told Reuters. The Kursk is divided into nine sections.

Later the fleet's chief spokesman, Vladimir Navrotsky, said in televised comments that a meeting of officials in charge of the operation decided against trying to get into section five.

Navrotsky said he expected the base of the operation -- Norwegian offshore platform Regalia -- to leave the area soon. He made clear that the salvage effort, which lasted more than two weeks, was about to end.

"I do not know what decision will be made on Regalia's departure, but apparently that is going to happen," Navrotsky said. The bodies of 12 sailors have been retrieved in the course of the operation.

Only a meeting of the government commission planned for Wednesday could formally decide to end the salvage operation.

However, Itar-Tass news agency quoted navy commander Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov as saying that the final decision would be based on the opinion of experts and officials at the scene.

Navrotsky said Russian and Norwegian divers were continuing underwater surveillance outside the submarine with special video apparatus.

A contract with the Norwegian arm of U.S. oil services firm Halliburton expires later this week and submarine designers have said they did not expect it to be extended.

CAUSE OF THE DISASTER STILL UNKNOWN

The August 12 sinking of the Kursk was Russia's worst submarine accident. A scribbled note found on one of the recovered bodies showed that at least 23 people in the aft of the submarine remained alive hours after the blast.

The cause of the accident remains unknown.

Russian navy commanders have said the Kursk was rammed by a NATO submarine eavesdropping on last August's naval exercises in the Arctic in which the Kursk was taking part. Kuroyedov says he is 80 percent sure a collision was the cause of the disaster.

But both Britain and the United States, which Moscow says had vessels in the area at the time, have denied involvement.

Russian media speculate that the government commission may offer conclusions to the investigation at its planned meeting on Wednesday. Klebanov has been quoted as saying he considers a collision to be among three possible causes of the accident.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said last week the commission would draw conclusions based only on scientific facts.

"They will immediately refute or support all the theories and opinions," he said.

---

Russia Ends Kursk Submarine Salvage Operation

Reuters
November 7, 2000 Filed at 3:59 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-russia-.html

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia gave up hope of recovering the bodies of all 118 crew members who perished aboard the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk in Arctic waters, allowing Norwegian salvage teams to leave the site Tuesday.

But Russian vessels would remain in the area to monitor the wreck ahead of plans next year to raise the submarine to the surface of the Barents Sea.

The top spokesman for Russia's Northern Fleet said the Regalia offshore platform, which served as the base for the 18-day salvage operation, set off for Norway after it was determined that no more could be done.

Russian and Norwegian divers, accompanied by Russian naval officers, held a brief ceremony on the Barents Sea to remember those who died. Then the platform departed.

``They stood at attention on the Regalia and released a wreath into the water,'' fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky told RTR state television. ``In their short speeches, the divers said they did everything they could for the Kursk, even more.''

A spokesman for the Norwegian arm of U.S. oil services firm Halliburton said its platform, the Regalia, had left the area.

Earlier Tuesday, Russian navy officials said that work inside the badly damaged submarine had been stopped after it became too risky for Russian and Norwegian divers.

``The job is completed,'' Halliburton spokesman Birger Haraldseid told Reuters by telephone.

A second Northern Fleet spokesman said divers had been unable to advance through the fourth of the Kursk's nine sections.

``Divers could only go about two meters (yards) into the fourth section and it was very dangerous for them...so it was decided to stop work,'' he told Reuters.

Navrotsky said a meeting of officials in charge of the operation decided against trying to get into section five.

The Regalia left the day before a meeting of a government commission, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, that was expected to make a formal decision on whether to continue the operation. It may also shed some light on what caused the accident.

A slow and uncertain response by top officials, including President Vladimir Putin, caused a wave of public criticism after the Kursk was hit by two explosions and sank Aug. 12.

Putin had promised that all bodies of the crew members would be retrieved before a planned attempt to raise the submarine planned for next year. But only 12 bodies of sailors were retrieved in the course of the operation.

NAVY SAYS HOLES WEAKEN KURSK

Navrotsky said boring more holes in the submarine could jeopardize plans to bring it to the surface.

``It is clear there can be no justification for further technical holes in the submarine,'' he told NTV television. ''That could harm the project to be undertaken next year to raise the vessel ... The submarine should not be weakened.''

Officials said two vessels would remain in the area.

The sinking of the Kursk was Russia's worst submarine accident. A scribbled note found on one of the recovered bodies showed that at least 23 people in the aft of the submarine remained alive hours after the blast.

The cause of the accident remains unknown.

Russian navy commanders say the Kursk was rammed by a NATO submarine eavesdropping on exercises in which the Kursk was taking part. The commander in chief, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, says he is 80 percent sure a collision caused the disaster.

Both Britain and the United States, which Moscow says had vessels in the area at the time, have denied involvement.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said last week the commission would draw conclusions based only on scientific facts.

``They will immediately refute or support all the theories and opinions,'' he said.

---

Kursk recovery ends unfinished

USA Today
11/07/00- Updated 01:24 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue02.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Submarine.html

MOSCOW - Russian and Norwegian divers cast a wreath Tuesday on the arctic waters above the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk and gave up their effort to recover more bodies from the vessel, saying they had done all they could.

The remains of only 12 of the 118 crewmen who died in the Aug. 12 disaster were brought to the surface and identified during the risky 18-day operation in the Barents Sea off Russia's northern coast. But navy officials had cautioned that most bodies would not be recovered.

The explosions that sank the Kursk likely blew many of the crew to bits, and hurled heavy equipment and machinery around the shattered vessel's compartments, making it impossible for divers to safely reach parts of the sub.

Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said the decision to end the operation was made after a conference between Russian and Norwegian officials supervising the work. The divers assembled on the mother ship Regalia for a short ceremony before the vessel headed for home in Norway.

''In their short speeches, the divers said they had done everything possible for the Kursk, and more,'' Navrotsky said.

The divers had worked for the past two days to remove jagged debris from the upper deck of the submarine's fourth compartment, yet could only move 6 feet along a single passageway, and no remains were found. The divers then welded shut the hole they had cut in the section.

Divers decided not to search for remains in the fifth compartment because any bodies were likely to be located on a lower level, which could only be reached through a hatch too small for the divers' bulky suits, Navrotsky said.

All the bodies were recovered from a rear compartment, farther from the bow where the explosions are believed to have occurred.

Navrotsky said the Russian cruiser Peter the Great and a Russian ship checking for possible radiation leaks stayed at the site. The Russian divers will remain aboard the Regalia for several more days to complete decompression necessary after deep diving, he said.

Navrotsky and officials from the Norwegian arm of Halliburton, a Dallas-based oil-services company hired by Russia to organize the recovery effort, said the operation had been a success.

''We did what we set out to do,'' Halliburton spokesman Birger Haraldseid said. ''We did something no one else has done, by cutting a hole in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean.''

After attempts to find more bodies failed, divers went back down to the submarine Tuesday to inspect the hull in preparation for a possible operation to raise the entire vessel next year, Navrotsky said.

The divers worked in shifts around the clock more than 300 feet below the surface, with occasional pauses because of harsh weather.

At least 23 sailors survived the initial explosion in the rear of the vessel, as indicated by a letter found on the body of Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov.

The cause of the Kursk's sinking remains unknown. Russian officials favor a theory that a collision with a foreign submarine set off the powerful blasts. But others have said the most likely reason was a torpedo exploding in its tube because of a technical malfunction.

-------- taiwan

Taiwan Opposition Steps Closer to Ousting Chen

Reuters
November 7, 2000 Filed at 2:09 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-taiwan-.html

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's opposition-dominated legislature on Tuesday moved a step closer to dismissing President Chen Shui-bian by revising rules on ousting the island's head of state.

A Nationalist Party-led opposition coalition, which commands an overwhelming majority in the 220-seat parliament, passed legislation requiring that any motion to dismiss the president be voted on in public instead of by secret ballot.

The amendment was designed to prevent any opposition deputies who might be quietly inclined to support the president from publicly breaking ranks with the coalition, which consists of lawmakers from Taiwan's three biggest opposition parties.

Chen is facing his biggest political crisis since he assumed power in May in Taiwan's first democratic transfer of power.

Already under fire for murky or poorly executed economic policies in his first few months in office and an ailing stock market, Chen enraged the opposition last month when his anti-nuclear cabinet scrapped a $5.5 billion nuclear plant that had been a pet project of the Nationalists.

The opposition coalition has forged ahead with its drive to oust him despite his apology on Sunday over the timing of the nuclear plant decision, which was announced shortly after he met with the Nationalist Party's leader and was perceived by its members as a slap in the face.

The next step for the opposition would be to raise a motion in the legislature to dismiss the president, though the Nationalists have not said when they would make such a move.

Leaders of the three opposition parties, which hold 141 seats in parliament, are scheduled to meet on Saturday to discuss when to table the dismissal motion.

The opposition has collected enough signatures to present the dismissal motion, but needs support from independent lawmakers for the two-thirds vote required to recall the president.

If the motion is approved by lawmakers, a popular referendum is held. Turnout must equal at least half of that in the March 18 presidential election.

New elections will be held if over half of the voters approve the dismissal.

Chen's Democratic Progressive Party has just 67 seats in the legislature after DPP legislator Lee Ying-yuan resigned to become Taiwan's deputy representative in Washington.

The Nationalists had ruled Taiwan for 55 years before being ousted by Chen in the March polls.

BATTLE WITHOUT WINNERS

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung, a member of Chen's DPP, urged the opposition to resolve the dispute over the nuclear power plant under the current constitutional framework.

``This is a vicious battle without winners,'' Chang told a news conference as parliament voted on the amendment.

The legislature also passed a resolution asking the government's top watchdog, the Control Yuan, to impeach Chang.

Opposition lawmakers have said Chen would have to offer more than just conciliatory remarks for them to spare him.

``In office for just five months, Chen Shui-bian has apologized seven times. Can we trust his apology?'' opposition legislator Chou Hsi-wei asked during a parliamentary session.

But some in the opposition were having second thoughts. ''Perhaps we should give him another chance,'' said a Nationalist legislator, whose suggestion was quickly rejected by colleagues.

Outside the parliament building, hundreds of anti-nuclear activists voiced their support for the president.

Taiwan's stock and currency markets have been on a roller coaster ride, weakening early in the crisis, but recovering somewhat as days passed without the opposition bringing the issue to a vote.

Analysts were divided over how the market would react if opposition efforts to oust Chen gather more steam.

``The market has mostly discounted the political factor and I saw no imminent risk for a political crisis as people prefer stability,'' United Securities vice president Lin Lung-hsung said.

Fubon Securities analyst Norman Lee disagreed: ``The dismissal process could still do a lot of harm to the market if it drags on.''

---

Taiwan OKs Presidential Recall Vote

Associated Press
November 7, 2000 Filed at 5:50 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Taiwan-Politics.html

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Opposition lawmakers forged ahead Tuesday with a campaign to oust President Chen Shui-bian, passing amendments that clear the way for a historic vote on recalling the newly elected Taiwanese leader.

Armed with riot shields and bamboo sticks, scores of police guarded the legislature from a crowd of peaceful protesters supporting the president and his decision to scrap a partially constructed nuclear plant, which he said posed a threat to the environment.

Chen's unilateral decision to scuttle the nuclear plant last month infuriated members of a three-party coalition, which has accused the president of violating the constitution. Lawmakers have argued they approved the plant's funding and Chen's minority government should have consulted them about the project's cancellation.

On Tuesday, lawmakers passed amendments that made procedural adjustments for the recall vote, which has yet to be scheduled. A voting date was expected to be set during a Saturday meeting of opposition leaders.

Among the amendments passed was a measure that requires lawmakers to publicly record their recall vote, rather than casting an anonymous ballot. The amendment is significant because it helps the opposition enforce party discipline.

Some of the parties have threatened to expel members who don't support a recall, and there have been signs that the 115-member Nationalist Party, which leads the opposition coalition, is not unified on the issue. In recent days, senior party members have expressed reservations about a recall.

Nationalist lawmaker Ting Shou-chung on Tuesday insisted that party members opposing the recall were a tiny minority. ``There are just one or two people,'' he told reporters.

But another Nationalist, Hung Hsing-jung, said he favored backing off the recall campaign for now, and he hinted that many other party members agreed with him.

``This is not just my own opinion,'' he said.

Some analysts have said that the Nationalists are pushing for a recall to scare the president and they will back away at the last minute. But others have said the party wants to avenge its March election loss to Chen and this is its best chance to topple him.

If two-thirds of the 220-seat legislature votes to oust the president, the issue will go to a public referendum. If the public also wants Chen to step down, a new election will be held.

Defending the president, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung told reporters that there was no need for a recall. Chang said that the dispute over the nuclear plant should be settled by the Council of Grand Justices, a 16-member body that interprets the constitution.

``If there are differences between the legislative and executive branches, there's a way to settle the differences,'' Chang said.

-------- u.s. nuc facilities

-------- california

Diablo Canyon Quandary Plans for open-air storage of spent fuel rods receive environmentalists' reluctant approval

San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, November 7, 2000
David Lazarus, Chronicle Staff Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/11/07/MN109517.DTL

Bruce Danowski, a technician at PG&E's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, balanced atop a catwalk as he maneuvered a long mechanical arm through the brightly lit pool.

If Danowski were to accidentally fall into the storage pool, said his supervisor, Harold Dicer, ``he would hardly get contaminated'' near the surface of the chemically treated 100-degree water.

But if Danowski's heavy yellow coveralls were to cause him to sink to the fuel rods 23 feet below, ``it would be lethal,'' Dicer said with a calm detachment that comes from spending nearly every day in the presence of highly radioactive materials.

Such ease around deadly substances has become commonplace at Diablo Canyon--for the people who work there and for the activists who have reluctantly tried to effect a peaceful co-existence with the controversial plant, the scene of huge protests almost 20 years ago.

Nevertheless, Diablo Canyon has reached a crossroads. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is negotiating a multimillion-dollar settlement with state officials to end more than a decade of disputes over the changes the plant has caused in the surrounding marine ecosystem.

Meanwhile, the utility is drawing plans to build an above-ground, open-air storage facility for the plant's nuclear waste as room quickly runs out in storage pools.

With construction of a national repository for spent fuel rods entangled in red tape, Diablo Canyon officials say, they may need to keep the plant's radioactive waste right where it is, along a panoramic stretch of Central California coastline, for possibly hundreds of years.

``There is definitely a danger,'' said Klaus Schumann, a Green Party activist who serves on the San Luis Obispo County Nuclear Waste Management Committee. ``Each spent fuel assembly contains the equivalent of about 10 Hiroshima bombs in terms of radioactivity.''

But Diablo Canyon workers insist that the potential hazards have been exaggerated. ``Most people don't understand radiation,'' said Dave Oatley, the plant manager. ``Once you understand it, understand the risks, you're much more comfortable around it.''

Not necessarily. A Chronicle reporter found himself increasingly wary of the invisible rays as he donned protective clothing and toured the inner workings of the plant, including a rare look inside the reactor core beneath one of the 215-foot-high containment domes.

One of Diablo Canyon's two reactors was shut down for replacement of fuel rods and routine maintenance. The monthlong closure is scheduled to end today.

GOOD SAFETY RECORD

Diablo Canyon, which produces electricity for more than 4 million homes in Northern and Central California, has one of the best safety records in the nuclear power industry.

But for newcomers, it is still unnerving to be surrounded by signs warning of radiation exposure.

``It's just a matter of going slow,'' said Ken Bych, containment coordinator for the shut-down reactor. ``Like any radiological area, you do things slowly and methodically. Planning is everything.''

Bych, like all other workers within what the plant calls its ``radiological controls area,'' wore yellow coveralls, special boots, two layers of gloves, a hood, safety glasses, a red hard hat and two separate radiation-monitoring devices.

He watched intently as a huge crane gradually lowered a four-ton steel cover into the containment pool and atop the gaping hole of the reactor core. Once in place, the core would be drained for repairs.

The elaborate housing for the core's fuel rods had been raised from the pool and stood near one of the dome's 3-foot-thick concrete walls -- strong enough, one is told, to withstand a direct impact from a commercial jetliner.

Workers did their best to steer clear of the large apparatus. It was heavily radioactive from the thousands of uranium-235 pellets it normally holds in place.

Bych said he wasn't worried about the dose of radiation he was receiving even from a distance of about 100 feet. He glanced down at the pool of still, blue water, lit eerily from below like a Jacuzzi from hell.

``In these heavy clothes,'' Bych observed, ``drowning is by far the greatest concern. You fall in there, you're going straight down.''

Needless to say, there are no lifeguards on hand to rescue anyone who goes under, and no other worker would dare jump in to lend a hand. You would be on your own.

No one has yet suffered such a grim fate.

For most people, though, concerns about Diablo Canyon's safety stem not from dangers within the plant but what is happening -- or could happen in a worst-case scenario -- on the outside.

1981 PROTEST

More than 10,000 protesters converged on the plant's gate in 1981 to try to prevent fuel rods from being loaded into the two reactor cores. They said a major earthquake in the seismically active area could lead to a catastrophe. The nuclear power plant is surrounded by a 10-mile ``exclusion zone'' of rolling hills and coastline. It employs about 1,300 people and is protected by a variety of security measures, including guards carrying semiautomatic rifles. Today, environmentalists are focused mainly on the 2.5 billion gallons of water discharged from the plant each day directly into the sea.

From the bluff overlooking the concrete discharge conduit, a river of white foam can be seen pouring into Diablo Cove. The discharged water, used to cool the nuclear reactor, is about 20 degrees warmer than average ocean temperatures.

This has diminished the presence of some marine life -- certain types of fish and kelp -- that proliferate elsewhere along the Central California coast but has attracted others that normally would only be found farther south.

Seals, otters and the occasional whale still can be seen offshore from the power plant. But the number of black abalone in the cove has sharply declined as a result of a fatal disease called withering syndrome, which might be exacerbated by the warmer water.

No one disputes that the heated discharge has changed the ecosystem of the adjacent coast. But a debate rages over whether the changes are within limits set when the plant was granted its first operating license two decades ago.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board said in a recent report that the discharge has harmed the environment by killing fish larvae and driving away sea life accustomed to colder water.

However, PG&E continues to insist that such changes are only natural. ``To expect everything to stay the same over 20 years is not realistic,'' said Oatley, the plant manager. ``Ecology changes.''

Kathy DiPeri, a member of Mothers for Peace, a San Luis Obispo anti-nuclear group, challenged this perspective. ``The damage that has been done is beyond what was anticipated,'' she said. ``They say this is natural. It's not. A number of species out there are now nonexistent.''

PG&E has sought to defuse the situation by offering to pay $4.5 million to fund a variety of environmental projects and to conserve about six miles of coastline.

``Our belief is that this is a difference of opinion,'' said Greg Rueger, PG&E's senior vice president in charge of nuclear power. ``But there is a value to us in resolving this difference and moving on.''

The settlement offer is still being reviewed by the water board. Roger Briggs, the board's central coast executive officer, said a counteroffer could be presented to the utility within weeks. A final settlement may not be reached for months, he said.

OPEN-AIR STORAGE PLANS

In the meantime, PG&E is moving ahead with another project that, for a change, has received the backing of environmentalists. The proposed open-air storage site for spent fuel rods has won reluctant support from activists -- but not because they are thrilled by nuclear waste being preserved in the vicinity for possibly hundreds of years.

Rather, they favor the plan because if there's anything environmentalists hate more than storing nuclear waste, it's transporting nuclear waste. By far, the greatest likelihood of an accident, sabotage or terrorist attack would be when spent fuel is in motion.

A 1985 U.S. Department of Energy report concluded that only a small leak of radioactive material during shipment ``would be sufficient to contaminate a 42-square-mile area.'' A similar 1995 report from the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects noted that exposure to accidentally leaked waste ``can lead to cancer, radiation-induced disease and death.''

``The best way to deal with the problem is to stop producing nuclear waste,'' said Schumann of the county nuclear waste management committee. ``But the way things are, dry storage at the site is the least unsafe way to go.''

As it stands, Diablo Canyon will run out of room in its two storage pools by 2006. Each pool contains about 800 fuel assemblies. Each assembly contains 64 fuel rods, and each rod contains hundreds of uranium pellets.

The two reactors at the plant produce about 110 assemblies of spent fuel rods each year and will continue to do so for the life of the plant, or another 25 years.

``At a minimum, we'd probably have to keep the assemblies on-site until 2026 before they are moved off,'' said Rueger, PG&E's senior vice president. ``But it could be more than 100 years.''

The reason is that a proposed nuclear-waste repository to be built at Yucca Mountain, Nev. -- the world's first permanent burial ground for radioactive materials -- has run into a firestorm of opposition from environmentalists and Nevada residents.

Opponents say the proposed site could leak radioactive waste into the water table, is dangerously close to two seismic fault lines and almost inevitably would lead to accidents as more than 70,000 metric tons of waste is shipped by road and rail from the 72 commercial nuclear power plants nationwide.

Even so, the Department of Energy, which already has spent about $3.5 billion studying the Yucca Mountain site, is expected to make a final recommendation in December.

Once sealed within, canisters of spent nuclear fuel would be left for future generations to worry about -- perhaps as long as 10,000 years in the future, when the waste will have lost most of its radioactivity.

However, even if Yucca Mountain receives a green light from the government, it will not be ready to receive spent fuel rods before 2010 at the earliest. For Diablo Canyon, as at many other nuclear power plants, this presents a problem.

``The utilities have taken a position that you really can't rely on the government,'' said Jearl Strickland, Diablo Canyon's program manager for used fuel.

For this reason, he said work is proceeding on constructing a storage facility on a hillside above the plant that would hold spent rods in helium-filled, 125-ton containers for as long as necessary.

``It would be a passive cooling system,'' Strickland said. ``The canisters just sit there and the radioactivity breaks down over time.

``The federal government, hopefully within the next 200 years, will be in a position to assume ownership,'' he added.

Residents of surrounding communities know that is an awfully long time to be storing nuclear waste in their backyard. But a consensus is emerging that long-term storage at the site would be safer than shipping spent rods fresh out of the reactor.

LONG-TERM STORAGE

PG&E is hoping to build a similar long-term storage facility for 390 fuel assemblies at the utility's Humboldt Bay nuclear power plant, which was shut down in 1976. The spent rods are now in a pool within a locked building at the site, four miles south of Eureka and near several earthquake fault lines.

All this hand-wringing over what to do with spent fuel rods underlines the unique challenge of nuclear power. Although proponents, including senior PG&E executives, are quick to stress that nuclear energy produces none of the airborne contaminants common to coal-fired plants, there is that not-inconsiderable problem of storing the industry's waste for thousands of years to come.

Diablo Canyon workers appear generally unconcerned about how the product of their labors will affect future civilizations. They have enough on their minds safeguarding their own well-being.

``From a scientific standpoint, there's no evidence that exposure to low doses of radiation poses a health hazard,'' insisted Mark Somerville, the plant's senior radiation protection engineer.

But keeping the doses low is the tricky part. At Diablo Canyon, the work motto, posted on walls throughout the facility, is ``ALARA'' -- as in, ``as low as reasonably achievable.''

Exposure to radiation is measured in millirems. The average American is dosed with about 300 millirems a year in the form of background radiation from cosmic rays and natural radiation in soil, rocks and water. A similar amount may be received from X-rays and other medical treatments.

Nuclear plant workers face radiation exposure beyond these levels. PG&E limits on-the-job exposure to 2,000 millirems a year, well below the federal government's prescribed annual limit of 5,000 millirems. In fact, PG&E says its average Diablo Canyon employee receives just 185 millirems in extra radiation each year.

One reason for such a relatively low-dose rate is the extensive measures taken in the plant to monitor exposure. Workers in high-radiation areas have their dosages constantly measured by remote monitors and are instructed by radio to back off whenever the exposure level begins to climb suddenly.

``We're in total control of what dose you're getting,'' said Marty Wright, a radiation protection technician tracking workers' dosages on a bank of computer screens.

In the event of contamination, a worker's clothes will be shipped to a hazardous-materials facility, where they will be stored for 35 years, until safe for disposal. The worker himself -- the vast majority of Diablo Canyon employees are male -- will simply wipe his skin with a moist towel.

The scene upon entering a radiological controls area is decidedly casual as workers in T-shirts and shorts don the various layers of protective clothing required for work around radiation.

Were it not for the yellow-and-magenta radiation signs everywhere, the scene would resemble a gym locker room.

That is, until you are sealed within an air lock and emerge inside the reactor's soaring containment dome. Lead shields are in place to protect workers from the most radioactive materials, and so-called cold areas are designated where a worker might stop to rest every now and then.

Loitering near the core is generally ill advised; workers are instructed by signs to keep moving.

After about an hour beneath the dome, a visiting reporter checked his monitoring device and found that he had been exposed to 3 millirems of radiation.

PG&E officials encouraged him to end his visit to the reactor core, even though he was still well within the 10 millirems they had budgeted for the day.

``You'd get a lot more from a chest X-ray,'' said Somerville, the radiation protection engineer. ``This is safe.''

The heavy air-lock door clanged shut behind him.

E-mail David Lazarus at dlazarus@sfchronicle.com.

-------- connecticut

USA Today
19/07/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Conneticut

New Britain - The Department of Public Utility Control began hearings into the $1.3 billion sale of the Millstone 2 and 3 power plants to Dominion Resources of Virginia. The offer is three times more than any other nuclear plants have sold for in the USA. State regulators said ratepayers would benefit from the sale. The DPUC and federal regulators must approve the deal.

-------- us nuc politics

The shades of difference that may decide poll

The Age
Tuesday 7 November 2000
By GAY ALCORN UNITED STATES CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON
http://www.theage.com.au/news/20001107/A31113-2000Nov6.html

In the final hours of this campaign, the issues are more thematic than specific, with the exception of social security, the popular American pension scheme for the elderly.

Both candidates are hammering away on an issue of vital importance to elderly voters, who turn up at the polls in greater numbers than young voters, and are especially important in the key state of Florida.

Democrat Al Gore is using the classic Democratic rallying cry that the Republicans threaten social security, the guaranteed pension introduced in the 1930s.

Republican George W.Bush calls Mr Gore's charge "scare tactics", and his proposal would allow younger workers to use part of their payroll taxes used to fund the scheme for investing in the private market.

But the "issues" are down to the essential messages of the campaigns. Mr Bush promises new leadership to restore trust and honor to the White House. Mr Gore says the issue is whether America continues on his prosperous path or returns to failed policies that benefit the wealthy over the majority. He also says Mr Bush is not ready for the presidency.

Neither candidate has offered a broad vision of how to use the power of the world's dominant nation, but there are sharp differences on specific issues of concern to voters.

Abortion: Pro and anti-abortion groups say this election is crucial because the finely balanced Supreme Court, which rules on the constitutionality of abortion measures, has ageing justices. The new president could appoint up to four new judges. Mr Gore supports a woman's right to an abortion. Mr Bush supports a constitutional amendment that would ban abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.

Campaign finance: The presidential, state and congressional races are expected to spend a record $US3 billion ($A5.7 billion) by election day. The explosion has been in "soft money", unlimited and unregulated donations to political parties from business, unions and individuals. Mr Gore would ban soft money in federal elections, support public financing of elections and make TV stations provide free air time for candidates. Mr Bush would ban soft money from corporations and unions, but not individuals, and oppose public financing.

Education: States provide the vast majority of education funding, but both candidates say it's their first priority. Both would spend more money. Mr Gore opposes vouchers for parents to send children to private schools if local schools are failing. He would give tax credits for university tuition, and would cut class sizes and improve poor facilities. Mr Bush supports vouchers. He would spend more on early reading programs and disadvantaged children.

Foreign policy/defence: Both candidates are internationalists and free traders, and both would spend more on the military, but have different philosophies on America's role in the post-Cold War era. Mr Gore would continue the Clinton policies of free trade and democracy promotion, with "forward engagement" - anticipating problems before they occur. He would support humanitarian missions when in the national interest. He supports national missile defence if Russia could be convinced to amend the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty, and the Kyoto global change and Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaties. Mr Bush believes US troops are "over-extended" in peacekeeping missions and wants to bring them home from the Balkans, to concentrate on other vital areas. He supports large national and theatre missile defence systems, would cancel the ABM treaty with Russia if necessary, and opposes Kyoto and the CNTB treaty.

Guns: The shooting at Columbine High School last year made gun control an issue in a nation in which 40per cent of households have at least one gun. Mr Gore would make new handgun purchasers obtain a photo licence, limit gun purchases to one a month and ban certain types of inexpensive handguns. Mr Bush supports the National Rifle Association's position of enforcing existing laws, but supports child safety trigger locks and an instant background check before guns are bought.

Health: The government Medicare program for health insurance for seniors does not cover prescription drugs. Prescription costs are prohibitive, especially for the poor. As well, there are 44million Americans without insurance at all, including 11million children. Mr Gore would expand the government scheme to include prescription drugs and promises all children will have health insurance by 2005. Mr Bush promises a private sector providing a prescription drug benefit under the existing Medicare program and subsidies for low-income Americans.

Social security: The retirement scheme is paid for by the payroll taxes of younger workers. As Baby Boomers age, there will be fewer workers to support it, leading to concerns about its future solvency. Mr Gore would use $US2.2trillion of the surplus to buffet the scheme and pay down the debt. Mr Bush supports partial privatisation of social security by allowing participants to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in the stockmarket.

Taxation: The US is now in its longest period of economic expansion in history, and both candidates base their economic programs on a projected $4.6 trillion surplus over the next decade. Mr Gore says he will continue America's prosperity. He offers $480 billion in targeting tax cuts skewed to the poor and middle class. Mr Bush says a big tax cut is justified and would create incentive for investment and boost economic growth. He offers a 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax cut to all Americans, although a large portion of it goes to the wealthy.


-------- MILITARY

-------- drug war

Clinton Concerned about Ecstasy Imports

jointogether.org
11/7/00
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/default.jtml?O=264994

In an annual report on drug trafficking to the U.S. Congress, President Clinton expressed concern over the designer drug ecstasy, Reuters reported Nov. 1.

"I wish to note my concern over the rising imports of foreign-origin, illegal synthetic drugs into the United States, especially MDMA (ecstasy) from Europe," Clinton wrote. Government officials said that the Netherlands is the source of 80 percent of U.S. imports of ecsasy.

The report also removed Hong Kong and Taiwan from the U.S. list of major illegal drug-producing or drug-transit countries. Being named to the list is the first negative step under the U.S. "certification" process. Countries on the list risk losing U.S. aid if they are not cooperating in the war against drugs.

The report listed the following countries as major areas of drug trafficking or production: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.

---

Drug traffic taints port
Hells Angels part of organized-crime consortium, RCMP allege

Montreal Gazette
Tuesday 7 November 2000
WILLIAM MARSDEN The Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/001107/4824344.html

Drug seizures out of the Port of Montreal clearly show the port is infiltrated by a consortium of organized- crime syndicates that includes the Hells Angels, according to RCMP narcotics investigators.

Staff-Sgt. Jean Pierre Boucher told The Gazette yesterday that investigations into six huge hashish seizures this year show that organized crime is facilitating the flow of drugs through the port.

"The drugs come in and out of the port really easily, which means there is a powerful organization (controlling the port)," he said.

He said an investigation into a hashish seizure last Friday allowed the RCMP to identify organized-crime suspects working in the port. Boucher refused to name the suspects but he said arrests are pending.

"Everybody knows there's a problem at the harbour and this incident confirms this," he said.

The RCMP seized a shipment of 1,000 kilograms of hashish from Belgium. The hash was hidden in a container loaded with boxes of 5-kilo bricks of Belgium chocolate. Police made the seizure at a small chocolate-processing plant in Town of Mount Royal. The RCMP refused to make public the name of the company.

Sgt. Mike Roussy noted the shipment arrived at the Port of Montreal last Thursday and by Friday was on its way to the T.M.R. plant.

"They are able to get the drugs out faster than the legitimate goods," he said. "We know some people in the Port of Montreal are connected to the Hells Angels."

Boucher said the RCMP has seized 21,000 kilos of hashish out of the port this year.

In addition, two other shipments destined for the port were seized in New York and South Africa.

These shipments were also huge. The New York shipment contained 10,000 kilos and the South African 11,500.

This is not the first time police have said the port is controlled by organized crime.

Last month, Montreal Urban Community police said they believe a ring of about 10 people working in the port were involved in smuggling a shipment of 5 tonnes of hashish seized on Oct. 19. Police said they believe the workers are connected to the West End Gang and the bikers.

Michel Murray, president of the longshoremen's union, the Syndicat des Debardeurs du Port de Montreal, denied last month that the port is infiltrated by organized crime.

---

NEWS OF OTHER LIFE FORMS

DayTips' Strange News: 11/07/00
Tue, 07 Nov 2000 09:50:06 -0800

In much the same way migrant workers are hired to harvest strawberries, tomatoes and such, drug lords reportedly are hiring extra hands to assist in the harvesting of marijuana in northern California. The Sacramento Bee quotes law enforcement officials saying the Mexican drug rings that run many of the pot farms in the state have taken to hiring laborers off the street and even smuggling crews in from Mexico to pick and package their lucrative and coveted crop. For day workers, the $100 a day offered by the pot farmers is a healthy wage for which they are more than willing to work. And security is apparently not much of a problem, since the pickers are often in the United States illegally and have no idea for whom they toil.

-------- iraq

TODAY'S SIGN THE WORLD IS ENDING

DayTips' Strange News: 11/07/00
Tue, 07 Nov 2000 09:50:06 -0800

More information on that palatial resort city being constructed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, 85 miles west of Baghdad. The Times of London reports that a new high-resolution picture shows the so-called "Saddam City" has its own rail link and includes two houses identified as "special accommodations for his women." Hussein's palace is in the center of the resort -- near an artificial lake, a safari park with elephants and deer, and a park filled with statues, including one of the Iraqi leader. Saddam City is located about a mile and half from a casino and is estimated to have cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The area is guarded by Special Forces. Last year, the CIA published a fuzzy satellite photograph of Saddam City, located on the shores of Lake Tharthar. The new photograph, according to The Times, shows a huge resort that caters to Hussein's every need and pleasure.

-------- russia

Kursk Recovery Effort Ended

By David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 7, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31222-2000Nov7.html

MOSCOW, Nov. 7ýLeaving behind a wreath of flowers, the Norwegian seagoing platform Regalia today departed the scene of the sunken Russian submarine Kursk after a recovery mission that brought back 12 of the 118 victims and shed light on massive damage inside the vessel.

The Regalia served as the platform for a diving mission that spanned more than two weeks and explored several damaged compartments in the nuclear attack submarine, which sank Aug. 12 in the Barents Sea. The departure came after Russian commanders decided to go no further into the ship because of dangers to the divers. The Regalia was leased from the Norwegian unit of the Dallas-based oil services company Halliburton.

Although not all the information gleaned by Russian divers has been made public, statements of Navy officials in the course of the recovery effort point to an explosion that originated in the nose, where the torpedo compartment is located, and reached the rear, where the largest group of sailors was found. Traces of fire were found in the rear, and the forward compartments were turned into vaults of twisted pipes and metal by the explosion.

A Russian government commission appointed to investigate the sinking, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, is to meet in Moscow Wednesday, officials said. So far, Klebanov has said there are three explanations for the sinking: a collision with a foreign sub, hitting a World War II floating mine, or an internal explosion. Western and some Russian experts have said a blast in the torpedo room, which exploded the on-board weapons, is the most likely explanation.

The commission is expected to discuss possible reasons for the disaster, but officials have said a full answer may not come until next year when Russia has said it will raise the sub.

Divers today abandoned efforts to go deeper into the fourth compartment, the living quarters, because damage was so severe, and debris so dense, they could not move. They inserted a remote-control device into the fifth compartment, where the nuclear reactor is located, Navy spokesman Capt. Vladimir Navrotsky told Russian television.

He said divers decided not to enter the fifth compartment because, to reach the victims, they would have to climb to a lower deck through an opening that was only 60 centimeters square, while the bulky underwater gear required space of at least 75 centimeters. He said damage to the reactor in the fifth compartment was reduced by the cushioning effect of the forward bulkheads.

Navrotsky said that ýit is impossible to cut furtherý holes in the sub or it could be weakened structurally. Divers sliced windows in the dual-hulled vessel to explore the damage inside.

Before departing the scene, divers made a survey of the area around the Kursk, and also examined the first compartment by use of a video camera, Navrotsky said. Navy officials have said little about the condition of the first compartment.

-------- space

Pie in the sky

Montreal Gazette
Tuesday 7 November 2000
The Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/editorial/pages/001107/4823491.html

A controversial new era of space exploration began last week when a U.S.-Russian crew of three blasted off to set up housekeeping in the International Space Station. Now they are orbiting about 400 kilometres above the Earth, circling around the planet every 90 minutes or so.

To cynics, the exercise is a huge waste of money and effort. Some say the budget of $60 billion U.S. (or more) would be better spent on less glamourous - but no less useful - unmanned probes. Others say it would be better spent on other scientific research, or something else altogether.

The cynics may well have a point. Even so, as with many scientific endeavours, the utility of this one will only be apparent in hindsight.

Who can say whether, in conditions of weightlessness, scientists will be able to make invaluable biomedical or pharmaceutical-research breakthroughs? Who can say whether the establishment of a permanent human presence in space will prove to have been a stroke of genius, a stepping stone to manned expeditions farther into space - or even human colonization of other worlds (which some suggest might be necessary if humankind manages to nuke this one)?

In the meantime, the program is of obvious political utility to Washington, and to the West more broadly. It is a valuable forum for political and scientific co-operation among the 16 (mostly Western) nations involved, including Canada. It also keeps Russian missile scientists employed, instead of working for rogue nations.

The fact that it is manned is valuable for selling all sorts of space exploration to the public. Governments have known, since the first astronauts were launched into space decades ago, that manned expeditions are far more likely to capture the public imagination than are unmanned ones whose scientific merit may be greater - but harder to grasp. Indeed, Canadians are likely to hear more about the station in a few weeks, when Marc Garneau is to pay a visit and use the Canadarm to install solar arrays to generate electricity.

If Western taxpayers are lucky, the practical payoffs will be commensurate with the expense. As for establishing a beachhead for human existence lest something happen to this planet - that's something that should be left to science-fiction writers. The rest of us would be wiser to concentrate on more down-to-Earth concerns, such as making sure that this planet remains habitable.

---

Scientists Downplay 'Space Object'

Associated Press
November 7, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Near-Earth-Object.html

LOS ANGELES -- Scientists who announced last week that a mysterious space object had a 1-in-500 chance of striking the Earth in 30 years have retracted their prediction, saying it poses little threat.

The object, which is either a small asteroid or piece of space junk, has virtually no chance of hitting the planet in 2030. However, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said there's a 1-in-1,000 chance it could hit Earth in 2071.

``This object is much more interesting than threatening,'' said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program.

Scientists downgraded the chance of a collision in 2030 after examining additional observations. The new data ``effectively ruled out the chance of an Earth impact in that year,'' according to the program's Web site.

Predictions of the path of the object now indicate it will pass no closer than 2.7 million miles to Earth -- about 11 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

The object, designated 2000 SG344, is either an asteroid about 200 feet in diameter or a 35-foot-long Apollo-era rocket booster. It was discovered Sept. 29 through a telescope in Hawaii.

Before the new data was revealed, Yeomans had said that if the object was an asteroid it could create a ``fairly sizable nuclear blast'' if it struck the Earth.

The retraction and downgrading was the second embarrassing asteroid announcement in recent years. Scientists at the Minor Planets Center in Cambridge, Mass., generated headlines worldwide in 1998 when they announced that a mile-wide asteroid had a chance of hitting Earth in 2028. The prediction was retracted a day later when further calculations were made by JPL.

That incident led the International Astronomical Union to create new guidelines for announcing events of such magnitude. New rules call for announcements to be made after astronomers reach a consensus that a risk to the planet exists and states that an announcement be made publicly within 72 hours of such findings.

Yeomans said the new observations were released Friday shortly after he held a news conference.

``We followed the rules to the letter,'' he said. ``I have no regrets. I'd do the same thing again.''

-------- u.n.

New York Times
November 7, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/world/07BRIE.html

IRAQ: TRIAL IN U.N. DEATHS A man appeared in a Baghdad court charged with killing two United Nations staff members and wounding seven others in the Iraqi capital last June. Fuad Hussein Haider is accused of killing two Food and Agriculture Organization employees when he burst into the their Baghdad office and opened fire. (Reuters)

-------- u.s.

USA Today
19/07/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Alaska

Anchorage - The Federal Aviation Administration is seeking changes to rules and regulations governing air traffic over Anchorage. Take-offs and landings at local airports, military bases and float plane bases rose by more than 16% over the past five years. The FAA is asking air carriers, private pilots and military aviators to help write new rules to keep the airspace safe.

Arizona

Wenden - The Army Corps of Engineers is building temporary levees to protect the western Arizona town of Wenden from flooding. Two flashfloods hit the town within the space of a week last month, causing more than $8 million in damage. County officials said the 6-foot-high levees will offer protection for the rest of the rainy season.

North Dakota

Bismarck - Charlotte Morgan of Fargo has been promoted to colonel in the North Dakota Army National Guard. She's the first woman to hold the rank. Morgan trains Army Nurse Corps officers and is an assistant professor at the University of Mary's Fargo branch.

West Virginia

Charleston - The state National Guard could be activated to fight forest fires this week if dry weather continues. Equipment has been sent to three armories to prepare for a possible call-up. Since Oct. 28, 126 fires have charred 7,491 acres.

-------- OTHER

-------- environment

The Court's Clean Air Case

New York Times
November 7, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/opinion/07TUE2.html

Having failed to persuade Congress on the issue, a coalition of industry groups will be in the Supreme Court today asking the justices to disrupt enforcement of the health-based pollution standards that have been a cornerstone of a quarter-century of progress under the Clean Air Act. How the court responds could have consequences not only for the air Americans breathe, but also for the balance of power between the federal legislative and judicial branches, as well as the functioning of the modern regulatory apparatus.

Before the court is a controversial 2-to-1 decision by a federal appellate panel last year that invalidated tough new air quality standards that the federal Environmental Protection Agency imposed in 1997 to force further reductions in the amounts of ozone and soot in the air. Reviving the arcane "delegation doctrine," in disuse since the New Deal, the quirky ruling said that by failing to give the agency meaningful limits on the setting of standards, Congress had delegated too much legislative authority to the executive branch.

There are serious problems with this analysis, not least that it overlooks sections of the Clean Air Act containing guidance that seeks to tie agency action to broad policy principles established by Congress. As a practical matter, however, requiring Congress to go much beyond setting broad policy in a world where regulatory decisions increasingly depend on a high level of scientific or other expertise would upend the modern regulatory regime. Many administrative agencies, not just the E.P.A., operate within broad contours defined by Congress.

For these reasons, the court is unlikely to strike down the standards on the basis of the lower court's non-delegation reasoning. The industry groups know this, which is why they are offering the court another rationale for rejecting the regulations. In brief, they are arguing that the E.P.A. should have been required to take economic factors - costs and benefits - into account when establishing the new standards for smog and soot, and indeed should be required to do so in the future.

If accepted, this rationale would effectively overturn an important part of the Clean Air Act as well as subsequent court interpretations of that act. Under the act, the E.P.A. administrator is required to establish "uncompromising" air quality standards that protect public health "with an adequate margin of safety." This language has consistently been interpreted by courts as barring the agency from taking costs into account.

Furthermore, Congress has extensively debated revising the statute to require a cost-benefit analysis at the standard-setting stage, but has declined to do so. Any decision to change course at this point properly belongs with the nation's elected lawmakers, not with the courts.

To a large extent, the fight over this issue relies on a misconception. Far from ignoring costs and benefits, the Clean Air Act is an exquisitely crafted compromise in which costs play no defining role in setting air quality goals, but can be considered by state and local governments in determining the most effective means of achieving those goals. In addition, state and local governments, as well as industry, can appeal to Congress if they find the timetables for meeting standards too onerous. In 1990, for example, Congress gave the states more time to meet existing ozone standards.

This regime, which allows the federal government to set health standards but gives the states flexibility in meeting them, has served the nation well. Absent a decision by Congress to rewrite the underlying statute, the justices have no basis now to alter a system that has worked for 30 years.

---

Justices Consider Clean Air Act Issues

New York Times
November 7, 2000
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/national/08CND-SCOTUS.html

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - The most potent legal attack on the Clean Air Act in the statute's 30-year history, startlingly successful in a federal appeals court here 18 months ago, foundered visibly before the Supreme Court today.

During an intense two-hour argument, justice after justice expressed the view that whatever the burdens and uncertainties of life under the sweeping statute as it is currently interpreted, alternative approaches would not solve those problems and might well create new ones, for other federal regulatory laws as well as for the Clean Air Act.

The case brought two closely intertwined issues before the court. One was whether the law, as interpreted by the Environmental Protection Agency, provides so little guidance on how to set permissible levels of pollutants as to amount to an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the executive branch.

This question reached the Supreme Court as an appeal by the Clinton Administration from a ruling in May 1999 by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which invoked the long discredited "nondelegation doctrine" to invalidate standards for ozone and small airborne particles that the Environmental Protection Agency had issued in 1997.

The second issue, brought before the justices by the coalition of industry groups that had been successful at the appeals court level, offered a way to preserve that victory while at the same time avoiding the constitutional earthquake that could result from striking down the clean air standards - and, by implication, many other federal regulations - as reflecting impermissible delegations of congressional authority.

The industry group is arguing that an interpretation of the Clean Air Act to require the agency to weigh the costs and benefits of each regulation would provide the guidance the statute now lacks, thus avoiding the nondelegation analysis that was unlikely to attract a Supreme Court majority.

"We're talking about a world of limited resources," Edward W. Warren, representing the American Trucking Associations, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and other industry groups told the court. Without a cost-benefit requirement, he said, "the agency has the freedom to take us all the way down to de-industrialization, and that can't be."

The approach was creative, but the allies that Mr. Warren needed did not appear ready accept his invitation. "I don't see how it helps your delegation problem to add `the economy' to the ineffable pot of things the administrator is supposed to consider," Justice Antonin Scalia said. He added: "If you're going to stop a cough, is $1,000 too much? What does it cost to stop a cough - $2,000? $3,000? It's just as indeterminate."

---

David Brower, an Aggressive Champion of U.S. Environmentalism, Is Dead at 88

New York Times
November 7, 2000
By RICHARD SEVERO
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/national/07BROW.html

David Brower, an uncompromising environmentalist who spent more than half a century fighting to protect America's wilderness areas against speculators, developers, state agencies and the federal government, died on Sunday at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 88.

Mr. Brower was widely regarded one of the most articulate and powerful conservationists of the 20th century, and at various times led a number of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth.

Long an opponent of compromise in the face of efforts to tame wild lands, he was a primary force during the 1960's in preventing the construction of two major government dams in the Grand Canyon. He also played a pivotal role in blocking a dam, proposed for the Green River in Utah, that would have flooded parts of Dinosaur National Monument.

Over the years he also fought, sometimes alone, to maintain the wilderness of the Northern Cascades in Oregon and Washington, Point Reyes and Kings Canyon in California, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, the Allagash Wilderness in Maine and the Everglades in Florida.

He sought to protect redwoods from loggers, animals from furriers, porpoises from tuna fishermen and the public from nuclear energy and any number of projects proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation.

Mr. Brower (the name rhymes with "hour") also spoke against the indiscriminate use of herbicides and pesticides.

"You are villains not to share your apples with worms," he would tell his audiences. "Bite the worms. They won't hurt nearly as much as the insecticide does."

Mr. Brower's life seemed to be a perpetual joust against what he found to be the careless use of land for commercial purposes.

"We're not blindly opposed to progress," he said, "we're opposed to blind progress."

In a book about Mr. Brower, "Encounters With the Archdruid" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971), John McPhee likened him to a circuit- riding preacher on environmentalism, who referred to his standard conservation talk as the Sermon.

"Brower," Mr. McPhee wrote, "has computed that we are driving through the earth's resources at a rate comparable to a man's driving an automobile a hundred and twenty- eight miles per hour - and he says that we are accelerating. He reminds his audiences that buffalo were shot for their tongues alone, and he says that we still have a buffalo-tongue economy.

" `We're hooked on growth. We're addicted to it. In my lifetime, man has used more resources than in all previous history.' "

If Mr. Brower was a druid, he was an angry one; he seemed to maintain a level of indignation that would have burned out a lesser man.

"I wish we didn't have to be angry all the time," he said. "But someone has to get angry."

Russell Train, who in the early 1970's was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, once observed: "Thank God for David Brower. He makes it so easy for the rest of us to be reasonable."

In 1952, Mr. Brower became executive director of the Sierra Club, the conservation organization founded in 1892 by the naturalist John Muir. It had a membership of 7,000 and an annual budget of $75,000 when Mr. Brower started. By 1969, when he stepped down under pressure by members who thought he had gone too far too fast, it had 77,000 members and assets of $3 million, and had probably blocked or delayed construction of at least $7 billion.

Because of its opposition to the two proposed dams in the Grand Canyon, the Sierra Club lost its tax-exempt status in 1966, on the ground that it had become much a political organization. Mr. Brower later told the membership that it owed thanks to Sheldon Cohen, the commissioner of internal revenue, because his ruling had attracted new, militant members who did not care whether joining gave them a tax advantage.

Even as it moved from the gentility of Muir's time to the militancy of Mr. Brower, the Sierra Club attracted favorable notice from more traditional conservationists with its handsomely illustrated books, which argued the cause of nature with photographs. The books were Mr. Brower's idea, and among those for which he was editor and publisher were "Summer Island - Penobscot Country"; "Time and the River Flowing," which described the Grand Canyon; and "Gentle Wilderness - The Sierra Nevada."

But the Sierra Club's militancy continued to irritate some members, none more so than the photographer Ansel Adams, who described Mr. Brower's followers as "almost inquisitorial" toward those accused of despoiling the environment. Some in the club, for instance, were open to proposals for the construction of the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor in California; Mr. Brower despised the project, which was ultimately built at 17 times the cost originally estimated and began operating in 1985, fully 13 years behind schedule.

In 1969, after the defeat of a slate of candidates for Sierra Club positions who were friendly to him, Mr. Brower resigned as executive director and founded two new groups: Friends of the Earth and the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies.

He was dismissed as chairman of Friends of the Earth in July 1984 amid complaints that he had been too dictatorial and too wasteful in refusing to carry out staff cuts ordered by the board. He was reinstated a month later but resigned from the board in 1986.

In the meantime, there had been a reconciliation between Mr. Brower and the Sierra Club, which appointed him to its board in 1982. Over the years, the Sierra Club's 600,000 members would re-elect him to the 15-member board by overwhelming margins. He was last elected in 1998 but resigned this spring, once again citing differences between the board's agenda and his.

"The world is burning, and all I hear from them is the music of violins," he said in resigning. "May the Sierra Club become what John Muir wanted it to be and what I have alleged it was."

In his last years, Mr. Brower, still a fit and imposing man of 6 foot 3, with a shock of white hair, continued to stake out a militant's view of conservation, winning new adherents to the cause. He helped establish an organization of steel workers and environmentalists called the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, based in Portland, Ore.

A supporter of Ralph Nader, Mr. Brower flew to Denver in June for the Green Party convention and cast his absentee ballot for president the day before he died, said Mikhail Davis, his assistant at the Earth Island Institute in San Francisco, which Mr. Brower founded in 1982 to promote conservation projects around the world.

Mr. Brower is survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Anne Hus; three sons, Robert and John, both of Berkeley, and Ken, of Oakland, Calif., and a daughter, Barbara Brower of Portland.

David Ross Brower was born on July 1, 1912, in Berkeley, the son of Ross J. and Mary Grace Barlow Brower. His father, who took the family on frequent camping and hiking trips, taught mechanical drawing at the University of California and then, having lost that job, managed and did janitorial work in two buildings he owned.

Mrs. Brower, also a lover of the outdoors, lost both her sight and her sense of smell to an inoperable brain tumor when David was young; he later recalled taking her on walks after she had lost her vision. He became permanently interested in both mountain climbing and butterfly collecting, enjoying his ability to identify almost any butterfly that fluttered near him.

Mr. Brower was admitted to the University of California at Berkeley and studied there in the early 1930's, but dropped out in his sophomore year. He would later tell his friends that he was "a graduate of the University of the Colorado River."

During World War II, he was an officer with the 10th Mountain Division, which fought in northern Italy, and wrote a manual of instruction for mountain troops.

After the war he went back to an old job at the University of California Press, where he edited manuscripts, and remained there until assuming the leadership of the Sierra Club, of which he had been a member since 1933, nearly two decades earlier.

In the 1960's and 70's, environmentalists were sometimes perceived as elitists who did not care if their activities contributed to unemployment. In his autobiography, "For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower" (Gibbs Smith, 1990), Mr. Brower said, "We are in sympathy with the straits of unemployed loggers, but before we let sympathy be an easy route to expedience, let us consider who else needs some sympathy."

As a man who disliked cars, Mr. Brower added, "We can, upright people that we are, rediscover the foot; we can save a place to walk in, and an antelope, too."

---

USA Today
19/07/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Alabama

Florence - The Cerulean Warbler, a tiny blue-backed, white-breasted songbird, is quickly disappearing from northern Alabama forests, officials say. Conservation groups are working to save the bird, whose population has declined 70% since 1966. More than 25 regional and national conservation groups have asked federal officials to list the songbird as a threatened species.

Nevada

Hawthorne - Efforts to protect the endangered Lahontan cutthroat trout are blamed for endangering residents downstream from Weber Dam. Critics charge that environmental studies have delayed a project to reconstruct the dam. People living below it face the chance it could destroy their homes if it buckles in an earthquake.

North Carolina

Charlotte - North Carolina's dirty air is jeopardizing more than 100 road projects slated to receive federal funds. State officials say more than $1 billion in highway building could be delayed. New clean air standards require planners to look ahead two decades to estimate the impact of road projects on air quality.

---

Program under way to protect wild deer

Washington Times
November 7, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-2000117213444.htm

MOSCOW - An international project to save Eurasia's biggest population of wild deer has been started in northern Russia, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday.

The U.N. Development Program and the Global Ecological Fund have joined forces with northern Russia's nongovernmental organization Arctic Ring in a project to protect more than a million wild deer in Russia's Taymyr region.

Harmful industrial pollutants have forced the deer to change their traditional migration routes, and the construction of new gas and oil pipelines has made migration increasingly difficult, sometimes resulting in decimation of entire herds, UNDP officials said.

-------- police

Jury Rejects Church Claims Over '95 Melee With Police

New York Times
November 7, 2000
By SHAILA K. DEWAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/nyregion/07CHUR.html

Five years after police officers and parishioners battled at an outdoor tent revival in Jamaica, Queens, a jury yesterday rejected claims for damages by church members who contended in a federal lawsuit that the officers had injured them, violated their civil rights and wrongly arrested them.

The jury in Federal District Court found that while police officers did make physical contact with churchgoers, sometimes "with the intention of causing harmful or offensive bodily contact," the officers' actions were legally justified. The jury also rejected a counterclaim by one officer, Detective Joanne Toole, who was injured.

The Aug. 25, 1995, incident at the Universal Calvary Church injured 6 police officers and 28 parishioners and brought criticism from black church leaders in the city. The Rev. Al Sharpton denounced the Police Department for excessive use of force. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and the police commissioner at the time, William J. Bratton, also voiced concern for police actions.

The divisive episode began when church ushers tackled a retired police officer, Clifford Warsop, who was trying to enter the revival meeting to see his children and his estranged wife, who had a restraining order against him.

Several hours later, Mr. Warsop, who had received 23 stitches earlier, returned with three police officers to arrest the man who had injured him. Fighting broke out. The officers, Charles Barberi, Detective Toole and Dennis Wiencko, called for backup, and about 100 officers in riot gear appeared. Each side later accused the other of using pepper spray and throwing bottles and other debris.

On the church side, accounts varied widely on each point. Some church members said Mr. Warsop had brandished his gun, leading them to believe that he intended to rob them. The pastor, the Rev. Emmanuel Osei-Acheampong, said later that ushers had feared that Mr. Warsop wanted to harm his estranged wife, Angela Pennecooke. Neighbors said they saw children jumping on cars, police spraying Mace, and both sides throwing bottles.

A preliminary internal police department investigation found that the three officers used "poor judgment to effect an arrest in clear view of the congregation." But Norma Kerlin, an assistant corporation counsel for the city, said no disciplinary action was taken. Charges against six parishioners accused of assaulting police officers were dismissed, and Mr. Warsop was acquitted of the charge that he disrupted a religious service.

The lawsuit was originally brought by 200 church members and was separated into several cases. This was the first to be tried.

Charles Horn, a lawyer who represented the city, said trial testimony showed that police officers were attacked by "a mob."

"It's a big victory," he said. "I think the police officers were vindicated. I think the truth came out. Evidence in the case shows the police officers were doing their job, and the police officers were victimized by the plaintiffs."

But Ronald L. Kuby, the lawyer for the 11 plaintiffs, said the verdict came from a jury with six whites and two Asians but no blacks. The one African-American on the original panel, he said, was dismissed for allegedly wishing a plaintiff good luck. "You'll always find a white jury willing to excuse white police officers for using force against blacks," Mr. Kuby said.

Although the clash was videotaped, lawyers presented significantly different versions of who had started the fight.

In his closing argument, Mr. Kuby said the police had sought to justify the use of force by falsely claiming that they were attacked first. The fight, he said, had left some members permanently disabled.

"You can watch videotapes of police outside the fence spraying Mace in violation of orders," Mr. Kuby said yesterday. "And no one, in dozens of police officers who gave depositions, no one was able to identify those cops." He added, "While both sides claimed that the other attacked them, it was the black people that received most of the injuries."

But Ms. Kerlin said the videotape showed one policeman waving a canister. "There was no indication of spray being discharged," she said.

Mr. Horn, who represented the 22 officers named in the lawsuit, argued in court that plaintiffs had lied on the stand and exaggerated their injuries.

---

USA Today
19/07/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Oregon

Portland - Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker, under fire for anti-gay statements 11 years ago, told officers his views have changed. "Gays and lesbians have values, like everyone, and are to be valued for their lives, work and contributions," Kroeker said. He made the anti-gay remarks in a newly disclosed 1989 speech to a Christian group.

-------- spying

The Leaks Veto

Washington Post
Tuesday , November 7, 2000 ; Page A26
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27774-2000Nov6.html

PRESIDENT CLINTON deserves great credit for vetoing this year's intelligence authorization bill, which would have indiscriminately criminalized leaks of classified information. Many such leaks do more good than harm, and laws already exist to take care of the harmful ones. But politically, that's not the easy position to take in an election year, particularly given the beating Mr. Clinton's administration has taken over campaign contributions from foreign sources and security lapses at national nuclear laboratories. Moreover, as Mr. Clinton acknowledged in his veto statement, the administration initially failed to raise with Congress the concerns that ultimately led to the veto; indeed, the CIA and Justice Department both supported the bill. The veto was nonetheless right. Though the bill can be made to sound like a common sense, good-government proposal, it was a dangerous idea.

A newspaper, we admit, is hardly a neutral commentator on the question of leaks. We sometimes publish leaked information, and our reporters solicit all kinds of material--some of it classified. But there are good reasons this country has never had an official secrets law, and those same reasons caution against adopting one now. While some leaks may harm the national security, others serve to uncover wrongdoing in government or to provide useful sunshine where government overclassification has needlessly kept citizens in the dark. Classification is sometimes used for no other purpose than to save the government from embarrassment; at the same time, high-level officials in every administration leak classified materials for tactical advantage. Leaks are a part of our political system--one that is easy to decry but would be quickly missed if actually chilled.

The traditional legal approach to the problem has been to criminalize leaks of specific types of classified information, such as, for example, names of intelligence agents or cryptographic information. Moreover, disclosures of defense information made with knowledge that the information will harm the national security can be prosecuted as espionage. Less egregious leaks are typically handled by administrative personnel actions outside the criminal arena. That's as it should be. To criminalize all leaks of classified information would give the executive branch too much power to shroud its business in secrecy.

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Ex-spy chief seeks deal, says lawmaker

Washington Times
November 7, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-2000117213444.htm

LIMA, Peru - Ex-spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos has sent a cryptic message saying he fears for his life and wants to cut a deal to surrender, a leading opposition lawmaker said yesterday.

Congressman Fernando Olivera told the radio station Radioprogramas that a top military official contacted two members of the Independent Moralizing Front party Friday with a message from the fugitive.

"Vladimiro Montesinos is terrified because he believes he will be assassinated by those who fear he will talk and reveal all the crimes and all of his accomplices," Mr. Olivera said. Mr. Montesinos has been in hiding since his return to Peru two weeks ago after a failed asylum bid in Panama.

-------- terrorism

A Glimpse at the Alliances of Terror

New York Times
November 7, 2000
By MILT BEARDEN and LARRY JOHNSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/opinion/07BEAR.html

As the destroyer Cole was being hauled around the Cape of Good Hope to its home port of Norfolk, Va., and amid the ruckus of the elections, a remarkable piece of intelligence dropped into the public's knowledge about international terrorism. It has drawn little notice yet, but it will likely cause the new administration to reassess American policy and search for a better formula for combating terrorism than launching a few cruise missiles at camps in Afghanistan or pharmaceutical plants in Sudan.

On Oct. 20, the Federal District Court in Manhattan accepted a guilty plea from Ali A. Mohamed, a former Green Beret sergeant and one of six men indicted for the bombings of American embassies in Africa in 1998. Mr. Mohamed not only confessed that he had taken part in a conspiracy to murder American citizens in Saudi Arabia and East Africa, but tied the assaults directly to the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. Significantly, his confession also linked Mr. bin Laden with another terrorist at large - the mysterious Hezbollah security chief, Imad Mughniyah.

Half of all Americans killed by international terrorists since 1980 have been murdered by groups associated with Mr. Mughniyah and Mr. bin Laden. Mr. Mughniyah, who is credibly implicated in the lion's share of the killings, is believed to have carried out the bombings of the United States Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the hijacking of a TWA plane to Beirut in 1985. He is also believed to have masterminded the kidnapping of more than 50 hostages there. And he has been implicated in the bombings of Israeli installations in Argentina and a rocket attack on the Russian Embassy in Beirut.

Ali Mohamed's confession represents the first credible, public evidence not only that Mr. Mughniyah and Mr. bin Laden have been collaborating, but that Iran has been backing them. He said that between 1991 and 1993, he handled security arrangements for a meeting between the two men where they established their common goal of forcing the United States to withdraw from the Middle East. And his testimony adds authority to earlier reports that Iran's Ministry of Information and Security had called a terrorist conclave in Tehran in 1996 that included Mr. Mughniyah and a senior aide to Mr. bin Laden. Whether the connection of the two will be found to have played into the attack on the Cole is unclear, but preliminary evidence suggests it might.

The experience of the last two decades has shown that putting terrorists in American prisons is the most effective policy. Ramzi Yousef and Sheik Omar Abdel Rahma, convicted in the World Trade Center bombing, and Mir Amal Kansi, a convicted murderer of C.I.A. employees in Virginia, have stood in shackles before American justice and are fading memories in the world of militant Islam. By contrast, American attempts to blast Osama Bin Laden out of his Afghan redoubt have elevated him to levels of mystical power in the Islamic world. Yes, there is something between indictments and cruise missiles - a middle ground of covert action and clandestine operations - and these options should be kept on the table. But the new administration, no matter who wins today's presidential election, will have to concentrate on consistently applying diplomatic and legal pressures to the states implicated, even passively, in acts of terror.

The United States has isolated Afghanistan's ruling Taliban diplomatically as part of its demand that they hand over Mr. bin Laden for trial, but the Taliban claim that the United States has not made a convincing case against him. The testimony of Ali Mohamed might provide them with what they need to move him out of Afghanistan and into an Islamic court in a third country acceptable to the United States. At the very least, it should bring new seriousness to the dialogue now under way between Taliban leaders and American Ambassador William Milam in Pakistan.

Then there is Iran, whose leaders will have to understand that their support for Mr. Mughniyah could put an end to efforts to normalize American relations with Tehran.

The Clinton administration has shot its bolt on the terrorist problem with small effect, and a flashy show of force during the next few months will not change the record. The new administration can start afresh with a more sharply defined set of goals - for starters, bringing Mr. Mughniyah and Mr. bin Laden and their protectors to justice - and bring the full, coordinated force of American legal, diplomatic, military, and intelligence capabilities to bear on the problem.

Milt Bearden in an author and former C.I.A. official. Larry Johnson is a former State Department counterterrorism specialist.

-------- activists

PQ, Bloc offices target of anti-merger protest

Montreal Gazette
Tuesday 7 November 2000
LYNN MOORE The Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/001107/4824347.html

More than 600 municipal workers staged a noisy but peaceful protest last night outside the Papineau Ave. building that houses the offices of the Bloc Quebecois and Parti Quebecois.

It was the second of the Monday-night "home visits" being carried out by a united front of blue- and white-collar workers from in and around Montreal to draw attention to their anger over legislation that provides the framework for municipal mergers.

The message directed at the office tower by a half-dozen union leaders who took turns at the public-address system was consistent with the slogans painted on protest signs: political parties who mess with their constituency do so at their own peril.

"It is we workers who vote for you," Serge Praire, head of the union representing blue-collar workers in Mascouche, said to the cheers of the crowd where many pickets read "Bouchard: You forget us; we will forget to vote."

Mario Sabourin, an executive member of the union representing Montreal's 6,000 white-collar workers, said unions are not dead set against municipal mergers.

"Maybe it's a good thing, but it's the way that they are doing it that we are against," he said in an interview.

According to union leaders, the protest train has picked up speed since last Monday night, when about 600 workers gathered outside the Outremont home of Louis Bernard, the government adviser who wrote the report on municipal reform on Montreal Island made public last month.

The organizers of last night's event estimated that there were as many as 1,000 protesters on Papineau, and noted that sister protests were held in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region as well as elsewhere in Quebec last night.

A protest march on behalf of female municipal workers is also being organized for tomorrow, the crowd was told.

---

New York Times
November 7, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/07/world/07BRIE.html

IRAN: PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTEST More than 1,000 students denounced hard-liners and voiced support for pro-democracy reforms at a rally on the Tehran University campus. Several hard-line vigilantes tried to disrupt the gathering, which ended without violence. Plainclothes security forces, however, arrested a few students after they left the university grounds. (AP)

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