------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Labour Sidesteps on Missile Defense
N.Korea Opens Ties With Netherlands
Czech Government Belittles Temelin Assessment
The Yoke of Capitalism
Kostunica: NATO's 'depleted conscience'
NATO chiefs meet to assess uranium health risks
NATO Says No Depleted Uranium-Cancer Link
Bulgaria Sees No Depleted Uranium Risks
Depleted uranium waste to be dumped on public tip
Radiation from DU 'could act rapidly'
Adrian Severin Sifts to the Bottom the Evidence
NATO Studies Uranium Connections
NATO Says No DU - Cancer Link, No Syndrome
Depleted uranium factory had a fire
The Week in Science: A Full Menu
Spat over ordnance exposes NATO rifts
France doubts uranium caused cancer in troops
Asian Nuclear Accidents Could Kill Thousands:
Pakistan, India start talking again
Ten Years Later Saddam Still Defiant
Russia Expands Nuke Project in Iran
Taiwan's Top Court Decides Halting A-Plant Was Improper
Asian Stock Markets Close Mixed
SCIENTIST AT WORK
New View of a Nursery of Stars
Wanted posters
California declares Stage 3 alert
Officials Question Monitoring of Nuclear Plant
Likely foreign advisers named
FOREIGN AFFAIRS Powell's Perspective

MILITARY
Record Heroin Seizure at Austro-Hungarian Border
Texas
Governors slam U.S. drug offensive
Pakistani Militants Attack Srinagar Airport
INDIA: KASHMIR WARNING
Atlantis launch delayed until next month
U.N. Crash Deaths Are First in a Relief Program
Army Ends Case Against Gay Reservist
Despite No Remains, Iraq Says Pilot Died
Air Force blocks new airport at Homestead
California
Military to allow pilots to fly after laser surgery

OTHER
'Brink of nuclear war'
Another Source of Air Pollution: The Home
Experts Look to Old Mill for Answers to Pollution of Hudson
The Week in Science: A Full Menu
Antibiotic Overload
A Global Greenhouse
ITALY: MAD COW ALERT
Bush pick signals big change for West
Clinton betrayed Westerners
States
Police Union Backs Plan on Rapport
Metro News Briefs
Officer loses pay for role in deadly raid
Cuba Says Will Try Czechs as Pro-U.S. "Agents"
Terrorist's trial draws government officials

ACTIVISTS
Greenpeacers Board British Submarine
Four in fast at airport Stella Tse, Hong Kong iMail
Anson: I may give answers but now I'm shopping
China Punishes 242 Members of Banned Sect
SPAIN: MAD COW PROTESTS
China punishes Falun Gong members
NEWARK: BLACK PHONE WORKERS PROTEST
Inauguration Protesters Sue Over Security


-------- NUCLEAR

Labour Sidesteps on Missile Defense

International Herald Tribune
Tuesday, January 16, 2001
Reuters
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=7639

LONDON There is no immediate threat to British security from nuclear proliferation, the defense minister said Monday as the opposition clamored for the government to back U.S. plans to build a missile defense system.

But while Britain faces no such threat, it understands American worries that the United States might be the target of rogue states firing off nuclear missiles, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon told Parliament.

The opposition Conservatives last week called on the Labour government to back U.S. plans to build a high-tech protective shield against missile attacks, a pet project of the new Bush administration.

America is Britain's closest ally, but some in the ruling Labour Party fear mass protests if London backs the U.S. system, which would rely on a radar early-warning station in Britain.

The Labour government has declined to take a stand, and Mr. Hoon reiterated this on-the-fence attitude on Monday, saying there was no point in responding until there was a clear-cut American proposal for British involvement. But, he added, "There is no immediate threat to the security of this country from nuclear proliferation."

---

N.Korea Opens Ties With Netherlands

Associated Press
January 16, 2001 Filed at 1:52 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-NKorea-Diplomacy.html

BEIJING (AP) -- Quickening its efforts to break out of diplomatic isolation, North Korea has opened ties with the Netherlands and agreed to relations with Turkey, officials said Tuesday.

North Korea and the Netherlands opened formal relations Monday, making the Netherlands the first country to open ties with Pyongyang this year, South Korean officials in Seoul said. North Korea's official KCNA news agency confirmed the opening following talks in December and on Monday in The Hague, Netherlands.

In an unusual move, North Korea agreed to a Dutch proposal that its ambassador to Seoul also serve concurrently as its envoy to North Korea. The Netherlands is the eighth European Union nation to open ties with North Korea, after Austria, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, Italy and Britain.

North Korean and Turkish officials also signed an agreement after talks Monday in Beijing stating their nations' intention to normalize relations, said Turkish Embassy official Ilhan Tug.

While no specific date was set for opening ties and more talks are needed, Tug said the agreement ``was a major step.'' Turkish officials also raised concerns about North Korean missile sales in the talks, Tug said.

The North Korean efforts to build foreign ties came amid South Korean and Japanese media reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was making a secret visit to China, his second in less than eight months.

The Chinese government's defense, foreign and foreign trade ministries and the Cabinet said they had no information about a visit by Kim, but did not flatly deny the news reports.

The trip to China, if confirmed, would be Kim's second since he made a three-day visit to China on May 29-31 last year. China kept that trip secret until after Kim returned home.

-------- czech republic

Friends of the Earth Says Czech Government Belittles Temelin Assessment

centraleurope.com
Jan 16, 2001
Czech News Agency
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=256149

BRUSSELS -- The international environmental organization Friends of the Earth today issued a statement in which it said it believed the Czech government was trying to belittle international assessment of the Czech Temelin nuclear power plant's impact on the environment.

Friends of the Earth in this relation cited the decision by the Czech State Nuclear Safety Authority (SUJB) to disconnect Temelin from the power grid not just for a routine two-day inspection, but until February 5. The SUJB made the decision due to a series of problem incidents at Temelin in recent weeks, including a fire that started on Sunday due to a leak of oil in the plant's first bloc, and the SUJB's order for suspension of Temelin's operation was due to vibrations of turbine in places where steam enters, the statement says.

The statement also says that it might be found necessary to replace certain components at the plant, which would further increase costs. Temelin, the most expensive construction project ever in Czech history, has so far cost nearly 100 billion Czech crowns since it began being built during the communist regime. Despite strong opposition and protests by environmental groups, the SUJB issued a permit for the new south Bohemian power plant to begin being put into operation in October, 2000, following numerous previous delays of its launch. Since its launch was started in October, the plant's reactor has repeatedly been unexpectedly automatically shut down by its own installed safety systems.

Friends of the Earth's statement claims that documents have leaked from the Czech Foreign Ministry which, according to the organization, clearly indicate lack of will or interest on the part of the Czech government to begin carrying out true studies of Temelin's impact on the environment. The environmental group adds that it believes the Czech Foreign Ministry and the Czech Trade and Industry Ministry will, on the other hand, probably belittle calls for an environmental impact assessment whenever they get the chance.

The organization's statement goes on to say that the Czech government failed at the last moments to reach agreement on how to carry out a study on the Temelin nuclear power plant's environmental impact and that it will again discuss the matter on Wednesday. In relation to nuclear plant-free Austria's request that it be able to participate in the assessment, Friends of the Earth says it feels that the Czech side's attitude about the assessment, which the Czech and Austrian government heads Milos Zeman and Wolfgang Schuessel have already agreed is to be carried out, increasingly gives an impression that the Czech side has only agreed to the whole thing in order to please the public and the European Commission.

Friends of the Earth's statement says that international and Czech environmental NGOs have written to EU enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen and asked him to support a transparent and properly carried out environmental impact assessment at Temelin. According to Jan Beranek from the Czech branch of Friends of the Earth, Hnuti Duha, the European Commission "should facilitate assessment of the impacts, and not help the Czech nuclear lobby cover up the safety shortcomings of Temelin."

---

The Yoke of Capitalism

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/business/16BAIL.html?pagewanted=all

PRAGUE - Eleven years ago, the Velvet Revolution brought Communism to an end in the Czech Republic. The way Kamil Ziegler figures, it will take another six years to dig out from the excesses of capitalism.

Mr. Ziegler is the departing chairman of this country's biggest and fastest-growing financial institution: Konsolidacni Banka, the government- owned bailout agency. Thanks to an ambitious effort to clean up and sell off the country's bankrupt state-owned banks, Konsolidacni and various affiliates are sitting on a mountain of $8.62 billion in nearly worthless loans.

The assets here include more than $200 million that one bank lent to an Austrian investment firm that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. They include millions of dollars squandered at Zetor, which sold tractors at below cost to a distributor who was also the company's biggest shareholder. And they will soon include more than $1 billion in bad loans from a bank that was raided and seized last June by government antiterrorist squads.

Very little of this stems from the Communist era. Most flows from the mistakes made in the first heady wave of Czech capitalism, when Czech leaders portrayed themselves as devout believers in free markets and chided Western European governments for being rigid and bureaucratic. State-owned banks lent freely to well-connected industrial companies, only to discover years later that about half their money had been wasted.

Today, almost all the big Czech banks have been taken over by foreign institutions, from Erste Bank of Austria to GE Capital. But the mess the Czech banks left behind remains in Czech hands - specifically, on the books of Konsolidacni Banka - and nobody at the bank or in the government is quite sure what to do about it. Indeed, foreign bankers complain that the government is undermining the fiscal SWAT team it recently created to save or dispose of the most troubled companies. Konsolidacni is now the biggest creditor and often a major shareholder in some of the Czech Republic's largest conglomerates. Beyond that, it holds thousands of smaller loans on hotels, restaurants, office buildings and even car- repair shops. Its portfolio of debris has more than doubled the last two years, to about one-quarter of the Czech Republic's gross domestic product. And the numbers are expected to swell by an additional $2 billion, to $10 billion, in the next few months, as the Czech government sells the last of its big banks.

"Our mission is simple," said Mr. Ziegler, who has run Konsolidacni Banka for two years and plans to leave next month for a senior job at an Austrian bank in Prague. "We want to destroy ourselves as quickly as possible. We want to dispose of our assets in the shortest time possible, minimizing the cost to taxpayers. The job should be done in six to eight years."

But running Konsolidacni Banka is like trying to sell off a pile of rubble even as the dump trucks keep coming. Compounding the problem, many of the biggest debtors are also among the country's biggest employers, making it politically difficult to force much-needed restructuring.

Selling the loans to outside investors has been painfully slow. That is because the agency's antiquated information systems make it hard for investors to know what is actually available and because the government is reluctant to sell its loans at a tiny fraction of their nominal value, which is all the market will bear.

Last month, the government abandoned one of its most innovative efforts. Hoping to create something akin to a SWAT team to fix up and sell the nation's most troubled conglomerates, the government hired two investment banks, Lazard Frères and Latona Associates of Hampton, N.H. They were put in charge of a new entity called the Revitalization Agency and told to make their money from the profits of restructuring.

Just one year later, the bankers are threatening to pack their bags because the government refused to let the agency acquire the conglomerates' debt. Besides worrying about being properly compensated, the investment bankers fear that the restructuring plans will be subject to political interference again.

"We will not continue working with the companies unless we are certain that we will have enough decision- making autonomy," said Michael Saran, executive director of the Revitalization Agency. The the bankers and the government are trying to negotiate a new agreement by the end of January.

The problems of cleaning up Czech industry provide a sobering lesson for other Central European countries. After the peaceful overthrow of Communism in 1989, the center-right government of Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus embarked on a rapid privatization program, in which it distributed shares in big national enterprises to Czech citizens. Mr. Klaus, an articulate and witty former professor, portrayed himself as a devout believer in deregulation and free markets. But he had little interest in creating the legal infrastructure.

Czech companies were allowed to remain opaque to creditors and shareholders, and opportunists quickly snatched up the shares at rock-bottom prices from fellow citizens unfamiliar with equity ownership. They seized control of companies like Skoda Plzen, the big engineering conglomerate, and Tatra, a truck manufacturer.

Not to be confused with Skoda, the Czech automaker taken over by Volkswagen, Skoda Plzen, with 11,000 workers, had been a reasonably healthy company with products ranging from nuclear power turbines to machine tools. After being privatized, it bought companies that produced locomotives, heavy trucks and sugar mills and built a factory to make aluminum cans. By 1999, the company was losing millions of dollars a day and was delinquent on most of its bank loans.

Other major companies experienced similar declines. Those problems weighed heavily on the banks, largely because Czech bankruptcy laws made it almost impossible for banks to seize property that had been used as collateral for loans. The banks were also woefully inexperienced about analyzing a company's underlying financial strength and based their decisions largely on its record of previous repayment.

"People didn't have any system for early warnings," said Radovan Vavra, chairman of Komercni Banka, the country's biggest bank, which is in the process of being privatized. "The old system did not encompass questions about financial stability. It only took into consideration the payment morals of the customer. But if the first time you get nervous is when a customer misses a payment, it's probably already too late."

Mr. Vavra, a former senior executive at Citibank in Prague, joined Komercni last April, when the bank was losing about $240 million a year and had a huge portfolio of problem loans. Its biggest customer was an Austrian company called BCL, which said it was a fast-growing commodities trader but was actually losing money and borrowing to repay old loans. By the time bank officials recognized the problem, Komercni had lost about $200 million.

Komercni's problems are not unique. The worst case may well be Investicni a Postovni Banka. Nomura International, a subsidiary of Nomura Securities in Japan, acquired 49 percent of I.P.B. in February 1998, with much of the balance apparently held by people linked to I.P.B.'s Czech management.

Czech officials charge that top management systematically looted I.P.B., which had about $7 billion in deposits in 1999, by making questionable loans and transferring more than $1 billion of assets to shell companies worldwide. For example, regulators said that the bank sold shares in the country's leading brewery to a company controlled by Nomura, which Nomura later sold along with another Czech brewer to a South African brewer.

Last June, rumors about I.P.B.'s precarious condition caused a panic among depositors, who lined up by the thousands to withdraw their money. On June 17, antiterrorist police surrounded its headquarters as government officials seized control. A few days later, the Czech National Bank and the Czech finance minister transferred all of I.P.B.'s assets to the Ceskoslovenska Obchodni Banka, which is controlled by KBC Bancassurance Holding of Belgium.

Nomura executives have denied they did anything wrong and have announced plans to sue the government for illegally seizing Nomura property. And they have strong support from Mr. Klaus, the conservative former prime minister, who has denounced the government's action as a "bank robbery."

Government officials say I.P.B. was utterly bankrupt. A preliminary audit suggested that its bad loans totaled at least 40 billion korunas ($1.08 billion), but most analysts say the total will be almost twice that. Those sour loans will be transferred to Konsolidacni Banka.

"It is very unpleasant, but I knew that these actions were necessary," said Pavel Mertlik, the finance minister. "The bank had served like a grant agency. There were customers who hadn't been paying on their loans for years. It was incredible."

Most industry executives agree with Mr. Mertlik and praise him for moving swiftly to clean up the banks. "I think the cleanup has been quite thorough and professional," said Zdenek Bakala, chairman of Patria Finance, one of Prague's biggest brokerage companies.

It has come at a price, however, and the price keeps growing. Before Erste Bank agreed to buy a 52 percent stake in Ceska Sporitelna last summer, the Czech government agreed to assume more than $800 million in bad loans, about 45 percent of Ceska's entire loan portfolio - and to accept bad loans that had not been discovered at the time.

The privatization of Komercni Banka will be even bigger. The government has already bought about $2 billion of the bank's bad loans and recently agreed to guarantee another $500 million. Four Western European banks - Crédit Agricole and Société Générale of France, HypoVereinsbank of Germany and Unicredito of Italy - are now bidding for the government's 60 percent stake in Komercni, which could sell for more than $1 billion.

Such sums will do little to cover the mountain of rubble left behind. Thus far, Konsolidacni has sold off only a sliver of its loans. To speed things up, Mr. Ziegler, the chairman, is for the first time bundling loans into a single package of 20 billion korunas ($538.8 million) and taking bids from foreign institutions.

But even if that works, it would amount to only a fourth of the new bad loans that would be added to the pile this year. Officials say they would be happy to recover just 10 percent of the missing money. But even that raises anxiety because the bailout bank paid about 60 percent of face value for many of its loans.

"They can't just sell the loans for 5 cents on the dollar, because it would be politically unacceptable," said Paul Gilbert, a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Prague.

Jan Hanousek, director of the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education in Prague, is convinced it will be many years before the government works its way through the mess.

"I would be more optimistic if Konsolidacni went and sold some assets lock, stock and barrel, but they haven't done that yet," he said. "With them, it's always like waiting for Godot."

-------- depleted uranium

Kostunica: NATO's 'depleted conscience'

CNN
January 16, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/01/16/defence.uranium.02/index.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Yugoslavia's president has criticised NATO for using depleted uranium (DU) shells and bullets during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.

Vojislav Kostunica said: "We could say those who used the infamous depleted uranium have a depleted conscience."

NATO said on Tuesday that data from its 19 member states showed no link between depleted uranium munitions and "Balkans Syndrome" cancers. But the military alliance's assurances have failed to calm an international uproar.

After two weeks of mounting controversy, NATO said its chief medical officers had compared evidence and seen nothing that pointed to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans.

Their report was NATO's most co-ordinated response yet to a row that erupted early in January and provoked anger as some countries suggested a connection between leukaemia and other diseases among young NATO soldiers who had served as peacekeepers in the former Yugoslavia.

"We cannot identify any increase in disease or mortality in soldiers who have deployed to the Balkans as compared to those soldiers who have not deployed," NATO medical committee chairman General Roger Van Hoof said after a day-long meeting with his 18 counterparts on Monday.

"On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies," he told a news conference at NATO headquarters.

Studies from both governmental and independent sources showed "any danger related to depleted uranium exposure is known to be quantity-dependent, and so far there is no evidence of possible exposure beyond the safe levels," he added.

"However, there are a number of military personnel reporting symptoms. While these symptoms are not linked to depleted uranium exposure, these should warrant further peer-reviewed scientific studies."

At the European Parliament Socialists said they would seek a moratorium on depleted uranium munitions pending an independent study.

European security chief Javier Solana, who was NATO secretary-general during the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, was due to address an EU debate on the issue in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

More information from NATO

Meanwhile, during a visit to Greece, Kostunica demanded international investigations. "Our authorities have warned about the use of DU since 1995. We are ready to work on this with other countries but it seems there is less willingness from some NATO countries."

Prime Minister Costas Simitis of NATO-member Greece said after meeting Kostunica that he agreed with Yugoslavia on the need for more information on DU weapons from NATO.

German troops said they found only very low levels of radiation at the military maintenance centre in Sarajevo's Hadzici suburb, the target of NATO air attacks on Bosnian Serb military positions in 1995 and believed to be one of the areas most affected by munitions containing depleted uranium.

"They found a very mild, low level of radiation, it's less than we can find in normal dirt," said SFOR spokesman Major Bob Thompson said at the site.

The NATO members agreed in Brussels to each analyse the crude mortality rates of its military personnel and calculate separately those deployed in the Balkans and those who were not

Depleted uranium, the by-product of manufacturing nuclear fuel and exposives, is used to add density and penetrative power to ammunition.

---

NATO chiefs meet to assess uranium health risks to peacekeepers

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Tue, 16 Jan 2001 5:15 ADST
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-16jan2001-11.htm

NATO'S (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) chief medical officers are meeting to assess health risks associated with depleted uranium in ammunition used during peacekeeping operations in the Balkans.

The all-day meeting of the 19 medical officers is being held behind closed doors at Belgium's army chief-of-staff headquarters, presided by Belgium's chief medical officer, General Roger Van Hoof, a Belgian spokesman said.

The spokesman said there would be no public word of the meeting's outcome before a press conference at NATO headquarters Tuesday afternoon.

NATO's position to date is that no scientific proof exists of a link between the depleted uranium and health problems reported by troops that served in Balkans operations, particularly the development of leukemia and cancer.

But other opinions are less categorical.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says "uncertainties remain," even though a link between leukemia and exposure to depleted uranium "appears improbable."

And at least six NATO member states have either set up their own screening programs or called on NATO to launch an investigation into the health risks.

The medical committee meeting here was organized to address the suspicions of those member states, and veterans groups, that the high-impact rounds may be responsible for cases of cancer and leukemia among soldiers who served in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Nuclear safety authorities reiterated that they thought a direct link between exposure to the ammunition and the so-called Balkans syndrome was unlikely.

But in the face of mounting fears and increasing public pressure, NATO leaders decided last week to set up a commission of enquiry on effects of the depleted uranium munitions in a bid to demonstrate transparency.

The special committee, due to meet on Tuesday, will be open to NATO's members as well as representatives of all other countries that contributed troops to either the Bosnian SFOR or Kosovo's KFOR international peacekeeping forces.

The non-NATO contingent will be open to representatives from around 15 countries, notably Russia. Bosnia, Croatia and the UN-administered province of Kosovo, as well as some civilian organisations, are also invited to attend.

Yugoslavia is expected to be invited in due course.

NATO has also asked the United Nations Environment Program to send a team of experts to Bosnia to investigate the effects of the depleted uranium rounds for a report to be published in March.

Washington is sticking firmly to the NATO position, maintaining there is no evidence that depleted uranium munitions -- used primarily by US forces in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and in the 1994-95 conflict in Bosnia -- cause cancer.

"I would hope that this is not an issue being used by others for their personal agendas," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said last week in an apparent reference to Italy, which is gearing up for elections and which has been the most vocal NATO member country on the issue.

The Europe-wide scare over the health risk from depleted uranium rounds started in Italy, where seven soldiers who served as peacekeepers in the Balkans have died from leukemia.

Italy, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Britain have all either set up their own screening programs or called on NATO to launch an investigation into the health risks, while Russia has also called for a probe.

---

NATO Says No Depleted Uranium-Cancer Link, No "Balkans Syndrome"

centraleurope.com
Jan 16, 2001
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=256677§ion=default

BRUSSELS -- (Reuters) Health data from NATO's 19 member countries show no sign that debris from depleted uranium munitions causes cancer and no identifiable "Balkans Syndrome", the chairman of NATO's top medical committee said on Tuesday.

After two weeks of mounting controversy, the Alliance said its chief medical officers had compared evidence and seen nothing that pointed to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans.

The report was NATO's most coordinated response to date in a sudden health row which erupted early in January and provoked some disarray in Alliance ranks as defense ministers struggled to calm what some called a wave of hysteria.

But it stressed NATO soldiers would not face any unnecessary health risks during operations and more efforts would be made to determine what lay behind unexplained symptoms reported by some.

NO LINK TO CANCER

"We cannot identify any increase in disease or mortality in soldiers who have deployed to the Balkans as compared to those soldiers who have not deployed," General Roger Van Hoof said after a day-long meeting with his 18 counterparts on Monday.

"On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies," Hoof told a news conference at NATO headquarters.

Studies from both governmental and independent sources showed "any danger related to depleted uranium exposure is known to be quantity-dependent, and so far there is no evidence of possible exposure beyond the safe levels," he added.

"However, there are a number of military personnel reporting symptoms. While these symptoms are not linked to depleted uranium exposure, these should warrant further peer-reviewed scientific studies."

U.S. Army medical expert Colonel David Lam said DU's possible adverse health effects were "an extremely complex physiological issue which is unfortunately impacted more by political and emotional aspects than by scientific ones".

Smoking two cigarettes a day or having a series of bowel X-rays can cause more radiation exposure than an hour of deliberate handling of a DU penetrator round, Lam said.

"If there is in fact a health risk resulting from service in the Balkans, I think we need to look at all possible causes, such as other pollutants and hazards, and not focus only on DU."

TIMELY, TRANSPARENT, MULtINATIONAL STUDIES

At the European Parliament, however, Socialists said they would seek a moratorium on DU munitions pending independent study. European security chief Javier Solana, who was NATO Secretary General during the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia, was due to address an EU debate on the issue in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

NATO's preliminary findings were sent to its newly-created Committee on Depleted Uranium, which met on Tuesday afternoon and included a call for studies to determine if the health of Balkan peacekeepers was different from that of other soldiers.

The NATO members had agreed on a common NATO medical policy for handling the situation, he said. Each would analyze the crude mortality rates of its military personnel and calculate separately those deployed in the Balkans and those who were not.

NATO fired about 40,000 rounds of armor-piercing DU ammunition in the Balkans and Kosovo during military interventions in 1994-95 and 1999.

It has recently identified a total of 112 sites in Kosovo and 19 sites in Bosnia where DU was fired by United States A-10 Thunderbolt tank-busting planes.

LISTEN TO TROOPS

NATO members also agreed to analyze the rates of malignancy among Balkans veterans and compare with national statistics.

The medical committee further proposed that, in view of today's increasingly common multinational deployments, NATO countries should work towards common policies and procedures for identifying and preventing health hazards.

The medical officers recognized "that it is imperative to listen to the health concerns of the military personnel" and that these "concerns and problems are best served by scientific, peer-reviewed analysis including independent studies".

This should include a timely investigation of all reports of an increased incidence of symptoms.

---

Bulgaria Sees No Depleted Uranium Risks for Its Troops in Kosovo

centraleurope.com
Jan 16, 2001
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=256304§ion=default

SOFIA -- (Reuters) Bulgarian authorities said on Tuesday they had found no evidence of contamination from depleted uranium at the two sites in Kosovo where Bulgarian peacekeeping troops were stationed so far.

"Radiological tests conducted last week on soil and water samples from the camps of Bulgarian troops showed no uranium isotopes had been additionally introduced," Yuri Dunchev, Bulgarian Army chief ecologist, told a news conference.

Bulgaria was determining whether its peacekeepers in Kosovo were exposed to uranium released by armor-piercing depleted uranium NATO shells during the 1999 campaign.

Some governments have questioned whether the shells were linked to cases of leukemia among international peacekeepers.

The results confirmed Defense Ministry medical checks conducted earlier this month that found no health threat from depleted uranium. Bulgaria has 39 troops with the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force KFOR.

"The Bulgarian troops are stationed well away from the regions where depleted uranium ammunitions were put to combat use," said Dunchev.

Bulgarian peacekeeping troops serving in Kosovo will be closely monitored before, during and after their mission to rule out any health hazard, Dunchev said.

-----

Depleted uranium waste to be dumped on public tip
Special report: depleted uranium

Paul Brown, environment correspondent Guardian
Tuesday January 16, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4117901,00.html

Thirty thousand bags of nuclear waste containing depleted uranium are to be dumped on a municipal waste tip three miles from Preston on the river Ribble in Lancashire.

The uranium is in powder form and is more radioactive than the material used to make shells and missiles fired in the Gulf and Kosovo wars.

British Nuclear Fuels yesterday confirmed that the uranium is mixed with PVC clothing, paper and other flammable materials, contaminated as a result of operations at its Springfields plant near Preston where fuel is manufactured for nuclear power stations.

The bags weigh between 5kg and 15kg each and will total about 300 tonnes. The uranium content will be limited to 0.2% by weight or about 20 grams per bag of natural uranium, BNFL has confirmed.

This kind of waste used to be taken to the BNFL-owned tip at Drigg in Cumbria and buried in concrete, but the site is filling up. The company says its operations are safe: "BNFL takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and operates strictly in accordance with the site licence and authorisations from the environment agency."

The total uranium dumped will be about 600kg, but this will be sent to the tip over a period of more than a year. BNFL confirmed it would be packed in plastic bags.

The company accepts the uranium present is 50% more radioactive than in normal depleted uranium because it contains active material normally only present in enriched uranium. This material, uranium 235, is stripped out of raw uranium ore for making nuclear weapons and is used in reactors to superheat steam. Some is left in the waste and dumped with the rest of the uranium oxide.

A BNFL employee, who alerted the Guardian to the dumping, said yesterday: "The plastic bags will be the only form of containment used, and will be closed using just a cou ple of strips of adhesive tape. At the landfill site the bags are driven over by a large earth mover with spike metal wheels. The possibility of bags bursting is obvious."

If the tip were to catch fire, uranium oxide could be carried in smoke to Preston, or to Blackpool 10 miles away, the source added.

According to the source the decision to dump the waste on a municipal tip was driven by the chronic lack of official dumps - Drigg is the only low-level nuclear waste tip in Britain. BNFL charges universities and the NHS for dumping nuclear waste there. "The volume and activity of the [Springfields] waste could seriously affect the future of the Drigg site," the source said.

BNFL accepts the company has a further 50,000 drums of similar waste at Springfields with "nowhere yet to dispose of them". The drums are not suitable for municipal disposal.

The proximity of a large gas main to the uranium disposal site also concerns the BNFL employee, as does the tip's long-term future. When uranium decays it breaks down into radon gas - a well-known cause of lung cancer.

"What if some time in the future houses or factories are built on the site?" the employee asked. "This often happens on old landfills, what about the disturbance of the ground or radon from the decay of uranium?"

Tony Brown, marketing manager for Lancashire Waste Services, which operates the tip, confirmed it took low-level radioactive waste from BNFL but said it was tested by both the waste company and the environment agency to check it was within limits. He was not aware it contained depleted uranium.

The BNFL employee claimed the company had misled the agency about the dangers. But BNFL insisted the agency had been kept fully informed.

An agency spokesman said: "We do not believe that a responsible company would try to mislead us but these allegations are serious and we will look into them."

-------

Radiation from DU 'could act rapidly'

Tuesday, 16 January, 2001
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1114000/1114246.stm

The Chernobyl accident has lessons for the Gulf and Balkan veterans By environment correspondent Alex Kirby

Many of those who argue that depleted uranium (DU) cannot be a serious health risk say radiation takes a long time to produce cancers.

They say the reports from veterans of the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, complaining of leukaemia and other cancers, are inconsistent with what we know of the time it takes for radiation to cause damage.

And they believe that even the reports from Gulf veterans and Iraqi civilians of cancers which have developed since the 1991 war suggest an improbably rapid development of the disease.

But two senior scientists have told BBC News Online they believe it may be a serious mistake to rule DU out of the equation.

Both remain open-minded on whether DU actually does damage health, but both believe its effects are poorly understood. Neither was prepared to be named.

Chernobyl's surprise

One, a professor in a university physics department, said: "We're in uncharted territory, because we have no experience of human exposure to DU.

"What we do know, though, is that thyroid cancer appeared far sooner than expected after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. That was a real surprise.

"It's true that DU is not very radioactive. But when you inhale it, it does go to the lymph nodes surrounding the lungs, and that means it could irradiate all the blood cells which pass through the nodes.

"Many experts say DU is more of a chemical threat than a radioactive one, and I think the chemical toxicity is an issue. The uranium atoms are chemically toxic, and they will visit every cell in the body where they may have an effect.

"And it would not be hard to absorb a serious dose of DU quite quickly. When it vaporises, it forms a very fine powder which can blow a long way.

Limit reached quickly

"The permitted body burden of uranium is 80 milligrams. We have calculated that if you had 10,000 particles of DU per cubic centimetre, each up to 200 nanometres in size, then it would take about a month and a half to reach that limit.

"It's not overly likely. But it's not too unlikely, either."

The other scientist is a leading expert on the effects of ionising radiation.

He told BBC News Online: "What Nato and the UK Ministry of Defence are missing is the fact that a single alpha emitter can be carcinogenic.

"We don't know how low the risk of DU is. But the uranium has the potential to cause DNA damage because of its chemical properties, and that can trigger cancer.

"That would be an unconvincing argument about Kosovo, though a possibility for the Gulf. A two-year development period for cancers caused this way is a valid hypothesis.

"The warning from Chernobyl is to remind us that the Japanese atomic bomb survivors are not typical of all types of radiation.

"We shouldn't say too lightly that two years is not long enough for radiation to cause cancer."

---

Adrian Severin Sifts to the Bottom the Evidence in the "Balkans' Syndrome" Case

centraleurope.com
Jan 16, 2001
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=256142

BUCHAREST -- (Monitorul Online) As OSCE-PA president, Adrian Severin discussed with Italian parliamentarians about the lack of "obvious evidence" in the case of the "Balkans' syndrome".

The OSCE-PA (OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly) president, Adrian Severin, declared a few days ago that he had discussed with a group of Italian parliamentarians about the lack of any "obvious evidence" which might indicate the existence of a relationship between the "impoverished" uranium ammunition and the diseases and deceases which affected the military men who participated in the Balkans mission. "We agreed that for the time being, there was no obvious evidence indicating a connection between the "impoverished" uranium ammunition and the diseases and deceases which affected the military men who fought in Albania and Kosovo", Severin declared after the discussions with the Italian parliamentarians. "This is why we shouldn't look for the responsible persons or try to exaggerate the dimensions of this problem", he added.

USA, Great Britain and France rejected an Italian proposal suggesting the realization of a moratorium concerning the use of the impoverished uranium ammunition until the exact sanitary risks are established. The debate provoked by the ammunition used by USA on the Balkans' territory started in Italy and amplified itself all over Europe after 20 European military men who fought in Bosnia and Herzegovina died in a suspicious way.

During the discussions with the OSCE-PA president, the Italian parliamentarians intended to clarify the uranium-related problem; Severin announced his intention of electing a group of persons charged with drawing reports on this important topic.

The OSCE-PA president added that he wanted to know to what extent the worries which affected the authorities of various states were justified. "Then, if these rumors prove to be valid, we shall take measures, together with NATO, EU and other international organizations, in order to increase the international security", Severin declared. The OSCE-PA president declared that he had discussed with the Romanian minister of External Affairs, Mircea Geoana, about this problem and they agreed that their points of view were pretty similar, even if the parliamentary perspective differed from the governmental one.

---

NATO Studies Uranium Connections

Associated Press
January 16, 2001 Filed at 1:32 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Depleted-Uranium.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- An initial study of health records showed no connection between depleted uranium munitions and cancer among soldiers who served in the Balkans, NATO said Tuesday.

Based on data submitted by NATO members, experts did not find any increase in disease or mortality in Balkans veterans compared to other soldiers, said Maj. Gen. Roger Van Hoof of Belgium, head of NATO's Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services. ``On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies'' of the Balkans veterans, Van Hoof said.

Nonetheless, a ``timely investigation'' was necessary to allay public fears, he said. NATO says there is no evidence that remains of depleted uranium rounds pose a health risk, and Col. David Lam, NATO's medical staff officer, said the concern was affected ``more by political and emotional aspects'' than medical ones.

Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S. forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its 78-day bombing campaign in Yugoslavia.

Public concern has swept Europe in recent weeks as various nations have reported cancer cases among soldiers sent to the Balkans as peacekeepers.

Italy is studying the illnesses of 30 Balkans veterans, seven of whom died of cancer. In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. Other nations have begun screening soldiers who served in the Balkans.

On Tuesday, Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo told Parliament that the use of uranium-tipped ammunition is not to blame for cancer cases among Spanish troops who served there.

Four Spanish Balkan veterans are being treated for leukemia and three have died, the ministry said.

``The soldiers who are ill do not show the same symptoms,'' Trillo said, suggesting that the cause of the illnesses is not the same in each case.

Trillo said 3,200 soldiers have undergone checks so far and no traces of depleted uranium have been found in their blood or urine.

Van Hoof said NATO members exchanged all the available information on complaints of military personnel, illness report data, risk assessments and preventive measures taken.

He said the medical committee created a work group to develop a strategy and procedures to identify and evaluate known and future health hazards.

Each nation, he said, should analyze and compare mortality rates for Balkan veterans, other soldiers and the general population.

NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson has given member countries a detailed map of areas in Bosnia where the 30mm depleted uranium weapons were fired, Italy's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Nearly all the rounds were fired in a 12-mile area around the city of Sarajevo.

The World Health Organization's European headquarters in Copenhagen confirmed Tuesday that a WHO mission will be sent to Kosovo to investigate depleted uranium.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who was visiting Greece on Tuesday, criticized NATO for using the ammunition.

``We should be discussing the depleted conscience of those who used the notorious depleted uranium,'' he said.

---

NATO Says No DU - Cancer Link, No Syndrome

Reuters
January 16, 2001 Filed at 5:37 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/health-syndrome.html

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Analysis of health data from NATO's 19 member countries shows no sign that debris from depleted uranium munitions causes cancer and there is no identifiable ''Balkans syndrome,'' the chairman of NATO's top medical committee said on Tuesday.

After two weeks of mounting controversy, the Alliance said its chief medical officers had compared evidence and seen nothing that pointed to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans.

The report was NATO's most organised response to date to a sudden health scare that erupted early in January and provoked some disarray in Alliance ranks as defence ministers struggled to calm what some called a wave of hysteria.

But it stressed that NATO soldiers would not face any unnecessary health risks during operations and more efforts would be made to determine what lay behind unexplained symptoms reported by some.NO LINK TO CANCER

``We cannot identify any increase in disease or mortality in soldiers who have deployed to the Balkans as compared to those soldiers who have not deployed,'' General Roger Van Hoof said after a day-long meeting with his 18 counterparts on Monday.

``On the evidence available, a causal link cannot be identified between depleted uranium and the complaints or pathologies,'' Hoof told a news conference at NATO headquarters.

``Based on the available peer-reviewed medical scientific studies, from both governmental and independent sources, any danger related to depleted uranium exposure is known to be quantity-dependent, and so far there is no evidence of possible exposure beyond the safe levels,'' he added.

``However, there are a number of military personnel reporting symptoms. While these symptoms are not linked to depleted uranium exposure, these should warrant further peer-reviewed scientific studies.''TIMELY, TRANSPARENT, MUTLINATIONAL STUDIES

The preliminary findings were to be presented to NATO's newly-created Ad Hoc Committee on Depleted Uranium, which was due to meet later on Tuesday.

Hoof said they would include recommendations for organised studies to determine if the health of Balkan peacekeepers was different from that of other soldiers.

The NATO surgeon general had agreed on a common NATO medical policy for handling the situation, he said.

Each nation agreed to analyse the crude mortality rates of its military personnel, related to age, and calculate separately for those who deployed in the Balkans and those who had not.

NATO fired about 40,000 rounds of armour-piercing DU ammunition in the Balkans and Kosovo during military interventions in 1994-95 and 1999.

It has recently identified a total of 112 sites in Kosovo and 19 sites in Bosnia where DU was used by United States A-10 Thunderbolt tank-busting planes.LISTEN TO TROOPS

NATO members also agreed to analyse the rates of malignancy among Balkans veterans and compare these with national statistics, as well as correlating death rates with known health hazards in the theatre of operations.

The medical committee further proposed that, in the future, and in view of today's increasingly common multinational deployments, NATO countries should work towards common policies and procedures for identifying and preventing health hazards.

The senior medical officers said they recognise ``that it is imperative to listen to the health concerns of the military personnel'' and that these ``concerns and problems are best served by scientific, peer-reviewed analysis including independent studies''.

This should include a timely investigation of all reports of an increased incidence of symptoms.

-------

Depleted uranium factory had a fire

By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent and Maurice Weaver
16/01/2001
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/01/16/nuke16.xml

A POTENTIAL health threat caused by a fire in a factory producing depleted uranium ammunition has emerged in a Pentagon document.

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, insisted to Parliament yesterday that there was "no significant risk" from DU ammunition and no evidence linking it to any cases of ill health. But a copy of the scientific study appears to indicate that there may be a much greater potential long-term danger where fire breaks out in an area where the material is stored.

Although the report deals with the subject in general terms, such a fire occurred at the Royal Ordnance Speciality Metals factory at Featherstone, Staffordshire, in 1999. Two unions which believe their members may have been exposed to DU during the fire are demanding investigations into possible health repercussions.

Firemen from two brigades fought to bring the blaze under control and potentially contaminated fumes drifted across nearby buildings including a 600-inmate jail. While initial scientific reports said there was no evidence of contamination among firemen, renewed concerns about the effects of DU have led the Fire Brigades Union and the Prison Officers Association to call for further tests.

Shane Rixom, the POA representative at Featherstone prison, wrote yesterday to Mike Pascoe, the governor, listing four cancer cases among the 160 staff during the past four years. He said Featherstone had the "second highest sick rate" in the Prison Service.

-----

The Week in Science: A Full Menu

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By NICHOLAS WADE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/science/16WEEK.html?pagewanted=all

Radiation experts in the United States have shot down a European scare that radiation from the depleted uranium munitions used in the Balkan war may have caused the cases of leukemia seen among European troops. The scaremongers chose the wrong effect. Depleted uranium dust is bad for living things because chemically it behaves in the body like lead.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/13/health/13URAN.html

Its radiation is not a serious hazard; depleted uranium means natural uranium from which as much as possible of the radioactive U-236 isomer has been removed for bomb-making and other purposes. What is left is the U-238, now far less radioactive than the natural ore. The depleted uranium, because of its density, is great stuff to use in armor-piercing tank rounds and in the GAU-8 ammunition fired by the tank-busting A-10 attack plane.

------

Spat over ordnance exposes NATO rifts

Washington Times
January 16, 2001
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001116221423.htm

NATO officials said yesterday they had turned a corner in the public relations battle over depleted uranium, but the scare over the armor-piercing material has exposed rifts in the alliance not seen since the 1999 Kosovo war.

Top military health officials from the 19 NATO countries met yesterday in Brussels to examine claims of health problems reported by peacekeepers in the Balkans exposed to the depleted uranium (DU), employed extensively by U.S. and British bombers in the 1994-95 Bosnia conflict and in the 1999 air war against Yugoslavia.

A preliminary summary of their findings is to be presented today to a special NATO committee looking into the DU controversy.

"Scientist after scientist after scientist has been coming out saying they do not see a link between leukemia and depleted uranium," NATO spokesman Mark Laity told reporters in Belgium yesterday.

Mr. Laity said he sensed that the "slight hysteria" over DU, promoted in a number of European news outlets and by anti-nuclear activists, was beginning to subside.

In Paris, the French Ministry of Defense reported that tests on five French soldiers who served in the Balkans and had contracted cancer revealed no traces of DU in their systems

But the DU probe has revived tensions within NATO that had largely subsided after the defeat of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 78-day air war in Serbia. Many of those most forcefully questioning the use of DU have come from countries such as Italy and Greece, where domestic opposition to the Kosovo campaign was high.

A less radioactive byproduct of the uranium used in nuclear power, DU is prized by military planners for its density, which allows it to penetrate armored tanks and other vehicles. The main health concern: that DU released from fired weapons in the form of small particles may be inhaled or ingested by soldiers or civilians, causing long-term health problems.

Although a Pentagon Web site (www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_index.htm) details nearly three dozen studies that found no link between DU and blood cancer and other diseases, a report that six Italian soldiers serving in the Balkans had contacted leukemia has ignited fresh controversy over the issue.

A front-page editorial in the Italian newspaper La Stampa depicted the DU debate as "the latest example of continental Europe's struggle to come out from under the yoke of Anglo-Saxon hegemony in security and defense."

Officials in Greece, where the war against Serbia was deeply unpopular, said yesterday they were pressured to keep their own concerns about the use of depleted uranium quiet by fellow NATO members during and after the war.

The government in Athens said that some 140 Greek soldiers have asked to return home in the wake of reports about potential health risks from DU.

Fueling the debate have been news accounts of British and U.S. military warnings about the health risks of handling or coming into contact with depleted uranium. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and Pentagon experts say the warnings amounted to simple prudence, analogous to industrial rules for handling nonradioactive heavy metals such as cobalt.

And Russia, which harshly criticized NATO's military campaign against Serbia, last week accused NATO of using as "dumping grounds" for DU, even through defense officials in Moscow said they had found no cases of DU-related diseases among the 3,600 Russian peacekeepers serving in Kosovo.

Caught off guard, NATO's leading powers have moved to reassure the public about the safety of DU while attacking the motivations of those who have fed the controversy.

"I think it is very important for the facts to be made known and not to have hysteria and emotion take over," Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright told reporters during a European farewell tour last week. • This article was based in part on wire service reports.

-------

France doubts uranium caused cancer in troops

January 16, 2001
Chicago Sun-Times
BY CLAR NI CHONGHAILE
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/uran16.html

PARIS--France cast doubt Monday on claims that exposure to armor-piercing ammunition containing depleted uranium might have triggered cancer in French troops who served in the Balkans.

The fear that depleted uranium ammunition might be a health risk has swept Europe in recent weeks as various nations have reported cancer cases among their troops, and NATO medical experts are studying the possible health risks.

The Defense Ministry in Paris said tests on five French soldiers who served in the Balkans and who now have cancer did not reveal any traces of depleted uranium.

The findings mirrored similar research from neighboring Germany.

Last week, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping said tests on soldiers sent to Kosovo and those never deployed there showed no differences. He said the incidence of two cancers--leukemia and lymphoma--among German soldiers was no higher than among the general population in 1999.

Depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal, is used in anti-armor munitions because of its high penetrating power. U.S.forces fired weapons containing depleted uranium in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, and in 1999, NATO fired such weapons during its 78-day bombing campaign in Yugoslavia.

-------- india / pakistan

Asian Nuclear Accidents Could Kill Thousands:

Associated Press
January 16, 2001 Filed at 5:33 p.m. ET
Study By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/health/health-nuclear.html

NEW DELHI (Reuters Health) - Accidents involving nuclear weapons in South Asian cities like Delhi or Karachi could cause thousands of cancer-related deaths, according to a report from scientists at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University.

Conducted by Pakistani researcher Zia Mian and two Indian researchers, M. V. Ramana and R. Rajaraman, the study focuses on release of radioactive plutonium into the atmosphere when an accident causes the nuclear weapon's plutonium core to explode but does not lead to an actual nuclear explosion.

``A typical weapon may have 5 kilograms (kg) of plutonium and in the accidental scenario we have considered in our study, probably a very conservative 20% of it, or 1 kg, will get dispersed into air as (inhalable) aerosols or small particles,'' Ramana told Reuters Health.

``When people breathe this, the chief health hazard is increased possibility of lung, bone or liver cancers,'' Ramana said.

``Employing a model used by the International Commission for Radiological Protection, we found that on a very conservative estimate...around 5,000 people would die of cancers if (a nuclear accident) happens near a typical city like Delhi or Karachi,'' Ramana noted. ``On the higher side, the deaths could be as high as 20,000,'' he said, emphasizing that there are several uncertainties involved in calculations.

Nuclear weapon accidents ``typically involve delivery vehicles, either aircraft or missiles,'' the authors point out in their report.

India's Comptroller and Auditor General's 1997 report listed 187 accidents and 2,729 incidents involving Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft between April 1991 and March 1997, in which the IAF lost 147 aircraft and 63 pilots. Many more have been lost subsequently.

Pakistan Institute of Defence Studies says that 11 major Pak Air Force accidents occurred between January 1997 and August 1998.

On January 4th, while showing a missile assembly to the Defence Secretary at Bharat Dynamics Ltd. (BDL), a defence establishment in the southern city of Hyderabad, the general manager of BDL pressed a wrong button, triggering off a live missile.

The missile took off, pierced and killed technical officer Narsimha Chari on the spot and injured 10 others. The warhead on the missile escaped explosion as it had travelled only 30 feet rather than the requisite 70 feet needed for igniting it. Hyderabad police called it a case of group negligence.

In contrast, a small Hiroshima-sized weapon exploding over Mumbai or Karachi would kill 150,000 to 800,000 people within a few weeks from blast, burns and radiation, Ramana told Reuters Health.

``What is likely is that there will be panic and flight creating an unprecedented disaster in its own right,'' the authors of the study note. Panic, confusion and miscalculation may even trigger a nuclear attack as a response to nuclear explosion. ``Thus, an accidental explosion may even initiate a nuclear war,'' the study indicates.

``If India and Pakistan deploy their nuclear weapons, they too shall face the risk of accidents involving nuclear weapons,'' the researchers point out. ``The risk is very real.''

The scientists add, ``Prudence, if nothing else, dictates that India and Pakistan not deploy nuclear weapons.'' Keeping any weapons that are produced disassembled may reduce the danger of accidental explosions or launch ``through error, panic or miscalculation,'' they report.

---

Pakistan, India start talking again

Washington Times
January 16, 2001
By Kathy Gannon ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001116225924.htm

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's military ruler met with the Indian ambassador yesterday for the first time since he took power in 1999, a rare high-level contact that signaled a new effort to end a deadlock between the nuclear neighbors over disputed Kashmir.

While neither side budged from its long-standing position on the issue, an Indian external affairs ministry official said the meeting might have opened a door for a way out of the impasse over the resumption of Kashmir peace talks.

Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf "stressed the need for an early resumption of the dialogue process for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute," the government press office said. Pakistan has repeatedly called for talks with India on the issue.

Indian Ambassador Vijay Nambiar reiterated India's refusal to hold talks unless Pakistan stops arming and training Pakistan-based Islamic militants. They are waging a bloody insurgency in the Indian-ruled portion of Kashmir. Pakistan claims it lends the rebels only moral support.

The meeting was Gen. Musharraf's first with a high-level Indian official since the Pakistan's army seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999.

The coup came shortly after an 11-week confrontation in Kashmir that killed 1,000 people in the summer of 1999. It threatened to explode into full-scale war between the nations, whose combined population is 1.2 billion.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since 1947 - two of them over Kashmir - and the prospect of another has frayed nerves worldwide because the old enemies are also among the world's newest nuclear powers.

In another meeting yesterday aimed to ease tension between India and Pakistan, a group of influential figures from both countries met to look for ways to make sure their animosity never flares into nuclear war.

A seminar on nuclear restraint and risk reduction brought together several former military leaders and retired government officials who are trying to keep the lines of communication open amid the near-silence between their governments.

"We have to establish a degree of trust," said Tanvir Ahmed, a former Pakistani foreign secretary. "In a nuclear war, there is no victor or vanquished. In our case, it is a doomsday scenario."

Since the tests, however, a new shroud of secrecy has enveloped the programs. Neither country knows where the other's program is headed, what weapons its foe possesses or whether it has developed nuclear warheads to marry to its missiles.

Both India and Pakistan have missiles that can reach deep within the other's territory.

While many Western analysts say a full-blown nuclear arms race has yet to materialize, outsiders know less than they would like about the programs. Neither country has signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, designed to discourage nuclear proliferation by outlawing nuclear tests.

The most likely flash point would be Kashmir. The Himalayan region is divided between mostly Muslim Pakistan and primarily Hindu India, but each country claims the province in its entirety.

The 11-year-old fighting between Islamic separatists and the government in Indian-ruled Kashmir has killed at least 40,000 people, and human rights groups say the number is nearly twice as high.

-------- iraq

Ten Years Later Saddam Still Defiant

Associated Press
January 16, 2001 Filed at 11:41 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Gulf-War-Anniversary.html?pagewanted=all

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Khalil al-Suhail, a wealthy Baghdad restaurateur, has a theory: After a decade of war, sanctions and poverty, Iraqis have become virtually crisis-proof.

For years, when showdowns with the United States loomed, Iraqis hoarded food and gasoline, and braced for doomsday. But the last time the Americans and the British bombed, during a December 1998 confrontation over U.N. weapons inspections, Iraqis took it in stride.

``We just watched like it was a big fireworks display,'' said al-Suhail. ``We decided the crisis just wasn't going to dictate our lives anymore.''

A decade after President Saddam Hussein led Iraq into the 1991 Gulf War, its once prosperous middle class has been decimated, its children die at an alarming rate, and international sanctions, while showing cracks, remain a heavy burden. But Saddam's rule, repressive as ever, faces no serious threats.

What's changing in Iraq is the steady lifting of the siege mentality, and the U.N. oil-for-food program that has restored a measure of stability for Iraq's 23 million people.

On Arasat Street, Baghdad's fanciest commercial strip, new Mercedes and BMWs, imported in defiance of sanctions, are parked in front of al-Suhail's restaurant, Castello's, a little castle complete with turrets, a small moat and a wooden drawbridge.

To decorate his new eatery, al-Suhail scavenged piles of junk. Old wagon wheels gave a rustic touch. Car suspension systems, hung from the walls, made decorative torches.

``What I did in my restaurant, all Iraqis have done in their own way,'' he said. ``We've all learned to improvise and adapt. Sometimes hardship brings out the best in you.''

A combination of historic grievance and greed for oil revenue drove Saddam to invade Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990. After months of brinksmanship, the Gulf War coalition launched a six-week bombing campaign on Jan. 17, 1991, followed by a four-day ground war that liberated the emirate.

The Americans and their allies made the Gulf War look so easy: the videos of laser-guided bombs making pinpoint strikes, Western and Arab armies steamrolling into Kuwait, the scruffy Iraqi soldiers tossing rifles into the sand and surrendering by the battalion.

But today, the clarity of war has yielded to the fog of peace.

Saddam, full of his old strut and bombast, stood in his presidential box at a recent military parade, cigar dangling beneath his bushy mustache, casually loosing rifle shots into the air as he surveyed the cavalcade of tanks, missiles and warplanes that still make up one of the largest armies in the Middle East.

United Nations inspectors, sucked into a maddening game of hide-and-seek in pursuit of Saddam's most dangerous weapons, left more than two years ago, their mission incomplete. The exact status of Iraq's weapons program still an open question.

The international sanctions campaign has evolved into a propaganda war between the United States and Iraq over who's to blame for the heavy toll paid by Iraq's citizens. As the Americans try to hold the line on sanctions, some Gulf War allies are joining the growing ranks of those who would rather trade with Iraq than punish it.

``People aren't coming to Iraq for the love of Iraq. People are coming because there's business to be done,'' said A.K. Hashimi, a senior member of Saddam's Baath Party. ``The U.S. has tried hard to minimize Iraq's role in the world, but Iraq can't be neglected.''

Iraq's economy bottomed out five years ago, forcing Saddam to grudgingly accept the oil-for-food program. Iraq bitterly denounces the terms, which give the United Nations full supervision over Iraq's spending. Also, nearly 30 percent of Iraq's oil revenue pays for war reparations and U.N. costs.

Iraqis derisively call it an ``oil-for-the-U.N. program.'' Still, a ration-card system ensures every citizen gets the basics -- flour, rice, beans, milk and cooking oil. And with sanctions loosened a bit, Iraq is pumping 3 million barrels of oil a day, a figure close to its prewar output.

The U.S. military presence in the Gulf has deterred Saddam from threatening his oil-rich neighbors. Incoming Secretary of State Colin Powell, the U.S. military chief during the Gulf War, has vowed to ``re-energize'' sanctions. But it will be much tougher finding partners today.

``Rest assured, the people of Iraq can face sanctions and fight the Americans,'' Saddam recently declared.

Iraq has rebuilt much of the war damage, and few scars are visible in Baghdad.

Modern apartment and office blocks have changed the skyline, their nondescript colors offset by elegant turquoise domes on mosques, and the Las Vegas-style palaces Saddam built during even the leanest days.

Saddam is also building the Saddam Grand Mosque, the largest in the Middle East.

Saddam statues at traffic circles multiply, along with the larger-than-life portraits on buildings: Saddam with flowers, Saddam holding the scales of justice, Saddam at prayer.

His picture is on every front page of the state-controlled press, every day. Iraqi television manages to transform his banal comments at a Cabinet meeting into a week's worth of programming. Alternative viewing is hard to come by -- owning a satellite dish is illegal.

There's no escaping Saddam's image, yet the president himself rarely appears in public. Iraqi exile groups routinely spread rumors he is ill, but have a perfect record for misdiagnosing him.

The latest speculation had Saddam suffering a serious stroke at a New Year's Eve military parade. But he then appeared on TV and showed no signs of illness.

At 63, Saddam has been the most powerful man in Iraq for more than 30 years and his security services have eliminated all dissent and serious challenge to his rule.

The United States has sought to create a viable opposition by uniting disparate exile groups under the umbrella of the Iraqi National Congress, but to no apparent effect.

``These people haven't set foot in Iraq for years. They don't know the people and they don't have support,'' said Baathist leader Hashimi.

Iraq also feels it scored a victory by chasing out the U.N. weapons inspectors. It says it won't allow inspectors back until the sanctions are lifted. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is likely to wrangle with the Iraqis over the question in talks next month.

Iraq claims it isn't reconstituting its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. But Richard Butler, the Australian who headed the U.N. weapons inspection operation, is intensely skeptical.

``There is strong reason to think that Iraq has used this two-year period to get back in business in all weapons fields,'' Butler said in a telephone interview from New York. ``The fundamental goal must be to get inspectors back into Iraq as soon as possible.''

The U.N. inspectors uncovered and dismantled many key components of the program over nearly eight years, but Iraq never accounted for everything the inspectors sought.

In making their case on sanctions, the Iraqis invariably steer visitors to places such as Saddam's General Hospital for Pediatrics.

The leukemia ward has more than a dozen children receiving chemotherapy, a treatment more widely available but still scarce, said Dr. Mohammed Firas.

Azhar Kamel, age 7, her strength depleted and her hair all gone, sleeps soundly as she receives her treatment from a drip bag. Her case is serious and the mortality rate is high, the doctor says.

Ten children die at the hospital in a typical week, many from leukemia, and Firas believes half could be saved with more medicine and better equipment.

The sanctions have never prevented Iraq from importing medicine. The Americans argue that Saddam spends the money on weapons and palaces.

Iraq has received $21 billion through the oil-for-food program since 1996. It wants $1.7 billion of that sum earmarked for medical needs. Nothing prevents it from requesting more.

The Iraqis say the problem is the collapse of infrastructure: malnourished mothers bearing weak babies, immunizations down, dirty drinking water causing fatal illnesses.

Saddam's government has often predicted the embargo was about to fall. These days it insists the momentum is on its side.

Since September, dozens of civilian flights have arrived, many from Middle Eastern states. The skies over the capital had been silent for nearly a decade, but the prospect of trade deals, including billion-dollar contracts to develop Iraqi oil fields, has brought flights from France and Russia as well.

``The international atmosphere is well prepared for the lifting of sanctions,'' said Iraq's Deputy Foreign Minister Nizar Hamdoun.


-------- russia

Russia Expands Nuke Project in Iran

January 16, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 10:35 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Iran-Nuclear.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia on Tuesday angrily shrugged off U.S. objections to it building a nuclear reactor in Iran, and said that work was already under way to build a second one at the same site.

``There is not a single piece of evidence that we are helping or might help Iran develop nuclear weapons potential,'' Nuclear Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov said at a news conference. ``It's all pure politics.''

Russia signed a contract in 1995 to build the first reactor at Iran's Bushehr power plant by 2003 for an estimated $800 million. The United States has strongly objected to the project, fearing the technology could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Moscow and Tehran maintain the plant can be used only for civilian purposes.

Iran had previously asked Moscow to conduct a feasibility study on building three more reactors on the site, and Adamov confirmed Tuesday that work had already begun on the second one.

The first reactor will be completed as planned by 2003, ministry spokesman Vitaly Nasonov said Tuesday.

Construction of the Bushehr plant was started by Germany's Siemens before the 1979 Islamic revolution and then abandoned.

Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the Bushehr project allows the struggling Russian nuclear energy industry to earn much-needed hard currency and dismissed U.S. warnings that civilian nuclear projects could help Iran develop nuclear weapons know-how.

``If we follow that logic we may as well ban any education in Iran on the grounds that the knowledge of integral equations could help someone make calculations for nuclear weapons,'' Adamov said.

The United States has expressed concern about illegal technology exports to states it considers terrorism sponsors, such as Iran.

Washington is also angry over Russia's plans to sell Iran conventional weapons.

Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev visited Tehran last month and signed several agreements on military cooperation, the details of which haven't been released.

Russian officials have pledged to abide by international agreements banning the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies, but Moscow warned Washington last November that it was abandoning a 1995 pledge not to sell tanks and other battlefield weapons to Iran.

Washington is trying to persuade Moscow to change its mind and has threatened economic sanctions.

-------- taiwan

Taiwan's Top Court Decides Halting A-Plant Was Improper

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By MARK LANDLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/world/16TAIW.html

HONG KONG, Jan. 15 - In a decision that deepens a crisis in Taiwan, the country's highest judges ruled today that the government of President Chen Shui-bian acted improperly in halting the building of a nuclear power plant begun by his Nationalist predecessors.

The judges said that before scrapping the project in October, the government should have sought the approval of the Nationalist-controlled legislature. The $5.5 billion project has come to symbolize the rift between the long-dominant Nationalists and Mr. Chen's party, which ousted them from the presidency last year.

The judges stopped short of declaring the halt in work unconstitutional. But they left no doubt that Prime Minister Chang Chun-hsiung, who announced the decision, had erred.

"Unless it is an emergency case, he should have reported to the legislature before stopping the project," said Yang Ren-shou, secretary general of the Judicial Yuan, the equivalent of a judicial branch. "There were errors or procedural errors."

With neither an endorsement nor a wholesale repudiation of the government, the decision seems likely to prolong a battle that has consumed Taiwan for months.

"This is a very difficult issue to resolve in one shot," said Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Center for Advanced Policy Studies, a research organization in Taipei. "The decision has weakened Chen's position. But it will only fuel the confrontation and debate."

The judges said halting the reactor would need the approval of a majority of the legislators. But if a majority votes to resume work, which is quite likely given the Nationalists' continued dominance there, then the two sides have to work out their differences, the judges said.

That may be asking too much. The plant is a cudgel in the much broader battle between Mr. Chen and the Nationalists, whom he swept out of power in March, after 55 years of governing. Mr. Chen campaigned against the plant in his race, saying it is unnecessary and would create environmental hazards.

In October, the Nationalist leader, Lien Chan, met Mr. Chen to ask him to delay a decision on the power plant, which is one-third complete and has already cost $1.4 billion. In a stinging brushoff, Mr. Chen's deputy, Prime Minister Chang, announced the decision to halt it right after the meeting.

The Nationalists began a campaign to recall Mr. Chen. They retreated after it became clear that a majority of Taiwanese did not approve of toppling the first leader from outside the Nationalist camp.

But the wounds have not healed. Since the fall, Mr. Chen has been under siege. His opponents have tried to undermine his reputation by spreading rumors that he is involved in an extramarital affair with an aide. Nationalist leaders have sought to isolate him on the sensitive issue of relations with mainland China by meeting Chinese leaders in Beijing.

Shortly after the ruling today, a senior Nationalist official and the president of the legislature, Wang Jin-pyng, demanded that the reactor be restarted immediately, even before the two sides sit down to talk.

Andrew Yang predicted that if the legislature could not resolve its differences with Mr. Chen's government, it would probably seek a no- confidence vote against Mr. Chang, whom the president appointed. If it did that, however, Mr. Chen might call an early legislative election, an action that could erode the Nationalists' commanding majority. Elections are scheduled for November.

---

Asian Stock Markets Close Mixed

Associated Press
January 16, 2001 Filed at 7:58 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Asian-Markets.html

HONG KONG (AP) -- Asian stock markets closed mixed Tuesday, with prices rising in Tokyo for a third straight session on news that Toyota Motor Corp. was planning Japan's largest ever share buyback.

The Japanese benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average gained 78.22 points, or 0.58 percent, to 13,584.45. On Monday, the average closed up 158.49 points, or 1.19 percent.

The Nikkei index rallied from an early 30-point deficit after Toyota's announcement that it plans to buy 75 million, or 2 percent, of its own shares. The news sent automobile and other blue-chip issues soaring.

The broader Tokyo Stock Price Index of all issues listed on the first section climbed 18.84 points, or 1.51 percent, to close at 1,267.48. The TOPIX finished up 10.76 points, or 0.87 percent, the day before.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar was quoted at 118.16 yen, down 0.82 yen from late Monday in Tokyo and also below its late level of 118.92 yen in European trading. New York markets were closed for a national holiday Monday.

Taiwan shares surged, with the key index rising 5.3 percent after the high court ruled that Taiwan's premier did not seek legislative approval before scrapping a partially completed nuclear plant.

The Weighted Price Index of the Taiwan Stock Exchange rose 283.28 points to 5,662.94.

Many investors hoped the ruling would end political bickering over the plant, which has played a major role in the stock market's 44 percent fall last year.

Taiwan's Grand Justices -- the island's final arbiter on constitutional and legal issues -- ruled on Monday that Premier Chang Chun-hsiung had mistakenly avoided seeking legislative approval before scuttling the U.S. $5.4 billion nuclear power plant.

In the Philippines, the peso hit a new record low of 52.95 to the dollar on fears of political unrest if President Joseph Estrada is acquitted in his impeachment trial.

The dollar closed at 52.780 pesos on the Philippine Dealing System, up from 52.4 pesos Monday. The dollar hit an intraday high of 52.95 pesos and averaged 52.649 pesos.

The weak peso also triggered profit taking on the stock exchange.

The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange Index ended down 16.14 points, or 1 percent, to 1551.79.

Elsewhere:

HONG KONG: Share prices closed slightly higher in light trading. The benchmark Hang Seng Index edged up 69.39 points, or 0.5 percent, finishing at 15,363.15.

BANGKOK: Thai shares slumped on profit-taking following sharp gains in the past three sessions. The Stock Exchange of Thailand index fell 9.09 points, or 2.9 percent, to 308.42.

WELLINGTON: New Zealand shares closed higher for the fourth straight session, reflecting continued interest from overseas investors in bellwether stock Telecom Corp. The NZSE-40 Capital Index rose 15.39 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,959.18.

SYDNEY: The Australian share market closed lower on light volume. The All Ordinaries slipped 10.8 points, or 0.3 percent, to 3,184.3.

SEOUL: South Korean share prices closed mixed. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or Kospi, rose 0.7 percent, to 603.42.

SINGAPORE: Singapore share prices closed mixed after a quiet, directionless session. The Straits Times Index fell 13.42 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,916.02.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian share prices closed slightly lower amid uncertainties about possible changes in the government. The Composite Index of 100 blue-chip stocks fell 3.37 points, or 0.5 percent, to 679.29.

JAKARTA: Indonesian shares closed higher, led by a late technical rebound in automotive and telecommunication blue chips. The Composite Index rose 0.8 percent, or 3.113 points, to 415.089.

-------- u.s. nuc weapons

SCIENTIST AT WORK
Philip E. Coyle III
Words of Caution on Missile Defense

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/science/16COYL.html?pagewanted=all

Philip E. Coyle III, the head of Pentagon weapons testing, has a word of advice for the Bush administration on its plan to build a global force of antimissile arms meant to shoot down enemy warheads.

Move cautiously.

"This is the most difficult thing the Department of Defense has ever tried to do," Mr. Coyle said in a recent interview. The needed reliability, he warned, "isn't going to be easy to achieve."

Mr. Coyle has toiled for more than four decades at the heart of the nation's military complex. His engineering work helped produce not only nuclear arms but also the only antimissile weapon ever deployed by the United States, a colossus that came and went a quarter century ago.

Even though Mr. Coyle has held the Defense Department post of director, operational test and evaluation, since October 1994, longer than anyone else, few people outside the world of military procurement know him.

As he prepares to make way for a successor in a new administration, he says he believes the current antimissile push has merit but has barely begun to chip away at the technical challenges. He noted that an interceptor never got close to a mock warhead in a recent test and chided antimissile officials for, in his view, belittling the cause of the failure.

"All the things have to work, the easy stuff and the hard stuff," Mr. Coyle said in his office. "It's a big complicated program."

And expensive. The Clinton plan was priced at $60 billion. The developing Bush plan, which calls for interceptors not only on land but sea and space, could cost hundreds of billions of dollars more. The interceptors, without explosives, would destroy by impact.

At 66, Mr. Coyle heads a team of 40 experts who sift through claims of contractors and the armed services to pass judgment on whether the weapons the Pentagon has under development are ready for mass production.

His office tracks 200 major acquisition programs and writes about 100 reports on them each year. The work helps the Pentagon bureaucracy discern good from bad, right from wrong. He reports directly to the secretary of defense, as well as Congress, which created the testing post in 1983 as an independent voice on the effectiveness of proposed arms.

Mr. Coyle prides himself on technical intuition, the kind, he said, "that gets built up over decades" of personal success and failure. His colleagues and admirers call him the technical conscience of the Pentagon.

"Coyle has done a fantastic job," said Lawrence J. Korb, an official at the Council on Foreign Relations and an assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. "He's done just what Congress intended," providing a wealth of reliable advice.

Mr. Coyle has shown a knack for zeroing in on emerging problems and looming disasters. For instance, in November he dissected the troubled, $40 billion program to build the Osprey aircraft, which has rotors that tilt so it can take off like a helicopter but fly like an airplane. In an inch-thick report, he noted its poor reliability, tricky maintenance and difficulties for pilot and crew.

The craft, he warned, is vulnerable to "sudden and potentially catastrophic" loss of control, in part because of a poorly understood phenomenon in which helicopter rotors can interact with their own air currents to lose power.

Days later, one of the Osprey crashed in North Carolina, killing four men. The Marine Corps, which wants to buy 360 planes, grounded all its Osprey and began an inquiry.

Mr. Coyle has issued similar warnings about the Pentagon's rush to field a ground-based antimissile weapon. Among other things, he has called its flight tests insufficiently realistic. So far, even under relatively easy conditions, one test was partly successful, and two failed completely.

"I think the U.S. has the capacity to do this science," Mr. Coyle said of creating an interceptor that can zoom reliably into space to smash a mock warhead to pieces. That is just physics and engineering, he said.

"The hard part," he stressed, is making sure the system can work in nuclear war, in "realistic combat conditions," as he put it, where enemy feints and surprises could pose stiff challenges. He noted that countermeasures could include not only decoys meant to confuse antimissile systems but nuclear explosions in space that would emit powerful bursts of radiation meant to destroy the systems.

"It's serious," he said of the nuclear radiation threat.

His neat, spacious office held no hints of his job, no models of bombs, ships or jet fighters. But it did hold three photographs of his wife, Martha A. Krebs, a physicist and director of science at the Energy Department from 1993 to 1999, the longest holder of that job. The pair represent an increasingly rare breed in government as industry lures some of the technical best and brightest with high salaries.

"She has two things I can't claim," Mr. Coyle said with a smile, "straight A's and a Ph.D."

He said that he retired as deputy director of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California and followed Dr. Krebs to Washington as "a loyal spouse, dragged along."

"So this was not a job I knew about, was thinking about or lobbying for," Mr. Coyle said.

But then an unexpected call came, and he was invited to apply for the Pentagon post. By law, the appointment is presidential, and the Senate must confirm it.

"He takes that job extremely seriously," said Cindy Williams, an arms expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former head of the national security unit of the Congressional Budget Office. "That's important. If you don't have someone independent watching for you, it's very easy to get into the mindset where the fox guards the hen house."

Philip Edward Coyle III was born in Beverly, Mass., but grew up in the Chicago suburbs, an only child drawn to science. His father was a salesman, his mother, a homemaker. They encouraged his curiosity and he went to Dartmouth, where he received bachelor and master degrees in engineering, in 1956 and 1957.

After a stint as a high school math and science teacher, he moved in 1959 to a place that offered challenges galore - the Livermore laboratory in California, one of three national centers for the design of nuclear arms.

There, he was caught up in the thrill of cold war science. For 33 years he tested bombs, developed complex gadgets like lasers and rose high in management. "I worked on practically every program," he recalled, praising the laboratory's diversity as a particular strength.

A large photograph on his wall hinted at one of his Livermore achievements. It showed the remote Aleutian isle of Amchitka and its wild tundra. Mr. Coyle journeyed there in the late 1960's and early 70's to direct the testing of nuclear arms.

One blast a mile beneath the ground was 330 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, its shock wave setting off 22 minor earthquakes.

"It was an important time in my life," Mr. Coyle recalled, clearly at ease with his atomic memories. "It was difficult and complex. We were trying to simulate an explosion in space."

The aim of the work in the Aleutians was to develop a powerful class of nuclear-tipped antimissile weapons, which were deployed briefly in the mid 1970's atop Spartan missile interceptors in North Dakota, ready to destroy incoming enemy warheads in blinding fireballs. But nuclear blasts lost favor as antimissile experts decided they could not overcome the political and technical liabilities, the deadly rays indiscriminate in their ability to cripple distant electronic gear.

Today, Mr. Coyle said, such explosions would most likely be used by foes targeting American satellites and antimissile weapons with bursts of radiation.

"It's one of those things that will have to be done aggressively," he said of trying to protect antimissile arms. So far, he added, the program has done no comprehensive ground tests against nuclear assaults.

In one report after another, Mr. Coyle has warned that testing of antimissile weapons has been far too unrealistic, the decoys and countermeasures too few and too simple.

Antimissile officials have defended their approach as sound, saying initial tests are simple only because they need to walk before they run.

President-elect George W. Bush and his national security team say they are planning to expand the nation's antimissile goals from that of the Clinton plan, and possibly accelerate the pace of development. "At the earliest possible date," he said in the campaign, "my administration will deploy antiballistic missile systems, both theater and national, to guard against attack and blackmail."

Are accelerations possible? "It depends on the progress," Mr. Coyle said. "If they make good progress - and they have, people don't realize how much - there will be pressure for early deployments. If there are troubles, it will be otherwise."

Is antimissile defense possible at all without the destructive power of nuclear-tipped interceptors, given that enemy feints will never be known in any detail before a war is actually fought?

"It's too soon to tell," Mr. Coyle answered. "We're too early in the program."

Now, with the arrival of the Bush administration, he said, his goal is to promote a smooth transition. His main advice to his successor, as yet unnamed, is to employ the best people possible, especially pilots and operators of military gear.

"They work in the real environment," he said, not the world of military "contractors and view graphs."

As for his own future, he said he planned to follow his wife to her next job, wherever it is, to read books, and to visit his children and grandchildren. One son serves in the Navy.

At the end of the interview, Mr. Coyle proffered a statement that touched on his philosophy for the testing office.

"The ultimate customer," it said, "is the soldier, sailor, airman or marine - our sons and daughters - who will judge our efforts with their lives and their mission accomplishment. This is a sacred trust."

---

New View of a Nursery of Stars

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/science/16NEBU.html?pagewanted=all

LIVERMORE, Calif. - The stunning picture of the Eagle Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in November 1995 has become an icon of the age of space exploration, along with the Apollo bootprint in lunar dust and images of Earth as a glistening blue-and-white jewel set against the dark velvet of infinity.

So sublime and stately are the Eagle Nebula's huge cloud columns, standing like towering thunderheads in the light of bright stars. So brooding are the dark clouds and the sprinkling of emerging dense globules the size of the solar system, or larger, which appear to be cradles of newborn stars. The majesty of the prospect and the intimations of cosmic regeneration left even astronomers awestruck.

Forsaking the usually dispassionate language of their profession, astronomers dubbed this most famous of Hubble pictures the Pillars of Creation.

Since then, scientists have examined the picture more closely and searched their theories and knowledge of astrophysical processes to render a less romantic judgment of what is going on in the Eagle Nebula. The nebula, also known as M16, is about 7,000 light-years away in the Serpens constellation. Its pillars are almost 6 trillion miles high.

Astrophysicists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory here have tested some of the ideas with computer simulations and say they think they understand the natural forces that may have created such dazzling cosmic architecture. They hope to firm up their thinking with experiments using lasers, one of the promising new approaches to ground-based astrophysics research.

On the basis of a recent analysis, Dr. Jave Kane, a young theoretical astrophysicist at the laboratory, has suggested a modified hydrodynamic explanation for the nebula's structure. This involves a revision of a theory on instability at the boundary of lighter and denser fluids, known as the Rayleigh-Taylor principle. The principle in this case applies to a heated gas on top of a cold, dense cloud.

"In simulations, our revised Rayleigh- Taylor model shows it has a very good chance of explaining the Eagle Nebula," Dr. Kane said.

In this chain of events, the bright ultraviolet light from nearby stars heats the surface of the original molecular cloud. Such clouds are ubiquitous, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, the stuff out of which stars form. If heated, these clouds become unstable. The surface matter boils away. This hot, low-density matter pushes against the colder, denser matter left in the cloud, much as rocket exhaust accelerates a space shuttle in the opposite direction.

If there are irregularities at the interface between the light and dense matter, some of the dense matter in time falls out of the cloud. In 1954, Dr. Lyman Spitzer Jr. of Princeton proposed the Rayleigh-Taylor principle as the likely explanation for the tongues or "elephant trunks" of obscuring clouds that astronomers were seeing in many nebulas, including the then-cruder images of the Eagle Nebula.

But in 1998, astronomers making radiotelescope observations of the nebula cast doubt on the hypothesis. Dr. Marc W. Pound of the University of Maryland said the observations revealed velocities and densities of matter flowing from the bottom to the tip of the cloud columns were "inconsistent with those expected from the Rayleigh-Taylor instability."

As a result, Dr. Pound said he favored an alternative explanation, an earlier theory known as the cometary model. He said that a dynamic front of stellar radiation "eats away" at the molecular cloud until it is stalled by a denser cloud core. The shock of the impact on the core presumably results in much of the nebula's structure. The clump of residual core matter remained in what resembled the head of a comet, while the evaporating matter stretched out like a comet's tail.

"That's where we started," Dr. Kane said, acknowledging Dr. Pound's observations and motivating influence. "The Rayleigh-Taylor model was not defeated that easily."

In computer simulations of astrophysical phenomena, Dr. Kane explained, one works backward from the present to the beginning. Since the initial conditions for what is being simulated are not known, he said, "You take the result you see and tweak parameters of possible initial conditions to get the result you see."

Much of the foundation for the research was laid by Dr. Dimitri D. Ryutov, a former Russian theoretical astrophysicist who now works at Lawrence Livermore. Following his lead, Dr. Kane broke with the past practice of assuming steady-state conditions in favor of a more dynamic model.

He thus introduced three assumed conditions modifying the standard tests of the Rayleigh-Taylor principle. One is that the stellar energy acting on the cloud is not constant and so the rocketlike accelerations will vary. A second condition takes account of the cloud's thickness. And a third is that, unlike classical Rayleigh-Taylor models assuming incompressible matter, some of the matter in the cloud is compressible; the heated gas is definitely compressible.

Then, in computer simulations, Dr. Kane said, the results showed that the velocities and densities of matter in the columns in fact conformed to the Rayleigh-Taylor principle. And this, he concluded, could be a more satisfactory explanation for the Eagle Nebula than the cometary model.

But the imposing columns, scientists think, are a recent and passing spectacle. They cannot be more than a few hundred thousand years old, a brief span in cosmic terms, or else they would have disintegrated by now.

Next, Dr. Kane and other scientists at the Lawrence Livermore laboratory want to put the simulation results to a more rigorous test - experiments with lasers supplying the energy in trying to reproduce such cosmic phenomena.

"Simulations are good up to a certain point," said Dr. Bruce A. Remington, leader of the laboratory's laser astrophysics group. "Experiment is the ultimate test of everything."

For most of its history, astronomy was a strictly observational science, and earlier astrophysicists based their theories largely on what astronomers could see. That has changed as high-energy physicists use particle accelerators to probe subatomic matter for clues to the origin and evolution of the universe, and others experiment with their computer modeling for insights into why the universe looks the way it does.

When much of the laser technology used in making and testing nuclear weapons was declassified in 1994, the Lawrence Livermore laboratory, primarily a nuclear-weapons development facility under the Department of Energy, looked into applying lasers to astrophysics experiments. The big obstacle, Dr. Remington said, was the uncertainty that astrophysical phenomena could be scaled down for laboratory research.

Dr. Ryutov developed the concept and equations for scaled tests of an exploding star, or supernova, in the laboratory. "Dimitri jump-started this thinking," Dr. Remington said.

One of the more successful experiments so far, scientists said, has been the use of intense laser light to explore the dynamics of the shock waves moving through the remnant debris from a supernova, in particular the relatively nearby one first observed in 1987 in the Southern Hemisphere and originating in a galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The laboratory has now looked into other laser experiments to model the formation of planets, the atmosphere of Jupiter, aspects of gamma-ray bursts and jets of electrified gas, or plasma, radiating from some objects deep in space.

Dr. Remington conceded that astrophysicists outside the laser field were at first skeptical of such modeling experiments, but are now showing interest. "Of course, if we start competing with them for funds, there will be a rivalry," he said.

Lawrence Livermore is building the much-delayed National Ignition Facility, now expected to be completed no earlier than 2008. Although its main purpose is to allow bomb makers to study the physics of nuclear weapons without exploding them, the powerful laser system would also enable engineers to explore new types of nuclear power plants and offer scientists the chance to investigate matter under conditions never before created in a laboratory.

For any further tests of the Eagle Nebula's structure, however, present laser technology should be sufficient, Dr. Remington said. The Omega laser system at the University of Rochester would probably be used. Other countries - Britain, France, Japan and Germany - have also begun research in laser astrophysics. Japan has indicated an interest in conducting laser experiments to explore the dynamics of the Eagle Nebula.

A decision on when or whether to put the revised Rayleigh-Taylor model for the Eagle Nebula structure to a laser test is expected before the end of the year. For the time being, and most beholders other than astrophysicists might settle for indefinitely, the beauty of the Hubble portrait should be more than sufficient to appreciate the "Pillars of Creation," however they were sculpted, as a sublime work of natural art.

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

Wanted posters

January 16, 2001
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin
Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway-2001116214111.htm

The State Department is still searching for its missing laptop computer apparently containing top-secret files on foreign nuclear capabilities, or so posters hanging at State's C Street headquarters reveal.

The posters offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the much-sought-after black Dell laptop with a five-digit serial number ending in the letter "Q." The posters encourage employees who might have information on the computer to contact the FBI.

The FBI tells us that if turned on, the computer screen might display a grouping of icons "that do not appear linked to the State Department."

One official at the FBI's Washington field office says: "Given that the computer disappeared [12 months] ago, it could also now be in the hands of someone who had nothing to do with its disappearance, who is not aware of its origin, and who could benefit from the reward."

-------- california

California declares Stage 3 alert

USA Today
01/16/01- Updated 12:48 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/2001-01-16-califpower.htm

FOLSOM, Calif. (AP) - Power grid operators called a Stage 3 alert Tuesday morning, once again raising the possibility of blackouts that the state narrowly avoided last week. A Stage 3 alert in the energy-starved state means California's electricity reserves have fallen below 1.5% and rolling blackouts are a possibility.

Last week, a Stage 3 alert was called when the biggest storm to hit the state in three years cut electricity generation at a key nuclear plant.

The storm Thursday came as other electric generating stations shut down for maintenance, which coupled with the crippled nuclear plant cut the state's power output by one-third.

The alert was dropped back to Stage 2 on Friday, when more power became available from other states.

The new Stage 3 alert was expected to be in effect all day.

Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for the Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power grid, said a shortage of natural gas is forcing many power plants in Southern California to switch to oil. Power producing problems are possible and could worsen the power shortage, he said.

State and federal lawmakers are trying to craft a temporary solution to California's power crisis. Officials met this past weekend with electricity wholesalers to negotiate a plan by California Gov. Gray Davis for the state to buy electricity and sell it to utilities. That plan was to be introduced Tuesday in the Legislature.

The state believes it can negotiate better prices than the utilities, which have seen their credit ratings plummet in recent months. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric say they have lost more than $9 billion because of wholesale price increases and the state's 1996 deregulation law that froze rate hikes.

Amid all the other problems, a major electricity supplier on Monday threatened to take the state's two largest utility companies to bankruptcy court. If PG&E and SoCal Edison do not make payments due this week, officials from Houston-based Dynegy Inc. said they will have no choice but to take them to court.

-------- new york

Officials Question Monitoring of Nuclear Plant by Agency

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By ROBERT WORTH
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/nyregion/16NUKE.html

WHITE PLAINS, Jan. 15 - Andrew J. Spano, the Westchester County executive, accused the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission today of failing to monitor adequately the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant in Buchanan, and said he was considering legal steps to force the plant to close until its safety could be assured.

Mr. Spano and other elected officials, including Senator Charles E. Schumer, have been critical of the federal agency and of the plant's owner, Con Edison, since the plant started operating again on Jan. 3. They cited concerns about minor leaks that occurred in late December. The plant, which is 35 miles north of Manhattan, had been closed for 10 months after a radioactive leak that officials said posed no threat to public health.

But Mr. Spano cited remarks published Sunday in The Journal News in which a spokesman for the federal regulatory agency said it was not responsible for guaranteeing a plant's safety or overseeing all its operations, but was merely responsible for auditing a portion of the reports supplied by the plant's operator. "If the N.R.C. isn't willing to accept responsibility for the safety of this plant, then we need an independent monitor who will," Mr. Spano said.

Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the regulatory agency, said today that the final responsibility for ensuring that a plant is safely run rests with the operator. "It's just not feasible for us to have a cop on every corner," he said.

Mr. Sheehan said two on-site inspectors are assigned to every nuclear plant. But because many plants have thousands of employees, he added, it is impossible for the regulatory agency to oversee everything that happens at a plant. He said the agency is sending 13 experts to Indian Point 2 on Tuesday to begin a scheduled three-week inspection of its safety and operations.

Rob Ostrander, a spokesman for Representative Sue W. Kelly, who represents northern Westchester, said, "This is the first time our office has heard that the N.R.C. is not responsible for the safety of the plant, and it's not reassuring."

Ms. Kelly sent a letter today to Representative W. J. Tauzin, the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, citing her concerns about Indian Point 2 and asking that he convene hearings on "the disturbing lack of accountability that exists within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

Alan D. Scheinkman, a legal consultant to Westchester County, said the county was considering two potential avenues to forcing the plant's closure, one in state court and one in federal court.

Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, who represents part of Westchester County, said it did not surprise him that the federal agency's regulatory powers were so limited. He added that he knew of no legal theory that would allow the county to close the plant.

Last week, Con Ed held safety briefings for workers at the plant after an internal report said some workers had made avoidable mistakes in bringing the plant back on line, partly because of pressure from their supervisors to act quickly.

-------- us nuc politics

Likely foreign advisers named

Washington Times
January 16, 2001
By Ben Barber
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2001116232933.htm

The incoming administration of President-elect George W. Bush intends to name former Middle East envoy Edward Djerijian deputy secretary of state and former diplomat Paul Wolfowitz deputy secretary of defense, news reports said yesterday.

Mr. Bush is also expected to name Kenneth Dam, a former State Department and White House budget official, as deputy Treasury secretary, Republican sources told Reuters news agency.

Elizabeth Dole, wife of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and former head of the Red Cross, may be named U.N. ambassador, sources told the wire agency.

A senior foreign-policy source could not confirm the Reuters report.

But he said that if the report is true, it could indicate that the new administration intends to have a more hands-off approach to the Middle East, be more suspicious of North Korea and raise the bar for foreign deployments of U.S. troops.

Republican critics say President Clinton hounded Middle East leaders into a violent impasse that could result in an Israeli election victory next month by Ariel Sharon, a hard-liner opposed to the peace process. The incoming Bush administration also plans a more hard-nosed approach to dealing with North Korea, which has demanded food aid to talk about nuclear and missile controls, the source said.

Mr. Bush has said U.S. troops should be used only when absolutely necessary for U.S. security.

Secretary of State-designee Colin Powell, who faces a confirmation hearing , is in favor of the United States signing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and has advised caution on deploying a robust National Missile Defense system, which Russia says would destroy arms-control pacts and China warns could lead to an arms race.

Mr. Djerijian, who spent the last few years at the Rice University in Houston's Baker Institute for Public Policy, is an Arabic-speaking career diplomat who served as ambassador to both Syria and Israel, as well as assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs during the first Bush administration.

"Powell wanted someone who knows and is from the [State Department] building," the source said.

Mr. Djerijian has criticized the Clinton administration for its insistence on maintaining U.N. sanctions against Iraq as long as Saddam Hussein is in power, but failing to force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to carry out the peace process.

Mr. Powell said in Houston last month, when he was nominated as secretary of state, that "we must always ensure that Israel lives in freedom and in security and peace. But at the same time, we have to do everything we can to deal with the aspirations of the Palestinians and other nations in the region who have an interest in this."

Mr. Wolfowitz, dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, has criticized the Clinton administration for its Iraq policy, calling it a "muddle of confusion" in 1998 testimony before the House National Security Committee.

"The key lies not in marching U.S. soldiers to Baghdad, but in helping the Iraqi people to liberate themselves from Saddam," he said.

Mr. Dam, who is reportedly in line to be named No. 2 at Treasury, served as executive director of the Council on Economic Policy in 1973 and as assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1971 to 1973.

Mr. Dam also was deputy secretary of state for three years before departing to become vice president of law and external relations at IBM from 1986 to 1992. Since leaving IBM, Mr. Dam has been a law professor at the University of Chicago.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS Powell's Perspective

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/opinion/16FRIE.html

Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell has his Senate confirmation hearing this week. I doubt Mr. Powell will say much about specific policies. What I'd listen for is whether he offers a big-picture view of the world, as we really don't know what his views are since he left Army service in 1993.

One way to think about Mr. Powell is this: He spent 35 years of his life with America Onduty, as a military officer. But for the past two years he's been associated with America Online, as a member of the AOL corporate board. So which perspective will Mr. Powell bring to his job as secretary of state - the perspective he gleaned with America Onduty during the cold war or the perspective he gleaned with America Online in the post-cold-war?

These are two different perspectives: America Onduty tends to see the world as being built around walls and America Online tends to see the world as being built around webs.

That is, America Onduty believes that U.S. foreign policy has been, and continues to be, about defending, erecting and bringing down walls. That means building walls of containment around enemies or rivals, from North Korea to Iraq to China. It means being largely indifferent to what goes on behind the walls of countries as long as they are not bothering us - e.g., not really caring how Russia's internal reform plays out - and it means working to bring down the last few walls of Communism around North Korea and Cuba.

America Online, by contrast, sees America at the center of an increasingly integrated global web - a web of trade, telecommunications, finance and environment. For America Online U.S. foreign policy is about protecting that web from those who would disrupt it, strengthening that web and expanding it to others - because, after all, America is now the biggest beneficiary of that web, since American products, technologies, values, ideas, movies and foods are the most widely distributed though it.

One way you preserve that web is by being prepared to defend it from those who would disrupt it, such as Saddam Hussein. Another way is by being ready to promote the expansion of free trade, to join with others in protecting the global environment, or to help with bailouts when key strands of the web - such as Mexico or Thailand - are threatened with financial crises that could infect the whole network. Still another way is by putting a higher priority on working with Russia to solve web problems that endanger us both - such as nuclear or missile proliferation - rather than expanding NATO's wall to Russia's border, thus making cooperation with Moscow impossible.

The wall people, the America Onduty people, love the movie "A Few Good Men," particularly the closing scene where Jack Nicholson, the tough army colonel, sneers at Tom Cruise, the army lawyer who has Mr. Nicholson on trial for the death of a weak U.S. soldier on a U.S. base in Cuba during the cold war. Mr. Nicholson says: "Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? . . . Deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall."

The web people, the America Online people, love the movie "You've Got Mail," because they know that in today's more integrated world we can, and do, get mail from all kinds of strangers that can suddenly change our lives. When Russia has a financial crisis now, we've got mail. When a networked world enables small terrorist groups to become super-empowered so they can blow up a U.S. destroyer in Yemen with a dinghy, we've got mail. When two Filipino computer hackers put their "Love Bug" virus on the World Wide Web and melt down 10 million computers and $10 billion in data in 24 hours, we've got mail.

For the America Onduty people, the world is divided between friends and enemies. For the America Online people, it is divided between members and non-members of the network. The America Onduty people focus on who's on America's terrorism list. The America Online people focus on who's on America's buddy list.

Yes, these are caricatures. But there's something to them. They reflect two different ways of looking at the world. So which lens is Mr. Powell wearing - the one he developed with America Onduty or with America Online?

-------- MILITARY

-------- drug war

Record Heroin Seizure at Austro-Hungarian Border

centraleurope.com
Jan 16, 2001
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=256699

WELS -- (Agence France Presse) Austrian customs officials made a record drug bust when they discovered heroin worth nearly 30 million dollars in a truck at a border crossing point with Hungary, authorities said Tuesday.

The 135 kilograms (300 pounds) of drugs, wrapped up in 215 separate packages, were uncovered Saturday underneath a false floor in a Turkish truck headed for the Netherlands.

The driver, a 37-year-old Turk, had attracted the attention of local officials due to his nervous behavior, Wels police chief Johann Rudlstorfer told a news conference.

He faces 15 years in prison. He told police he had been promised 25,000 German marks (12,700 euros, 12,000 dollars) if he took the drugs on to the Netherlands after delivering his textiles cargo in Duesseldorf, Germany.

The truck had taken what Austrian anti-drug squad chief Gerhard Joszt calls "the Balkans route", starting out from Turkey and passing through Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria and Germany on their way to the Netherlands and Britain.

In Austria, 230 kilograms of heroin were seized last year on this route, compared to just 89 kilograms in 1999.

Joszt said this was due to an increase in opium production in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, which is then transformed into heroin in Turkish laboratories.

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USA Today
01/16/00
States
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Texas

Falfurrias - Border Patrol agents seized nearly two tons of marijuana, valued at about $3 million, stashed in loads of food being hauled by two trucks. A drug-sniffing dog helped find the pot in wooden crates among a load of french fries in one rig and in a load of bananas in the other trailer.

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Governors slam U.S. drug offensive

Washington Times
January 16, 2001
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-2001116213430.htm

BOGOTA, Colombia - Governors from cocaine-producing regions in Colombia yesterday condemned a U.S.-backed plan for aerial spraying of drug crops, saying the operation would imperil the livelihoods of thousands of poor peasants.

The almost $1 billion in mostly military aid for President Andres Pastrana's "Plan Colombia," approved by the U.S. Congress in July, is aimed at eradicating illicit fields of coca and cutting the funding of leftist guerrillas who protect and profit from the trade.

But a group of governors on the front line in the war against drugs said they would present in an upcoming meeting an alternative plan urging Mr. Pastrana's government to stop aerial spraying of herbicides and instead fund crop-substitution programs to wean peasants from their dependence on drug crops.

-------- india/pakistan

Pakistani Militants Attack Srinagar Airport

New York Times
January 16, 2001
By BARRY BEARAK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/16/world/16CND-AIRPORT.html

NEW DELHI, Jan. 16 - A daring attack on the airport at Srinagar in Kashmir this afternoon left at least 11 people dead, including the six militants who stormed the heavily guarded facility with grenades and automatic weapons, the authorities said.

Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of several Pakistan-based militant groups waging a guerrilla war against Indian rule in the embattled Himalayan region, claimed responsibility for the raid, which was yet another blow to a nascent peace effort.

In recent weeks, as Indian forces have temporarily suspended counterinsurgency operations, distrustful militant groups have responded with a series of high-profile assaults, among them an attack on the historic Red Fort in the heart of the nation's capital.

Today's gun battle began when guerrillas, dressed in the regulation camouflage of the Indian paramilitary, arrived at a security cordon outside the airport, the place where outgoing passengers first get their baggage screened and searched.

The intruders opened fire on the federal police manning the checkpoint, the authorities said. A shootout the police said lasted more than an hour spilled over into two shops near the airport's entrance.

Killed along with the six militants were three police officers, a banker and a teenage girl. At least 11 other people were wounded, authorities said.

The incident now becomes part of the confusing interplay going on between India and Pakistan, the two protagonists