Global News Headlines 01/06

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Wednesday, January 6, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

1) Fire in Tochigi dies out after burning 200,000 tires UTSUNOMIYA, Japan,
Jan. 6 (Kyodo) -- A fire in Sano, Tochigi Prefecture, died out Wednesday
evening after burning about 200,000 used tires over four days, prefectural
officials said. Residents of the area have been plagued by smoke and bad
smells ever since the fire broke out among piles of old tires in a forest in...

2) Asahi News Service Jan 6, 1999 HEADLINE: TOXINS TO BE FIRMS' RESPONSIBILITY
DATELINE: TOKYO BODY: The Environment Agency plans to make companies
responsible for monitoring and reporting the amount of toxic  pollution
emitted by the facilities they run, agency  officials said on Jan. 5.    The
agency plans submit a revision to the Air Pollution Contol Law by 2001 that...

3) Hormone disrupters found in dead chicks, eggs of eagle TOKYO, Jan. 6
(Kyodo) High amounts of chemicals identified as hormone disrupters have been
detected in the unhatched eggs and dead offspring of the endangered golden
eagle, according to the results of an Environment Agency study released
Wednesday. The chemicals found in the dead offspring of the golden eagle,...

4) Windsor Star January 6, 1999 Final County News A5 Mercury pollution
growing: Toxin levels in the Detroit River are higher than ever BY Doug
Schmidt Star Environment Reporter Despite encouraging words of action and
some recent cleanup along the Detroit River, levels of methyl-mercury, the
most toxic form of mercury and one of the Great Lakes' worst pollution...

5) WWF says Spain's acidic spill was preventable MADRID, Jan 6 (Reuters) The
Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Wednesday the release of at least
50,000 cubic metres of acidic water into a river in southern Spain
was "predictable and preventable." Fertiliser companies Fertiberia
and Foret have maintained that the water that escaped when a waste
reservoir burst...

6) MIDDLE EAST NEWS ITEMS January 6, 1999 HEADLINE: URAL REPROCESSOR HURT BY
NUKE WASTE TRANSIT BAN BODY: The tiny Soviet republic of Moldova has refused
to allow the transit of a shipment of Bulgarian nuclear waste to the Urals
in another financial blow for Russia's reprocessing industry. The 30 tons of
waste from the controversial Kozloduy nuclear power plant on the Danube were...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

7) Ukraine to build its own spent nuclear fuel ... KIEV, January 6 (Itar-Tass)
- Ukraine will build its own storage  facility for spent nuclear fuel by
2000, officials said at a meeting on  energy problems held by the
prime minister on Wednesday. The storage facility will be built at
the Zaporozhye nuclear power  plant. The transportation
infrastructure and storage...

8) The New York Times January  6, 1999 Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section
B; Page 7; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk HEADLINE: Metro Business; Millstone 3
Reactor Has Radiation Leak BYLINE: AP BODY: The recently restarted Millstone
3 nuclear power plant leaked about 800 gallons of low-level
radioactive water on Monday, Northeast  Utilities said yesterday. Joe
Pillittere, a...

9) The Times (London) January 6, 1999 SECTION: Overseas news HEADLINE: Nuclear
waste 'to bankroll Lebed campaign' BYLINE: Anna Blundy in Moscow BODY:  WITH
a year to go until Russian presidential elections if Boris Yeltsin sees out
his full term, it has been suggested that Aleksandr Lebed, the gruff
Governor of Krasnoyarsk, might be attempting to raise money for his campaign...

10) SA: Democrats to take anti-nuclear fight overseas BYLINE: Jennifer Ashcroft
BODY: ADELAIDE, Jan 6 AAP - The Australian Democrats today threatened to
enlist overseas help in opposing the planned Beverley uranium mine in South
Australia. Democrats environment spokesman Andrew Bartlett said he was
unconvinced waste from the mine, located in northern SA, would be safely...

11) The Times (London) January 6, 1999 SECTION: Features HEADLINE: Protecting
ourselves from the millennium bug's deadly bites BYLINE: Nicholas Booth
BODY: What is being done to avoid another Chernobyl? Nicholas Booth reports.
For those of an extremely nervous disposition, the way in which the
millennium bug will affect the world's nuclear industry promises the worst...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

12) Former weapons inspector defends UNSCOM'S Butler WASHINGTON, Jan 6
(Reuters) - Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter on Wednesday defended
U.N. Special Commission chief Richard Butler and rejected published reports
that U.S intelligence agents used the U.N. body to spy on Iraq. Asked to
comment on two U.S. newspaper reports that U.S. intelligence agencies had...

13) Jane's Defence Weekly January 6, 1999 SECTION: HEADLINES; Vol. 31; No. 1
HEADLINE: UN seeks new  mode of monitoring Iraq BYLINE: Thalif Deen Jdw Un
Correspondent DATELINE:  New York  BODY: The UN is working on a new
arrangement to monitor Iraq's  weapons of mass destruction (WMD) following
calls from China, France and Russia to disband the UN Special Commission...

14) 01/06 Plutonium-Groundwater By JEFF BARNARD Traces of plutonium from
a test blast in the Nevada desert migrated nearly a mile through
groundwater, according to a study that prompted the government to
recalculate slightly the risks that would be posed by an underground
nuclear waste storage site. Scientists said the amount of
radioactivity that can move this way is too...

 OCEANS 

15) Mozambique to Monitor Fishing Activities by Satellite MAPUTO (Jan. 6)
XINHUA - Mozambican Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Isidora
Faztudo has said the country will enhance its monitoring on fishing
activities in coastal areas through satellite starting from this March. The
new system is aimed at cracking down on abuse of fishing by illegal ships....

16) ENVIRONMENT-INDIA: FRAGILE COAST TAKES A BATTERING NEW DELHI, (Jan. 4) IPS-
A federation of fishermen's trade unions has accused India's central and
state governments of colluding with corporations and developers to illegally
exploit the country's fragile coastal areas. There are many cases of
violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, and the worst...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

17) Burmese armor sent to protect BANGKOK, Thailand Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Burma's
ruling junta is reported to have sent armor and infantry troops to suppress
ethnic minority rebels along a U.S.-and French-financed gas pipeline near
the Thai-Burmese border. The Bangkok Post today quotes a Thai military
source as saying a Burmese artillery battalion and five rapid response...

18) The Daily Yomiuri January 7, 1999 SECTION: Pg. 3 HEADLINE: 1998 record
year for hot weather BYLINE: Yomiuri Lifestyle BODY: The nation's average
temperature for 1998 has been ranked the highest in the century, according
to statistics that have been kept since 1898, the Meteorological Agency
announced Tuesday.    According  to the agency, last  year's average...

19) Unocal denies funding Burma BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Burma's
ruling junta is reported to have sent armor and infantry troops to suppress
ethnic minority rebels along a U.S.-and French-financed gas pipeline near
the Thai-Burmese border. The Bangkok Post today quotes a Thai military
source as saying a Burmese artillery battalion and five rapid response...

20) The Times (London) January 6, 1999 SECTION: Home news HEADLINE: Ice Age may
be 50,000 years late BYLINE: Nigel Hawkes BODY: MAN-MADE global warming  may
postpone the arrival of the next Ice Age, the conference was told. Instead
of ice spreading down across Scotland and the North of England within the
next 55,000 years, the deep freeze may be delayed for a further 50,000 years...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

21) Cambodia orders crackdown on illegal logging By Ek Madra PHNOM PENH, Jan
6 (Reuters) - Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen, anxious to revive
suspended international financial assistance, on Wednesday ordered a
tough crackdown on illegal logging. Hun Sen ordered the police and
military to use armed force if necessary to wipe out what he called
"anarchic" logging.  "The...

22) FED: Fire in national park under control BODY: CANBERRA, Jan 6 AAP - A
fire which has destroyed 78ha of rugged forest in the Kosciuszko National
Park was expected to be contained during the night, the National Parks and
Wildlife Service (NPWS) said today. The service's Snowy Mountains region
media officer Liz Wren said the fire started after a lightning strike on...

23) Inter Press Service HEADLINE: ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: GOLD DIGGERS MAKE
SAND DUNES IN JUNGLES BYLINE: By Warief Djajanto Basorie DATELINE: ASPAI,
Indonesia, Jan. 6  BODY: Indonesia's Kalimantan province has sand dunes in
the jungle. Nature did not make them -- men did. Forest, swamp and rivers
are major features of this huge island non-Indonesians know as Borneo,...

24) ENVIRONMENT-LATIN AMERICA:"BIO-PIRATES" THREATEN ... LIMA, (Jan. 4) IPS -
The Amazon now faces what experts see as its biggest threat in the coming
millennium: the plundering of its organic plant resources, spread over 7
million sq. kms shared by  Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Peru,
Suriname and  Venezuela. Biopiracy -- the theft of plants and animals for...

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