Global News Headlines 01/12

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Tuesday, January 12, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

(GREENPEACE)
1) Greenpeace hopes for China action on toxic waste By Azlin Ahmad SINGAPORE,
Jan 12 (Reuters) - Environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday it was
confident China would prevent contaminated ships from being sent to Asian
scrapyards. The comment was made as Anglo-Dutch ship  "Encounter Bay"
departed Singapore apparently en route to a scrapyard in  China. Greenpeace...

(GREENPEACE)
2) Maritime, metal unions back Asia ship waste action LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters)
- Maritime and metalworkers' unions said on Tuesday they would back efforts
by environmental organisation Greenpeace to stop a ship being scrapped in
Asia. They were prepared to join forces with  non-governmental organisations
like Greeenpeace to ensure scrapping of  ships in Asia was safe for workers...

(GREENPEACE)
3) The Associated Press Jan 11, 1999 HEADLINE:  Environmental justice taking
attention away from serious problems BYLINE: LESLIE ZGANJAR DATELINE: BATON
ROUGE, La. BODY: Environmental justice is a new and still evolving movement.
Its premise is that residents of poor, minority communities suffer
disproportionate health effects from polluting industries. Environmental...

4) FOCUS-Board of Spanish park opposes mine reopening By Ignacio Gonzalez
DONANA NATIONAL PARK, Spain, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The management board of
Europe's largest nature reserve on Tuesday opposed the reopening of a zinc
mine which last April gushed out toxic waste in Spain's worst ecological
disaster. In a non- binding report, the park's board recommended that...

5) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Bayer under investigation for Brazilian
pesticide deaths: report DATELINE: MAINZ, Germany, Jan 11  BODY: German
chemical group Bayer is being investigated by Brazilian authorities in
connection with the deaths of more than a dozen coffee farmers who used its
Baysiston pesticide,  German television reported Monday.    Bayer's...

6) January 12, 1999 Gender-bending chemicals may kill salmon at sea BY Chris
Morris FREDERICTON (CP) - Scientists have discovered what could be a major
clue to solving the mystery of the disappearing Atlantic salmon.  The same
broad class of chemicals suspected of causing gender bending in certain
animals may also be fouling the salmon's ability to change from freshwater...

7) AMERISCAN: JANUARY 11, 1999 ENDOCRINE DISRUPTER SCREENING PROGRAM PLANNED
The EPA is seeking public comment on a comprehensive, new testing program to
evaluate whether chemicals present in the environment can adversely affect
the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife. At first, the program will
focus on 15,000 chemicals, manufactured in volumes over 10,000 pounds a...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

(GREENPEACE)
8) Group warns of Russia plan to import nuclear waste By Adam Tanner MOSCOW,
Jan 12 (Reuters) - The environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday Russia
was considering importing nuclear waste from Switzerland for long-term
storage in a move it called illegal and environmentally risky.  A Russian
Atomic Energy Ministry official who took part in September talks in Zurich...

9) The Ottawa Citizen January 12, 1999 Final News A3 Nuclear watchdog demands
$40,000 for pile of information on polluted site by Tom Spears When Myriam
Beaulne asked a federal agency for information about radioactive pollution
at an Eastern Ontario mine site, she wasn't prepared for the bill: more than
$40,000.  And pay half in advance, please, says the Atomic Energy Control...

10) Germany's Trittin to Paris to discuss nuclear exit BONN, Jan 12 (Reuters)
- German Environmental Minister Juergen Trittin will meet top French
government officials in Paris on Thursday to discuss Germany's plans to
abandon nuclear energy, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Trittin was due to meet
Economics and Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn during his visit to...

11) The Guardian (London) January 12, 1999 SECTION: The Guardian City Page;
Pg. 17 HEADLINE: Defect closes BNFL plant; Blockage in radioactive waste
pipe causes second shutdown of Thorp BYLINE: Paul Brown, Environment
Correspondent  BODY: British Nuclear Fuels has had to abandon its production
targets for this year after a blocked pipe forced it to shut its pounds 1.8...

12) Impossible to finish N.Korea reactors by 2003- KEDO TOKYO, Jan 12 (Reuters)
- Two planned nuclear reactors in North Korea will be impossible to complete
by 2003 as scheduled, the South Korean head of the Korean Peninsula Energy
Development Organisation (KEDO) was quoted on Tuesday as saying. South
Korean KEDO head Chang Sun-sop said in an interview in Seoul that it would...

13) 3rd unit of Chernobyl power plant to be back to work. KIEV, January
12 (Itar-Tass) - The third unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
will resume functioning on February 15, 1999, after repairs and
switch on to the unified energy system of Ukraine, Minister of
Environmental Safety Vasily Shevchuk told correspondents on Tuesday.
In his words, the third unit -- the...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

14) 01/12 Nuclear test ban called top Clinton priority WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - President Clinton plans to push U.S. Senate ratification
of an international treaty banning nuclear tests as one of his "top
priorities" of 1999, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said
Tuesday. He said Clinton is determined to strengthen international
controls on weapons of mass...

15) VIC: "Insult" to diggers over UK nuclear blasts, say lawyers BYLINE: By
Fran Cusworth BODY: MELBOURNE, Jan 12 AAP - Australian servicemen exposed to
British nuclear explosions deserved the same benefits as those exposed to
nuclear blasts in Japan, a law firm said today. It was insulting that
veterans who served in Japan after the 1945 atomic blasts were entitled to...

 OCEANS 

16) QLD: Marine park authority asks RAAF to stop bombing reefs BYLINE: Selina
Day BODY: BRISBANE, Jan 12 AAP The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(GBRMPA) has asked the RAAF to stop live bombing of an area of the World
Heritage-listed park where coral reefs have been destroyed. But although the
RAAF said it was examining alternative training sites it could not yet agree...

17) Oil spill off Qld brings renewed warnings BODY: BRISBANE, Jan 12 AAP - An
ocean oil slick off Mackay in north Queensland was likely to have come from
a merchant ship flushing its bilge tanks, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Authority (GBRMPA) said today. GBRMPA said the slick  was discovered
yesterday, 100km east of Mackay near High Peak Island.  "The slick had...

18) FED: Govt to take firm stand on Barrier Reef trawling BODY: CANBERRA, Jan
12 AAP - Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill tomorrow will
announce government plans to take a firm stand on prawn trawling
within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP). Senator Hill will
in Sydney deliver a long-awaited government response to a CSIRO study
into the environmental...

19) The Times (London) January 12, 1999 SECTION: Home news HEADLINE: Beachy
Head cliff crashes into the sea BYLINE: Helen Johnstone  BODY: SAFETY
experts were examining the coastal beauty spot at Beachy Head yesterday
after a vast section of rockface crashed into  the sea. The unmanned Beachy
Head lighthouse was effectively rejoined to the Sussex coast by thousands of...

20) The Scotsman Jan 12, 1999 SECTION: Pg. 7 HEADLINE: P&O LOSES 680,000 POUNDS
DAMAGES CLAIM OVER BRAER SPILL BYLINE: John Robertson Law Correspondent
BODY: THE P&O ferry company has lost a GBP 680,000 compensation claim over
the Braer oil spill six years ago. A judge said that P&O might have been
entitled to damages if its income from the Aberdeen-Lerwick route had fallen...

21) The Boston Globe Jan 12, 1999, City Edition SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. B9
HEADLINE: New limits urged on lobstering in federal waters BYLINE: By Scott
Allen, Globe Staff  BODY: Fearful that New England's most valuable  fishery
is in danger, the National Marine Fisheries  Service proposed new limits on
lobster fishing in federal waters yesterday in an effort to stop a lobster...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

(GREENPEACE)
22) Hydrogen on sale at pumps to German motorists HAMBURG, Germany, Jan 12
(Reuters) - Three times as potent as petrol and with water its only waste
product, liquid hydrogen went on sale to German motorists on Tuesday with
the launch of the first filling station in Europe to offer the fuel.  Early
business was slow, but with car-makers racing to offer the world's first...

23) Workers tackle oil spill in Alaska wildlife refuge ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan
11 (Reuters) - The owner and operator of an oil pipeline in an
Alaskan wildlife refuge estimates that more than 2,500 gallons of
crude leaked out when the line ruptured, a department of the state
government said on Monday. Oil company Unocal <UCL.N> estimated that
60 barrels (2,520 gallons)...

24) Financial Times (London) January 12, 1999, LONDON EDITION 1 SECTION:
NATIONAL NEWS; Pg. 10 HEADLINE: Insurers unveil system to forecast risk from
hurricanes BYLINE: Vanessa Houlder BODY: A consortium of UK insurers
yesterday unveiled a hurricane forecasting system that could potentially
save them millions of pounds through improved risk assessment. The...

25) The Boston Globe January  12, 1999, City Edition SECTION:NATIONAL/FOREIGN;
Pg. A16 HEADLINE: Record heat in 1998 is evidence of global warming,  NASA
says BYLINE: Associated Press  BODY: WASHINGTON - Last year was the hottest
year on record, according to NASA  researchers who say the rising
temperatures are further evidence that the world is heating up. Global...

26) Daily Oil Bulletin January 11, 1999 Final 4 Shell Tabulates Bill For Year
2000 Compliance  AMSTERDAM - Royal Dutch/Shell Group on Monday
repeated today its earlier estimate that direct costs associated with
millennium compliance would amount to some $600 million.  The group's
millennium compliance program is divided into four areas --
information technology...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

27) WORLD'S LARGEST FRESHWATER FISH AT RISK  By Zadie Neufville  GEORGETOWN,
Guyana, January 11, 1999 (ENS) - Guyana and Brazil are among a group of
South American countries fighting to secure the survival of one of the
world's largest fresh water fish - the Arapaima (Arapaima giga). The
Arapaima is listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in...

28) 01/12 Clinton Calls For $1 Billion Fund To Preserve Open Land
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--President Clinton called on Congress to
create a $1 billion fund to protect the nation's open spaces and
natural lands. Speaking at the National Arboretum, Clinton said about
half the money would be used by the federal government to acquire new
properties and the other half would be...

29) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Brazilian officials move against Amazonian
landowner: report DATELINE: RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 11  BODY: Local officials
here are moving to take legal action against a man who claims to have
quietly accumulated huge chunks of the Amazon rain forest, a national
magazine reported Monday. Cecilio do Rego Almeida, 68, one of the world's...

30) Financial Times (London) Jan 12, 1999 LONDON EDITION 2 SECTION:
COMMODITIES & AGRICULTURE; Pg. 30 HEADLINE: EU forests 'under serious
threat': Gaps in Finland's woodland are a symptom  of a continental malaise,
writes Tim Burt: BODY: Parts of the remote pine forests of North Karelia,one
of Finland's most heavily wooded  areas, are scarred where heavy snowfall
and wind have...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

(GREENPEACE)
31) Financial Times (London) January 12, 1999 USA EDITION 2 SECTION: US AND
CANADA; Pg. 06 HEADLINE: Gene-modified seed groups try to allay fears
BYLINE: By Nikki Tait in Chicago DATELINE: Chicago  BODY: Producers of
genetically  modified corn seed in the US have agreed to ask farmers to set
aside at least one-fifth of their acreage  for the growth of "traditional"...

 OTHERS 

(GREENPEACE)
32) The Irish Times January 12, 1999, CITY EDITION SECTION: OPINION; RITE AND
REASON; Pg. 14 HEADLINE: Time for creditors to  review priorities As the
millennium approaches, an international campaign  to have Third World debt
cancelled is intensifying. A conference on the issue takes place today and
tomorrow at the Teachers' Club in Parnell  Square, Dublin. Father Sean...

33) National Post January  11, 1999 Monday NATIONAL EDITIONS SECTION:
FINANCIAL POST; Pg. C07 HEADLINE: All aboard the  EDC money train: The
Export Development Corporation uses government money to prop up smokestack
industries while  discouraging private-sector competition in the credit
insurance business  BYLINE: Patricia Adams;Patricia Adams is an economist...

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