Global News Headlines 06/23

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Wednesday, June 23, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

(GREENPEACE)
1) Ship scrapping knocked, but alternatives elusive By Matt Daily AMSTERDAM,
June 23 (Reuters) Government and environmental leaders on Wednesday
criticised procedures for scrapping old ships, but offered few alternatives
for improving the poor safety and environmental record of the industry. I
consider ship scrapping in developing nations a humanitarian and ecological...

(GREENPEACE)
2) National Post June 23, 1999 National News A14 A Balkan nightmare: toxic
food and water: Pollution from bombed sewage systems and chemical plants
could threaten millions in southeastern Europe BY Steven Edwards  UNITED
NATIONS - An  environmental task force is ready to begin assessing the
extent of a  largely hidden but deadly legacy of the Kosovo conflict --...

(GREENPEACE)
3) The Toronto Star June 23, 1999 Metro News A15 VINYL SOFTENERS SAFE TO USE
IN TOYS, IV BAGS, PANEL FINDS: But rival study claims phthalates can harm
humans and animals WASHINGTON (Reuters) Vinyl softeners that some groups
oppose in intravenous bags are safe for use in both medical devices and
children's toys, a study released yesterday said. A panel of scientists...

(GREENPEACE)
4) Canada NewsWire June 22, 1999 SECTION: Domestic News HEADLINE: Clean Bill
of Health, or Misdiagnosis? DATELINE: HEALTH CARE WITHOUT HARM QUESTIONS
ACSH REPORT'S "CONFIDENCE" IN PHTHALATES TORONTO, June 22 BODY: Ignoring the
warnings of human exposure and potential health risks, the American Council
on Science and Health's panel released their findings today "that vinyl toys...

5) U.S. study links lead exposure to cavities CHICAGO, June 22 (Reuters) -
Children exposed to lead in the  environment appear more likely to develop
cavities, according to a study  published on Tuesday. Some 2.7 million
(U.S.) children between the ages of five and 17 may have tooth decay because
of lead exposure," said Mark Moss of the University of Rochester School of...

6) The Ottawa Citizen June 23, 1999, FINAL SECTION: Business; C4 HEADLINE:
NAFTA suits threaten environmental laws: study: Legal claims total $2B,
report urges countries to clarify intentions BYLINE: Andrew Duffy BODY: A
section of the North American Free Trade Agreement designed to protect
investors from arbitrary government measures threatens to undermine the...

7) 06/23 Belgium: Food Scare Under Control By RAF CASERT BRUSSELS,
Belgium (AP) The Belgian government tried to convince a suspicious
world Wednesday that its dioxin food scandal was under control,
despite a surprise shift in suspicions over who was to blame. The
government said Tuesday that a Spanish producer of fat used in animal
feed was responsible for the dioxin...

8) France opens Coke probe amid rat poison fear- paper PARIS, June 23
(Reuters) - French authorities have opened an inquiry into the health scare
linked to a Coca-Cola canning plant amid reports that rat poison may be at
the root of the problem, daily newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday. The
paper said the state prosecutor in the French port of Dunkirk opened the...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

9) BBC Monitoring Europe Economic June 23, 1999 HEADLINE: SLOVAK MINISTER
SAYS  NUCLEAR POWER WILL BE GRADUALLY PHASED OUT BODY: Text of report by the
Slovak news agency TASR Bratislava, 2nd June: The proposal of the Slovak
nuclear energy concept assumes that the third and fourth blocks in the
Mochovce nuclear power plant will not be completed and that Jaslovske...

10) RUSSIA MAY MAKE $10 BLN PROCESSING USED NUCLEAR FUEL DATELINE: MOSCOW,
June 23 (Interfax) BODY: The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry could receive
nearly$ 10 billion over the next five to seven years under contracts for
the processing of spent nuclear fuel brought from abroad. Such contracts
will become possible if Article 50 of the Environmental Protection Law is...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

11) U.S. expected to urge N. Korea to restrain missile ... BEIJING, June 23
(Kyodo) The United States and North Korea started high-level talks Wednesday
in Beijing, during which the U.S. is expected to urge North Korea to
exercise caution in its missile development program. The talks between U.S.
envoy for Korean Peninsula affairs Charles Kartman and North Korean Vice...

12) EU estimates 1 bln euro a year to rebuild Kosovo BRUSSELS, June 23
(Reuters) The European Commission said on Wednesday it would cost around one
billion euro ($1.03 billion) a year for the next three years to rebuild
Kosovo and the EU would foot half of the bill. External Relations
Commissioner Hans van den Broek, unveiling plans for a special econstruction...

13) The Guardian (London) June 23, 1999 SECTION: Guardian Foreign Pages; Pg.
13 HEADLINE: Death throes of battered economy; Rebuilding The reports
of Serbia's speedy recovery ring hollow BYLINE: Rory Carroll in
Pancevo BODY: Rory Carroll in Pancevo Serbia's economic meltdown
continued yesterday contradicting Slobodan Milosevic's claim that
breakneck reconstruction was...

14) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: NATO bombing damage to Yugoslavia put at
29.6 billion dollars DATELINE: BELGRADE, June 23  BODY: Total damage
caused by the 11-week-long NATO bombing campaign on Yugoslavia was
estimated at 29.6 billion dollars by a group of independent Serb
economists Wednesday. During the NATO campaign, the Yugoslav
authorities estimated the damage to...

15) WRAPUP-India rattles sabre as Kashmir battles rage By Himangshu Watts  NEW
DELHI, June 23 (Reuters) - India on Wednesday raised the possibility of its
forces crossing into Pakistan-held Kashmir as South Asia's nuclear powers
girded for the potential of war. India's hardline interior minister said the
country should be prepared for an all-out war and Pakistan said it was...

 OCEANS 

16) New maritime charter aims to raise standards AMSTERDAM, June 21  (Reuters)
Ship owners, brokers and builders on Tuesday signed an  agreement in an
effort to raise technical, safety and environmental standards in the
industry. The agreement, the Maritime Industry Charter on Quality, is a
non-binding statement which seeks to reduce unscrupulous business practices...

17) AUSTRALIA CREATES MACQUARIE ISLAND SEAL PROTECTION PARK CANBERRA,
Australia, June 22, 1999 (ENS) - The Australian government is acting to
protect seals by creating a large new marine park, three-quarters the size
of the state of Victoria, around the World Heritage listed Macquarie Island.
This week the government issue a Notice of Intent to establish a marine park...

18) Turtles swim into U.S. presidential race AUSTIN, June 23 (Reuters) Tiny
Texas sea turtles swam into the murky waters of the U.S. presidential race
on Wednesday -- the latest backyard issue to emerge in Texas Gov. George W.
Bush's bid for the White House. Two Texas environmental groups, the Sea
Turtle Restoration Project and Help Endangered Animals, took out a full-page...

 OZONE 

19) 06/23 Humans to blame for ozone depletion By LIDIA WASOWICZ SAN
FRANCISCO, June 23 (UPI) Snow-packed evidence points to humans as the
primary culprits in the depletion of life-protecting ozone from
Earth's stratosphere, government and university scientists say. They
put the blame on man rather than nature after analyzing a record of
gases in the air trapped over the...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

(GREENPEACE)
20) The Evening Standard (Palmerston North) June 21, 1999 SECTION: NEWS; LOCAL;
Pg. 1 HEADLINE: Windfarms 'visionary solution' BYLINE: SAUNDERS John BODY:
GREENPEACE today challenged the rest of New Zealand to follow CentralPower
and develop windfarms as a sustainable solution to future energy needs. The
Tararua windfarm was to be opened today by Deputy Prime Minister Wyatt...

21) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Red Cross predicts climatic super disasters
BYLINE: Tani Freedman DATELINE: GENEVA, June 24  BODY: The world is heading
for a spate of "super" disasters sparked by a mix of climate change,
environmental damage and population pressures, a Red Cross report said on
Thursday. The forecast was contained in the World Disasters Report 1999...

22) THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) June 23, 1999 SECTION: Pg. 12 HEADLINE: Warming
spreads tick-borne disease BYLINE: Charles Clover Environment Editor  BODY:
TREES are bursting into leaf earlier, birds are laying earlier and ticks
-carriers of Lyme disease, which can cause facial paralysis in humans - are
more abundant, according to a report by the Government today. The report...

23) Latin American cities join forces against smog MEXICO CITY, June 23
(Reuters) Nine Latin American cities with a combined population of 68
million people called on Wednesday for a regional alliance to combat smog
and urged governments and business to work together against pollution.  In a
statement published in Mexican newspapers, the nine cities and one of...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

24) The Vancouver Sun June 23, 1999, FINAL SECTION: News; A7 HEADLINE:  Forest
towns to be asked about takeover of  MacBlo: A team of experts will hold
public hearings in various communities  before reporting back to Forests
Minister David Zirnhelt, he said  Tuesday. BYLINE: Jim Beatty, Sun
Legislature Bureau DATELINE: VICTORIA  BODY: VICTORIA -- The provincial...

25) 06/23 Indonesia-Suharto JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Former President
Suharto, his family and their friends own the rights to large swaths
of Indonesia's forests, the Jakarta Post reported today. The
newspaper said the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations found they
owned a total of 27,567 square miles of forests through 27 timber
companies and eight industrial forest estates....

26) FED: Leading NT Aborigines condemn environment deal BODY: CANBERRA, June
23 AAP - Leading Northern Territory Aborigines have condemned the
deal struck between the Australian Democrats and the government on
environmental legislation. The Aboriginal land councils said they
were shut out of the negotiations on the Environment Protection 
Biodiversity Conservation Bill...

27) 06/22 Can Customers Trust Organic Label? By MICHAEL WARREN SANTA
CRUZ, Calif. (AP) Consumers will pay more for food they believe to be
free of pesticides and grown in an a way that protects the
environment. But can they trust it? The growth of organic food from a
fringe movement to a $5 billion nationwide industry is based mostly
on trust.  When a label says "grown and...

28) The Guardian (London) June 23, 1999 SECTION: Guardian Society Pages; Pg.
4 HEADLINE: Bill of wrongs; Rightwing factions are pressing the
Brazilian government into reneging on its pledge to protect
Amerindian lands. Jan Rocha reports BODY: While the G7 countries have
put millions of pounds into Brazil to protect indigenous lands in the
Amazon rainforest, inside Brazil a...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

(GREENPEACE)
29) EU governments poised for initial GMO accord By Michael Mann BRUSSELS,
June 22 (Reuters) European Union environment ministers are poised to reach
initial agreement on Thursday on plans to streamline the approvals process
for new genetically modified organisms (GMOs), EU officials said on Tuesday.
But ministers will face several hours of intensive negotiations at their...

30) Euro-MP calls for legal liability over GMOs BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters)  -
Biotechnology companies should be made legally responsible for any problems
caused by products they put on the market, a leading member of the European
Parliament said on Wednesday. British Socialist deputy David Bowe said a
revised European Union law on approving genetically modified crops or foods...

31) USDA chief in France next week for biotech talks WASHINGTON, June 23
(Reuters) - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said on Wednesday he
will travel to Paris early next week for talks with French officials on
genetically modified crops and other biotechnology trade issues. Peter
Scher, special U.S. ambassador for agricultural trade, will also take part...

32) Plant innovation seen moving forward without GMOs By Eric Onstad  RILLAND,
Netherlands June 23 (Reuters) - If the current wave of public anxiety about
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) forces a ban or moritorium, innovation
in plant breeding would continue using complex DNA  techniques, the CEO of
Dutch seed company Advanta said on Wednesday. The same DNA fingerprinting...

33) And this little piggy was environmentally friendly TORONTO, June 23
Reuters Canadian scientists have genetically engineered what they say is an
environmentally friendly pig. Researchers at the University of Guelph,
Ontario, call it the Enviropig, and said on Wednesday it should produce
manure that is 20 to 50 percent lower in phosphorous than that from normal...

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