Global News Headlines 07/08

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Thursday, July 8, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

(GREENPEACE)
1) Rights workers go on trial in Cambodia over waste riots By Reach Sambath
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia, July 8 (AFP) - Two Cambodian human rights workers
went on trial Thursday for leading an illegal protest against toxic waste
despite international calls for the charges to be dropped. Kim Sen and Meas
Minear, who work for the human rights group Licadho in this southern port,...

2) 07/08 Toxic Chemicals WASHINGTON (AP) The Environmental Protection
Agency will broaden its work with state and local governments to
monitor hazardous chemicals in the air and develop new plans to
reduce toxic air pollution. The initiative under the 1990 Clean Air
Act will focus on curtailing toxic air pollution in urban areas and
on protecting  "the millions of people who...

3) Endocrine Disruptors Japan, U.S., Europe Agreed to ...  Jul 08, 1999,
(Comline via COMTEX) -- In a meeting of OECD specialists on endocrine-
disrupting chemical substances in Tokyo, Japan, the U.S. and Europe reached
a formal agreement regarding development and preparation of three testing
methods, adjustment of the protocol, and implementation methods for validity...

4) Belgium releases suspect in dioxin scandal BRUSSELS, July 8 (Reuters)
Authorities released from custody the head of the Fogra fats firm at the
centre of Belgium's dioxin crisis on Thursday, although charges against him
stand, the investigating public prosecutor's office said. I have  heard he
(Jacques Thill) was released this morning," Marc Pauwels, spokesman for the...

5) QLD: Call for cane land clearing to be declared threatening BODY: CANE
BRISBANE, July 8 AAP - Conservationists and fishermen want the federal
government to declare the act of clearing land to grow sugar cane to be a
threat to endangered species. The Humane Society International (HSI), the
North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) and the recreational fishing...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

(GREENPEACE)
6) 07/08 SECURITY FEARS OVER NUCLEAR CARGO By Harriet Tolputt, PA News
Plutonium capable of making basic nuclear bombs is to be transported
to Japan without adequate security, environmental activists claimed
today. The cargo of fuel will be shipped to Japan from the BNFL plant
at Sellafield in Cumbria and from Cherbourg, France, without a Navy
escort. The two ships,...

7) AP Worldstream July 08, 1999 HEADLINE: German official threatens to force
nuclear plant shutdown DATELINE: BONN, Germany BODY: Germany will not shy
away from legislating the shutdown of nuclear power plants if industry
bosses don't show more flexibility in stalled talks on a timetable for the
phase-out, the  environment minister said Thursday. The warning by Juergen...

8) The Guardian (London) July 8, 1999 SECTION: Guardian Home Pages; Pg. 7
HEADLINE: Nuclear industry's plea for secrecy BYLINE: David Hencke
Westminster Correspondent BODY: The nuclear industry stuck the knife into
Labour's plans for freedom of information, Jack Straw, the home secretary,
revealed to MPs yesterday. British Nuclear Fuels and British Energy, the...

9) 07/08 Scared Of Y2K? Head For A Nuclear Reactor By Matthew Green
LONDON (Reuters) - Deadly radiation, complex computers and the year
2000 bug sound like an apocalyptic mix, but watchdogs say nuclear
power plants will be as safe a place as any to greet the new year. In
Western Europe, technicians have been combing bugs from reactor
systems and making contingency plans to...

10) Deutsche Presse-Agentur July 8, 1999 HEADLINE:  Breakdown at Chernobyl's
last  nuclear  reactor DATELINE: Kiev BODY: The last working reactor of the
four at Chernobyl in the Ukraine suffered a breakdown Thursday just hours
before German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder started a visit to the former
Soviet republic to discuss subsidies to close down Chernobyl for good. A...

11) AMERICANS' ENERGY APPETITE SKYROCKETS  WASHINGTON, DC, July 7, 1999 (ENS)
- The use of energy in the United States has jumped dramatically in the last
half-century. Energy consumption increased by 194 percent from 1949 to 1998,
although the U.S. population grew only 82 percent, according to the "Annual
Energy Review" released today by the Energy Information Agency, a division...

12) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Australia accused of "sleazy backroom"
deals in UNESCO fight DATELINE: SYDNEY, July 8  BODY: Environmentalists
accused the Australian government of making "sleazy" backroom deals Thursday
in its bid to stop Kakadu National Park from being placed on a UNESCO World
Heritage in-danger list. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is expected to...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

13) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: UN warns of water contamination in
Yugoslavia DATELINE: MOSCOW, July 8  BODY: A UN team of environmentalists
warned Thursday of water contamination in Yugoslavia following the NATO
bombing of oil refineries in the northern regions of Novi Sad and Pancevo.
"We will absolutely need a large-scale project of  soil purification" to...

14) U.S. waits to see if Sharif can deliver on Kashmir By Carol Giacomo
WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - Three days after Pakistani Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif told President Bill Clinton that guerrillas who infiltrated
Indian-held areas of Kashmir would withdraw, the United States remains
unsure if it will happen. U.S. officials are encouraged that Pakistan's army...

15) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Kashmir politican says Pakistan-US talks
averted nuclear war DATELINE: ISLAMABAD, July 8  BODY: A prominent Kashmiri
political leader said Thursday that a summit between Pakistan and the US had
averted a possible nuclear war between Pakistan and India. Sardar Abdul
Qayyum, a former chief exeuctive in Pakistani Kashmir, told a news...

16) 07/07 AWSJ: Missile Scare May Tighten Japanese Rules By Norihiko
Shirouzu Staff Reporter TOKYO -- As speculation mounts that North
Korea may be planning to test launch a long-range ballistic missile
soon, a group of Japanese lawmakers is raising concerns that
Japanese-made components are playing a key role in North Korean
weapons technology. The lawmakers, who...

17) ANALYSIS-''Rogue states'' not what they used to be By Paul Taylor,
Diplomatic Editor LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Where are the rogues of
yesteryear? With Libya and Iran on their way to rehabilitation in the West
and Syria on the brink of peace negotiations with Israel, the notion of
"rogue states" -- a pariah category created by the United States -- may be...

 OCEANS 

18) Alaska wants Canada to probe fishing boat seizure ANCHORAGE, Alaska, July 7
(Reuters) Alaskan Gov. Tony Knowles Wednesday urged Canada to hold a formal
inquiry into the seizure by its Coast Guard of an Alaskan fishing vessel
last week, an act he said was illegal and unwarranted. Knowles said a public
inquiry into the seizure, and a reprimand for those responsible, was needed...

19) Mexico protesters lift Gulf oil port blockade CIUDAD DEL CARMEN,  Mexico,
July 8 (Reuters) - Fisherman alleging environmental damage by Petroleos
Mexicanos (Pemex) reached an agreement on Thursday with the oil monopoly to
end a blockade affecting transfers of staff and equipment from a Gulf port
to offshore oil platforms. "The agreement sets out that the authorities will...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

(GREENPEACE)
20) GREENPEACE WARNS ABOUT CORAL DESTRUCTION IN PACIFIC  SUVA, Fiji Islands
(July 6, 1999 - PACNEWS)---The vast majority of the central Pacific's reefs
will be dead in 40 to 70 years unless projected levels of climate change are
stopped, according to a report from the international environmental
organization Greenpeace.  The report, "Climate Change, Coral Bleaching and...

21) 07/07 AWSJ: Malaysia Keeps Haze Data Still Shrouded In Mystery By
Chen May Yee Staff Reporter   KUALA LUMPUR -- Almost two years after
much of Malaysia was enveloped by a dense smog that closed schools
and grounded planes, people here are still in the dark over whether
their long-term health has been affected.   Medical researchers
funded by the government say they have...

22) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: First Yangtze flood peak passes central
Chinese city of Wuhan DATELINE: BEIJING, July 8  BODY: This season's first
build-up of floodwater on China's Yangtze River has passed the central
industrial city of Wuhan, official media said Thursday, sending more water
towards the waterlogged eastern provinces. In Anhui, serious flooding in...

23) Inter Press Service HEADLINE: DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: DAY OF RECKONING FOR
NARMADA VALLEY TRIBALS BYLINE: Ann Ninan DATELINE: DOMKHEDI, India, Jul.8
BODY: For centuries tribal farmers in the Narmada Valley have sown maize and
pulses in the rich alluvial soil, but this year they don't know if they will
be able to reap the plentiful harvest along the river in central India....

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

24) Australia calls in US ambassador over lamb tariffs CANBERRA, July 8
Reuters - The Australia government on Thursday called in the United States
acting Ambassador to express its "absolute disgust" at the U.S. decision to
restrict lamb imports, and to warn it would go to the world trade body. We
want to make it very clear to the United States that we regard this sort of...

25) ECUADOR: GALAPAGOS ECOSYSTEM ON THE EDGE OF COLLAPSE QUITO, (Jul. 7) IPS -
Environmental mismanagement of the Galapagos  Islands in Ecuador is putting
several native species at risk of  extinction, according to a report by the
World Nature Fund and the  Nature Foundation. According to the report,
increasing economic pressures -- caused  by an annual population growth rate...

26) Times Colonist (Victoria) July 8, 1999 Final Voices A13 Companies won't
protect our forests BY Syd Haskell Forest analyst Detmar Schwichtenberg's
June 12 opinion piece argues that a third of our public land should be
privatized. Schwichtenberg claims that corporate ownership of these lands
could result in better management of B.C.'s  forests. The author suggests...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

(GREENPEACE)
27) Financial Mail (South Africa) July 9, 1999 SECTION: Economy & Business; Pg.
44 HEADLINE: 'WE DON'T LIKE NOTHIN' IF BABY MAKES A NEW GENE STALK'
SELLING BYLINE: Shada Islam, Brussels & Peter Honey, Johannesburg
BODY:  European consumers are recoiling from food genetics Producing 
sturdier, hardier and higher-yielding crops by genetic modification
is  already a billion-dollar...

28) U.S. study questions gene crop advantages-magazine LONDON, July 8 (Reuters)
- Most U.S. farmers growing genetically modified crops are getting yields no
better than those producing traditional varieties and they are using just as
much pesticide, according to research quoted by the magazine New Scientist.
In seven out of 12 combinations of crop and region examined by the U.S....

29) The Times (London) July 8, 1999 SECTION: Home news HEADLINE:  GM farms
'use more pesticides' BYLINE: Adam  Sherwin BODY: A KEY justification for
genetically  modified crops has been thrown into doubt by new American
Government research. Many farmers who have converted to GM production are
using just as much pesticide as their counterparts who have stuck with...

 OTHERS 

30) AFP: Activists urge Indonesia's donors to stop lending, blast World Bank
BODY: By Ahmad Pathoni JAKARTA, July 8 (AFP)  An activist forum on Thursday
urged donors to refuse any new loans to Indonesia at an annual meeting in
Paris later this month, and blasted the World Bank as a "loanshark." The
International Non-governmental Organizations' Forum on Indonesian...

31) ABIX: Australasian Business Intelligence July  8, 1999 Thursday SECTION:
Pg.  26 HEADLINE: Macho men fail to see wood for  the trees SOURCE: The West
Australian BYLINE: Grahame Armstrong  ABSTRACT: Men are not interested in
environmental  issues because it is not "macho" say experts. Society forces
men, who are still the main breadwinners to put careers and money ahead of...

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