Global News Headlines 07/20

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Tuesday, July 20, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

(GREENPEACE)
1) Spain sits on the fence over soft PVC toys ENDS Daily - 19/07/99 The
Spanish government is refusing to bow to conflicting pressures from industry
and environmental groups to take a clear stand on future regulation of the
use of phthalate softeners in children's PVC toys.  Both Spanish toy
manufacturers and Greenpeace have been lobbying for some kind of statement f...

(GREENPEACE)
2) HONG KONG STANDARD July 19, 1999 HEADLINE: Breast milk probe plea after
dioxin scare, HONG KONG STANDARD BYLINE: Tessi Cruz BODY: THE Department of
Health is being urged to conduct a study of breast milk  of Hong Kong
mothers after reports from Britain that babies there are exposed to
''hormone-disrupting'' chemicals. Greenpeace executive director Ho  Wai-chi...

3) Firms to pay $7.1 million more in Love Canal case WASHINGTON, July 19
(Reuters) - Occidental Chemical Corp. and Olin Corp. have reached a $7.1
million settlement in the last of four cases in the Love Canal area of
Niagara Falls, New York, the site of one of the most famous U.S. toxic waste
disasters. The companies will reimburse the federal government $6 million in...

4) PANAMA-ENVIRONMENT: DEBATE ON DECONTAMINATING...PANAMA CITY, (Jul. 17)IPS
- Panama is mulling over its options to force the United States to
decontaminate the inter-oceanic canal area, which passes to Panamanian
control on Dec. 31. Some 3,800 hectares of land along the banks of the
Panama Canal were used for 85 years by the United States Armed Forces to...

5) REUTERS Mexico steps up campaign against lead-poisoning MEXICO: July 20,
1999 MEXICO  CITY - Mexico said it has stepped up a campaign to slash
the incidence of lead poisoning in six states after one of the 
world's biggest silver producers was blamed for an epidemic of lead
poisoning.  Mexican silver miner Penoles has been forced to cut
output and clean up the...

6) Dutch say dioxin-suspect animal feed is safe AMSTERDAM, July 20 (Reuters)
The Dutch Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday the first tests of animal
feed thought to be contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin from a German
mineral additive came out negative. A special clay imported from Germany to
add minerals to feed showed high levels of dioxin, but it was used it such...

7) Dioxin scare to prompt strict EU animal feed rules BRUSSELS, July 19
(Reuters) - The European Commission has drawn up tighter rules on what can
be put into animal feed in the wake of the dioxin food scare in Belgium, EU
officials said on Monday. Existing labelling rules (on animal feed) will be
reviewed and all compound feed manufacturers will have to be approved,"...

8) The Ottawa Citizen July 20, 1999, FINAL SECTION: News; A5 HEADLINE: Be
kind to bugs, group pleads BYLINE: Andrew Duffy BODY: The World Wildlife
Federation wants Canadians to get warm and fuzzy about bugs.  The
environmental group, best known for its efforts to save endangered species
like panda bears, has launched a campaign to save ''good insects,'' like...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

(GREENPEACE)
9) 07/20 DRACONIAN' BAN ON GREENPEACE SHIP SLAMMED By Chris Hamilton
Political Staff, PA News The Government was today accused of being
"draconian and anti-democratic" after banning a Greenpeace protest
ship from UK waters. The vessel is shadowing a shipment of nuclear
material which left for Japan from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria
yesterday.  An injunction sought by the...

(GREENPEACE)
10) French police reinforced for nuclear ship arrival RENNES, France, July  20
(Reuters) - Riot police reinforcements arrived in the French Channel port of
Cherbourg on Tuesday ahead of the docking of the British ship Pacific Teal
to load nuclear fuel for a controversial sailing to Japan. Authorities told
reporters a 70-man contingent of para-military gendarmes as well as teams of...

11) Antinuclear groups protest MOX shipments TOKYO, July 20 (Kyodo) About 30
people belonging to four citizens groups protesting the use of nuclear power
gathered Tuesday in Tokyo to  oppose the shipment of mixed oxide (MOX)
fuel to Japan. Two ships carrying MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and
plutonium from  spent nuclear fuel, left an English port Monday bound for...

12) Deutsche Presse-Agentur July 20, 1999 HEADLINE: NEWS FEATURE: Nuclear
plant leaks hardly make the headlines in Japan BYLINE: Lars Nicolaysen, dpa
DATELINE: Tokyo BODY: To suffer two nuclear power plant accidents within a
week could be expected to cause popular outrage and screaming newspaper
headlines in most countries - but not Japan. Even though the earthquake-...

13) 07/20 China-Nuclear Plant BEIJING (AP) A Chinese nuclear power plant
should be back in service by the end of the year after being shut
down for repairs, according to Chinese and American officials. The
Qinshan nuclear plant, one of two in China, was shut down a year ago
after operators discovered some problems during refueling. After
first trying to fix the damage themselves,...

14) Latest Finnish delicacy nuclear-boosted crayfish HELSINKI, July 20
(Reuters) Officials at a Finnish nuclear power plant say they have tripled
the growth of crayfish by incubating them in waters warmed by heat absorbed
by its cooling system --without affected the taste of the Nordic delicacy.
Environmental protection manager Reijo Sundell at power group Teollisuuden...

15) 07/20 World's nuke plants on track for Year 2000 bug- UN LONDON
(Reuters) - The United Nations energy watchdog said Tuesday the
world's nuclear power stations were on track to tackle the millennium
computer bug. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said
reviews of the plants' Year 2000 programs revealed "vulnerabilities"
when systems controlling data and...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

16) 07/20 Russia Nuke Fleet Needs Y2K Funds OSLO, Norway (AP) Russia's
Northern Fleet, which bristles with nuclear weapons, lacks funds to
deal with the "millennium bug" that could cause havoc with its
computers, a Norwegian group warned Tuesday. The Oslo-based Bellona
environmental group said the fleet's warning systems are especially
vulnerable to the Y2K problem, which...

17) U.S. prods Russia on Y2K missile concerns By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON,  July 20
(Reuters) - The United States has again asked Russia to join in minimising
the risk of a missile-launch misunderstanding at the height of Year 2000
computer uncertainties, the U.S. Defence Department said on Tuesday. Moscow,
which froze contacts in late March over U.S.-led NATO bombing of an ally,...

18) 07/20 Russian Captain Cleared of Espionage By ANATOLY MEDETSKY
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) A Russian Navy captain who blew the whistle
on nuclear-waste dumping by the Pacific Fleet was cleared today of
treason and espionage charges. The Pacific Fleet military court found
Capt. Grigory Pasko innocent of the charges, saying the information
that he had passed on...

19) 07/20 Russia-Power Cutoff MOSCOW (AP) An unpaid electricity bill led
to the temporary loss of radar in Russia's Far East, officials said
Tuesday. The cutoff temporarily incapacitated military radars in the
Khabarovsk region on the border with China, local air defense chief
Anatoly Nogovitsyn said. Power was also cut intermittently for the
past three days to other regional...

20) Russia denies Norway report of chemical arms dump MOSCOW, July 20
(Reuters) Russia, answering a Norwegian report that it has a secret chemical
weapons dump in its northeast, said on Tuesday it had informed international
organisations of all such stores and had no others. It listed the areas were
it said it had seven chemical bases, none of which as in the northeast of...

 OCEANS 

21) SEA TURTLES MIGRATE ACROSS PACIFIC OCEAN YAKUSHIMA, Southern Island, Japan,
July 19, 1999 (ENS) - Endangered loggerhead sea turtles migrate across the
Pacific Ocean from Japan to Mexico and back to Japan, an Earthwatch
sponsored researcher has now shown conclusively for the first time. A
flipper tag recovered in Baja, Mexico, from a loggerhead sea turtle tagged...

22) THE SAIGON TIMES DAILY July  20, 1999 SECTION: News HEADLINE: Vietnam-
Tokio Marine funds mangrove cultivation BODY: SGT-HANOI) The Tokio Marine
and Fire Insurance Co. Ltd. of Japan has officially launched a program to
fund for the cultivation of 1,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam's coastal
areas. This is part of the company's project to assist Vietnam, Thailand,...

23) 07/20 Philippine Ship Sinks Chinese Boat By OLIVER TEVES MANILA,
Philippines (AP) -- A Philippine naval ship collided with and sank a
Chinese fishing boat in a confrontation in disputed waters in the
South China Sea, Philippine officials said today. Government
officials said they were investigating Monday's confrontation, in
which a Philippine patrol ship...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

(GREENPEACE)
24) 07/20  DJ Greenpeace Stops Australian Shale Oil Plant Ops Again
CANBERRA (Dow Jones)--Greenpeace environment activists early
Wednesday re-entered the Stuart shale oil demonstration plant at
Gladstone, in Australia's Queensland state, stopping testing for a
second time this week. Three activists now occupy a 60-meter-high
emissions tower at the plant, Greenpeace said in a...

(GREENPEACE)
25) Daily Star Online (Lebanon) 20/07/99, Oil by-products leaking from
Baddawi' Mosbah Ali Daily Star correspondent Oil derivatives at the Baddawi
refinery  are seeping into the ground because of the old reservoirs at the
refinery,  which has been out of order for almost 16 years but is still
being used for storage by private oil firms.  The seaside utility is...

26) 07/20 DJ Senate Tax Bill Would Extend Renewable Energy Credit
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Senate Finance Committee began work
Tuesday on an omnibus tax bill that would extend and modify the tax
credit for electricity produced from wind and "closed- loop biomass."
The tax credit designed to promote electricity production from
non-polluting sources expired July 1....

27) The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) July 20, 1999 SECTION: Pg. 13 HEADLINE: Oceans
absorb, discharge CO2 BYLINE: Hiroshi Masumitsu Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
; Yomiuri BODY: Long-term observations in the northwestern Pacific Ocean by
the Meteorological Agency have revealed that the ocean absorbs carbon
dioxide in subtropical and temperate areas but discharges the gas in...

28) ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 19, 1999 WARMING OCEANS LEAD TO
DISEASE EPIDEMICS A U.S. team of infectious disease and earth scientists has
found a link between ocean warming and outbreaks of disease in East Africa.
As reported in the June 16 issue of the journal "Science," rising ocean
temperatures increase rain and vegetation, allowing disease carrying...

29) The Times (London) July 20, 1999 SECTION: Home news HEADLINE: Ganges
glacier 'melting fast' BYLINE: Nick  Nuttall, environment correspondent
BODY: HIMALAYAN glaciers could vanish within 40 years because of global
warming, according to a research study. The findings, to be disclosed at an
international meeting that opened yesterday at Birmingham University, will...

30) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: EU parliament set to open -- after impromptu
solar- heated breakfast DATELINE: STRASBOURG, France, July 20  BODY: The
newly-elected European Parliament, the most powerful in Europe's history,
prepared for its first session here Tuesday after an impromptu solar-heated
breakfast offered on the forecourt by the  ecological  Greens party to make...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY >

31) QLD: Loggers come to town for protest BYLINE: By Rosemary Desmond and
Barbara Adam  BODY:  FORESTS  QLD NIGHTLEAD BRISBANE, July 20 AAP -  An
estimated 4,000 timber town workers and their families came to Brisbane
today, angry at a possible state government ban on the logging  of native
forests. In a peaceful protest that organisers said had been planned for...

32) SOUTH AFRICAN RHINO POACHER JAILED SKUKUZA, South Africa, July 19, 1999
(ENS) - A rhino poacher who confessed to having killed a female and her calf
in Kruger National Park will serve 10 years in jail. Shalat Khosa was found
guilty and sentenced to an effective 10 year jail term with no fine option
by Magistrate Pienaar at Skukuza on Wednesday....

33) The Times (London) July 20, 1999 SECTION: Overseas news HEADLINE: Row
over Franco-Spanish water pipeline BYLINE: Adam Sage in Paris BODY:
SCIENTISTS and  environmentalists are at odds over plans to build Europe's
first cross-border aqueduct, taking water from southern France to Catalonia
in Spain. Catalan water authorities are pressing for the 125-mile steel...

34) U.S., French farm chiefs in heated food fight By Barbara Hagenbaugh
WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) A transatlantic battle over hormone-treated
beef escalated on Tuesday with the United States blasting as "intemperate
and insulting" comments by the French that America has the "worst food in
the world." Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the "inflammatory...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

35) FEATURE - Campaign against GM crops gains momentum By Peter Blackburn
WENDY, England, July 21 (Reuters) - Last weekend's destruction of one of
Britain's largest trial crops of oilseed rape, genetically modified to
resist weedkiller, was the latest in an escalating campaign to stop the new
technology. About 100 protestors, disguised by face masks and dressed  in...

 OTHERS 

36) Decatur, Ill., Soybean Pioneer to Launch McDonald's Veggie Burger By Clare
Howard, Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.  Jul. 20--DECATUR, Ill.--From chilled
cafe latte to sausage and Danish, the newest developments from Archer
Daniels Midland Co. taste divine. Now the company is ramping up the pace and
is poised to bring Americans food at their favorite fast-food restaurant....

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