Global News Headlines 07/23

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Friday, July 23, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

1) 07/23 Yugoslavia-Pancevo Pollution by MISHA SAVIC PANCEVO, Yugoslavia
(AP) The grass is bleached to a scary pale gray and little Ana has
trouble breathing when she plays in the park, weeks after NATO
wreaked environmental havoc by bombing key industrial sites. Pancevo,
an industrial town 5 miles northeast of Belgrade, was the town worst
hit during the air raids, and...

2) 07/23 FOCUS-Belgium says food crisis wider than thought By Gillian
Handyside BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
admitted Friday 233 pig farms possibly contaminated with the
cancer-causing chemical dioxin had escaped the authorities' net,
provoking a new food scare in Belgium. Verhofstadt said the
government was trying to find out  whether any...

3) New dioxin fear in Belgium as PCBs found in pigs By Leslie Adler
BRUSSELS, July 23 (Reuters) - Belgium faced renewed fears over
dioxin-tainted food on Friday with the discovery that contaminated animal
feed may have been delivered to as many as 200 pig farms last February and
March. Health Minister Magda Aelvoet said she ordered the 200 farms to  be...

4) The Toronto Star July 23, 1999, Edition 1 SECTION: BUSINESS HEADLINE:
FIRMS OPPOSE CITY WASTE CURBS BYLINE: Dana  Flavelle BODY: Some Toronto
firms are fighting the city's plans to curb the types and amounts of
hazardous wastes they can flush down the public sewer system, saying it will
cost money and jobs. In a strongly worded letter to city councillors, the...

5) The Vancouver Sun July  23, 1999, FINAL SECTION: News; A3 HEADLINE:
Military to probe claims of coverup: The Defence Department is accused of
trying to 'whitewash' the loss of letters on  soldiers possibly exposed to
toxic substances. DATELINE: OTTAWA BODY:  OTTAWA -- The Canadian Forces was
accused Thursday of engineering a Somalia-style coverup in the disappearance...

6) South China Morning Post July  23, 1999 SECTION: News; Pg. 4 HEADLINE:
Chemical factory 'too dangerous' Tsing Yi residents urge closure BYLINE:
AGNES LAM  BODY: Tsing Yi residents have demanded closure of a chemical
factory after the Government revealed it did not know why dioxin emissions
double the permitted safety level had been released. Tsing Yi Chemical...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

(GREENPEACE)
7) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: South Africa warns nuclear ships out of its
waters DATELINE: PRETORIA, July 23  BODY: South Africa demanded Friday that
two British ships carrying nuclear fuel to Japan around its Cape of Good
Hope steer clear of the country's territorial waters and exclusive economic
zone. Deputy  Environmental  Affairs Minister Joyce  Mabudafhasi said in a...

(GREENPEACE)
8) 07/23 Greenpeace says UK stifling nuke shipment protest By John
O'Callaghan LONDON (Reuters) Greenpeace said Friday that Britain was
trying to stifle the environmental group's protests against a
plutonium shipment to Japan and accused British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
(BNFL) of trying to put it out of business. Not allowing Greenpeace
to enter British waters is a very...

(GREENPEACE)
9) NZ unhappy about nuclear cargo route via Pacific WELLINGTON, July 23
(Reuters) - New Zealand repeated on Friday its opposition to the shipment of
nuclear fuel via the southwest Pacific Ocean to Japan, and said it was
making formal complaints to Britain, France and Japan. The government has
made diplomatic representations in London, Paris and Tokyo to underline our...

(GREENPEACE)
10) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Greenpeace makes legal moves against assets
freeze DATELINE: AMSTERDAM, July 23  BODY: Greenpeace will launch summary
proceedings against British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), after a Dutch
court granted the company's request to freeze assets of Greenpeace
International, Greenpeace said Friday. Greenpeace is going to apply to the...

11) The Toronto Sun July 23, 1999 Final News 30 VILLAGE DECLARED  OK; STUDY OF
NUKE WASTE SITE BY BY JAMES WALLACE, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU The village of
Deloro northeast of Peterborough, for decades a dumping ground for nuclear
waste, has received a clean bill of health from Ontario's environment
ministry.  Nuclear waste from Eldorado Nuclear's uranium- enriching plant in...

12) Japan Economic Newswire HEADLINE: Pacific leaders express concern over
MOX shipment DATELINE: SYDNEY, July 23 Kyodo  BODY: The South Pacific Forum
(SPF) secretariat has expressed concern about the two ships carrying nuclear
fuel through the Pacific on their way to Japan from Europe, Australian
Broadcasting Corp. radio reported Friday. The SPF Secretariat, representing...

13) 07/23 Finnish PM hopeful about Ukraine reactor funds By Christina
Ling KIEV (Reuters) - Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen said
Friday he was optimistic Ukraine would win international funds to
build new power stations in return for shutting down its troubled
Chernobyl nuclear plant. The West has been anxious to get the plant
closed since its fourth reactor exploded...

14) AP Worldstream July 23, 1999 HEADLINE: Russian officer arrested trying to
smuggle radioactive substance DATELINE: MOSCOW  BODY: Customs police in
Kazakstan arrested a Russian military officer who was allegedly trying to
smuggle a small amount of nuclear fuel to Uzbekistan,  a news report said
Friday. Capt. Alexei Konkov, who served at  Kazakstan's Baikonur cosmodrome,...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

15) Japan Economic Newswire HEADLINE: Obuchi urges China, Russia, U.S. to
ratify CTBT DATELINE: TOKYO, July 23 Kyodo  BODY: Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi has sent letters urging Chinese, Russian and U.S. leaders to promptly
ratify an international treaty banning nuclear weapons testing, the Foreign
Ministry said Friday. Obuchi made the requests ahead of an international...

16) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: NATO-Russia resume ties after break over
Kosovo BYLINE: Allen Nacheman DATELINE: BRUSSELS, July 23  BODY: NATO and
Russia, never the best of friends, resumed cordial relations on Friday after
a tense four-month hiatus over the Kosovo crisis, agreeing to work together
on the long task of rebuilding the war-torn Yugoslav province. "NATO and...

 OCEANS 

17) Maryland probes second major fish kill in month BALTIMORE, July 23
(Reuters) - Maryland authorities are trying to figure out what caused at
least 500,000 fish to die along two Chesapeake Bay tributaries in the second
major fish kill in the region in under a month, officials said Friday. Water
samples from the Pocomoke River and its Eastern Shore Virginia tributary...

18) BANGKOK POST July 23 SECTION: News HEADLINE: Commentary- Hurry while
stocks last BODY: Wasant Techawongtham There is calm in the southern seas,
but it's a calm before the storm. Faced with a precipitous drop in their
catch, thousands of small anchovy fishermen decided it was not worth going
out to sea while larger trawlers with strong floodlights hogged up the fish...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

19) DEVELOPMENT: NATURAL DISASTERS TAKE HEAVY TOLL UNITED NATIONS, (Jul. 22)
IPS - Natural disasters in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean
last year caused economic losses in developing countries amounting to $90
billion, according to the  United Nations. The losses incurred in 1998
contrasted sharply with the previous  year when natural calamities --...

20) India plans measures to boost wind power projects NEW DELHI, July 23
(Reuters) - India is working on new support measures to reverse a decline in
private sector investment in wind power projects, a government official said
on Friday. Private sector participation in India's wind power industry took
off in 1992 but then fell sharply from mid-1996 due to the imposition of new...

21) BRAZIL TO SPEND US$25 BILLION ON RENEWABLE ENERGY  BRASILIA, Brazil, July
22, 1999 (ENS) - The government of Brazil will invest US$25 billion
to provide renewable energy electricity to people who are not
connected to the power grid.  The national program for developing
renewable energy services in rural areas was identified last year as
a government priority for the...

22) ENS AMERISCAN: JULY 22, 1999 WESTERN HEMISPHERE ENERGY MEETING WILL LOOK AT
GREEN POWER  Representatives from 31 western hemisphere countries and more
than 350 private sector representatives will attend a three day meeting next
week to discuss energy use in the western hemisphere. The Hemispheric Energy
Ministers Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana is the fourth since the 1994...

23) The Economist July 24, 1999, U.S. Edition HEADLINE: Stepping on the gas
HIGHLIGHT: After many false starts, hydrogen power is at last in sight of
commercial viability BODY: MENTION hydrogen energy and the reaction can be
wild. Talk of fleets of buses powered by fuel cells produces jibes about
"rolling hydrogen bombs". And people bring up the Hindenburg, a zeppelin...

24) The Economist July  24, 1999, U.S. Edition HEADLINE: Fuel cells meet big
business DATELINE: reykjavik  HIGHLIGHT: A  device that has been a
technological curiosity for a century and a half has  suddenly become the
centre of attention  BODY: THE stone age did not end because the world ran
out of stones, and the oil age will not end because we run out of oil." Thus...

25) EU Commission warns Germany on aid for wind power BRUSSELS, July 23
(Reuters) - The European Commission has warned Germany that it might have to
abolish or revamp financial support for energy produced from wind power, a
Commission spokesman said on Friday. We have opened the state aid procedure
to look into subsidies windmill operators receive from the German state by...

26) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Eight die, 350,000 evacuated in China floods
DATELINE: BEIJING, July 23 BODY: Eight people died in torrential  floods
following rains in southwestern China and elsewhere some 350,000 people
living near "dangerous dykes" have been evacuated to safety, official media
reported Friday. The floods in Sichuan cut power supplies,...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

27) AP Worldstream July 23, 1999 HEADLINE: Brush fires on the rise in
Indonesia DATELINE: SINGAPORE BODY: Brush fires are on the rise on the
Indonesian island of Sumatra this week, scientists monitoring satellite
photos from Singapore said Friday. ''There has been some  increase quite an
increase in the number of hot spots in central Sumatra''  since Monday,...

28) QLD: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs or Trees, Trees, Trees? BYLINE: Rosemary Desmond
and Paul Reid  BODY: NEWSCOPE QLD BRISBANE, July 23 AAP - To timber workers,
it's all about jobs, jobs, jobs. To environmentalists it's the last chance
in a generation to wean the $2 billion industry in southeast Queensland off
its diet of native  forests. To the Beattie Labor government, the draft...

29) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Forests burn in France's Van Gogh country
DATELINE: MARSEILLE, France, July 23 BODY: More than a thousand firefighters
backed by 270 trucks and 10 water bombers were fighting a massive forest
fire in southeastern France Friday, 24 hours after the blaze began.
Emergency services said the blaze had already ravaged 1,500 hectares (3,700...

30) Times Colonist (Victoria) July 23, 1999 Final Capital Region D4 Logging
road approval draws Clayoquot blockade threat BY Susan Danard, Times
Colonist Staff  Blockades could return to Clayoquot Sound this summer,
environmentalists warn.  Friends of Clayoquot Sound are unhappy with a
ruling by the Forest Practices Board that approves the construction of a...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

31) The Guardian (London) July 23, 1999 SECTION: The Guardian Home Page; Pg.
5 HEADLINE: Welsh MPs urge GM crop free zone; Assembly parties unite
to display environmental independence BODY: Geoffrey Gibbs Powerful
figures from the Welsh political establishment are backing calls for
the country's national assembly to declare Wales a zone free of GM
crops. The move, which...

32) THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) July 23, 1999, SECTION: Pg. 12 HEADLINE:
Tories call for clearer food labels BYLINE: David Brown Agriculture Editor
BODY: THE Conservatives yesterday demanded tough new food labelling
regulations to show whether major ingredients in supermarket products were
produced in Britain or abroad.  Customers were entitled to know if they were...

33) 07/23 GM FARM TRIALS DEFENDED By Amanda Brown, Environment
Correspondent, PA News The Government today defended its decision to 
carry out wide scale planting of genetically modified crops - after
reports that a new Cabinet Office GM communications unit has been set
up. Scientists and experts were explaining details of the farm trials
at a special seminar in London,...

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