Global News Headlines 09/06

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Monday, September 6, 1999
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 TOXICS 

(GREENPEACE)
1) 09/06 UN Environment Chief Sees Pollutant Pact Next Year By Robert
Evans GENEVA (Reuters) A global pact phasing out use of chemical
products which pollute air and soil and affect human health could be
ready by the end of next year, the chief of the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) said Monday. Former German environment
minister Klaus Toepfer told reporters that...

(GREENPEACE)
2) 09/06 FEATURE-Venice's beauty masks polluted dark side By Abigail
Levene VENICE, Italy (Reuters) Been in a gondola? Seen St. Mark's? 
Done the Doge's Palace? If Venice's radiant beauty is beginning to
pale on you, take a trip to the grand city's murky side. Amid glossy
black gondolas gliding through the waterways of La Serenissima, matte
gray Greenpeace dinghies are whisking...

3) 09/06  EU Likely To OK Belgian Loans To Dioxin-Affected Cos BRUSSELS
(Dow Jones) The European Union Commission is expected to approve
Tuesday a Belgian plan, agreed between the government and banks in
mid-August, to provide discounted loans for companies that suffered
from the country's dioxin crisis, a Commission spokesman said Monday.
The banks plan to lend...

4) Ottawa Citizen Sept 06, 99, FINAL SECTION: News;A11 HEADLINE:
Environmental Protection Act leaves Canadians' health at risk BYLINE: Ron
Ghitter BODY: As chairman of the Senate committee examining the Canadian
Environmental Protection Act, Bill C-32, I feel compelled to break a
tradition of silence among chairmen of Senate committees because the health...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

(GREENPEACE)
5) BBC Summary of World Broadcasts September 06, 1999, HEADLINE: Australia
called on to follow New Zealand ban on Japanese nuclear freighters SOURCE:
Source: Radio Australia, Melbourne, BODY: 4] Text of report by Radio
Australia on 3rd September Freighters carrying nuclear fuel from Europe to
Japan are reported to be off Tasmania's southeast coast. Australian Greens...

(GREENPEACE)
6) The Mirror September 6, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 7 HEADLINE: NUKE SPILL
THREAT TO IRISH SEA BYLINE: Caoimhe Young BODY: GREENPEACE fear the Irish
Sea will be flooded with nuclear waste because of the millennium bug. They
have commissioned a report that says nuclear plants are not prepared for a
New Year's eve computer disaster. Their fears are supp-orted by a grim...

7) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Workers file ten billion dollar lawsuit
in plutonium scandal DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Sept 4  BODY: Workers at a US
government uranium plant have filed a 10-billion dollar lawsuit against
three government contractors, saying employees were deliberately exposed to
deadly plutonium, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The suit filed...

8) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: N.Korea urges US to abide by promise on
supplying nuclear reactors DATELINE: SEOUL, Sept 6 BODY: North Korea on
Monday urged the United States to keep its promise to build two nuclear
reactors for the communist state in return for the mothballing of its
suspect atomic program. The pointed call came a day before the United States...

 NUCLEAR WEAPONS & MILITARY 

9) The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) September 5, 1999, SECTION: Pg. 2 HEADLINE:
Kazakhs seek help in N-test aftermath BYLINE: Hideaki Hayashi Daily Yomiuri
Staff Writer ; Yomiuri  BODY: The site of nuclear testing conducted by the
former Soviet Union, the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan is in need of
outside assistance to cope with the resulting damage to the environment and...

10) The Independent (London) September 6, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 8
HEADLINE:  NUCLEAR  PROTESTERS TO DECAMP BODY: The Greenham Common Women's
Peace Camp is to disband at the end of the year, with protesters having
decided to "move on". The announcement was made yesterday, 18 years to the
day the protest began with a 110-mile walk from Cardiff by the camp's...

 OCEANS 

(GREENPEACE)
11) National Post Sept 4, 1999 National Discovery B12 Frankenfish or salmon
saviour?: Canada has a lot at stake in the debate over whether transgenic
salmon should come to market BY Sarah Schmidt Behind the chain-link fence,
protected by an electronic alarm system and security guard, the caged fish
live out their lives in double-screened tanks, custom-made to keep them from...

12) Fisheries convention will be "first" for Pacific BYLINE: Giff Johnson
BODY: MAJURO, Sept 5 (AFP) An international fisheries meeting opening Monday
in Honolulu is  expected to make significant progress in talks on the first
conservation and management convention for the Pacific, a Marshall Islands
official  says. Were still on target for completing the convention by  June...

13) 09/06 Environmentalist Seek Ocean Ranch YARMOUTH, Mass. (AP) A Cape
Cod environmentalist is trying to promote his plan for a so-called
"ocean ranch," a $30 million proposal that weds wind power and
aquaculture to create sustainable energy and a food source. The plan
by Conservation Consortium Foundation director Brian Braginton- Smith
involves building an...

14) International Herald Tribune September 4, 1999, SECTION: News; Pg. 21
HEADLINE: Go Fishing? Not Necessarily in California; American Topics BYLINE:
Brian Knowlton; BODY: As more and more fishing fleets employ increasingly
sophisticated technologies to locate fewer and fewer fish in the oceans,
policymakers in California are contemplating a radical solution that only a...

15) THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) September 06, 1999, SECTION: Pg. 04
HEADLINE: Britain is 'failing to protect' its  wildlife BYLINE: Charles
Clover Environment Editor BODY: BRITAIN has failed to protect its endangered
harbour porpoise, as required by European law, and has created too few
reserves for other distinctive species such as the salmon and the otter, the...

16) 09/06 Whale Fight By BARRY HATTON MADALENA, Azores Islands (AP) As
tourists flock to marvel at the whales and dolphins off these
mid-Atlantic islands, an environmental dispute is brewing that
threatens to match the Azores' stormy seas. Ecologists and some tour
operators say the recent boom in whale-watching is endangering the
mammals because more and more boats are...

 ATMOSPHERE & ENERGY 

(GREENPEACE)
17) 09/06 FEATURE-Athens smog losing battle but not the war By Dina
Kyriakidou ATHENS (Reuters) - If numbers are to be trusted, Athenians
should be able to take a deep breath. The notorious air pollution
they call Nefos, which has hovered over the Greek capital for
decades, choking people and ruining the city's classical monuments,
appears to be receding. "We have had a steady...

18) The Vancouver Sun Sept 04, 1999, FINAL SECTION: News; A16 HEADLINE: Oil
spills feared in Juan de Fuca waters: One suggestion is to station a tugboat
at Neah Bay to help keep stricken ships off the shore and away from marine
ecosystems. DATELINE: SEATTLE BODY: SEATTLE -- Washington state's most
productive waters are vulnerable to oil spills because of the absence of a...

19) 09/05 Honduras Protects Forests By 'Selling' Oxygen TEGUCIGALPA,
Honduras (Reuters) - Honduras is joining other poor nations that
"sell" oxygen to industrialized countries and use the money to
protect tropical forests, in an agreement with Canada to be signed on
Sept. 15. Such deals are born from concern that developed nations
like Canada produce large amounts of carbon...

20) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Record ribbon along Dutch coast highlights
rising sea levels DATELINE: THE HAGUE, Sept 4  BODY: World Wildlife
Foundation (WWF) volunteers tied a ribbon along the Netherlands' North Sea
coast Saturday to call a stop to rising sea levels, the Dutch news agency
ANP reported. More than 3,000 volunteers unfurled a 270-kilometer (170-...

21) International Herald Tribune September 6, 1999 SECTION: News; Pg. 2
HEADLINE: Seas and Weather Vex Small Island Nations; They Will Air Concerns
at Special UN Session BYLINE: Barbara Crossette; New York Times Service
DATELINE: UNITED NATIONS, New York BODY: For more than a decade, several
dozen small island nations threatened by rising seas and increasingly...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

22) Times Colonist (Victoria) September 4, 1999 Final Capital Region B1 /
FRONT Activists want B.C. to block MacBlo takeover by U.S. giant BY Malcolm
Curtis  Environmental groups are calling for the province to block the
takeover of B.C.'s biggest forest firm by American company Weyerhaeuser.
Groups such as the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the Sierra Club...

23) THE JAKARTA POST September 4, 1999 SECTION: News HEADLINE: Only one firm
gets ecological certification BODY: JAKARTA (JP): Only one of 16 timber
companies audited by the Indonesian Ecolabeling Agency (LEI) is qualified to
receive its certification, the agency found in a pilot project conducted
since late last year. The agency's director, Mubariq Ahmad, said on Friday...

24) South China Morning Post September 6, 1999 SECTION: News; Pg. 10 HEADLINE:
Plantation killings spur defence of project BYLINE: IAN STEWART in Kuala
Lumpur  BODY: The Government has defended the commercial development of land
traditionally belonging to indigenous people after 18 Dayaks allegedly
attacked and killed four plantation workers over a territorial dispute in...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

(GREENPEACE)
25) The Independent (London) Sept 5, 1999, SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 3 HEADLINE:
ICELAND DISCOVERS THAT THERE'S PROFIT IN PURITY BYLINE: Dan Gledhill BODY:
Malcolm Walker could have been forgiven a wry smile when Marks & Spencer
declared its conversion to organic foods. It was 18 months ago that Walker,
founder, chairman and chief executive of Iceland, set the organic ball...

26) The Independent Sept 5, 1999, SECTION: COMMENT; Pg. 24 HEADLINE: LEADING
ARTICLE: POWER OF THE POCKET BODY: IT WAS only a small down-page news item.
It may even have slipped your attention entirely. And yet it was a major
victory for the power of ordinary people against the great multinational
juggernauts of profit and power. On Thursday one of America's biggest soya...

27) THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) September 06, 1999, SECTION: Pg. 07
HEADLINE: Checks on GM crops 'may be inadequate' BYLINE: Roger Highfield
Science Editor BODY: ESTABLISHED techniques used to assess the risks posed
by  genetically modified crops may be inadequate, a conference will be told
today. Andrew Chesson, of Aberdeen's Rowett Research Institute, will tell...

28) The Guardian (London) September 4, 1999 SECTION: Guardian Home Pages;
Pg. 6 HEADLINE: GM foods overtake BSE as top safety concern, says survey
BYLINE: Linus Gregoriadis BODY: Linus Gregoriadis Genetically modified foods
have overtaken BSE as the public's biggest food safety concern, according to
a survey published yesterday. A poll by Mintel has found that the number of...

 OTHERS 

29) The Independent (London) September 6, 1999, SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 15
HEADLINE: DOW JONES SET TO LAUNCH ECO-FRIENDLY STOCK INDEX BYLINE: Francesco
Guerrera BODY: INVESTORS SEEKING to put their money in "clean" firms will
from this week be given the chance to invest in the first stockmarket index
for environmentally friendly and socially aware companies. On Wednesday, Dow...

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