Global News Headlines 01/04

[greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org]

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Greenpeace Daily Environmental News Headlines
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Tuesday, January 4, 2000
Greenbase Unit
Greenpeace International
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 ATMOSPHERE 

1) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Greece to ban traffic 
around Acropolis DATELINE: ATHENS, Jan 4 BODY: Greece 
started work Tuesday on a vast archeological park which is 
to turn the Acropolis and surrounding areas into a 
traffic-free pedestrian zone by 2001. The four billion 
drachma (11.3 million euro, dollar) project is to sprawl ...

2) The Gazette (Montreal) January 4, 2000, FINAL SECTION: 
Editorial / Op-ed; B3 HEADLINE: Let's hope this idea 
doesn't take root: People, not trees, are responsible for 
cleaning up environment BYLINE: HARRY STERLING BODY: Who 
but Canadian politicians could come up with a bizarre 
proposal making this nation's forests responsible for ...

3) The Ottawa Citizen January 4, 2000, FINAL SECTION: News; 
A1 / Front HEADLINE: Weather-disaster costs going through 
the roof: ' Climate change is almost certainly a factor,' 
federal government report warns BYLINE: Andrew Duffy BODY: 
Financial losses from severe weather events in Canada have 
increased at 10 times the rate of the country's economic ...

 ENERGY 

4) AP Worldstream January 4, 2000 HEADLINE: German trucking 
industry fights higher energy tax DATELINE: BERLIN BODY: 
Germany's trucking industry said Tuesday it will appeal to 
the constitutional court to overturn a rise in energy taxes 
the truckers say will hurt business. The Jan. 1 measure has 
increased prices at the fuel pump by 7 pfennigs (3.5 ...

5) AP Worldstream January 4, 2000; HEADLINE: Cleanup crews 
combat Angolan oil spill DATELINE: LUANDA, Angola BODY: 
Cleanup crews are attempting to contain a spill from an oil 
rig off the Angolan coast, Oil Minister Botelho de 
Vasconcelos said Tuesday. Vasconcelos declined to give 
information about the size of the slick or other details. ...

6) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Malaysians protest against 
controversial dam project DATELINE: KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 
BODY: Dozens of activists protested Tuesday against a 
planned dam in Malaysia's Selangor state which they say 
will destroy a beauty spot and displace hundreds of people. 
About 40 protesters from SOS Selangor gathered outside the ...

7) The New York Times January 4, 2000, Late Edition - Final 
SECTION: C; Page 1; Column 4; Business/Financial Desk 
HEADLINE: From the Pipeline To the Courtroom; Gap on BP 
Amoco-ARCO Deal Is Wide BYLINE: By STEPHEN LABATON 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 BODY: Senators and governors 
from the West Coast and Alaska, as well as oil executives ...

8) Financial Times Online January 4 2000 World News / 
Asia-Pacific China speeds up pipeline construction By James 
Kynge in Beijing China has brought forward the 
construction of the first large natural gas pipeline from 
the north-west in an effort to accelerate development in 
the impoverished region and bring relief to the world's ...

 FORESTS 

9) QLD: Tree bridges for rare rainforest possums BODY: 
BRISBANE, Jan 4 AAP - Tree top bridges may be built in north
Queensland rainforests to help rare possums cross man-made 
breaks in their natural habitat. Researchers have found road
and powerline clearings cut off the movement of the animals 
that live in the wet tropical rainforests tree tops. ...

 GENETIC ENGINEERING 

10) 01/03 Natural-Food Chains Seek GMO-Free Assurance >OATS  WFMI By J.C.
Conklin DALLAS (Dow Jones)--Wild Oats Markets  Inc. (OATS) and Whole
Foods Market Inc. (WFMI) are finding  it difficult to offer products
without genetically modified  ingredients. Both natural-food
supermarket chains say they  are trying to rid their private-label
products of ...

11) 01/03 FOCUS-Monsanto pays Delta $81 million breakup fee By  Emily
Kaiser CHICAGO (Reuters) - Delta and Pine Land Co. on  Monday said
its would-be merger partner Monsanto Co. paid  it an $81 million
termination fee and lifted a restriction  on the cotton seed company
talking to potential suitors.  Monsanto, which had agreed to buy
Delta in a deal valued ...

12) USA TODAY January 4, 2000, FIRST EDITION SECTION: NEWS; 
Pg. 1A HEADLINE: Retailers dropping <EL,2>bio-foods BYLINE: 
James Cox BODY: The USA's two largest natural foods 
retailers are stripping their shelves of many genetically 
engineered foods, prompting manufacturers and supermarkets 
to keep an eye out for a biotech backlash among consumers. ...

(GREENPEACE)
13) South China Morning Post Tuesday, January 4, 2000 
Greenpeace targets chocolate bar Crunch time: an employee 
tries to clear Nestle products from the shelves to stop 
Greenpeace members, including activist Lo Sze-ping 
(centre), sticking labels on them. Picture by Antony Dickson
ALEX LO Greenpeace activists yesterday raided a North ...

14) The Globe & Mail Online 'Contaminated' farm seed sold in 
genetic mixup Incident raises questions about Ottawa's 
controls HEATHER SCOFFIELD Parliamentary Bureau Tuesday, 
January 4, 2000 Ottawa -- The federal government 
unwittingly allowed the sale of genetically modified canola 
seeds in 1997 that were "seriously contaminated," according ...

 MILITARY 

(GREENPEACE)
15) The Christian Science Monitor January 4, 2000, SECTION: 
WORLD; Pg. 7 HEADLINE: Will Congress pay $250 million for 
Bikini? BYLINE: Colin Woodard, Special to The Christian 
Science Monitor DATELINE: MAJURO, MARSHALL ISLANDS 
HIGHLIGHT: Evacuated for US nuclear tests, residents of 
Bikini, Rongelap atolls BODY: Early one morning 45 years ...

16) WRAPUP-Y2K bug avoids London, n-plant has glitch By 
Jonathan Oatis NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The Y2K computer 
bug stayed away from financial markets as London and Japan 
rejoined the working world Tuesday after New Year's breaks, 
but the techno-pest caused a minor problem at a U.S. 
nuclear weapons plant. From Bangkok to Reykjavik, stock ...

17) 01/04 1620 U.S. Nuclear Weapons Plant Still Has Y2K Glitch 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A year 2000 computer glitch at a  U.S. Energy
Department nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee  remains unfixed, but
workers have been able to track  nuclear material at the site using
an alternative system, a  department official said on Tuesday. John
Gilligan, who ...

 NUCLEAR POWER 

18) BRAZIL WILL START ENRICHING URANIUM IN 2001 Rio de 
Janeiro, Jan 03, 2000 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Brazil in 2001 
will begin enriching uranium for nuclear fuel at a plant to 
be built in Rio de Janeiro state, the newspaper O Globo 
reported on Monday. Brazilian Nuclear Industries (INB) 
President Roberto Nogueira da Franca said that within 18 ...

19) OTC 01/03 1621 Spanish Nuclear Reactors On The Fritz 
12/31/99 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1999 DEC 31 (Newsbytes) --  By David
McGuire, Newsbytes. Spanish officials have  confirmed that two of
that nation's nine nuclear reactors  are experiencing Y2K-related
glitches, Senate Y2K Committee  staffer Don Meyer told Newsbytes
earlier tonight. While ...

20) Agence France Presse HEADLINE: Nuclear body reports 16 
minor incidents world-wide DATELINE: BRUSSELS, Jan 4 BODY: 
The European atomic forum FORATOM on Tuesday reported a 
total of 16 minor technical problems linked to computer 
systems in nuclear power stations around the world over the 
new year period. A FORATOM statement said inquiries were ...

 OCEANS 

21) Vic: Search narrows for penguin killer ship BODY: 
MELBOURNE, Jan 4 AAP - Marine and environmental authorities 
today narrowed the search for the ship responsible for an 
oil spill which killed nine penguins. A flock of breeding 
sea birds also remained under threat after the oil spill 
flowed into Westernport Bay and washed ashore at Phillip ...

22) The San Francisco Chronicle JANUARY 4, 2000, FINAL EDITION 
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A15 HEADLINE: Minor Oil Slicks Can Be 
Lethal to Marine Birds, Scientists Say BYLINE: Glen Martin, 
Chronicle Staff Writer DATELINE: Regional BODY: Scientists 
now think that small oil spills may damage marine bird 
populations to a much greater degree than previously ...

23) 01/03/00 Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore in Fla.  FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla.
(AP) _ Scientists are trying to  learn why dead dolphins are washing
up on northwest Florida  shores. Over the weekend, three dolphin
carcasses a day  washed ashore and over the last month, the average
has been  about one daily. Most were full-grown, had bellies full of ...

 OZONE 

24) Reuters World bank, Mexico invest $1 mln to protect ozone 
MEXICO: January 4, 2000 MEXICO CITY - Mexico, in a joint 
project with the World Bank, said it would invest $1 
million in refrigeration technology that conserves 
electricity and does not damage the ozone, a move aimed at 
reducing air pollution in one of the world's most ...

 TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGY 

25) The Times (London) January 4, 2000, SECTION: Home news 
HEADLINE: Some butterflies face extinction as flowers vanish
BYLINE: John Vincent BODY: MANY of Britain's butterflies 
are in danger of becoming extinct in the first years of the 
new millennium, an expert predicted yesterday. Spectacular 
species could soon become a distant memory because changes ...

 TOXICS 

26) The New York Times January 4, 2000, Late Edition - Final 
SECTION: Section F; Page 12; Column 1; Health & Fitness 
HEADLINE: In the Backyard, a Potent Source of Pollution 
BYLINE: By ROBERT A. SAAR BODY: Household trash burned in 
one backyard barrel may release more dioxins, furans, and 
other chlorine -containing pollutants to the air than tons ...

27) BBC Online Sci/Tech 3 January, 2000 Organic food 'proven' 
healthier The research will be unveiled in the UK on 
Saturday Researchers say there is now firm evidence that 
organically-grown produce is healthier to eat than 
conventional crops. The Soil Association, the group which 
campaigns for organic farming, has told BBC Radio 4's ...

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