Subject: HEADLINES September 21 - 22, 1995

(Sept. 21) Reuter: - At the time of the Gulf War Iraqi
scientists were trying to make small nuclear warheads that
could be carried on missiles or warplanes, Iraqi defector
General Hussein Kamel Hassan told. 


(Sept. 22) Reuter: - The Geneva Disarmament Conference ended
its 1995 session amid calls to build political momentum so as
to wrap up a nuclear test ban treaty next year. The United
States urged Russia and China again to join the three other
declared nuclear weapon states (Britain, France and the United
States) in backing a "zero-yield threshold" under the pact,
thereby banning all blasts.

(Sept. 22) UPI: - Armed Russian sailors forced power plant
employees to restore electricity to a submarine base, averting
a possible reactor meltdown. The Kola power station cut off
electricity to the Murmansk naval base for not paying its
bills, but the nuclear submarines, which have been
decommissioned and are waiting to be scrapped, depend on
outside power sources to keep their still-active reactors
under control.

(Sept. 22) UPI: - Even with 50 years of hindsight, retired
Gen. Paul Tibbets said he has no regrets about piloting the
Enola Gay to drop the first atomic bomb and flatten Hiroshima
in August 1945.

(Sept. 22) Reuter: - India warned that the U.S. Senate's
approval of a US$368-million arms sale package to Pakistan
could trigger an arms race in South Asia. An amendment in the
Senate allowed transfer of advanced military equipment to
Pakistan, which was held up by sanctions imposed in 1990 when
then-president George Bush declined to certify that Pakistan
did not have nuclear weapons.

(Sept. 22) Reuter: - The International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) is considering a French request to set up a team of
experts to monitor the environment in the Mururoa area of the
South Pacific after Paris ends a series of nuclear tests.
At the same time, more than 100 nations at the annual general
conference of the IAEA adopted a resolution voicing grave
concern over the resumption of nuclear testing at a time when
a global test ban treaty was being negotiated. 

(Sept. 22) Reuter: - French President Jacques Chirac faced
head-on protests, when he attended a European Union summit on
the Spanish island of Majorca, against his policy of
nuclear-weapons testing. Greenpeace launched a maritime picket
in the picturesque bay off the hotel where EU leaders were
meeting and called for a "peace flotilla" to gather on
Saturday to express outrage at the tests.

(Sept. 22) Reuter: - The International Court of Justice
rejected an attempt by New Zealand to stop further French
nuclear tests in the South Pacific. New Zealand had tried get
the court to ban the tests by reopening a case which New
Zealand and Australia brought against French atmospheric
nuclear tests in the 1970s. The World Court, the main judicial
organ of the United Nations, ruled that it was unable to
reopen the case as that had applied only to atmospheric
testing and not to underground tests.

(Sept. 22) UPI / Reuter: - A senior French politician said
that the second, more powerful test in the series of French
nuclear tests in the South Pacific will be staged within 10
days. But he said he was speaking personally. 
Greenpeace, meanwhile, said it believes the next test would
take place on the Fangataufa Atoll

(Sept. 22) Reuter: - Former military ruler Gen. Augusto
Pinochet criticized Chile's current government for sticking
their noses into French internal affairs by protesting
France's nuclear tests.

(Sept. 22) Reuter: - France has threatened to cancel a uranium
contract worth US$9 million a year if Australian trade unions
block uranium supplies in protest over French nuclear testing.
Unions have said they will delay uranium shipments, but have
stopped short of banning uranium supplies.
Australia rejected the threat, saying it was a self-serving
ploy designed to provoke Australia, and a try to push
Australia to break the long-term contract, so that France can
buy the uranium cheaper.