Subject: Headlines 4 December

4 Dec. 1995 (UPI) -- Romanian authorities refused to release
two Bulgarian ships seized for trespassing Romania's waters
with a nuclear load for the Bulgarian Kozlodui nuclear
reactor. According to the Romanian nuclear control commission
Bulgaria had violated both Romanian and international laws by
"smuggling" the load through the Romanian waters of the Danube
River while exposing the Romanian population to a great danger
of radiation.


4 Dec. 1995 (UPI) -- A Philippine legislator urged the
government to wait on joining a regional nuclear-free zone
treaty, saying the move might affect the country's defense
ties with the United States. Senator Enrile said the treaty
might constrain the U.S. from helping in cases of foreign
aggression "since it may prohibit their nuclear-powered ships
from entering Philippine seas." Manila and Washington signed a
bilateral defense pact in 1951, agreeing to assist each other
in cases of war.


4 Dec. 1995 (UPI) -- Deputies proceeded Monday with measures
to keep teenagers out of five old Titan I missile silos, where
they go to explore a rusty and dangerous maze of tunnels, some
a quarter-mile long. Once inside some engage in animal
sacrifice and other cult rituals, play Dungeons and Dragons,
or set bonfires in huge fuel tanks that could blow them to
bits, deputies said. Most of them just get drunk or take
drugs.


4 Dec. 1995 (Reuter) - Romania late on Monday released a barge
carrying nuclear fuel from Ukraine to the Kozloduy nuclear
plant in Bulgaria, held for five days because it apparently
lacked transit permits. The cargo was stopped at the Danube
port of Cernavoda about 200 km (125 miles) east of Bucharest.
Romania said it carried 106 tonnes of uranium U-238 and U-235
nuclear fuel from Ukraine for Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear
plant.


4 Dec. 1995 (Reuter) - A steam leak from a pump shut down a
reactor on Monday at the trouble-prone Zaporizha nuclear power
station in Ukraine. A spokesman said the steam had remained in
the containment vessel of Zaporizha's first reactor and posed
no threat to the environment. The incident rated zero on the
international scale of seven.


4 Dec. 1995 (Reuter) - Southeast Asian countries have reached
agreement on a nuclear-free zone for their region and will
speed up moves to create a free trade area, a senior
Philippine official said on Monday. The treaty would allow the
passage of naval warships that may or may not contain nuclear
weapons. A nuclear-free treaty would be signed next week at a
Bangkok summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), which links Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei,
Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.