Subject: HEADLINES 4th French nuclear test Nov. 21 (UPI) -- France on Tuesday detonated its fourth nuclear device since September at a South Pacific test site, defying international protests against its nuclear testing program. The Defense Ministry said the blast took place at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia at 4:30 EST and had a strength of about 40 kilotons.The ministry said the explosion, like the first test in the series on Sept. 5, was aimed at perfecting a system for computer simulation of future tests. Nov 22 (Reuter) - The New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said the latest French nuclear test measured 15 kilotonnes, equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of ordinary explosives, roughly equivalent to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. Carried out at the French Polynesian atoll of Mururoa, the latest test looked likely to be overshadowed in the media by a peace agreement ending the four-year Bosnia war. Nov 22 (Reuter) - New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon on Wednesday slammed France's latest nuclear test in the South Pacific and summoned the French envoy to an immediate meeting. McKinnon, who is Acting Prime Minister while Prime Minister Jim Bolger is out of the country, called the test "totally unacceptable." "It is utterly disappointing and extremely frustrating that France, in the face of so much international opposition, should persist with these tests." Nov 22 (Reuter) - Germany's Free Democrats (FDP), junior partner in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's coalition, led a chorus of complaints about France's fourth nuclear weapons test. Kohl's conservatives, who have made clear their own objections to nuclear testing but declined specifically to criticise Germany's main European Union ally France, were conspicuously silent. The opposition Social Democrats (SPD) accused French President Jacques Chirac of "a further provocation of the international community" and said he was isolated internationally. The ecologist Greens took a similar line. Nov 22 (Reuter) - A French expert expressed doubts that computer simulation could viably replace actual testing as intended by authorities. Jacques Baumel, a parliamentarian of Chirac's own Rally for the Republic party but who is estranged from him, said he was "sorry that the president had excluded the possibility France could in the future carry out a further small number of tests." He said the computer simulation programme would cost 16 billion francs ($3.1 billion) instead of the 10.5 billion ($2.1 billion) initially estimated. He added it was unclear where 2.5 billion francs ($500 million) of the total would come from. He said that the programme would depend on delivery by the United States of advanced giant computers of a type France had been effectively barred from purchasing in the past. Nov 22 (Reuter) - Environmentalists erected a guillotine outside the French embassy in Rome and held a mock execution of an atomic bomb marked "Chirac IV" to protest against France's latest nuclear test. Witnesses said Greenpeace demonstrators at the Ventimiglia frontier in Italy post with France also unfurled banners to protest about Tuesday's test. One, 70 metres (220 feet) long, read "Nuclear No Thanks." Another called on Italian Prime Minister Lamberto Dini to take up the issue, reading "Dini, Tell Them to Stop." Nov 22 (Reuter) - Greenpeace activists set up road signs at the Franco-German border, warning motorists heading into France that they were entering a country which carries out nuclear tests. "Warnung, Atomteststaat" (Warning, State Carrying Out Nuclear Tests"), read the signs, which were erected east of the French city of Strasbourg. Nov 22 (Reuter) - French Polynesia's Evangelical Church renewed criticism of France's nuclear tests in the South Pacific, saying they promoted war. Paris is "an accomplice of those who prepare for wars to come," said the church, the largest in French Polynesia. Nov 22 (Reuter) - South Korean environmentalists on Wednesday threw eggs at the French Embassy in Seoul and sprayed paint on a road outside in protest against the latest nuclear test by Paris. About 30 people representing about a dozen environmental groups demanded that France dismantle its nuclear weapons and give up nuclear tests which are "threatening world peace." Nov 22 (Reuter) - Japan said it deplored France's latest nuclear test, which was carried out despite calls last week at the United Nations for an immediate halt to such tests. Foreign Minister Yohei Kono summoned French Ambassador Jean-Bernard Ouvrieu to the ministry to lodge a formal protest. Nov. 22 (UPI) -- The leaders of Australia and New Zealand condemned Wednesday the latest nuclear test conducted by France in the South Pacific. Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said he was "appalled" and: "France has further isolated itself from international thinking on nuclear issues. This latest test has significantly devalued France's international credentials." Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans summoned French Ambassador Dominique Girard. Nov 21 (Reuter) - Italy on Tuesday rejected French charges that the Italian and other European Union governments had shown hypocrisy and lack of solidarity by voting to denounce nuclear tests in a United Nations motion. Nov 23 (Reuter) - Greenpeace staged a rooftop protest at the British High Commission to protest against what it called the "Anglo-French 'entente nucleaire'." Eight protesters wearing masks of British Prime Minister John Major and French President Jacques Chirac climbed onto the roof unfurling "Union Jacques" flags and blowing hooters and whistles in a noisy demonstration. Major came under attack at this month's Commonwealth summit in Auckland for his defence of French nuclear testing.