Subject: HEADLINES 3-4 October 1995

4 Oct. (Reuter) -  The Permanent Commission on the South
Pacific deplores France's detonation of its second nuclear
device and urged that it stop the tests in the South Pacific.
It said in a statement that the blast on Sunday at Fangataufa
Atoll was an ecological hazard and a blow to nuclear
non-proliferation efforts. 

4 Oct. (Reuter) - Bulgaria said on Wednesday the reactor was
safe and began restarting it. The Kozloduy plant's 440 MW
reactor number one came into operation in 1974, has been
closed for seven months for upgrading and safety checks. The
Bulgarian Atomic Energy Committee (BAEC) gave permission to
operate the reactor during the coming winter. Energy officials
said the reactor will be connected to the national power grid
by Friday or Saturday. The Group of Seven have urged Bulgaria
not to reopen the reactor. They called for new checks to be
made on the metal of its pressure vessel.

4 Oct. (Reuter) - China is prepared to cooperate with Morocco
on nuclear power for peaceful purposes. This cooperation would
be done under the surveillance of the International Atomic
Energy Agency. Morocco, with no crude oil of its own, hopes to
switch to nuclear for power generation early next century.

4 Oct. (Reuter) - France denied the critisism from the EU that
it failed to give the European Commission sufficient data on
its South Pacific nuclear tests. Paris said that the EU
experts who visited the test site got all the data the
Commission needed under the Euratom treaty. The EU Environment
Commission, however, said that it is unsatisfied with the data
received on the condition of the Mururoa test site and on the
first French nuclear test of the current series.

4 Oct. (Reuter) -  France accused the country's leading
newspaper of lying and threatened court action over a report
that cracks had opened under the main French nuclear testing
site in the South Pacific. Foreign Minister Herve de Charette  
said he believed a map of the cracks under the Mururoa atoll
published by the daily Le Monde on Tuesday was a fake. Le
Monde said it stood by its story that cracks under the atoll
could be torn open by future explosions. It said the map was
drafted by the military at Mururoa in 1980 and had been known
for several years since a Polynesian employee smuggled it out
of the base and was sacked for it.
   Le Monde said France could end the dispute by allowing an
international scientific mission to carry out exhaustive and
independent research at the Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls.

4 Oct. (Reuter) - Nine Greenpeace activists were arrested
outside the French embassy in Moscow as they protested against
France's latest nuclear test.  
   Six chained themselves to the embassy fence and three
others distributed leaflets condemning Sunday's French nuclear
test in the South Pacific.

4 Oct. (Reuter) -  Philippines President Fidel Ramos rejected
calls for Manila to sever ties with France over its decision
to resume nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Various local
unidentified groups, which have been protesting daily in front
of the French embassy in Manila, have urged the government to
initiate moves within the Group of 77 Developing Nations to
sever relations with Paris.

4 Oct. (Reuter) - France's decision to resume nuclear testing
in the South Pacific will not affect a Japanese trip to Paris
by the nation's top 100 sumo wrestlers, a spokesman for the
Japan Sumo Association said on Wednesday. The group of
wrestlers will leave Japan on Friday and hold exhibition
matches in Vienna on Sunday, the spokesman said.  

4 Oct. (Reuter) - A Bangladeshi group of lawyers has accused
France of committing environmental terrorism through its
recent nuclear tests and urged all countries to boycott French
goods and cooperation. 

4 Oct. (Reuter) - France further angered New Zealand by
banning a group of South Pacific women planning to protest
against French nuclear testing from entering French Polynesia. 
French officials said they feared the women would incite
trouble and it could re-ignite riots which broke out in Tahiti
last month after France exploded the first underground test at
nearby Mururoa atoll. The 170 women had been due to arrive on
a chartered aircraft on Thursday morning to participate in an
anti-nuclear march that evening. 
  
4 Oct. (Reuter) - Vietnam added its voice to international
criticism on France for its underground nuclear tests in the
South Pacific. 

3 Oct. (Reuter) - Tahiti's largest anti-nuclear and
independence party, the Tavini Huiraatira Party (Liberation
Front of French Polynesia), has called for thousands to march
in protest against the continuation of French nuclear testing
in French Polynesia on Thursday.