Subject: HEADLINES January 11-14

       Jan 14 1996 (Reuter) - A District Court in the Israeli town of Beersheba on Sunday
rejected an appeal by jailed nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu that it end his solitary
confinement after nine years. Vanunu has been held in isolation since he was kidnapped by
Israeli agents from Rome in 1986. An Israeli court sentenced him in 1986 to 18 years in jail
after he gave the London Sunday Times photos of Israel's Dimona nuclear complex. According
to foreign reports, Israel has at least 200 nuclear weapons. 

       Jan 14 1996 (Reuter) - Shigeo Nishimura, the top investigator into a cover-up of Japan's
worst nuclear accident killed himself out of shame and fear of failure, police and media reports
said on Sunday. He leaped to his death from the roof of an eight storey central Tokyo hotel five
weeks after a massive coolant leak at the Monju reactor cast a cloud over Japan's ambitious
nuclear power programme. Nishimura was investigating why plant officials took one hour to
notify authorities about the leak and why video film of the incident was both edited and
concealed from the press and government agency charged with determing what caused the leak.


       Jan 14 1996 (UPI) -- All nuclear warheads remaining in the former Soviet republics of
Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be moved to Russia by September, the commander-in-chief
of Russia's strategic missile forces said Sunday. Russian-commanded military units controlling
nuclear missiles are expected to be withdrawn from Belarus by Sept. 1, and those in Kazakhstan
are set to be disbanded by May 1, Col. Gen. Igor Sergeyev told the Interfax new agency. 

       Jan 13 1996 (Reuter) - The United States was seeking changes in a southeast Asian
nuclear weapons free zone pact to address worries it had about rights of navigation in the
region, a U.S. official said on Saturday. Winston Lord, a U.S. assistant secretary of state for
East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the recently agreed southeast Asian nuclear pact would gain
much greater significance if it was supported by the United States and other nuclear weapons
powers. The pact also bans the dumping of nuclear waste in ASEAN waters and gives guidelines
for the monitoring of nuclear power.   

       Jan 13 1996 (Reuter) - The official in charge of investigating a cover-up of Japan's
worst nuclear power accident committed suicide on Saturday by leaping from the roof of a
Tokyo hotel, police said. The shock suicide was the latest fallout from the December 8 accident
involving a massive coolant leak at Monju, at Tsuruga, 320 km (200 miles) west of Tokyo. Since
the spill there have been a string of revelations pointing to officials minimising the worst
accident yet to hit Japan's ambitious nuclear power programme. Police said Nishimura had left
three letters in his hotel room addressed to his wife and a number of colleagues.     

       Jan 12 1996 (Reuter) - The Irish Energy Minister Emmet Stagg on Friday expressed
opposition to a plan for a huge underground laboratory in north-west England, saying it was the
first step towards a nuclear waste dump next to the Irish Sea. Ireland might take Britain to the
European Court of Justice if the plan for a so-called Rock Characterisation Facility (RCF) went
ahead. "I see the RCF as a first step towards an eventual underground dump for the permanent
storage of nuclear waste," Stagg told the inquiry. "This would represent an unnecessary and
unacceptable addition to the existing extensive operation at Sellafield."  

       Jan 12 1996 (Reuter) - The United States on Friday advised India against developing
nuclear weapons, saying it would worsen regional tensions rather than enhancing national
security. Pakistan, which has fought three wars against neighbouring India, has also expressed
strong concern about the possibility of the country conducting a nuclear test, but Delhi says it
has no such plans.  The New York Times recently reported that U.S. experts suspected India
was preparing for a nuclear test, but Delhi flatly denied this.  

       Jan 12 1996 (UPI) -- Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday voiced
regret over his nation's pledge to become a non-nuclear state and does not intend to send its
last 18 nuclear missiles to Russia, lawmakers said.  "If I had been able to stop this process
earlier, we would have gotten compensation from America long ago," legislators quoted
Lukashenko as saying. "Fortunately, I managed to keep 18 missiles." Former Belarussian leader
Stanislav Shushkevich said Lukashenko was referring to 18 SS-25 missiles that remain on
Belarussian territory and were scheduled to be moved to Russia this year. Lukashenko drew fire
from world leaders recently for comments praising Adolf More? Hitler for creating a strong
German state and comparing his own role as president with that of the Nazi leader.         

       Jan 11 1996 (UPI) -- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said Thursday he would
appeal to India to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which India has condemned as
favoring countries with existing nuclear capacity. Indo-Canadian relations suffered a severe blow
when New Delhi conducted its first and only test in 1974 because Ottawa suspected that the
plutonium for the test was extracted from a reactor supplied by Canada.