Subject: HEADLINES 30 January 1996 30 Jan 1996 (UPI) - The international community welcomed President Jacques Chirac's decision to end French nuclear testing, but many nations renewed their condemnation of France for ever staging its latest series of underground explosions in the South Pacific. 30 Jan 1996 (UPI) - The U.S. Air Force did not tell Alaska Natives and U.S. military personnel it was giving them tiny doses of radiation as a tracer during a thyroid experiment in the 1950s, and the U.S. government should acknowledge responsibility for wrongs, said a report released by the National Research Council. The 102 Alaska Natives and 19 service personnel "were not harmed but they were wronged," said Nancy King, associate professor of social medicine at University of North Carolina and member of the committee that wrote the report. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Chile said it was pleased that France had decided to stop nuclear tests but tempered its praise by saying the French should never have started them in the first place. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - North Korea has so far refused to give the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency free access to all its declared nuclear facilities, an agency spokesman said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Pyongyang had given the green light to inspections of three small locations linked to its nuclear industry but not the most important sites. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - France threw itself into high-profile campaigning for a worldwide nuclear test moratorium after completing a series of six explosions and its efforts raised hopes a global ban could be agreed this year. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - President Jacques Chirac pledged cash to help French Polynesia switch to a post-atomic age of tourism, fishing and farming after ending controversial nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Gaston Flosse, president of French Polynesia's territorial assembly, said Chirac had promised 990 million francs ($193 million) a year over 10 years to compensate for lost military investments in the tropical coral atolls and islands. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - A piece of high-tech nuclear equipment, originally destined for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's bomb-making programme, has gone missing, the U.N.'s atomic safeguards agency said. The machine, believed to be the size of a small furnace, was described as the heart of a centrifuge system to enrich uranium, the key ingredient in manufacturing a nuclear bomb. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Activists from the Greenpeace environmentalist group blockaded railway tracks leading out of a disussed German atomic power station to protest against a shipment of partly used fuel elements to Hungary. A spokesman for the Greifswald/Lubmin plant in northeastern Germany said the 15 or so campaigners were removed by police after blocking the tracks for around seven hours. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Belgian Foreign Minister Eric Derycke said now was the moment for a worldwide end to nuclear testing after France decided to halt a controversial series of atomic tests in the South Pacific. "I hope this practice of nuclear test in nature will be ended definitively and worldwide," he said in a statement. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Russia welcomed France's decision to stop nuclear tests, saying that a moratorium on the blasts was a great contribution towards a worldwide end to experiments involving nuclear weapons. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - France carried out six tests in its latest series of underground nuclear blasts in the South Pacific, which President Jacques Chirac said on Monday was now ended. The following is a chronology of the tests: September 5, 1995 - a 20-kilotonne blast at Mururoa October 2 - a 110-kilotonne blast at Fangataufa October 27 - a 60-kilotonne blast at Mururoa November 21 - a 40-kilotonne blast at Mururoa December 27 - a 30-kilotonne blast at Mururoa January 27, 1996 - a 120-kilotonne blast at Fangataufa The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in August 1945 had a power of approximately 15 kilotonnes of TNT. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - France's decision to wrap up its nuclear testing programme should build momentum toward reaching a treaty this year that would ban underground blasts forever, negotiators said. But China looks increasingly isolated and will have to fall into step with the other four declared nuclear powers (Britain, France, Russia and the United States) before a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) can be pieced together, they added. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - South Korea hailed France's announcement to cut short its nuclear testing in the South Pacific, and urged other countries who have atomic weapons to follow suit. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - North Korea said it would allow an international watchdog agency to inspect all of its declared nuclear facilities now that a U.S.-led consortium has agreed a plan to supply it with reactors. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - China said it would not halt its underground nuclear blasts until a global test ban treaty takes effect, standing alone as the only country outside a global test moratorium. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian declined to comment on the French decision other than to say that China had taken note of it, but said Beijing's policy was unaffected. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Chancellor Helmut Kohl hailed France's decision to bring an end to a controversial series of nuclear tests in the South Pacific, a German government statement said. "President (Jacques) Chirac has thus kept his word by completing the series of tests at the earliest moment possible," Kohl said in the statement. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said France's decision to end nuclear testing did not undo the damage already done. "They hope, of course, people will forget," Mahathir told reporters after launching a multimedia exhibition. "I hope people will never forget that this country has decided to ignore the opinions of the rest of the world." 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Japan refused to be appeased by France's announcement that it was ending nuclear testing, saying the halt was forced on Paris by international outrage. "It is deeply regrettable that France defied protests from Japan and the international community and conducted nuclear tests six times," Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama said in a statement. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - Australian and New Zealand political leaders applauded President Jacques Chirac's decision to end French nuclear testing but issued some last damning verdicts on the controversial test programme. "The fact that he has announced their cessation is welcome, but they should never have been on in the first place," Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger said South Pacific nations would be wary of France for years after Chirac broke the moratorium declared by predecessor Francois Mitterrand. 30 Jan 1996 (Reuter) - The South Pacific Forum said it hoped the end of France's nuclear testing programme meant no further nuclear activity in the region. Ieremia Tabai, Secretary General of the Forum that represents the region's 16 independent and self-governing nations, said President Jacques Chirac's announcement on Monday came as a great relief.