Subject: headlines Febr. 1

     1 Feb 1996 (Reuter) - Egypt wants the nuclear powers to
give a stronger commitment to nuclear disarmament, but could
sign a comprehensive test ban treaty which did not include a
disarmament timetable. Nabil Fahmi, adviser to Foreign
Minister Amr Moussa, also said that Egypt opposed all nuclear
tests, without any exceptions for miniaturised laboratory
tests or special circumstances.


     1 Feb 1996 (Reuter) - German police removed Greenpeace
activists trying to block a shipment of 235 nuclear fuel
elements to a nuclear power plant in Paks, Hungary. It was the
second time activists protested near the Greifswald plant at
Northern Germany. On Tuesday about 15 activists blocked the
same tracks for seven hours before being removed by police.


     1 Feb 1996 (Reuter) - The Baltic state of Lithuania said
on Thursday that it was checking its Ignalina nuclear reactor
for possible leaks. Norway yesterday said that it registered
radioactive fallout for a week in January that could stem from
a nuclear reactor abroad. Finland also said it measured fresh
fallout in the same period but said the radioactivity was
within normal limits.


     1 Feb 1996 (Reuter) - China came under increasing
pressure at the Disarmament Conference on Thursday to follow
France's example and halt its nuclear testing programme.
China, which so far has argued that "peaceful" nuclear
explosions should be allowed under the pact, is being pushed
to join the other four declared nuclear states (Britain,
France, Russia and the United States) in supporting a total
ban.


     1 Feb 1996 (Reuter) - The world kept drinking Cognac last
year, virtually unswayed by calls to boycott French goods
because of outrage over nuclear tests, Cognac producers.
Sales dipped a scant 1.3 percent in 1995. 


     1 Feb 1996 (Reuter) - A small amount of radioactive steam
has leaked into the atmosphere from a research nuclear reactor
at Dmitrovgrad about 650 km (400 miles) east of Moscow
(Russia). The steam, mixed with gas, spurted out when a safety
valve on the reactor blew on Wednesday, an official said. A
tonne of the mixture had been released in the incident.


     1 Feb. 1996 (UPI) -- A significant leak of radioactive
vapor contaminated the grounds of a Russian nuclear institute
at Dimitrovgrad, near the Volga river city of Ulyanovsk,
officials said Thursday. The accident Wednesday at the BK-50
nuclear reactor in the formerly secret city of released about
a ton of radioactive vapor into the air, the director of the
institute told the Itar-Tass news agency.