Subject: HEADLINES 17-18 March 1996 Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 21:37:31 -0500 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - Former Soviet republics affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster face a peak in cancers caused by radioactivity in about nine years' time, Belarus' Chernobyl minister said on Monday. Ivan Kenik, speaking outside a conference held in the run-up to the disaster's 10th anniversary, said Belarus had little experience with radiation-linked illness, notably thyroid cancer in children, and needed Western help to cope. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - North Korea has refused to give the U.N.'s atomic watchdog agency details on the amount of plutonium it holds in spent radioactive fuel and is delaying visas for inspectors, the agency's head said on Monday. Hans Blix, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Pyongyang's communist government had so far declined to throw any light on the nuclear material present at atomic facilities now subject to a freeze. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - France's top soldier has suggested that Paris and London should cooperate on using their missile-launching submarines to boost their nuclear deterrent. General Jean-Philippe Douin said in an interview published on Monday in the daily Ouest-France that the two countries, with similar vital interests, should let possible attackers know they would face two-pronged nuclear retaliation. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said on Monday that the five major powers were moving closer on a nuclear test ban treaty, but conceded that China and Russia still had positions at odds with the others. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - Moscow could help Tehran build more nuclear power stations when it completes an atomic power plant at Bushehr on Iran's Gulf coast, Russia's ambassador to Iran was quoted as saying on Monday. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - Russia said on Monday that it was observing a self-imposed ban on nuclear testing and had no plans to test atomic weapons. "We have already said that the last nuclear test at the Novaya Zemlya testing ground was carried out in October 1990," Foreign Ministry spokesman Grigory Karasin said. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - Slovenia's Ecological Movement announced on Monday plans to collect signatures in support of a referendum on an early closure of the Krsko (NEK) nuclear power plant. NEK, which started operating in 1983, supplies about 20 percent of Slovenian and Croatian electricity needs. 18 March 1996 (Reuter) - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, aiming to speed progress towards a nuclear test ban treaty, pressed China and non-aligned states on Sunday not to block the pact, saying their roles are critical. 17 March 1996 (Reuter) - Sweden's ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP) voted on Sunday to begin phasing out nuclear energy before the next general election in 1998. The SDP approved a motion at a special party congress that the closure of Swedish nuclear reactors would then continue "at a constant pace" after the 1998 election. 18 March 1996 (UPI) - Despite tensions over Taiwan, Chinese and U.S. diplomats are working behind the scenes to prevent relations from deteriorating further by initiating talks over China's alleged sale of nuclear technology to Pakistan, sources said Monday. 17 March 1996 (UPI) - The United States has asked Russia to explain intelligence reports indicating it may have conducted a nuclear test in violation of a pledge to stop such activity, U.S. officials said Sunday. U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry told Congress March 7 that American intelligence agencies acquired "some evidence" of an atomic detonation at a Russian test site on the remote archipelago of Novaya Zemlya. 18 March 1996 (UPI) - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Monday he made progress in persuading Russia and China to sign a nuclear test ban treaty, but aides conceded neither nation has dropped key objections to an American-backed draft of the pact.