Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 04:28:40 -0400
 
      11 April 1996 (Reuter) - Forty-three African states
signed a treaty declaring Africa free of nuclear weapons at a
ceremony marred by Russian reservations about the document.  
The Treaty of Pelindaba, named after the birthplace of the
nuclear arsenal which South Africa later dismantled, bans the
possession or deployment of nuclear weapons throughout the
African continent and the islands around it.

      11 April 1996 (Reuter) - The head of a U.S.-led
consortium to build two nuclear reactors in North Korea said
that preparations were going smoothly and some construction
work might begin in June or July. Stephen Bosworth, director
of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation
(KEDO), told Kyodo news service that the project "continues to
move ahead in a satisfactory manner." 

      11 April 1996 (Reuter) - Vladimir Usatenko, one of the
workers who cleaned up Chernobyl's radioactive fallout, said
he had lost his teeth, much of his eyesight and all hope of a
long life due to the world's worst nuclear accident. The
Ukrainian technician was 37 in April 1986 when Reactor Four at
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, hurling chunks of
the radioactive core 1.5 km (one mile) into the sky and
spreading a toxic cloud over most of Europe.

      11 April 1996 (Reuter) - Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, opening a ceremony at which up to 53 African states
will declare their continent free of nuclear weapons, called
for a similar zone in the Middle East. Israel, Egypt's
neighbour and rival, is widely believed to have nuclear
weapons. It says it will discuss its nuclear programme only
after peace throughout the region.

      11 April 1996 (UPI) - Representatives of the United
States and 45 African nations signed a treaty pledging to keep
the African continent free of nuclear weapons. Foremost among
the signatories was South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo,
representing the only African state with an admitted nuclear
capacity.

      11 April 1996 (UPI) - The rapid pace of technological
change and growth poses new challenges for the Pentagon to
control the spread of chemical, biological and nuclear
weapons, Defense Secretary William Perry said. Perry,
unveiling a Pentagon report on the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction, said that "no matter how backward a country
economically, today it can still have the capability to build
reactors and to generate plutonium as was demonstrated by
North Korea." Among the concerns facing the Pentagon are that
some technology and products that were once under
international controls "are now available essentially by mail
order from Radio Shack," Perry said.