Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 10:09:52 -0400 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Dozens of people were hurt in clashes with police when nationalists in Belarus demonstrated on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy in Chernobyl. Up to 40,000 nationalists used the anniversary to denounce the pro-Russian policies of Belarus's hardline President Alexander Lukashenko. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - The environmental group Greenpeace charged in a report that the Turkish government lied about the impact in Turkey of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, allowing contaminated food to be sold later. The report says tonnes of contaminated vegetables, tea, hazelnuts and cheese were sold and exported in the year following the explosion in the Ukraine. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Tens of thousands of people wept, prayed and marched to mark the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. World leaders paid tribute to the army of workers who battled to contain the fire that broke out when Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded on April 26. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said the disaster was a lesson to the world to ensure the safe use of nuclear technology. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - South Africa's nuclear agency said it was considering setting up ostrich farms on its radioactive waste dump site as part of a plan to help impoverished communities in the area. "At the moment it's just an idea, but we need to find ways to help people living in that area," said Brian Hambleton-Jones, a manager at the Atomic Energy Corporation. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - At least 20,000 Belarussian nationalists poured through the centre of Minsk to denounce President Alexander Lukashenko's pro-Russian policies. Lukashenko had earlier presided over official ceremonies, attended by about 10,000 people and paying tribute to victims of the explosion at the Chernobyl plant just over the border in Ukraine. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - A solemn Mikhail Gorbachev defended his handling of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl exactly 10 years ago, but said the Soviet leadership had been completely unprepared for such a disaster. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - A French government minister on Friday acknowledged 10 years on that the French were misled about the impact of the Chernobyl explosion -- at a time when the current President Jacques Chirac was prime minister. "During the Chernobyl accident, there wasn't a state lie, but we have to note that the French were not told what was happening," Environment Minister Corinne Lepage told France-3 television in an interview. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Swedish nuclear engineer Cliff Robinson was puzzled when the radiation detector went off as he tried to enter his office at the Forsmark nuclear power plant early in the morning of April 26, 1986. Startled by a second alarm, he checked the radiation levels of a shoe and could not believe his eyes. Readings had soared and there were signs of radioactive substances never seen at Forsmark before. It quickly became clear the source of the menace was to the south-east. But it was almost three days before Moscow admitted a reactor had exploded at Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Dozens of South Korean environmentalists staged a rally demanding the shutdown of the country's nuclear power plants to mark the 10th anniversary of the explosion of a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. "Disband the nuclear Mafia, Korea Electric Power Corp, which will kill our descendants," the protesters shouted. They also demanded the government cancel plans to build additional plants. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin thanked those who fought the fire at the Chernobyl power station exactly 10 years ago and said safety at nuclear power plants needed to be stepped up. In a speech broadcast on Russian radio and television to mark the 10th anniversary of the disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine, Yeltsin said the victims of the world's worst nuclear accident would never be forgotten. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Ukrainian police arrested a group of anti-nuclear protesters who had chained themselves to a railway line near the Chernobyl nuclear power station to demand its immediate closure. Paul D'Huyvetter of For Mother Earth, the Belgian-based group which organised the action, said 11 people were arrested including a camera crew and a coordinator. "They wanted to send a signal to the world that the only nuclear power we need is from the sun," he said. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - The world can expect the next Indian government to adopt a tough nuclear policy built around the option to deploy an atom bomb and opposed to a global test ban treaty, analysts and diplomats said. No government emerging from the general election starting on Saturday will be willing in the medium term to retreat from India's 22-year-old policy of defending its right to build a nuclear bomb if threatened, they said. 26 April 1996 (Reuter) - Thousands of mourners gathered near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant early to mark the 10th anniversary of the disaster that killed thousands of people and blighted the lives of millions. A mainly young crowd cradled candles in their hands as they stood round a monument to the dead in Slavutych, the new town built 35 km (20 miles) from the plant to rehouse staff after the explosion and fire on April 26, 1986 in Chernobyl's fourth reactor. 26 April 1996 (UPI) - Ukraine and the world must preserve the memory of Chernobyl while moving forward and learning the lessons of the tragedy, Ukrainian leaders said as the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the tragedy that ripped apart the lives of millions in the former Soviet Union. 26 April 1996 (UPI) - Thirteen members of the Greenpeace environmental group broke into the Ringhals nuclear power station in western Sweden, unfurling banners and demanding the plant be closed before being arrested by police. 26 April 1996 (UPI) - The environmental group Greenpeace accused the Turkish government of lying and suppressing information about how fallout from the Chernobyl disaster affects Turkish water and agriculture. In a report published to mark the 10th anniversary of the nuclear explosion and fire, Greenpeace said Turkey has disregarded the health of millions of its citizens.