Date: Thu, 20 Jun 1996 15:37:03 
 
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Status: R

19 June 1996 (Reuter) - Indian political parties renewed
pressure on the government and urged it not to sign a
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as the deadline neared,
local news agencies said on Wednesday. India's Hindu
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) urged the new
centre-left government not to succumb to pressures to sign
CTBT, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said, while a leader from
the Congress party also expressed reservations.  
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19 June 1996 (Reuter) - China has proposed that a global
treaty outlawing all nuclear blasts should be re-examined in
about 10 years to see whether "peaceful nuclear explosions"
should be allowed, diplomats said on Wednesday. China argues
that the world should not deprive itself of the chance to use
nuclear blasts for peaceful means some time in the future.
Chinese officials have variously suggested that PNEs could be
used to generate electricity in underground caverns, to blast
a tunnel for water from the Tibetan mountains to irrigate the
Taklimakan desert, or even to deflect  asteroids heading
towards the Earth.  

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19 June 1996 (Reuter) - State-run Taiwan Power Co said on
Wednesday it would continue to build the island's fourth
nuclear power station despite a  legislative impasse that
threatens to scuttle the project. Taipower considers the
US$4.1 billion project alive unless parliament, which
cancelled its funding on May 24, formally rejects the
government's appeal to restore the project, a spokeswoman for
the utility said by telephone.  

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19 June 1996 (UPI) -- India will not sign the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty despite mounting U.S. pressure on the
undeclared nuclear power to ink the  agreement, a newspaper
report said Wednesday. Although India is continuing
negotiations on the treaty in Geneva, New Delhi has already
decided not to become a signatory to the treaty, The Times of
India reported.