Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 10:17:55 
 
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
Status: R

16 Sep 1996 (Reuter) - France ended a 25-year doomsday watch
Monday, shutting down 18 land-based nuclear missiles at an
underground launch base and leaving its nuclear defense solely
to weapons aboard submarines and bombers. It began when two
pairs of officers, in separate bunkers 25 miles apart, handed
back keys and launch codes that would have enabled them to
fire the missiles on direct orders from Chirac. 

16 Sep 1996 (Reuter) - Australia and France said Monday they
were putting their differences behind them, ending a bitter
dispute over French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. ``I
think we have now a new basis for a new relationship between
Australia and France,'' French Prime Minister Alain Juppe said
after talks with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
``French investors are welcome in Australia ... There are
great opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region for countries
such as France,'' Downer said. 


16 Sep 1996 (Reuter) - A nuclear reactor in western Fukui
Prefecture, Japan, shut down automatically on Monday morning,
apparently due to an electrical failure, a Kansai Electric
Power Co spokesman said. The 1.18 million-kilowatt No. 4
reactor, located at Oi village, 370 km (230 miles) west of
Tokyo, shut down after an alarm showed a malfunction in a
generator and a main transformer, the spokesman said.