Subject: NucNews 99/11/26 Briefs Date: Mon Reply-To: prop1@prop1.org Sender: owner-nukenet@envirolink.org X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.2.07 -- ListProc(tm) by CREN X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by envirolink.org id PAA10625 Please address replies to articles to the original publisher. Please send NucNews copies? Refuting false information appreciated! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- [The full text can be found at http://prop1.org/nucnews/9911nn/991126nn.htm} * Ukraine to restart Chernobyl reactor (3 stories) * General: Russia Must Rely on Nukes * WORLD In Brief - China to Ratify Test Ban Official Says * Taiwan's Lee hits China on missiles * Taiwan stocks plummet on security fears * India: More Military Spending Sought * Iraq Prefers Sanctions to Inspectors' Return By Reuters * Policy times five - Embassy Row * Syrian gas practice * Barak: Israel won't be first with nukes * Nuclear secrets revealed to force truth (Vanunu) * N. Korea Delegation Leaves for U.S. * Utility Ousts 5 in Chicago After Failures Last Summer * A Missile Shield Could Backfire * Where $609 Billion in Federal Spending Will Go * Spacecraft Galileo Overcomes Setback * Ukraine to restart Chernobyl reactor USA Today 11/26/99- Updated 01:56 AM ET http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu01.htm KIEV Ukraine (AP) - Thirteen years after the world's worst nuclear accident the Chernobyl power plant is re-emerging as a focus of environmental fears and a subject of negotiations over aid to cash-strapped Ukraine. The reopening of the plant's only functioning reactor scheduled for Friday following five months of repairs comes after the U.S. State Department recently said Ukraine ''appears to be unprepared'' to confront the Y2K bug. * Ukraine Restarts Chernobyl After 5-Month Repairs Reuters Updated 7:26 AM ET November 26 1999 By Pavel Polityuk http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/991126/07/news-energy-chernobyl * Ukraine Restarts Chernobyl New York Times November 26 1999 Filed at 4:33 a.m. EST By The Associated Press http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-Chernobyl-Returns.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline141526_000.htm * General: Russia Must Rely on Nukes Associated Press Friday Nov. 26 1999; 12:06 p.m. EST The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline120640_000.htm MOSCOW -- Russia will have to rely on the threat of using its nuclear arsenal to ensure security for at least the next decade because its conventional forces are not sufficient a top general said Friday. "Strategic nuclear forces ... must not be regarded as a panacea for all threats to ground security but they are capable of being a reliable deterrent guarantee strategic missile force commander Col. Gen. Vladimir Yakovlev was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. * WORLD In Brief China to Ratify Test Ban, Official Says Washington Post Friday, November 26, 1999; Page A3 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/26/160l-112699-idx.html BEIJING--China still intends to ratify the global treaty banning nuclear tests, despite the U.S. Senate's rejection of the pact, China's top arms control official was quoted as saying. Sha Zukang said the treaty had no hope of ever coming into effect without American approval, the state-run New China News Agency reported * Taiwan's Lee hits China on missiles Washington Times November 26, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.htmlyip TAIPEI, Taiwan aiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, in one of his most extensive statements on China in months, accused Beijing Thursday of threatening his nation with missiles. Referring to recent reports that China plans to deploy 100 new ballistic missiles across from Taiwan, Mr. Lee said that such military buildups encourage some Taiwanese to support formal independence. * Taiwan stocks plummet on security fears UPI Updated 10:21 AM ET November 26, 1999 By WILLY MA http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991126/10/international-stocks TAIPEI, Taiwan, Nov. 26 (UPI) Taiwan's stock market plunged Friday on fears that mainland China's naval fleet is conducting military exercises to intimidate it. * India: More Military Spending Sought November 26, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/26/news/world/world-briefing.html The military budget should be increased from 2.3 percent of India's gross domestic product to 3 percent, the defense minister, George Fernandes, told a military conference in New Delhi, according to the Press Trust of India. The conflict with Pakistan in Kashmir this year demonstrated the need for more spending, he said. Barry Bearak (NYT) * Iraq Prefers Sanctions to Inspectors' Return By Reuters New York Times November 26, 1999 Filed at 3:54 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-un.html BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An influential Iraqi newspaper said on Friday Baghdad would tolerate crippling sanctions rather than accept the return of U.N. weapon inspectors. ``We prefer sanctions to continue with all their hardship...to the return of spies to our country,'' Al-Thawra, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath party, said. * Policy times five - Embassy Row James Morrison, Washington Times November 26, 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/internatl/embassy.html If the story had broken in a tabloid newspaper, the headline might have read: New World Order Gives Birth to Quints." … The Telegraph's diplomatic editor Christopher Lockwood has noted something very chummy among Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and foreign ministers Hubert Vedrine of France Joschka Fischer of Germany and Lamberto Dini of Italy. This "informal grouping . . . has emerged as the West's primary means of dealing with Russia and of managing the Balkans Mr. Lockwood wrote in a recent analytical piece. The Quint was born during the Kosovo war when the five ministers . . . saw the need to work together much more closely. And so for the rest of the war the five would speak by telephone conference call every evening…." * Syrian gas practice Inside the Ring -- Notes from the Pentagon By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough Washington Times November 26 1999 http://www.washtimes.com/nation/ring.html Syrian military forces late last month conducted a live chemical weapons bombing test. It bolstered Pentagon officials' fears that any future Middle East war will be dirty. * Barak: Israel won't be first with nukes UPI Updated 8:11 PM ET November 25 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/991125/20/international-nuclear TEL AVIV Israel Nov. 25 (UPI) Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the region Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Israel TV on Thursday. Reiterating the line that previous Israeli government have taken Barak said Israel will not be the first state to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. The prime minister promptly added however Israel's existence as an isolated Jewish state in a sea or an ocean of Arab states, with the threats it had already experienced, requires it to (exercise) supreme responsibility on matters connected with Israel's security. The matter came up after the government released some 1 200 pages of transcript of the trial of Merdechai Vanunu a former employee at the Dimona nuclear reactor…. * Nuclear secrets revealed to force truth USA Today 11/26/99 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#yeltsin JERUSALEM - In his closed-door treason trial a former nuclear technician told judges he exposed Israel's nuclear arms program to force the government to tell the truth and bring the bombs under supervision according to court records released for the first time Wednesday. Mordechai Vanunu has been kept away from the public since his 1986 arrest by Israeli security forces. The partial transcript of his trial published in the Yediot Ahronot daily provided the most detailed glimpse yet of the case. Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years in prison after telling what he knew about Israel's nuclear weapons to The Sunday Times newspaper which printed its story on Oct. 6 1986 saying that Israel had stockpiled roughly 100 nuclear weapons. * N. Korea Delegation Leaves for U.S. Associated Press Friday Nov. 26 1999; 1:05 p.m. EST The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline130513_000.htm A U.S. State Department official confirmed a North Korean group was coming to the United States and said they would arrive at the University of Georgia's Center for the Study of Global Issues…. It was not immediately clear with whom the delegation would meet. Under a 1994 agreement with the United States North Korea has frozen its suspected nuclear program in return for economic benefits. The U.S. is now urging North Korea to curb its missile program. * Utility Ousts 5 in Chicago After Failures Last Summer November 26 1999 By DAVID BARBOZA http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/26/news/national/commonwealth-edison.html CHICAGO -- Trying to restore confidence after a series of embarrassing power failures here last summer Commonwealth Edison asked for the resignations of five more executives and middle managers this week. The company said on Thursday that the resignations were part of a continuing restructuring effort that is trying to address many of the reliability problems at the giant utility which was sharply criticized last summer by Mayor Richard M. Daley who accused Commonwealth Edison of neglecting its equipment and repairs. * A Missile Shield Could Backfire New York Times November 26 1999 By JAMES LINDSAY AND MICHAEL O'HANLON http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/26/oped/26ohan.html WASHINGTON -- The presidential campaign may be heating up but Republicans and Democrats are sounding remarkably alike on at least one important issue. Candidates on both sides want to build a national defense against missile attack.… Building it too fast risks damaging our relationship with Russia and could fuel nationalist fervor just as a Russian presidential election approaches…. Rushing a decision on missile defense during a presidential year when tempers are short in both countries and the necessary technology is not even ready is nothing short of foolhardy. * Where $609 Billion in Federal Spending Will Go Washington Post Friday November 26 1999; Page A43 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/26/131l-112699-idx.html After an odyssey that began with President Clinton delivering his fiscal 2000 budget plan to Congress on Feb. 1 Congress finished its work for the year late last week completing action on a $385 billion spending package that finances seven Cabinet departments and the District of Columbia government (which got $435.8 million)…. The defense appropriations bill delivered $267.8 billion in outlays for the Pentagon $4.5 billion more than Clinton had requested…. Perhaps the most controversial procurement item in the current budget is the $1 billion for the Air Force's F-22 Raptor the newest stealth fighter…. * Spacecraft Galileo Overcomes Setback Associated Press 11/26/99 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991126/aponline060127_000.htm PASADENA Calif. (AP) - Continuing to explore the solar system nearly two years after the end of its primary mission NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its closest-ever pass above the fiery moon of Io after surviving a crippling computer malfunction induced by Jupiter's intense radiation. Four hours before Galileo was scheduled to pass 186 miles above Io on yesterday radiation triggered a fault in the onboard computer's memory shutting down all nonessential operations aboard the craft said Jane Platt a spokeswoman for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A team of engineers managed to salvage most of the mission by quickly transmitting new commands. ___________________________________________________ Today's Newspapers: http://prop1.org/nucnews/links.htm NucNews Archives: http://prop1.org/nucnews/briefslv.htm Subscribe NucNews: mailto:prop1@prop1.org (NucNews-Subscribe) Submit URL/Article: mailto:prop1@prop1.org (NucNews-Editor) About NucNews: http://prop1.org/nucnews/nucnews.htm Distributed without payment for research and educational purposes only in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107.