------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Uranium Institute becomes World Nuclear Association
Northrop seen as loser in ship deal
EU threatens trade case against U.S. over uranium
German police escort nuclear waste shipment
State split over lifting sanctions
U.S. Officials Arrive in S. Korea
U.S. Informs South Korea of Plans to Resume Talks With North
Protest greets U.S. missile talks
U.S, India to Hold Key Talks on Missile Defense
Nuclear Research May Go to Russia
U.S. delegation to talk missiles with Russia
Moscow Sets Up Missile Panel
Fire at Russia Military Post
Navajo uranium workers file suit to get implementation of RECA
First South Carolina Shipment Arrives at WIPP
Duke Energy defends mixed-oxide nuclear fuel plan
White House Asks Unions to Meet on Energy Policy

MILITARY
Pilotless planes will revolutionize warfare
Palestinian Admits to Weapons Shipment
Bush Links Aid to Yugoslavia to the Extradition of Milosevic
Report of Bodies Hidden in Danube in '99
Iraq Takes Credit for No - Fly Zone
Air Force Ready for 'Guns in Space'
Taiwan Inaugurates New Squadron
Peacekeeping costs seen rising sharply
House vote will link aid to criminal court
Lack of Parts Grounds Army Choppers

OTHER
How It Works: Fuel Cells Provide Clean, Reliable Electricity
US energy plan will endorse biofuels - Senator
Bird lovers squawk at Dutch wind energy scheme
White House Asks Unions to Meet on Energy Policy
Pesticide waste endangers millions in poor nations
US allies may drop out of Kyoto - EU commissioner
GAO finds many underground US storage tanks leak
China Said to Fear Reaction if Plane Is Released
Chinese Hackers Call Off Attacks

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-------- NUCLEAR

-------- business

Uranium Institute becomes World Nuclear Association

Media Release
Thursday 10 May 2001
http://www.uilondon.org/namechange.htm

The Uranium Institute, the London-based organisation subtitled heretofore as the International Association for Nuclear Energy, today updated its public profile by becoming the World Nuclear Association (WNA).

The UI began in 1975 as an association of uranium producers but over time developed wider scope. Today the WNA's membership comprises companies and other organisations involved in all aspects of the nuclear industry in Europe, Asia, and North America. Members decided on the name change at a biannual meeting held in Toronto.

John Ritch, the WNA's Director General, described the change as 'symbolic but valuable. The new name reflects this organisation's evolution and our intent to widen membership in concert with the robust expansion we expect to see in the nuclear industry worldwide. Our aim is to serve as a pre-eminent global forum and commercial meeting place for those who will be engaged in providing the world's largest source of environmentally friendly energy in the century ahead.'

The WNA's Chairman, Mrs Agneta Rising, emphasised the WNA's dual functions: 'While our twice-yearly meetings and ongoing working groups will retain a strong commercial focus, the WNA will also champion the nuclear cause among policymakers and opinion leaders and in UN bodies focused on climate change and sustainable development. To support new growth in the nuclear industry, we need new growth in public understanding.'

The UI's well-attended Annual Symposium, held in London each September, will this year become the Inaugural Symposium of the World Nuclear Association.

Hans Blix, for 16 years the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a highly respected figure in the international nuclear community, will serve as the World Nuclear Association's honorary Chairman.

Ritch, who served as US Ambassador to the IAEA and other UN agencies in Vienna during the Clinton Administration, placed the WNA's expansion plans in context during the Toronto session: 'Today the combination of burgeoning world energy needs and accumulating greenhouse gases constitutes a global crisis without precedent. Nuclear power must be at the centre of any rational policy response. The ideological dogma that has offered windmills, solar panels, and conservation as the sole substitute for substantial worldwide growth in electricity is a dangerous fantasy. Such nostrums will not meet the real needs of much of the world, including China and India.'

A WNA priority will be broadening membership in non-OECD countries, Ritch said. 'In nations where energy demand is rising rapidly, building on the foundation of an already established nuclear industry offers a valuable alternative to the construction of a vast greenhouse gas-producing infrastructure.'

WNA Chairman Rising welcomed the greater forthrightness of American policymakers about the need for greater deployment of nuclear energy. 'In the face of stark energy shortages, new need will help to overcome old ideology,' she said. 'Factoring in environmental concerns will only bolster the case for nuclear power everywhere.'

Contact: London office +44 (0) 20 7225 0303, ui@uilondon.org
John Ritch +44 (0) 7881 62 6561 mobile

--------

Northrop seen as loser in ship deal

May 10, 2001
By Kristina Stefanova
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/business/default-2001510231833.htm

General Dynamics' bid for Newport News Shipbuilding has a better chance of being approved than Northrop Grumman's surprise offer, defense analysts said yesterday, even though the Northrop deal would mean more competition in the shipbuilding industry.

"I think it's the case of 'Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know,' " said Paul Nisbet, a defense analyst with JSA Research in Newport, R.I.

"The Navy is very familiar with General Dynamics - they've dealt with them for eons, probably, as a shipbuilder. And Northrop Grumman is a name that nobody until a couple of months ago associated with the shipbuilding industry," added Mr. Nisbet, referring to Northrop's acquisition of shipbuilder Litton Industries last month.

Northrop announced its bid Tuesday night, two weeks after General Dynamics, of Falls Church, said it would buy the Newport News company.

Both companies offered the same amount for the only builder of nuclear-powered ships - $2.6 billion, or $67.50 per share. Both bids include the assumption of Newport News' debt of $500 million.

The difference is that Northrop is offering to pay 25 percent in cash and 75 percent in stock, while General Dynamic's offer is an all-cash transaction.

The boards of General Dynamics and Newport News approved the transaction and are waiting for approval from the Defense and Justice departments, which have to sign off on the deal to be completed.

The three companies are among the few survivors after years of consolidation among defense contractors. While General Dynamics is the largest shipbuilder for the Navy, Northrop is its largest provider of electronics.

The General Dynamics deal "raises very significant and serious antitrust and anti-competition issues," Albert Myers, Northrop's treasurer and vice president, said yesterday. "It will create new monopolies in the business, eliminate competition in both production and technology development."

General Dynamics issued a statement Tuesday night saying, "We're disappointed that Northrop Grumman has chosen to interfere" by bidding for Newport News.

Defense Department officials did not return calls yesterday.

But one reason analysts speculate in favor of General Dynamics' bid is because President Bush has nominated Gordon R. England, 63, to be secretary of the Navy. Mr. England retired in early March as executive vice president of General Dynamics after 30 years with the company. The Senate must confirm his nomination.

If General Dynamics and Newport News unite, the combined companies would be the sole U.S. builder of nuclear-powered ships and submarines, with a strong hold on the market for Navy destroyers, support ships and commercial oil tankers. The competition would be Northrop Grumman.

If Northrop buys Newport News, it would add nuclear shipbuilding capabilities and become General Dynamics' competitor for contracts with the shipbuilding industry's main client, the Navy.

"Virtually all Navy-funded engineering for shipbuilding would be done by General Dynamics [if it buys Newport News]. Very little would be done by Northrop," Mr. Nisbet said.

"And if it goes to Northrop Grumman, they would be able to build anything the Navy wants. But it would be a somewhat more even split between General Dynamics and Northrop."

There are no other major players in the industry.

"Personally, I think the General Dynamics-Newport News deal is problematic," said Tom Burnett, president of Merger Insight, a New York group that studies mergers from the shareholder point of view.

"But I think it's going to be totally political. Northrop jumped in here to make sure it makes life difficult for General Dynamics, to force them to pay more or to crater the deal," he said. "But I don't think they care. They say, 'We think it's monopolistic and it highly violates antitrust, but if [General Dynamics] is going to be allowed to bid, then we should too.'

"It's 'Let's go back to the status quo, or give us a chance to buy the company.' "

"They are both bidding because it's a potential strengthening move," said Christopher Mecray, an analyst with Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in New York. General Dynamics' "bid is a friendly bid that's been carefully thought out and discussed and approved by both boards. And Northrop is recognizing that most results could help them - they've got nothing to lose and plenty to gain if it went their way."

But Mr. Mecray said it is unlikely for regulators or the board of Newport News to approve Northrop's bid. "I don't see a likelihood that it's going to go through," he said. "It's not a better offer. There is nothing to entice Newport News to them.

"I think the friendly offer tends to always have a better chance."

General Dynamics bid for Newport News in 1997, but the smaller company saw the bid as too low and the Pentagon rejected the bid for anti-competitive concerns.

Jerri Dickseski, a Newport News spokeswoman, said yesterday that the company advised its shareholders "not to take any action on the Northrop bid until the board makes a recommendation." She did not know when the board would vote on Northrop's bid.

Newport News' stock rose 4 cents to $64.04 yesterday. Meanwhile, shares of Northrop Grumman fell $3.50 to $88 and General Dynamics slipped 15 cents to $78.15. All three companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

-------- europe

EU threatens trade case against U.S. over uranium

May 10, 2001
By Adrian Croft
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010510/09/trade-eu-uranium

BRUSSELS, May 10 (Reuters) - The European Union warned on Thursday it could file an international trade complaint against the United States over a decision to impose anti-subsidy duties on uranium imports from Europe.

The EU expressed "disappointment and concern" over the U.S. Department of Commerce's preliminary decision this week to impose anti-subsidy duties on imports of low-enriched uranium from Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Enriched uranium is used as fuel in nuclear power-generating plants.

"This decision has been taken despite a number of persuasive arguments against such measures advanced by the (European) Commission, member states and companies affected, most of which the U.S. has chosen to ignore," the EU's executive Commission said in a statement.

The Commission said it would hold further consultations with the United States to try to get the decision reversed before a definitive ruling, expected later this year.

It said it was examining whether the U.S. decision was compatible with global trade rules.

"The Commission reserves the right to take the matter up in the World Trade Organisation if the case is not resolved satisfactorily in the meantime," it said.

Uranium joins hormone-treated beef, steel, U.S. tax breaks for exporters, and European government loans for the new Airbus superjumbo, as causes of trade friction between the 15-nation EU and the United States.

U.S. COMPLAINT

The Commerce Department launched an investigation of the European uranium companies last December after receiving a complaint from the United States Enrichment Company (USEC) -- the only American producer of enriched uranium.

USEC accused its two European competitors, Eurodif S.A. and Urenco Ltd., of unfairly selling uranium in the U.S. market for less than their cost of production and benefitting from government subsidies.

Urenco is a British-Dutch-German consortium.

USEC also accused Eurodif, which is controlled by the French government, through its sales agent Cogema of selling uranium for lower prices in the United States than at home.

The Commerce Department said in its preliminary finding this week that Eurodif should be subject to an anti-subsidy duty of 13.94 percent of the value of imported low-enriched uranium and Urenco to a rate of 3.72 percent.

The Commerce Department's preliminary findings on the anti-dumping charges are due on July 5, the Commission said. If it finds the European uranium is being sold at unfairly low prices in the United States, it could impose further duties.

The Commission said it was concerned about the use of duties to protect USEC, which it said was a recipient of generous assistance from the U.S. government.

In a statement this week, USEC General Counsel Robert Moore said European government subsidies had helped facilitate the sale of enriched uranium into the United States at unfair prices.

"If the Department of Commerce carries its finding through to a final order, it will help to ensure a healthy U.S. nuclear fuel cycle while supporting domestic energy security objectives," he added.

-------- germany

German police escort nuclear waste shipment

GERMANY: May 10, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10770

RHEINSBERG, Germany - Thousands of German police yesterday escorted a train carrying nuclear waste from a power plant shut down over a decade ago.

Police said there were only about 20 anti-nuclear activists protesting against the train, which carried 246 spent fuel rods from a Soviet-era power plant in Rheinsberg, 80 km (50 miles) north of Berlin.

The demonstrators were outnumbered by a force of 6,500 police officers. The train, on its way to a temporary storage facility in northern Germany, started its journey shortly after 0300 GMT.

Thousands of demonstrators protested in March when Germany took back the first cargo of reprocessed waste from France since the German government banned the shipments in 1998 over concerns about radioactive leaks.

In April a small group of German environmental activists chained themselves to rail tracks for several hours hoping to stop wagons they said were due to carry a shipment of nuclear waste.

-------- india / pakistan

State split over lifting sanctions

May 10, 2001
By Ben Barber
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010510-852338.htm

State Department policy-makers are deeply split between those who want to lift sanctions against India to clear the way for a new strategic alliance and those who fear that would send a dangerous signal to potential nuclear-weapons states.

The sanctions, imposed after India shocked the world with a series of nuclear tests in 1998, are seen as an obstacle by a powerful faction that hopes to build an alliance with India, partly as a counterweight to China. U.S.-Indian military ties have quietly resumed, India´s ambassador to Washington, Lalit Mansingh, told The Washington Times last week, but U.S. sales of weapons and nuclear power technology still are blocked.

The nonproliferation bureau at State, on the other hand, strongly opposes lifting the sanctions for fear of undermining U.S. efforts to prevent other nations from developing nuclear weapons, said State Department officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will visit India tomorrow during a tour of Asia aimed at building support for a missile defense system that the Bush administration says it is committed to developing.

He also will try to win some sort of pledge from Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on limiting nuclear weapons development and deployment that could appease the nonproliferation advocates within the U.S. government, sources said.

Later this month, and despite the ban on military relations imposed by the sanctions, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, will visit India, The Washington Times reported last week.

A Pentagon official said yesterday that "the general will talk about military-to-military relationships."

However, discussions about ending sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan after both nations conducted nuclear tests in 1998 depend upon an ongoing review of South Asia issues at the National Security Council, said one official who asked not to be identified.

A powerful pro-India lobby in Congress, bolstered by contributions from Indian-American high-tech millionaires, is pushing to waive sanctions on India, said a source in the office of Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on South Asia and the Near East.

"I have been making the case for the last two years that it is time to lift sanctions on India, and I am optimistic that this administration will finally do so," Mr. Brownback told The Washington Times.

"While the situation with Pakistan is different . . . it is logical to lift them on Pakistan as well."

The move to lift sanctions and tighten Indian-U.S. military and trade ties comes as U.S. affection for Pakistan, a Cold War ally, has been diluted by the military coup in Islamabad and that nation´s growing tolerance of the Afghan Taliban and domestic militant Islamic groups attacking India in Kashmir and other targets.

The internal policy struggle at State and the National Security Council, amid one of several policy reviews that the new administration is carrying out, came as India began the largest military exercises in a decade on Pakistan´s border Monday.

Some 50,000 troops and about 120 combat aircraft are taking part in the five-day war games during which the air force will practice new tactics for shooting down "enemy" planes and end with a display of firepower in the Pokhran range, where India´s nuclear blasts were carried out.

"We´re trying to create as realistic a battlefield environment as possible, but I must emphasize this is a training exercise and not any demonstration," Air Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, who heads the western air command, was quoted as saying.

The nonproliferation specialists at State say lifting sanctions against India could send the wrong signal to Ukraine, South Africa and other countries that have given up their nuclear weapons programs under the belief that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty would keep the number of nuclear weapons states at five.

"On the other hand," said a source close to the deliberations, "pure balance-of-power people say, 'Nonsense. Sanctions didn´t get a change of behavior and we need to upgrade relations with India.´"

In 1998, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said that India considered China, not Pakistan, to be the most important threat to its security.

As U.S.-Chinese relations deteriorate, some American officials see India as a foil to Chinese power in Asia.

Indian officials said last week they would help the United States maintain free navigation of the seas to ensure the flow of Middle East oil to U.S. allies in East Asia such as Japan and South Korea.

Shipping lanes for those oil tankers pass through portions of the South China Sea, which China claims as territorial waters but which the United States maintains are international waters.

It was over those disputed waters that a U.S. surveillance plane collided April 1 with a tailing Chinese jet, destroying the jet and forcing the U.S. plane to land on Hainan island, where it remains.

James Clad, a professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University, said the United States should lift sanctions against India only after consulting with allies such as Japan, which is hostile to nuclear proliferation.

Mr. Armitage visits Japan and South Korea this week on his trip to Asia.

The United States also must find a way to improve ties and lift sanctions against India that does not alienate Pakistan and does not endorse India´s traditional domination of its smaller neighbors in South Asia, Mr. Clad said.

-------- korea

U.S. Officials Arrive in S. Korea

By Christopher Torchia
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 10, 2001; 8:03 a.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010510/aponline080351_000.htm

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's willingness to sell missile technology to any nation that wants it shows how desperate the communist country is for funds, a high-ranking U.S. official said Thursday.

Last week, North Korea leader Kim Jong Il told a European delegation that he would maintain a missile moratorium until 2003 but defended his country's sales of missile technology to Iran, Syria and other countries.

"Regarding the continued sales, it seems to suggest to us the desperate financial straits that (North Korea) is in," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said before a meeting with Unification Minister Lim Dong-won.

After his inauguration in January, President Bush suspended talks with North Korea on curbing its missile program, pending a review of U.S. policy. The impoverished North depends on outside aid to feed its 22 million people, and views missile exports as a vital source of revenue.

After meeting President Kim Dae-jung on Wednesday, Armitage raised hopes that inter-Korean reconciliation will start again by saying Washington expects to resume talks with North Korea "in the near future."

U.S.-North Korean friction prompted Pyongyang to cut off most government contacts with Seoul, jeopardizing a reconciliation process that began with an unprecedented inter-Korean summit a year ago.

South Korean officials were relieved that Washington's review of its policy toward North Korea was drawing to an end, and thanked Armitage for explaining Washington's controversial plans for a missile defense system.

The Seoul government fears the system, which Washington says would be designed to thwart attacks by nations such as North Korea and Iraq, could disrupt its efforts to improve ties with Pyongyang.

About two dozen anti-U.S. activists held protests at the hotel where Armitage was staying, the U.S. Embassy and the Defense Ministry. Police detained a few who hurled eggs at the U.S. envoy's car.

Wrapping up his two-day stay in Seoul, Armitage left for India later Thursday.

----

U.S. Informs South Korea of Plans to Resume Talks With North

New York Times
May 10, 2001
By DON KIRK
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/world/10KORE.html

SEOUL, South Korea, Thursday, May 10 - A visiting senior United States envoy assured President Kim Dae Jung on Wednesday that Washington would resume its dialogue with North Korea.

The official, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, said he expected that the United States and North Korea could have talks "in the near future," after Washington had completed a review of policy on North Korea "in a few weeks."

President Bush underlined the point, according to Mr. Kim's spokesman, in a letter that Mr. Armitage delivered and that promised to "strongly support the South's engagement policy on the North."

Demonstrators this morning hurled raw eggs in the direction of Mr. Armitage's car as he was leaving a hotel for a meeting with South Korea's defense minister, Kim Dong- shin, and several of them were arrested. Another 30 protesters were on hand near the Defense Ministry when Mr. Armitage got there, claiming that he was attempting to force Korea to accept Mr. Bush's proposal for a national missile defense.

Mr. Armitage met Mr. Kim on Wenesday, soon after arriving here from Japan, the first country on his mission to present Mr. Bush's proposal on missile defense to Asian leaders. He leaves later today for India.

Mr. Armitage made his remarks on the North after a 70-minute meeting with Mr. Kim, who has issued repeated calls to renew United States-North Korea talks as a way to revive the stalled dialogue between North and South Korea.

The letter arrived two months after Mr. Bush cited problems of verifying an agreement with the North on stopping the production, testing or exporting of missiles. Mr. Bush ruled out resuming the talks begun in the Clinton administration, pending the policy review.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, said last week in a meeting with a European Union delegation that he would await the results of the American policy review before visiting Seoul for a long-awaited second inter-Korean summit meeting. Kim Jong Il was Kim Dae Jung's host for the first inter-Korean summit meeting in June in Pyongyang.

Comments that Mr. Bush made after he received Kim Dae Jung on March 7 at the White House were widely interpreted as indicating a shift in policy toward a hard-line stance on North Korea. Mr. Bush also expressed "some skepticism" about the good faith of Kim Jong Il.

North Korea has since waged an intense propaganda campaign, calling on the United States to withdraw its 37,000 troops from the South. The North has also canceled cabinet-level meetings with the South and failed to sign a pact to rebuild a rail link across the demilitarized zone.

In his meeting with Mr. Armitage, Mr. Kim made no commitment on missile defense, but urged the United States to press its plan "through close consultation with its allies and other nations concerned in a way that promotes world peace and security," Mr. Kim's spokesman said.

The careful wording of the comment reflected South Korea's fear that missile defense might undermine relations with China and Russia, North Korea's strongest allies in the Korean War. Chinese and Russian leaders have made clear that they firmly oppose the idea.

Another reason for the South Korean position, officials here said, is that the South's nearness to the North would make the missile system irrelevant. Intelligence reports indicate that North Korea has hundreds of artillery weapons positioned within range of metropolitan Seoul.

-------- missile defense

Protest greets U.S. missile talks

May 10, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/05/09/missile.defense.01/index.html

SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is continuing talks with South Korean security officials on Thursday.

The meeting is part of a coordinated White House effort begun this week to consult with U.S. allies who may be concerned about global reaction to the proposed system.

Demonstrators protesting the planned U.S. missile defense shield pelted Armitage's car with eggs as he left his hotel to meet with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin.

"We're not happy with his coming to Korea," the leader of one group, Mun Jeong-hyun said. "He's trying to force (South) Korea to accept the missile defense."

At least six activists were arrested in the incident.

Witnesses say protesters also tussled with riot police as Armitage entered the Defense Ministry.

He's scheduled to meet with South Korea's unification minister later Thursday.

This month, President George W. Bush's announced his intention to implement a high-tech system to protect against missile attacks from so-called "rogue nations."

Armitage has already met with South Korean officials on Wednesday to brief them about the missile plans. Top Bush administration aides are fanning out around the globe to consult on U.S. plans to build the system.

Armitage also delivered a letter from President Bush to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung outlining Washington's support for Seoul's engagement policy toward North Korea.

"At the moment, we are not talking with North Korea on anything, but I suspect that we will in the near future," Armitage said after separately meeting Kim and Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo.

The United States has proposed a mix of land- and sea-based rockets and airborne laser weapons to shoot down missiles from such countries as Iraq and North Korea.

Worldwide push to sell the missile defense

The U.S. says their initiative is part of a new strategy of deterrence for the United States and the entire 19-nation NATO alliance.

On Tuesday in Belgium representatives from the Bush administration told NATO ambassadors that the allies must stand together against the threat from nations able to threaten global security with long-range missiles of mass destruction.

U.S. officials acknowledged the project would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, now Russia.

But Grossman said the treaty is outdated now that the Soviet Union no longer exists and Russia is not an enemy.

In a statement, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson welcomed U.S. efforts to consult the allies but his statement stopped short of a declaration of support for the missile defense plan.

U.S. officials head to Moscow

Meanwhile, Paul Wolfowitz, the undersecretary of defense, is heading up a delegation of U.S. officials due to arrive in Moscow late Thursday night for consultations with their Russian counterparts on the missile defense initiative.

They expect to meet Friday with advisers to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been cool to the Bush plan.

The delegation is part of a team that has been visiting several European capitals. From Moscow, they are scheduled to go to Western Europe.

The U.S. officials have so far not made any requests to meet with Putin.

----

U.S, India to Hold Key Talks on Missile Defense

May 10, 2001
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010510/06/politics-india-us-dc

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrives in India on Thursday on a global charm offensive to boost support for an anti-missile shield that has won surprise backing from New Delhi.

Armitage will meet Indian leaders including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Friday, the third anniversary of India's nuclear tests that shook the global non-proliferation regime.

Analysts said the two countries, once on opposite sides of the Cold War, have traveled a considerable distance since the nuclear explosions that triggered sanctions from Washington.

"He is here for barely 24 hours but his talks with the Indian establishment on Friday could send some clear signals where the bilateral relationship is heading," wrote senior analyst C.Raja Mohan in the Hindu newspaper.

India said U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses were part of an inevitable transition from a concept of Mutual Assured Destruction to a cooperative defense system.

New Delhi, long a nuclear non-conformist, has found echoes of its own position in President Bush's decision to break from the legacy of the Cold War, analysts said.

"The three core ideas, rejection of MAD, substantive reduction of nuclear arsenals and new approaches to non-proliferation, that Mr. Bush came up with, were fully in tune with India's long-held assumptions," Raja Mohan argued.

But China has opposed the Bush plan to build a "Star Wars" missile system effectively ending the 1971 Anti-Ballistic Treaty with Moscow. Russia and Europe view it with suspicion.

India's main opposition Congress party criticized Vajpayee's coalition for a hasty call on such a "sensitive issue" as missile defenses.

Domestic media said the Bush plan could spur China to spend more on nuclear missiles, sucking India into an arms race with its giant northern neighbor.

India and China went to war in 1962 over a border dispute, and have been working to heal ties strained by the nuclear tests which India said was prompted by regional threat perceptions.

Armitage will be in New Delhi just as Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji starts a tour of South Asia, beginning with long term ally Pakistan and due to continue to Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

"While we need to engage our northern neighbor in an effort to reconcile our security perspectives, it would be naive to assert we should first be sensitive to Chinese concerns...before reacting to initiatives taken by the great powers," former Indian diplomat G. Parthasarathy wrote in the Pioneer newspaper.

-------- russia

Nuclear Research May Go to Russia

May 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Cutbacks.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010510/aponline182910_000.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is looking at moving some critical nuclear research to Russia because universities may shut down at least three of the 28 small research reactors in the United States, partly due to federal budget cuts, an Energy Department official said Thursday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering shifting ``very important work'' being done in Michigan to a facility that might take years to equip in Russia, said William Magwood IV, director of the department's Office of Nuclear Energy.

Magwood testified before lawmakers on President Bush's proposed 42.5 percent budget cut for nuclear research, from $47 million this year to $27 million in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Meantime, the administration was putting the final touches on an energy package that will emphasize reviving nuclear power to address future electricity needs.

``Vice President Cheney is going to come out and say that this is the way we should proceed, but at the same time say, 'Give us less money to make sure we do it right,''' complained Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., chairman of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee.

It ``just doesn't makes sense to be describing our energy situation as a crisis'' but then ``just take a meat-ax approach and cut these programs,'' added Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas.

John C. Lee, chairman of the University of Michigan's Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, said in an interview that the proposed research cuts would require his school to decommission its research reactor and accompanying test laboratories within three years.

``This is difficult for me to understand. It is troubling to us, obviously,'' he said.

Lee said the reactor is the only one in the nation capable of testing 10-inch-thick pressured steel vessels that act as a last resort against leakage of radiation from nuclear power plant reactor cores.

``They think they might have to go to Russia if the University of Michigan closes the reactor,'' Magwood said in an interview after his congressional appearance. ``I'd hate to see that happen.''

He agreed that the Michigan reactor has a unique task, but he said the NRC does not view moving its work to Russia as a national security issue.

In Bush's budget, all of the research, education and nuclear facilities and materials programs that Magwood oversees would be cut 20 percent, from $277.5 million to $223 million.

``It's appropriate for the new administration ... to take a pause and have a careful examination of everything we're doing and then move forward,'' Magwood said. ``The major priorities were to make sure the essential environmental priorities are taken care of.''

The University of Michigan already has begun planning for decommissioning its 2 megawatt Ford Reactor and accompanying nuclear labs it operates at an annual cost of $1.5 million. The Energy Department now contributes about $100,000 a year although the NRC has invested close to $2 million in the testing program at Michigan, Lee said.

``The integrity of the pressure vessels is very important for the safe operation of nuclear power plants in this country,'' Lee said. ``This is essentially the last line of defense ... that would protect and contain radiation produced in the operation of a reactor.''

Not only will it take years to shift the work being done at Michigan to another testing lab in Russia, but also ``the type of information we will be getting may not be what the nuclear community would like to have,'' he said.

Two of the nation's other premier university-run nuclear research laboratories -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University -- also have told the Energy Department they plan to decommission their nuclear reactors unless the government contributes more, Magwood said.

----

U.S. delegation to talk missiles with Russia

May 10, 2001
From Ryan Chilcote CNN Producer
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/05/10/missile.defense/index.html

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A delegation of U.S. officials was due to arrive in Moscow on Thursday night for consultations with their Russian counterparts on the U.S. missile defense initiative.

U.S. President George W. Bush has urged that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty be scrapped to allow for a national missile defense system.

The delegation, led by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, was expected to arrive at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on two U.S. military planes flying from Warsaw, Poland. The delegation is part of a team that has been visiting several European capitals.

Delegation members will be busy while in the Russian capital despite the cool reception to Bush's plan by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Two hours of talks, beginning at 10 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT) Friday, have been scheduled at the Foreign Ministry with Yuri Kapralov, director of the ministry's department of security affairs and disarmament.

The delegation was then expected to pay a courtesy call on Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was not expected to be in Russia at the time of the visit.

After the talks at the Foreign Ministry, the delegation may meet with Igor Sergeyev, a military adviser to Putin. Sergeyev was Russia's defense minister until a recent shake-up. That meeting has not yet been confirmed.

Stephen Hadley, deputy national security adviser, and Avis Bohlen, deputy secretary of state for arms control, will accompany Wolfowitz.

Earlier this month, Bush outlined his general plans for a national missile defense system, saying a "new framework" is needed for national defense. The president also called for a reduction in the nation's nuclear stockpile, although he did not cite precise numbers.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has identified "near-term options" that could allow the United States to deploy an "initial capability" against limited attacks, possibly as early as 2004.

----

Moscow Sets Up Missile Panel

The Associated Press
Thursday, May 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010510/aponline171153_000.htm

MOSCOW -- Russia's government said Thursday that it had formed a special panel to form Moscow's response to U.S. plans for a limited missile defense system.

"The missile defense problem is extremely complicated and it demands detailed discussion," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RTR state television. "That is why on our side, an interagency delegation has been formed from leading specialists in the field."

The Russian panel will be headed by Yuri Kapralov, director of the Foreign Ministry's department of security affairs and disarmament.

A high-level U.S. delegation arrived in Moscow later Thursday for discussions that are to begin Friday on the U.S. administration's plans to scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and build a missile shield.

"The American representatives will be presented with our concrete approaches aimed at strengthening strategic stability and they will also be given questions on their 'counter-ideas' to these," Yakovenko said.

Moscow wants the ABM treaty preserved as a barrier to bigger offensive arsenals. The treaty bans testing of anti-missile rockets, limits radar capabilities and prohibits the signatories from involving allies in deploying anti-missile rockets.

But Russia reacted with surprising calm to President Bush's announcement last week that the United States wanted to go ahead with its missile shield plans, pinning hopes on Bush's pledge to consult with other nations.

U.S. envoys have fanned out across the world to start those consultations.

----

Fire at Russia Military Post

By Andrew Kramer
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010510/aponline163352_000.htm

MOSCOW -- A fire broke out in a building at a military satellite ground command center Thursday, temporarily cutting communication with four satellites, officials said.

No injuries were reported. Anatoly Perminov, head of the military's Space Forces, was quoted by the news agency ITAR-Tass late Thursday as saying contact with the satellites was restored "quickly," but it was unclear how long it had been lost.

In the hours after the fire broke out at 2:20 a.m., there were conflicting reports on whether the satellites were out of contact. The Defense Ministry said there was no interruption, but Perminov later said contact had been lost.

The fire was extinguished 16 hours after it erupted, ITAR-Tass reported, citing a regional fire dispatcher.

Control over the rest of the military's satellites was not affected and the four satellites functioned normally during the communications break, Perminov said on the NTV television network. All weapons, ammunition and important documents were taken out of the three-story building, he added.

There was no information available on the capabilities of the four satellites. The Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment.

Russia maintains about 100 military satellites, which perform visual reconnaissance, provide information about missile flights - including possible missile attacks - and are used for communications.

The number of satellites in orbit has declined significantly because of cash shortages since the Soviet collapse in 1991. The program reached a low in 1996 and 1997, when Russia had no photo-reconnaissance satellites in orbit for nearly eight months.

The military journal Jane's Defense Weekly reported Wednesday that Russia was again left with no photographic spy satellites after the last known craft of that type returned to Earth earlier this month.

The fire broke out in a ground station near Serpukhov in the Kaluga region, 100 miles south of Moscow. Firefighters used trucks spraying foam along with water cannon.

Russian television showed cement structures, rusting guard towers and huge dish antennas pointed directly upward at the facility, in a field surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and evergreen forests.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia's Emergency Situations Minister, told Ekho Moskvy radio that the fire spread through the building along burning cables, much as a fire spread in Moscow's Ostankino television tower last summer. That blaze knocked out television broadcasts to the capital for three days.

Perminov said the cause of the fire had not yet been determined. But ITAR-Tass reported it was caused by a short-circuit under the building and had spread to all three stories through communications networks.

-------- u.s. nuc facilities

-------- arizona

Navajo uranium workers file suit to get implementation of RECA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2001

From: Lori Goodman
Contacts: Lori Goodman (970) 259-0199 cell: (970) 759-1908
Melton Martinez (505) 287-3848
Hazel Merritt (435) 651-3402

Window Rock, AZ - Navajo Nation

The people of the Navajo Nation are telling the United States government to "obey the law." Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, the Eastern Navajo Agency Uranium Workers, the Northern Arizona Navajo Downwinders, the Utah Navajo Downwinders, and other individuals from around the Four Corners Region have filed suit against United States attorney general John Ashcroft, accusing the federal government of coordinated neglect by the federal government to deny justice to elder uranium workers. "It is a sad chapter in the ongoing legacy of uranium mining in the Four Corners states," said Melton Martinez, director of the Eastern Navajo Agency Uranium Workers.

Martinez is referring to the federal government's failure to issue regulations and for the practice of issuing IOU's instead of cash payments to former uranium miners, millers and others who qualify under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) as amended in the summer of 2000. In another move that people here see as nothing but a stalling tactic, government representatives have proposed moving administration of the payments from the department of justice to the department of labor.

Holding an IOU dated Dec 2000, Navajo elder and plaintiff Bernie Cly states, "RECA was suppose to be an apology payment from the government because they failed to tell us the truth about the harmful effects of radiation when they knew all along."

"As native Americans, our cultural beliefs instruct respect for our elders and it is our responsibility to look after our elders," said Ms. Hazel Merritt, president of the Utah Navajo Downwinders, one of the plaintiffs. Ms. Merritt referring to aging miners who are dying of lung cancers and other diseases related to their radiation exposure. "We can no longer stand by and watch their human rights abused, as more elder miners die destitute while the United States government they served fails to provide their just compensation."

Plaintiffs accuse the government of "coordinated excuses and empty words" that have yet to translate into any action. While they do not want to accuse the government of deliberately stalling, they are asking that the government take action soon.

In March, campaigns across the four corner states sent a clear message to congressional representatives: "Obey the Law". Activists gathered in numerous communities throughout the Four Corners region asking the government to forego the proposed move of RECA Program from DOJ to DOL, develop RECA Amendment 2000 regulations for payment as soon as possible (a task that was supposed to be completed within 180 days of the bill's signing into law last July), and replenish the RECA trust fund (now empty) to pay off IOU's and pay future claims.

"RECA was supposed to be about making compassionate payments to our elders who gave their lives for this country." Concluded Merritt. "It's time the government stepped up and did it."

Dine' CARE 10 A Town Plaza, PMB 138 Durango, CO 81301 (970) 259-0199 phone (970) 259-3413 fax web: dinecare.indigenousnative.org

-------- New Mexico

First South Carolina Shipment Arrives at WIPP

May 10, 2001
The Associated Press
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1wipp05-10-01.htm

CARLSBAD, N.M. - The first radioactive shipment from a former nuclear weapons plant in South Carolina has arrived at the federal government's underground disposal site in southeastern New Mexico.

The shipment of 42 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste left the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., Tuesday and arrived at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant east of Carlsbad at 1:40 a.m. MDT Thursday.

The 1,540-mile trip took about 39 1/2 hours, including time for the drivers to stop and inspect the truck every 100 miles or two hours as required by U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.

Savannah River is expected to send about 1,800 shipments to WIPP over about 33 years.

It is the fifth site in the nation's nuclear weapons complex to ship waste to WIPP. Since the repository opened in March 1999, it has gotten waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, Rocky Flats near Denver, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the Hanford site in Washington state.

During the next 35 years, WIPP officials expect to transport 19,300 loads of radioactive waste from more than 20 locations nationwide.

The waste is stored 2,150 feet underground in rooms excavated from ancient salt beds. Disposal rooms are 300 feet long, 33 feet wide and 13 feet high, and will hold about 12,000 55-gallon drums of waste.

-------- north carolina

Duke Energy defends mixed-oxide nuclear fuel plan

USA: May 10, 2001
Story by James Pierpoint
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10758

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Duke Energy executives defended this week a plan to use mixed-oxide fuel at two North Carolina nuclear power plants and said the project's impact on the company's costs and profits would be "inconsequential".

Michael Tuckman, senior vice president of nuclear operations for the company's Duke Power utility subsidiary, assured concerned residents its plan to convert 33 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium into nuclear fuel for its reactors would be carried out safely.

"You have given us your trust and we are not going to misuse that," Tuckman said at a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing in Charlotte, North Carolina. "What we're trying to do is something to help non-proliferation in this world. That is our aim."

Environmentalists at the meeting repeated a laundry list of concerns about the project, ranging from fears the plutonium could be hijacked in transport to a scenario that the hotter-burning fuel could contribute to a reactor meltdown.

"Duke Power is doing this for greed, and don't let them fool you. This is all about money," said Denise Lee, a member of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.

The U.S. Department of Energy is seeking to dispose of 50 tonnes of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, blending two-thirds with uranium to form the mixed-oxide fuel, and encasing the rest in ceramic so it can be "immobilized".

A consortium that includes Duke Power, a U.S. unit of French nuclear reprocessing firm COGEMA, and contracting firm Stone & Webster, beat out two other bidders to construct a plant to blend the fuel, which then would be loaded into two Duke nuclear reactors beginning in about 2007.

REMNANT OF THE COLD WAR

Duke Power in 2004 plans to seek amendments to its NRC licenses for both its McGuire and Catawba plants, after testing mixed-oxide fuel assemblies in one or both of the plants the prior year. Both are located on lakes outside Charlotte.

Company executives said local residents have been largely supportive. The company last week held three open houses - two at the nuclear plants and one at its Charlotte headquarters - for customers to voice concerns, and seven people showed up.

Duke Power engineer Milton Hopkins, who attended the Tuesday evening hearing, said he has more than a professional interest in seeing the mixed-oxide fuel project move ahead.

During the Cold War, Hopkins, 59, was an electronic warfare officer on a U.S. Air Force B-52 armed with nuclear warheads, some of which he now is helping to neutralize.

"When we were on alert, we were ready for the call if the president said go to it," he told Reuters. "Now we're getting rid of the weapons material and burning it for electricity."

"It's a great feeling to be a part of that," he said.

-------- us nuc politics

White House Asks Unions to Meet on Energy Policy

May 10, 2001
By FRANK BRUNI and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/politics/10ENER.html

WASHINGTON, May 9 - In an effort to generate support from organized labor for its new energy policy, the Bush administration, has invited officers of about a dozen unions to the White House next Monday for a confidential preview of the policy.

The administration had made few successful overtures to labor, but it is seeking - and expects to win - union support for its energy plans, which will call for extensive new oil and gas drilling, the laying of pipelines and the construction of power plants. All of that could translate into thousands of union jobs.

"They're going to look for support for their energy policy wherever they can," said a Republican strategist familiar with the administration's carefully orchestrated efforts to sell the policy. "And they're finding an unlikely bedfellow in labor, which would be a huge beneficiary from drilling and from building plants."

The administration's courtship of organized labor could drive a wedge between unions and environmental advocacy groups, which complain that the administration has made little effort to work with them. Andrew D. Lundquist, who directed Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, invited environmental organizations to a meeting, but the groups said he did not solicit substantive recommendations.

The Teamsters and Laborers International unions - which will be represented at Monday's meeting with Mr. Cheney and Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao - have already come out in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"We view this as a jobs opportunity," said Mike Mathis, the government affairs director for the Teamsters International, who will accompany the union's president, James P. Hoffa, to the meeting.

Union workers and environmentalists have been allied on trade issues and overwhelmingly supported Vice President Al Gore's presidential candidacy last year. None of the unions invited to the White House on Monday endorsed President Bush.

The courtship of labor also comes as President Bush prepares to press his bid to win authority from Congress to negotiate new trade deals with Latin America and countries around the globe. The intensity of organized labor's efforts to oppose that bid - as it did when President Bill Clinton unsuccessfully sought such authority - could prove decisive.

Environmental groups are already criticizing the energy plan as increasing pollution and giving to the energy interests that contributed to Mr. Bush's presidential campaign.

The environmental groups will coordinate an assault on the plan next week when it is released, with local demonstrations and lobbying efforts to steer Congress toward a strategy based on efficiency, conservation and renewable resources, leaders of several organizations said today.

The groups are also considering a television advertising campaign, based in part on polling by Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster who has advised the organizations on how to pitch their argument.

Mr. Mellman said his research shows that people overwhelmingly believe that energy problems in California and nationwide are not the result of underlying shortages but of corporate profiteering.

"There is a very strong belief that George Bush and this administration represent the interests of big business, including the oil companies and utilities, exactly the people who seem to be manufacturing this crisis for their own benefit," Mr. Mellman said.

At a news conference today, representatives of several environmental groups questioned virtually every assumption of the Bush energy plan. For example, they challenged the idea that the nation was in an energy crisis, saying that was an argument intended to spur Congress to roll back environmental laws and increase the profits of oil, gas, coal and nuclear power companies.

Dave Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, "The reason that this Bush energy plan emphasizes production is not because the private sector needs help in increasing production, it's that they need the Bush government's help in overturning environmental, health and safety laws."

A memorandum Mr. Mellman prepared for the Sierra Club says that voters oppose all of the energy proposals offered by the administration. His polling shows, for example, that 69 percent of voters oppose relaxing clean air standards and 68 percent oppose drilling for oil in national monuments. The proposal with the least opposition, 48 percent, was building more nuclear power plants.

Monday's meeting is part of a larger campaign by the White House to lay the groundwork for its energy initiatives, a campaign that has included months of research into how best to frame and talk about the plan to make Americans comfortable. The energy-related polling and focus groups conducted by the Republican National Committee have been more extensive than on any issue other than the economy, party officials said.

Administration officials confirmed Monday's meeting with union officials but would not provide details.

But union and political officials familiar with the discussions about the meeting said representatives from about a dozen unions, chosen because they would likely benefit from drilling and construction projects, had been invited and more than half would probably attend. In addition to the Teamsters and Laborers, the unions invited include the Carpenters, Iron Workers and Operating Engineers.

Representatives from several of those unions said they did not see this as the beginning of a newly cozy relationship between the administration and organized labor but as a finite area of shared interest.

Zack Matus, a spokesman for the laborers union, said that despite the potential benefits to organized labor from the energy policy, the Bush administration's attitude toward unions had been "neglect, and it's nowhere close to benign neglect."

Mr. Matus was referring to executive orders and rules issued by the administration that overturned worker protections put in place by Mr. Clinton or that made it easier for federal jobs to go to nonunion crews.

The White House has had at least two other sessions to build support for the energy plan. Administration officials recently met with representatives of the nuclear power industry, and at a meeting about 10 days ago, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met with representatives from the coal mining industry and politicians from regions that depend economically on coal production.

-------- MILITARY

Pilotless planes will revolutionize warfare

05/10/2001
By John Omicinski,
Gannett News Service
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/2001-05-10-pilotless.htm

WASHINGTON - A few days ago, when a funny-looking, bulb-nosed white aircraft completed a historic 23-hour, 8,600-mile, nonstop jaunt across the Pacific and glided onto a runway in Australia, no big crowds awaited.

No cheers for the pilot, no Lindbergh-like welcome. No triumphal wave from the cockpit window.

There was neither a cockpit window nor a pilot.

The aircraft was an RQ-4A Global Hawk, largest of a breed of pilotless airships that will change warfare.

They come in all sizes - from as small as your hand to the largest, the Global Hawk, which at 15 yards is about the length of an F-16 fighter. They take photos and video of targets and target areas and relay data instantly. Some are being rigged to carry missiles.

Though Global Hawk has been flying successfully for several years, the Australia flight put it in the headlines. "It moved us from being a technology that was slightly suspect to one that is established," said Cynthia Curiel of Northrop Grumman Corp. "It brought us into the present, not the future."

Air Force officials say the Pacific was a genuine challenge for the Hawk, because of the 100-below temperatures above the equator, the coldest place in the troposphere.

When you look at Global Hawk, you either love it or double over laughing.

It resembles an ungainly right whale with glider wings - glamorous it is not.

But without refueling or bathroom stops, sandwiches or drinks for a crew, it can stay up as long as 36 hours. The Air Force hopes to develop a similar aircraft that can stay up for 72 hours at a time.

Boasting a 13,500-mile range, the 44.4-foot long Global Hawk has a 116-foot wingspan. Like its namesake, it can wheel in slow circles over its prey for hours, keeping U.S. troops informed of movements.

Global Hawk lazes along at 359 knots - much slower than a passenger airliner. But its goal is to take snapshots, not to fight wars or deliver passengers.

Programmers punch a prescribed route into the Hawk's computer before it leaves terra firma, but that course can be changed while in flight. "Cruise missiles are programmed, too," said Curiel, "but it can't be changed in flight. And cruise missiles don't come back."

So far, Global Hawk has flown as high as 65,191 feet, and someday may become a pilotless replacement for U-2 spy planes, now more than 40 years old.

But Air Force officials say that day is far down the road, because U-2s fly above 80,000 feet and the Hawk's modified Rolls-Royce engine probably cannot match that. "It's not designed for thinner air; we're concerned about a flameout if we go that high," said Maj. Jim McCormick of the Air Force Special Projects Office.

The Hawk and similar unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) - some the size of a human hand and guided by something like a Palm Pilot - will go where humans dare not go, at costs far lower than traditional aircraft.

Until the 1990s, work on UAVs centered on production of flying targets for military aircraft, as well as decoys that could zigzag into a combat area ahead of manned fighters, to confuse the air defenses.

Next in line are the spy UAVs and sometime in the future, the attack UAVs.

These are in the works or in the nation's fleet:

- After years of hemming and hawing, the Pentagon is moving ahead full speed with the Global Hawk, planning to build 63 by 2021. At about $12 million each, they cost considerably less than your average recon plane. Pentagon officials said the Navy's EP-3 propeller-driven aircraft that crash-landed on Hainan Island after a collision with a Chinese jet fighter was worth $80 million.

The Hawk gets $161.5 million in the current budget.

- The "Predator," an unmanned craft that proved its reconnaissance capability in the Kosovo air war, is being redesigned to carry missiles. "We can do it," said Maj. Ed Topps, chief of special projects for the Air Force. "But we don't know if development will go ahead."

Predator gets about $85 million in the 2001 budget. It costs about $3.2 million a copy with all electronic bells and whistles installed.

- The "Black Widow," a propeller-driven, palm-sized micro-air vehicle (MAV), is under development for the Pentagon by AeroVironment of Simi Valley, Calif. Powered by lithium batteries, the "Widow" is little larger than a hand and can be used by ground troops to find and identify enemy forces within a few miles.

At the moment, the "Widow" can fly at 43 mph for 20 minutes. Developers hope to raise that to an hour. An on-board radar sends live images back to a receiver, making it priceless to a company commander wondering what's ahead on the battlefield.

- AeroVironment also is working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on a pilotless craft called Helios, designed to fly for months at a time.

-------- arms sales

Palestinian Admits to Weapons Shipment
[Who will report on Israeli weapons shipments? et]

By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6841-2001May9?language=printer

DAMASCUS, Syria, May 9 -- Radical Palestinian leader Ahmed Jibril acknowledged his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command organized the arms shipment seized Sunday by the Israeli navy off the Gaza Strip. He pledged to continue funneling what he called defensive antitank, antipersonnel and antiaircraft weapons to the Palestinians to help their uprising against Israeli rule.

"This is not the first cargo to go to the Palestinians, and it won't be the last," Jibril said in an interview late Tuesday in his Damascus office. "We are trying to help our people . . . who are suffering under the killing of women and children by the Israeli government. . . . We want to help any Palestinian who would like to make resistance."

Jibril said the weapons, including shoulder-launched Strella antiaircraft missiles, Katyusha rockets and antitank munitions, "would be used to resist against the siege . . . around Palestinian villages. . . . We are trying to make a balance of power between the Palestinian intifada and the Israelis, to make the Israelis fear the possibilities."

Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority denied any knowledge of the shipment, and Jibril said that the arms were destined for "anonymous" fighters, not necessarily the Palestinian Authority. He would not say how the arms were paid for or where they originated.

Jibril declined to detail Syria's role. But he said President Bashar Assad, like the Palestinians, has reached a point he described as "desperate" and is convinced Israel does not really want peace with its Arab neighbors.

"There was never any help from any surrounding state or regime," Jibril said, but "we . . . declare always that if you could not give us help . . . leave us in our own way to try."

-------- balkans

Bush Links Aid to Yugoslavia to the Extradition of Milosevic

New York Times
May 10, 2001
By MARC LACEY
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/world/10YUGO.html

WASHINGTON, May 9 - President Bush told President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia today that American financial aid to Belgrade would depend on cooperation with the war crimes tribunal at The Hague.

Mr. Kostunica did not commit to handing over his predecessor, Slobodan Milosevic, but did say that he was pushing to have his country's law changed by the end of May so that Belgrade can cooperate with the international tribunal investigating war crimes against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.

The White House saw Mr. Kostunica's remarks as a first step and an evolution in his thinking from just a month ago when he refused outright to hand over the former president. But administration officials continued to press Mr. Kostunica to move further and allow a foreign trial of Mr. Milosevic.

Washington holds considerable leverage as Mr. Kostunica tries to attract foreign investment to rebuild his battered country. Yugoslavia was invited to rejoin the World Bank this week but the White House has said it will not take part in a donors' conference where Belgrade is seeking to raise as much as $1 billion to recover from more than a decade of war, economic sanctions and misrule.

In a speech today at the Cato Institute, a conservative public policy center in Washington, Mr. Kostunica urged the West to give his country "a shot of economic adrenaline" without imposing political conditions on the assistance. He spoke of the importance of trying Mr. Milosevic in Yugoslavia to promote justice among the people who suffered under his leadership.

"Justice is very important because we have been living for a long time with something that is contrary to justice," Mr. Kostunica said. "It should be in their hands and not the hands of foreigners."

The new president, who translated the Federalist Papers into Serbian years ago, invoked the founding of America in urging officials in the United States to give Yugoslavia time to evolve. "Democracy cannot be imposed by above," he said in his speech, adding, "We understand that you do not want to be mired in our region indefinitely."

The Bush administration took pains today to send Mr. Kostunica a dual message: praise for Yugoslavia's democratic progress coupled with a firm demand that Belgrade extradict Mr. Milosevic.

Mr. Kostunica was granted a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House and Mr. Bush dropped by for about 10 minutes with Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser.

"The president stated clearly that Milosevic must face justice for his international crimes," said Mary Ellen Countryman, a White House spokeswoman. She added that Mr. Bush welcomed the improved relations between the United States and Yugoslavia and that he was ready to help Belgrade with its democratic transition once Mr. Kostunica agreed to cooperate with The Hague.

Mr. Kostunica received more pressure this afternoon from Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said the disagreement over Mr. Milosevic did not compare to the divisions between the United States and Yugoslavia in recent years. "The context in which we're meeting is not a context of negotiating over some horrible things that have happened but it's of discussing cooperation over some wonderful things that have happened," Mr. Boucher said.

--------

Report of Bodies Hidden in Danube in '99

New York Times
May 10, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/world/10KOSO.html

BELGRADE, Serbia, May 9 - Serbian police officials said today that they were investigating the reported discovery of 50 bodies in a submerged truck that had been dumped into the Danube during NATO's 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia.

The case has received wide coverage in Belgrade news media since a little-known publication in eastern Serbia specializing in crime reported last month on the discover.

A local human rights group, saying there were reliable indications that Serbian forces destroyed evidence of crimes against Kosovo Albanians during the war, drew attention this month to the report in the Timocka Krimi Revija and demanded an investigation.

Western governments and human rights groups have charged Serbian police and the Yugoslav Army, then under the control of Slobodan Milosevic, with widespread atrocities against ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 Kosovo conflict.

The Red Cross office in Kosovo said earlier this year that about 3,500 Kosovo residents, mainly ethnic Albanians, were still missing.

The Timocka Krimi Revija said the 50 bodies were found near the eastern Serbian village of Tekija.

-------- iraq

Iraq Takes Credit for No - Fly Zone

New York Times
May 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq-US.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi air defenses are forcing the United States to re-evaluate its air patrols over north and south Iraq, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Thursday.

The reason that the Americans are reconsidering the patrols ``is their fear of Iraqi air defenses,'' Aziz told reporters.

The deputy prime minister was responding to reports from Washington that top U.S. commanders were voicing concern over risking an allied pilot to Iraqi air defenses. U.S. and British warplanes patrol no-fly zones over north and south Iraq that were set up after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to protect rebels from government forces.

Although no decision has been made, U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston, commander of the U.S. European Command, has made it known that he questions whether the benefit of full-time enforcement of the northern no-fly zone is worth the risk, U.S. officials in Washington said.

Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the head of U.S. Central Command, has presented the U.S. administration with several options as part of a re-evaluation of U.S. policy toward Iraq, said Lt. Col. Rick Thomas, a Central Command spokesman. The European Command enforces the northern zone and the Central Command is responsible for the southern zone.

Iraqi air defense gunners have been challenging U.S. and British planes more regularly in recent weeks, according to U.S. officials in Washington.

``It is the Iraqi steadfastness that forced the Americans to reconsider their policies,'' Aziz said.

``This is a lesson that we should all learn from. Those people do not accept international law or logic. They are not going to change their attitude unless they are confronted by strong resistance and steadfastness,'' he said.

-------- space

Air Force Ready for 'Guns in Space'

MAY 10, 12:13 EST
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_package.html?FRONTID=WORLD&PACKAGEID=military&STORYID=APIS7BTBS8O0

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Air Force is prepared to develop a capability to ``take our guns into space'' if the Bush administration decides to move forward with space weaponry, a senior Air Force general said Thursday.

``If the policy decision is made to take our guns into space that will be decided by our civilian leadership,'' said Lt. Gen. Robert Foglesong, deputy chief of staff for air and space operations.

Foglesong was commenting on an announcement this week by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the Air Force will oversee all aspects of U.S. space policy as it pertains to national security. Critics said Rumsfeld was laying the groundwork for putting weapons into space, although the focus of Rumsfeld's approach is on the importance of defending U.S. space interests, not space warfare.

The Air Force has long advocated what it calls ``space control,'' which could include offensive weaponry to deny an enemy the use of space for combat operations against the United States or its allies.

For now, Foglesong said, the Air Force is focused on space operations such as launching satellites, or defensive operations such as protecting U.S. military satellites and their communications links against potential interference.

In a session with reporters, Foglesong was asked about a letter Rumsfeld sent to Congress this week in which he addressed the issue of potential offensive actions in space.

``The Department of the Air Force will be assigned responsibility to organize, train and equip for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive space operations,'' Rumsfeld wrote in explaining how he wants to reorganize the Defense Department's approach to managing national security space activities such as satellite operations.

When a reporter noted that Rumsfeld included the term ``offensive'' space operations, Foglesong replied, ``Potentially that.''

-------- taiwan

Taiwan Inaugurates New Squadron

By Annie Huang
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010510/aponline063207_000.htm

HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Taiwan's leader inaugurated 58 French-made Mirage fighter jets and their advanced radar-guided missiles on Thursday, and urged China to "give up your military threat against us."

Addressing pilots standing in front of the jets' grey nose cones at this air base in northern Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian said that by putting into service the Mirage 2000-5s, Taiwan will have a more powerful deterrent to a possible Chinese invasion.

Chen said that over the past few years, Beijing has sought to expand its air and naval activities along the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait, but Taiwan's air force has protected the island's skies without provoking the enemy.

"We don't intend to aggressively expand our military or engage in an arms race, and I earnestly urge the Chinese communists to give up your military threat against us and seek to replace conflict with dialogue," Chen said.

"But at this stage, we must continue to strengthen our war preparedness to safeguard our national security," he said.

Taiwanese pilots began training in France in 1992 when Taiwan signed the $6 billion Mirage deal that came along with 1,200 medium-range Mica missiles and an unspecified number of short-range Magic 2 missiles. Beijing fiercely protested the deal, and in recent years France has declined to sell Taiwan more weapons.

Taiwan took delivery of the Mirages in 1997 and 1998, after it received 150 U.S.-built F-16 fighters.

A scheduled air show was canceled Thursday at the Hsinchu Air Base, 90 minutes from Taipei, because of overcast skies.

After the brief ceremony, Chen climbed into a Mirage cockpit and raised his arms in a victory sign to the applause of pilots in orange jumpsuits and their wives.

Taiwan and China have been governed separately since a civil war in 1949. China considers the island to be a breakaway province to be reunited with the mainland and has threatened to retake it by force if necessary.

Taiwan has sought to modernize its weaponry in recent years to counter China's aggressive arms buildup, and many analysts believe Taiwan can maintain its air supremacy over China at least until 2005.

Washington recently agreed to sell Taiwan diesel-electric submarines, patrol planes and Kidd-class destroyers, among other advanced weapons. Beijing protested the decision.

-------- u.n.

Peacekeeping costs seen rising sharply

May 10, 2001
By Betsy Pisik
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010510-3522766.htm

NEW YORK -- U.N. officials are warning that expenses for global peacekeeping missions could jump by at least 50 percent this year, imposing a financial burden on the world body at a time when Congress is threatening to withhold U.S. dues.

Four recently authorized or expanded peacekeeping missions in Africa will account for the majority of the increase, U.N. financial experts said Tuesday.

When individual budgets are completed for each of the organization´s 15 missions, officials said the final cost of peacekeeping for the 12 months ending June 30 could rise to $2.6 billion from $1.7 billion for the like period a year earlier.

"There is already significant concern about the cost of peacekeeping and this concern has been heightened because of the changes in the peacekeeping assessment process which increased the number of countries who pay a significant amount," said American envoy Donald Hays, who oversees budget and management issues for the U.S. Mission.

As of July, he said, about 40 countries will pay a significant amount of the U.N. peacekeeping budget.

In an interview yesterday, he said that governments with significant contributions "find anything much higher than that insupportable."

The current peacekeeping budget is $2.5 billion, meaning that the United Nations should be able to absorb much of the anticipated increase.

The Bush administration has proposed spending about $845 million for peacekeeping in the fiscal year that begins in October.

Concerns over the rising peacekeeping budget come at a time of growing anger on Capitol Hill over the recent ouster of the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Some lawmakers have threatened to withhold U.S. dues to the world body as Congress this week takes up legislation to pay $582 million in back dues to the regular U.N. budget.

"It is impossible to foresee whether the human rights [commission] issue that has arisen this week will play a significant role in the [peacekeeping] discussion," Mr. Hays said. "In the past, Washington has taken very seriously its role as watchdog of the purse."

Conrad S.M. Mselle, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, told the U.N. General Assembly Budget Committee on Tuesday that the number of peacekeepers was on the rise.

The peacekeeping department deployed 41,805 troops and observers in March, compared with 29,286 the year before, and 12,461 in March 1999.

Final budgets have not yet been submitted for rapidly expanding "missions in transition" in East Timor, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Congo or southern Lebanon, said U.N. Controller Jean-Pierre Halbwachs.

Planning for peacekeeping is typically fraught with uncertainty.

One case in point is the Congo mission, which the United Nations created in December 1999. Although it has an authorized troop strength of 5,537, fewer than 230 personnel were ever deployed.

But with the new government in Kinshasa negotiating peace with neighboring nations that have supplied troops to both sides in Congo´s civil war, the peacekeeping mission is starting to show signs of life. And that will get expensive.

The Congo mission is currently budgeted at $141 million, a figure that Mr. Halbwachs and Mr. Hays said could increase by $140 million.

"Peacekeeping is an ongoing, never-ending process," Mr. Hays said.

----

House vote will link aid to criminal court

May 10, 2001
By Dave Boyer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20010510-641507.htm

The House will vote today on a Republican proposal to withhold U.S. aid from any nation that approves of prosecuting U.S. military personnel in a new International Criminal Court (ICC).

The legislation, introduced by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, would prohibit the United States from letting U.S. service members be extradited for international prosecution as war criminals.

It would also prohibit U.S. forces from taking part in any U.N. peacekeeping operation unless they have been exempted from prosecution in the ICC.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that American soldiers are not brought before an international tribunal, easily guided by political considerations and vendettas, where they could be prosecuted and imprisoned for simply carrying out orders," Mr. DeLay said in a statement.

President Clinton signed the treaty establishing the ICC on Dec. 31, despite strong objections from the Pentagon about the threat it created to U.S. military personnel. Mr. Clinton did not submit the pact to the Senate for ratification, nor has President Bush.

Sens. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, and Zell Miller, Georgia Democrat, are expected to introduce a similar measure in the Senate today.

U.S. military forces could be brought before the international court even if the United States is not a party to the treaty. Mr. DeLay´s measure seeks to prevent that.

The provision would:

Prohibit U.S. military assistance to any nation that participates in the ICC. The president could waive this restriction if the country agrees not to prosecute U.S. personnel.

Authorize the president to use "any means necessary" to bring about the release of U.S. or allied personnel imprisoned by the ICC.

Bar the transfer of any classified information to the court.

A letter to Mr. DeLay last November signed by several former secretaries of defense and state, including current Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, called his provision "an appropriate response to the threat to American sovereignty and international freedom of action posed by the" ICC.

The measure will be offered during a floor debate as the House decides whether to withhold payment of U.S. dues to the United Nations.

Two former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations yesterday cautioned that the initiative, undertaken in retaliation for the U.S. loss of its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, was misguided.

"I do not support withholding dues to the United Nations. It is not useful," said Jeane Kirkpatrick, ambassador to the United Nations under President Reagan. "It is not the United Nations, but the member states who vote. It is an inappropriate kind of statement."

Bill Richardson, ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton, agreed.

"I do not think it makes sense to cut U.N. dues. It just gives more ammunition to the repressive regimes. It will be counterproductive and an albatross around the neck of the new ambassador. It does not send the right signal," he said.

The ambassadors were speaking at a Freedom House forum on Capitol Hill to address the cause and results of the United States being voted off the U.N. Human Rights Commission last week.

Both attributed the loss of the U.S. seat to a failure of U.S. diplomacy to secure the seat, a lobbying campaign by the world´s leading human rights violators to punish the United States, and resentment from U.S. allies in Europe over U.S. power, wealth and influence beyond its borders.

But an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute said the actions of the Human Rights Commission underscore the case against the war-crimes court.

"The United Nations Human Rights Commission has a long history of hypocrisy ... and that hypocrisy is a reminder of how dangerous it would be for the United States to enter the International Criminal Court," said Joshua Muravchik, a specialist on human rights.

-------- u.s.

Lack of Parts Grounds Army Choppers

By Libby Quaid
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, May 10, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010510/aponline184927_000.htm

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 60 percent of the Army National Guard's helicopters can't take off because they lack spare parts, according to Pentagon data released Thursday by Missouri Sen. Kit Bond.

In Bond's home state, the shortage of parts means Army National Guard helicopter pilots are only able to put in 20 percent to 30 percent of the flight time required to maintain their flight and mission proficiency, he said.

"Our pilots are not getting minimally accepted levels of flight training," said Bond, a Republican on the Appropriations Committee's defense spending panel. "The helicopter fleet has been plagued by groundings because of concerns that helicopters may be too unsafe to fly."

According to Pentagon figures, the Army National Guard has a fleet of 1,885 helicopters. Of that number, 1,116, or 59 percent, can't take off.

The problem is most pronounced among the UH-1H Huey transport helicopters and the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. Of 476 Hueys, 382, or 80 percent, are grounded. And 73 percent of the 351 Cobras can't take off. The Army is phasing out the Cobra, a combat mainstay since the Vietnam War that now averages 30 years old.

Modernizing the aging fleet has been a high priority of the Army National Guard for some time. The emphasis comes as the shrinking Army grows more reliant on the Guard to provide help with peacetime missions at home and abroad.

Republicans and Democrats say the parts shortage highlights the need for Congress to spend additional funds on the military for the current fiscal year and not wait until subsequent years.

Bond called the parts shortage "an outrage" and added he's asked the Army for a plan to fix the problem.

The Bush administration is holding off on a request for supplemental money until Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld completes his military-wide review of everything from the quality of life for U.S. servicemen to financing the $310 billion annual operation of the Pentagon.

The review could be finished as early as next week.

Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, saw evidence of a parts shortage during a visit in March to the USS Jefferson City in San Diego. The need to borrow parts had grounded 17 helicopters at North Island Naval Air Station, Skelton said.

"They are cannibalizing Navy helicopters, and training will be either curtailed or cut off at many bases or posts unless we have a supplemental right away," Skelton said.

Army shortages appear less severe. "It's not a problem in every system," said Bob Hunt, spokesman for the Army Aviation and Missile Command.

Measurements are done in available flying time rather than aircraft numbers and include National Guard inventory. In the past month, Huey combat helicopters were unavailable 36 percent of the time, Hunt said. Percentages for other aircraft were smaller: Apache, 4 percent; Black Hawk, 6 percent; Chinook, 5 percent; OH-58A Kiowa, 7 percent; OH-58D Kiowa, 2 percent.

"The percentages are worse in reality," Hunt added, "because of our ability to use controlled substitution (parts from other aircraft) and mask the problem with supply."

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

How It Works: Fuel Cells Provide Clean, Reliable (and Pricey) Electricity

May 10, 2001
By CATHERINE GREENMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/technology/10HOWW.html

IF New York City had a power blackout, the Central Park police station would continue to glow like a beacon inside a dark forest. That's because the station gets all its electricity from a 200- kilowatt fuel cell right outside the building, not from utility lines. The fuel cell, which is about the size of a small delivery truck, produces a reassuring low hum.

Fuel cells are one of the cleanest and most efficient technologies for producing electricity. They turn oxygen and hydrogen into electricity in the presence of electrolytes, charged particles in solution. Fuel cells emit negligible amounts of pollutants. They work somewhat like batteries, in that both use electrolytes and electrodes to conduct current, but the cells use a constant source of fuel (usually natural gas for the hydrogen and air for the oxygen) so they don't lose their charge as batteries do.

In this age of rolling blackouts, fuel cells are often seen as a reliable source of backup power. "We're really high on the technology," said Michael Saltzman, a spokesman for the New York Power Authority. "The end user has the generator capacity right at their doorstep, so there's no relying on transmission and distribution lines. And by virtue of that, you're more certain that you have reliable power."

Fuel cells were invented more than 150 years ago, although the first modern ones, producing useful amounts of power, were not developed until after World War II.

NASA financed fuel cell projects in the 1960's and 70's in an effort to develop compact generators for its spacecraft. NASA's cells use tanks of liquefied hydrogen and liquefied oxygen as fuel (it was a fuel cell's oxygen tank that exploded during the Apollo 13 flight, crippling the mission).

Most of the commercially available fuel cells today use phosphoric acid as the electrolyte. Some 200 phosphoric acid fuel cells in use around the world are made and sold by one company, International Fuel Cells, based in South Windsor, Conn.

Newer types of fuel cells use other materials as the electrolyte. One of the most promising is called a proton-exchange membrane, or PEM, cell, and uses a polymer electrolyte membrane instead of an electrolyte in solution. PEM cells, which are being developed by International Fuel Cells and other companies, can be lighter than other kinds of fuel cells so they are being studied for use in cars and buses. They also operate at lower temperatures.

As well regarded as fuel cells are, very few companies and even fewer individual homeowners actually use them because of their high cost. A 200- kilowatt phosphoric acid fuel cell system manufactured by International Fuel Cells costs about $900,000, or $4,500 per kilowatt. A diesel generator of similar capacity costs $800 to $1,500 per kilowatt.

"For homes that average a kilowatt of power for a whole year, it's very difficult to save enough money by undercutting the cost of the utilities," said Dr. Jack Brouwer, the associate director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California at Irvine. "It would be better to go into the stock market than to pay for the capital of this thing sitting in your basement and expect to save money."

Dr. Brouwer said the success of the fuel cell industry would depend on its ability to gain customers and manufacturing experience through niche markets that can pay more for reliable power. Credit card companies, for example, may be willing to spend almost a million dollars on a 200-kilowatt fuel cell, Dr. Brouwer said, because they can lose millions of dollars an hour if the power supply is interrupted. (First National Bank of Omaha uses four units from International Fuel Cells so it can have an independent power supply if the grid power goes out.)

But most companies, even those in California, which has electricity shortages, are shying away from fuel cells' high cost. And companies can need much more power, in the megawatt range, than fuel cells can easily supply.

Other potential markets include houses in remote areas beyond the reach of power lines. Plug Power, based in Latham, N.Y., is developing PEM fuel cells with maximum outputs of 150 kilowatts that are aimed at residential and light-commercial uses.

"There's a lot of discussion about what the right size fuel cell is for the typical home," said Mark Sperry, the chief marketing officer at Plug Power, "but when you do the math and consider that most consumers pay about 8 to 12 cents a kilowatt, you've really got to get the capital costs of a fuel cell down to about $500 a kilowatt before you sell to individuals."

Dr. Tom Kreutz, a research scientist at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Princeton University, said another potential niche market was in lightweight fuel cells for laptops and cell phones because some people would be willing to pay a premium for longer battery life. "The thing with fuel cells is they're very expensive so you've got to find some value proposition to sell them," Dr. Kreutz said. "Phosphoric acid and PEM marketers are looking for places where people want to pay for reliability and longer battery life."

----

US energy plan will endorse biofuels - Senator

USA: May 10, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10765

WASHINGTON - A broad White House proposal to promote more oil and gas drilling will also back more funding for biofuels, which are made from crop and animal waste, the head of the Senate Agriculture Committee said yesterday.

The recommendation, part of a plan to trim U.S. imports of oil, will please lawmakers from economically depressed farm states who have urged policy makers to pay more attention to ethanol and other renewable biofuels.

"By replacing as little as 10 percent of oil imports with domestically produced biofuels and biochemicals produced from plants, America will diversify its energy portfolio and reap enormous economic, strategic and environmental benefits," Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who heads the farm panel, said in a statement.

Vice President Dick Cheney, the former head of oilfield services giant Halliburton Co, heads the White House energy task force. The panel is expected to release its recommendations for a long-term energy plan on May 17.

Industry and congressional sources have said the task force recommendations will emphasize new drilling for oil and natural gas, and promote the use of coal-fired power plants. The plan is also expected to offer an assortment of secondary proposals to promote new gas pipelines, hybrid-fueled cars, electricity transmission lines, and nuclear plant licensing.

Lugar said the energy task force's recommendations would also endorse more research and development of biofuels.

Lugar has backed legislation that would spend $49 million annually on biofuels research for a six-year period.

Ethanol, one of the best-known biofuels, is a corn-based gasoline substitute. About 15 billion gallons of ethanol is used annually, due largely to a federal subsidy in the form of a lower federal fuel excise tax at the gasoline pump.

But other biofuels can be made from virtually any plant, tree or grass or animal waste by breaking down the material into its chemical building blocks.

Supporters contend biofuels are cleaner-burning, reduce pollution and offer family farmers another market for their goods.

The U.S. Energy Department has estimated biofuels could eventually generate as much as $20 billion a year in new income for farmers and rural communities, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 100 million tons a year.

The Clinton administration, which launched a federal initiative to triple the nation's use of biofuels by 2010, last year created a national bioenergy center in Colorado to research ways of making the fuels cost competitive.

----

Bird lovers squawk at Dutch wind energy scheme

NETHERLANDS: May 10, 2001
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10763

AMSTERDAM - Dutch bird lovers want the government to axe plans to build 200 wind turbines along a northern dam which they say will endanger the lives of thousands of coastal and migratory birds.

Vogelbescherming, the Dutch bird protection society, handed in a formal complaint to the environment ministry on Tuesday.

Some eight million birds a year are thought to fly by the Afsluitdijk dam in the northern Netherlands where the government wants to build the turbines as part of an eco-friendly energy generation initiative.

"At night and in poor weather the birds will see the windmills too late," Vogelbescherming spokesman Hans Peeters told Reuters.

Every year thousands of birds are sucked in and sliced up by whirring wind turbine blades elsewhere in the Netherlands, the society says.

-------- energy

White House Asks Unions to Meet on Energy Policy

May 10, 2001
By FRANK BRUNI and KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/politics/10ENER.html?searchpv=site02

WASHINGTON, May 9 - In an effort to generate support from organized labor for its new energy policy, the Bush administration, has invited officers of about a dozen unions to the White House next Monday for a confidential preview of the policy.

The administration had made few successful overtures to labor, but it is seeking - and expects to win - union support for its energy plans, which will call for extensive new oil and gas drilling, the laying of pipelines and the construction of power plants. All of that could translate into thousands of union jobs.

"They're going to look for support for their energy policy wherever they can," said a Republican strategist familiar with the administration's carefully orchestrated efforts to sell the policy. "And they're finding an unlikely bedfellow in labor, which would be a huge beneficiary from drilling and from building plants."

The administration's courtship of organized labor could drive a wedge between unions and environmental advocacy groups, which complain that the administration has made little effort to work with them. Andrew D. Lundquist, who directed Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, invited environmental organizations to a meeting, but the groups said he did not solicit substantive recommendations.

The Teamsters and Laborers International unions - which will be represented at Monday's meeting with Mr. Cheney and Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao - have already come out in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"We view this as a jobs opportunity," said Mike Mathis, the government affairs director for the Teamsters International, who will accompany the union's president, James P. Hoffa, to the meeting.

Union workers and environmentalists have been allied on trade issues and overwhelmingly supported Vice President Al Gore's presidential candidacy last year. None of the unions invited to the White House on Monday endorsed President Bush.

The courtship of labor also comes as President Bush prepares to press his bid to win authority from Congress to negotiate new trade deals with Latin America and countries around the globe. The intensity of organized labor's efforts to oppose that bid - as it did when President Bill Clinton unsuccessfully sought such authority - could prove decisive.

Environmental groups are already criticizing the energy plan as increasing pollution and giving to the energy interests that contributed to Mr. Bush's presidential campaign.

The environmental groups will coordinate an assault on the plan next week when it is released, with local demonstrations and lobbying efforts to steer Congress toward a strategy based on efficiency, conservation and renewable resources, leaders of several organizations said today.

The groups are also considering a television advertising campaign, based in part on polling by Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster who has advised the organizations on how to pitch their argument.

Mr. Mellman said his research shows that people overwhelmingly believe that energy problems in California and nationwide are not the result of underlying shortages but of corporate profiteering.

"There is a very strong belief that George Bush and this administration represent the interests of big business, including the oil companies and utilities, exactly the people who seem to be manufacturing this crisis for their own benefit," Mr. Mellman said.

At a news conference today, representatives of several environmental groups questioned virtually every assumption of the Bush energy plan. For example, they challenged the idea that the nation was in an energy crisis, saying that was an argument intended to spur Congress to roll back environmental laws and increase the profits of oil, gas, coal and nuclear power companies.

Dave Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, "The reason that this Bush energy plan emphasizes production is not because the private sector needs help in increasing production, it's that they need the Bush government's help in overturning environmental, health and safety laws."

A memorandum Mr. Mellman prepared for the Sierra Club says that voters oppose all of the energy proposals offered by the administration. His polling shows, for example, that 69 percent of voters oppose relaxing clean air standards and 68 percent oppose drilling for oil in national monuments. The proposal with the least opposition, 48 percent, was building more nuclear power plants.

Monday's meeting is part of a larger campaign by the White House to lay the groundwork for its energy initiatives, a campaign that has included months of research into how best to frame and talk about the plan to make Americans comfortable. The energy-related polling and focus groups conducted by the Republican National Committee have been more extensive than on any issue other than the economy, party officials said.

Administration officials confirmed Monday's meeting with union officials but would not provide details.

But union and political officials familiar with the discussions about the meeting said representatives from about a dozen unions, chosen because they would likely benefit from drilling and construction projects, had been invited and more than half would probably attend. In addition to the Teamsters and Laborers, the unions invited include the Carpenters, Iron Workers and Operating Engineers.

Representatives from several of those unions said they did not see this as the beginning of a newly cozy relationship between the administration and organized labor but as a finite area of shared interest.

Zack Matus, a spokesman for the laborers union, said that despite the potential benefits to organized labor from the energy policy, the Bush administration's attitude toward unions had been "neglect, and it's nowhere close to benign neglect."

Mr. Matus was referring to executive orders and rules issued by the administration that overturned worker protections put in place by Mr. Clinton or that made it easier for federal jobs to go to nonunion crews.

The White House has had at least two other sessions to build support for the energy plan. Administration officials recently met with representatives of the nuclear power industry, and at a meeting about 10 days ago, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met with representatives from the coal mining industry and politicians from regions that depend economically on coal production.

-------- environment

Pesticide waste endangers millions in poor nations

ITALY: May 10, 2001
Story by David Brough
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10769&newsDate=10-May-2001

ROME - More than 500,000 tonnes of ageing pesticide waste are seriously threatening the health of millions of people and the environment in nearly all developing countries, the United Nations world food body said yesterday.

The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a new report that the build-up of toxic pesticides that have been banned or expired is dramatically higher than previous estimates of around 100,000 tonnes.

The report, entitled "Baseline study on the problem of obsolete pesticide stocks", will be discussed at a meeting of international donors in Rome on Thursday and Friday.

According to FAO, the quantities of these obsolete pesticides in Africa and the Near East are estimated at over 100,000 tonnes, in Asia at over 200,000 tonnes and in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union at more than 200,000 tonnes.

For Latin America FAO is still preparing inventories.

"The lethal legacy of obsolete pesticides is alarming and urgent action is needed to clean up waste dumps," said FAO expert Alemayehu Wodageneh.

"These 'forgotten' stocks are not only a hazard to people's health, but they also contaminate natural resources like water and soil," he added. "Leaking pesticides can poison a very large area, making it unfit for crop production."

The pesticide waste has accumulated over more than 30 years and products are being added continuously, FAO said.

The waste sites contain some of the most dangerous insecticides like the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin and heptachlor that have been banned in most countries, and organophosphates.

HEALTH RISK

As pesticides deteriorate, they form by-products which may be more toxic than the original substance.

In addition to pesticides, waste sites contain contaminated sprayers, empty pesticide containers and huge quantities of heavily polluted soil.

"Many stocks are situated near farm fields and wells in poor rural areas, as well as near houses, food stores and markets in urban areas," FAO said.

"The dumps are often abandoned, unmanaged and in very poor condition," the organisation added.

In many cases, pesticides are left in the open; stores are built in a traditional way, using mud and straw, with earth floors; metal containers are corroding and toxic substances are leaking into the ground.

"Often toxic waste sites are located in the centre of villages," FAO said. "There are hardly any security measures. Near stores of abandoned and leaking pesticides, people often prepare food and draw water, children play there and animals graze nearby."

Although there have been no systematic studies on health effects, local people complain about headaches, nausea and coughing, the world food body said.

Last month, FAO officials accompanied by a Reuters correspondent visited Ethopia, where they found metal drums leaking toxic waste at obsolete pesticide dumps located in residential areas.

Ethiopian and FAO officials said the build-up, dating back 30 or more years, was due to bad management of pesticide deliveries by the government and donors, and unscrupulous marketing by the chemicals industry of pesticides that often were not needed.

----

US allies may drop out of Kyoto - EU commissioner

SWEDEN: May 10, 2001
Story by Eva Sohlman
REUTERS
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10767

STOCKHOLM - Traditional U.S. allies Canada, Japan and Australia could follow a U.S. move to abandon the Kyoto protocol aimed at curbing global warming, an European Union commissioner said yesterday.

"I think it will be hard for them not to back the United States as their economies are so dependent on the United States," Margot Wallstrom, EU Environment Commissioner, told Reuters in an interview.

She said such a move would deepen the global climate crisis after U.S. President George W. Bush's rejected the treaty, arguing it would harm the U.S. economy and unfairly exempted developing countries.

But she expressed confidence that the United States - the world's top producer of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide - would rejoin the 1997 Kyoto protocol which had been backed by the previous Washington administration under Bill Clinton.

Wallstrom, who had attended an EU meeting on sustainable development in Stockholm, said she could not say when, as a move to rejoin was "all about timing", and that many factors affected the U.S. agenda.

"It is important we help them to dig themselves out of the hole where they sit today," Wallstrom said, referring to the widespread criticism of Washington after it rejected the Kyoto plan.

"There are clearly different views on this within the Bush administration and there has been a certain embarrassment during our contacts with them," she said.

U.N. CLIMATE TALKS DELAY

Wallstrom said a delay of a possible United Nations climate meeting in Stockholm later this month to discuss the Kyoto treaty was not a serious setback, saying the process should be allowed time. The meeting has now been pencilled in for June.

"It is important we now show support for the U.N. climate forum which is trying to sort this out and don't stress them," she said.

The forum would be a follow-up to a U.N. meeting in New York last month when countries, including the United States, met to discuss how to proceed with Kyoto after the U.S. withdrawal.

The protocol calls on industrialised countries to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide by an average 5.2 percent between 1990 and 2012.

Many of the countries hope to reach a final agreement on the protocol at a U.N. summit in Bonn in July to be able to ratify the Kyoto plan before next year's follow-up to a 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

But Wallstrom said expectations for the Bonn meeting should not be too high as many issues in the treaty were still unresolved and that it was not likely a final agreement on Kyoto would be reached.

She said the climate talks would have to become more focused and that she thought there were too many reservations in the protocol.

The meeting could be successful if the countries agreed on a system for trading emission rights as well as a control system to measure how if countries met emission targets, said Wallstrom who was heading to Russia to prepare for an EU meeting there in June.

----

GAO finds many underground US storage tanks leak

USA: May 10, 2001
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10768

WASHINGTON - Despite federal efforts to prevent underground petroleum storage tanks from leaking, almost a third of the tanks are not properly operated or maintained, according to government report released yesterday.

In 1984, Congress passed legislation to monitor the 2 million underground tanks operating at the time and prevent them from leaking.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the program, required tank owners to install new leak detection equipment by the end of 1993 and leak prevention equipment by the end of 1998.

The General Accounting Office found that 89 percent of underground storage tanks regulated by the EPA were required to have equipment upgrades to meet new federal safety standards.

But the GAO estimated the owners of 29 percent of the nation's underground tanks are not maintaining the facilities properly, increasing the risk of soil and groundwater contamination.

The agency found 14 states reported that some upgraded tanks continued to leak, 17 states said their tanks seldom or never leaked and 20 states did not know if their tanks leaked.

The EPA and states confirmed over 14,500 leaks last year in underground storage tanks.

"This report shows that inspections and enforcement of underground storage tanks are insufficient," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's superfund subcommittee.

-------- spying

China Said to Fear Reaction if Plane Is Released

New York Times
May 10, 2001
By MARK LANDLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/10/world/10CHIN.html

HONG KONG, May 9 - A senior Chinese official sought today to explain China's decision not to allow the United States to fly home its damaged surveillance plane, which is stranded on Hainan island. The official said such a move would arouse "strong indignation and opposition in the Chinese population."

The official, Deputy Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, said in an interview, "If we allow such a military plane, which had a mission of spying on China, to be flown back out of China, that will further hurt the dignity and sentiments of the Chinese people."

Mr. Li said his government was open to alternatives for removing the plane such as putting it on a ship. He said he hoped that the United States would take a "diplomatic and reasonable" attitude in the negotiations, which are continuing.

Beijing, Mr. Li said, was surprised that the United States had resumed surveillance flights off the China coast. But he did not say that the resumption would hamper the talks on returning the plane.

"We hope that the two countries will properly handle the incident without letting it further damage relations," Mr. Li said.

The government has kept a close eye on public opinion throughout its handling of the surveillance plane incident. It released the 24 crew members only after an extensive search for the pilot of the Chinese Air Force F-8 fighter, which sank after it collided with the Navy's EP-3E.

And it turned the fallen pilot, Wang Wei, into a national icon, memorializing him in relentless news coverage.

Mr. Li said feelings remained raw among Chinese about Mr. Wang's death and the fact that the United States conducts surveillance missions close to its coastal waters. But on the streets of Chinese cities, overt signs of anger toward the American government have largely dissipated.

The tension between the United States and China has scarcely been felt at a business conference here held by AOL Time Warner. President Jiang Zemin, who addressed the meeting on Tuesday, did not mention the plane, Washington's decision to sell arms to Taiwan or any other contentious issues.

This morning, before he returned to Beijing, Mr. Jiang held a 70- minute meeting with former President Bill Clinton, who is at the conference as a paid speaker. Mr. Clinton said in an interview afterward that he and Mr. Jiang had discussed a wide range of issues, including the tension between Washington and Beijing.

"I told him I was convinced that the Bush administration was interested in having good relations with China," Mr. Clinton said. "I also told him to remember that when we first came into office that we had some tough times, as well."

Mr. Clinton spoke to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell over the weekend about China. But he declined to say whether he had conveyed any messages from the White House. He said he would brief General Powell after he had returned to the United States.

-------- terrorism

Chinese Hackers Call Off Attacks

New York Times
May 10, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-China-Hackers.html

BEIJING (AP) -- A self-styled alliance of Chinese computer hackers has called a halt to attacks on U.S. Web sites, after claiming to have broken into more than 1,000 sites.

The group that calls itself the ``Hongke Union'' thanked hackers for taking part in the campaign against U.S. Web sites, but said it would not be connected to any further attacks.

Chinese hackers declared a weeklong war on U.S. sites, from April 30 to May 7, after a U.S. Navy spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet setting off a diplomatic standoff. The fighter pilot was killed in the April 1 collision.

Hackers attacked the White House Web site on May 4, leaving it completely blocked or difficult to access for about six hours. However, the White House never disclosed the origin of that attack or suggested it was Chinese.

``Our Hongke Union attacked more than 1,000 American Web sites. We have fulfilled the goal of our counterattack,'' said a statement posted on ChinaByte, a Chinese site that said it came from the group.

ChinaByte's news editors knew group members and had asked them to send information about their attacks, said a ChinaByte employee who gave her name only as Miss Long.

U.S. federal authorities had warned American businesses to guard against an upsurge of attacks following the collision. U.S. hackers responded by defacing Chinese government and commercial sites with pornographic images and messages promoting drug abuse.

Without mentioning the spy plane collision, the Hongke Union statement said its attacks were an ``outpouring of dissatisfaction.''

``Through this action we discovered that patriotic feelings still exist in the hearts of most Chinese,'' said the statement, dated Wednesday.

Some sites were defaced with anti-American messages, while pictures of Wang Wei, the Chinese pilot who died in the April 1 collision, were posted on others.

-------- activists

COME TO WASHINGTON, DC JUNE 10-12 - MEET WITH YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS!

From: "DontBlowIt.org" <webmaster@dontblowit.policy.net>

There has been a lot of news in recent weeks around Nuclear Weapons and National Missile Defense -- some of it good, and some bad. There is also an important action you can take to voice your concern. Please read on to find out more:

COME TO WASHINGTON, DC JUNE 10-12 - MEET WITH YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS!

There is growing concern over a National Missile Defense System and people are mobilizing to make their voices heard.

We invite you to come to Washington, DC on June 10-12 for a National Mobilization to Stop The Arms Race. Join us in telling policy makers to stop National Missile Defense and reduce nuclear weapons.

Activities include:

Rally and entertainment in front of the White House Training for activists Educational visits to Representatives and Senators

For more information on this important event, visit:
http://www.projectabolition.org/

YOUR MESSAGES WILL BE HAND-DELIVERED!

If you can't make it to DC, you can still make your voice heard. We'll be going door-to-door to Representatives and Senators' offices, hand delivering email messages from DontBlowIt.org. We know that you've already sent your e-postcard at DontBlowIt.org, but have your friends? Help us spread this "word of mouse" campaign by emailing your friends and family. It's fast and easy to do, right from the DontBlowIt.org Web site at:
http://dontblowit.policy.net/step2/

This is a critical time in our efforts to reduce nuclear weapons. We are grateful for your support!

PRESIDENT BUSH: ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

Last week President Bush announced a major shift in our government's nuclear policy. President Bush took one step forward by agreeing to unilaterally reduce nuclear weapons. "I am committed to achieving a credible deterrent with the lowest possible number of nuclear weapons consistent with our national security needs" Bush said.

However, he took two major steps back by withdrawing our nation's support from principles that have governed the world's nuclear balance for 30 years! He condemned the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as a Cold War relic and vowed to deploy an extensive National Missile Defense system.

Many lawmakers, scientists and defense experts responded that a missile defense system remains unproven and expensive. Lawmakers of both parties wonder how Bush planned to cut taxes and spend the $200 billion needed for an extensive missile defense without cutting into other priorities.

For more information on Bush's announcement, visit DontBlowIt.org's newsroom at:
http://dontblowit.policy.net/newsroom/currentnews.vtml

Many thanks for your support,
Laura Kriv DontBlowIt.org

P.S. - Thank you to everyone who recently contacted their Senators to oppose the nomination of John Bolton as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Yesterday, by a vote of 57 to 43, the Senate confirmed John Bolton for this position. Prior to the vote, thousands of public comments flooded the Senate expressing opposition to Bolton's extreme views. We believe that it was because of this public opposition that nearly half of the Senate opposed Bolton's nomination. The 43 votes clearly indicates continuing strong support for arms control. For more information on Bolton's nomination, please visit:

http://dontblowit.policy.net/newsroom/currentnews.vtml

----

The Next Phase: Sign Up

Date: Thu, 10 May 2001
From: Nader 2000 Campaign <campaign@VOTENADER.ORG>
http://votenader.org/newsletter.html

- IMPORTANT NEWS, FORWARD WIDELY -

Nader 2000 General Committee, Inc. P.O. Box 18002, Washington, D.C. 20036 campaign@votenader.org

"Nader continues to travel the country, 25 states since the election, in part trying to build the Green Party, to raise money and encourage Green candidates to run for state, local and federal office."

New York Times Monday, April 23, 2001

Report from Nader 2000 Headquarters:

Who should decide the future of America: People or Corporations? Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign rocked the two corporate-controlled parties. Nader secured nearly 3 million votes, recruited 150,000 volunteers, and raised over $8 million from individual contributors. Issues that would have escaped public discourse -- electoral reform, corporate power, universal health care, child poverty, the death penalty, fair trade, the criminal injustice system, corporate welfare, a bloated military budget, and authentic environmental protection -- were pushed forward.

We want to thank all our supporters, contributors, and volunteers. Without your tireless commitment, none of this would have been possible. But now, to challenge excessive corporate and special interests, our grass-roots movement must enter a new phase. To stay involved, please follow the link at the end of this message.

George Bush has proven his allegiance to the corporate power structure. Where have the Democrats stood? Democrats confirmed all of Bush's cabinet appointees. Thirty-four Democratic Senators voted for a bankruptcy bill that will directly harm small businesses. Democrats even voted to weaken the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill. Ultimately, the Republican and Democratic parties serve the same corporate interests.

It is up to us, the people, to stand up against corporate lobbyists, polluters, weapons manufacturers, the war on drugs, HMOs, and autocratic trade agreements.

We are building a long-range political movement. A team of organizers, researchers, and attorneys is laying the groundwork for two new citizen groups. They will work with local Green Parties, countless civic groups, and campaign supporters to advance justice and democracy.

We invite you to join us in this struggle, working with citizen groups and Green Party chapters on local, state, and national campaigns.

Please, get involved in your community now. Solve its problems. Run for office. Write your Congressman. Hold press conferences. Call radio programs. Stand with your neighbors and fight.

As for us, you will hear details soon. Stay tuned.

The Nader 2000 campaign respects your privacy rights and promised to keep your information confidential. This means we will not transfer your name to the new organization without your permission.

As we close down Nader 2000, we would like to keep you informed about the future moves of Ralph Nader, the Green Party, and the movement for citizen-powered democracy.

http://www.votenader.org/signon.html

Campaign accomplishments to build from:

Green Party and Nader 2000 campaign organizers started more than 450 new local Green Party groups around the country.

More than 150,000 people volunteered their time and energy to supporting the campaign.

More than 900 Students for Nader and student Green Party organizations were started, and 25,000 student volunteers registered tens of thousands of new student voters.

The Green Party ran a record 266 candidates in 2000; 15% were elected.

Over 463,000 signatures were collected to put Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke on the ballot in 43 states and in DC.

The campaign raised over $8 million dollars from citizens like you -- not from corporations or PACs.

Over 115,000 people signed the on-line petition to protest Ralph Nader's exclusion from the presidential debates.

Over 8 million pieces of literature and 1 million buttons, bumper stickers, and lapel stickers were distributed.

Super Rallies were held with 15,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City, 14,000 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, 12,000 at the Fleet Center in Boston, 10,000 at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, and 10,000 at the Coliseum in Portland, and 10,000 at the MCI Center in Washington, DC.

The campaign formed a citizens committee of 100 prominent supporters.

The campaign had a staff of more than 100 people working in 21 offices around the country.

Ralph Nader campaigned in all 50 states, the only presidential candidate to do so in the 2000 election.

Over 600 house parties were held in support of the campaign.

The campaign sent out over press 500 releases, and the campaign was covered in innumerable newspapers, television, and radio stories around the country -- even with the barriers of the corporate media.


------- OneList (submissions from subscribers)

------- Depleted Uranium Keeps On Killing!