------- Index of Articles

NUCLEAR
Safety fears at nuclear plants
Statement Released by Summit Leaders
Pyongyang criticizes missile-defense test
Jiang Enlists Ukraine's Support
Missile defense: Some still believe it can't be developed
Scarier Than Nukes
Vote addresses Micronesian suffering
Divers Begin Work on Raising Sub
Kazakh plutonium stores made safe
Russia's Putin Unhappy With US Plan

MILITARY
CENTRAL ASIAN-RUSSIA-CHINA TREATY
Powell Prepares for Asia Visit
UN Arms Traffic Pact in Final Round
Spanish Cops Arrest U.S. Fugitive
Bush to Oppose Germ Weapons Pact Draft
U.S. Won't Back Plan to Enforce Germ Pact
USA Has Problems with Germ - Warfare Enforcement Plan
Iraq Govt. Feeling More Confident
Palestinians Welcome G8 Statement
Israel Goes After Palestinian Foes
Israeli Call-Up Raises New War Fears
A Free Pass on Chechnya

OTHER
Solar-Sailing Spacecraft Fails Test
Japan Stuck in Middle on Treaty
61 Senators Call for Stem Cell Research
Bush to Keep National AIDS Council
Summit Protest Statement
Russia Wants Action, Not Words on WTO Membership
Judge to Fine If Alabama Cannot Move Prisoners
Officer charged with murder after G8 death
Italy Under Fire After G - 8 Clashes
Spanish Cops Arrest U.S. Fugitive

ACTIVISTS
Nuclear waste shipments decried
Summit Protests Glance
Appeal from the Okinawan grassroots
Police in Brutal Raid on G8 Protesters' Press Center


-------- NUCLEAR

-------- britain

Safety fears at nuclear plants

John Staples and David Lee
Saturday, 21st July 2001
The Scotsman
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/text_only.cfm?id=91721

THERE are growing fears for safety at Scotland's nuclear plants after two new scares came to light.

It emerged that both reactors at Torness in East Lothian had to be shut down after it was discovered that pressure relief valves were left at the wrong setting for three years.

And an investigation is under way at Chapelcross , Dumfries and Galloway - where 24 fuel rods fell from a machine during a routine refuelling operation on a reactor on 5 July.

The discovery at Torness was made while workmen were carrying out routine checks last week. All four pressure safety valves in reactor one were found to be slightly out. The second reactor was shut down while an inspection was carried out, and it found that its valves - a safety mechanism to prevent a build-up of steam - had also been set wrongly.

A spokesman for British Energy, which operates Torness, said: "Routine maintenance is carried out on the reactors every three years, so these valves would have been set [in 1998]. But they were only very slightly out - there was no safety concern. It is something that shouldn't have happened; we are looking to ensure it doesn't occur again."

The new scare at Chapelcross happened when "a small quantity" of uranium powder was washed from a number of corroded drums at a store complex. The plant operator, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, said workers had not been exposed to the material and the incident posed no risk to the public.

An operation is under way to retrieve the 24 rods which fell to the floor during the first incident.

-------- europe

Statement Released by Summit Leaders

The Associated Press
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline141708_000.htm

GENOA, Italy -- The statement released Saturday by summit leaders on regional issues:

The G8 foreign ministers met in Rome on 18-19 July. Their conclusions, which have already been made public, receive our full support.

They have brought to our attention the situation in the Middle East, Africa, FYROM (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and the Korean Peninsula.

On the Middle East we have issued a separate statement. On Africa, we will address the issue separately. On FYROM and the Korean Peninsula we have agreed on the following conclusions:

- FYROM-Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia

1. We regard peace and stability in FYROM as a crucial objective. We strongly urge all parties in FYROM to display maximum responsibility in order to contribute to the rapid success of the ongoing political dialogue. We support the FYROM government and its commitment to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of the country. We condemn any use of violence in pursuit of political aims. We welcome the parties' commitment to a cessation of hostilities and invite them to respect it rigorously and indefinitely. We call on all armed groups to disarm and disband voluntarily. Only peaceful political solutions can assure a democratic and truly multiethnic future for all citizens of FYROM. We encourage the adoption and implementation of those constitutional and legislative measures in FYROM that ensure the participation of all citizens in the political life of the country and the highest respect for the identity and rights of all communities according to the principles of nondiscrimination and equal treatment. The efforts of the representatives of the international community in FYROM to facilitate the political dialogue among the parties are necessary and should continue. We support the idea of convening a donors conference following the establishment of a durable peace and a successful conclusion of a political agreement between the parties.

- Korean Peninsula

2. Efforts to reduce tension and establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula should be encouraged. We reiterate our support for the ROK's (South Korea) policy of engagement and the continuation of the reconciliation process between the ROK and the DPRK (North Korea) started last year. We look forward to an early second inter-Korean summit and the resumption of ministerial contacts.

3. We reaffirm our support for the implementation of the Agreed Framework, including KEDO (Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization). We expect the DPRK to implement its announced moratorium on missile launches and a constructive response to international concerns over security, nonproliferation, humanitarian and human rights issues that is essential to the reduction of tensions in the region and to further integration of the DPRK into the international community.

-------- korea

Pyongyang criticizes missile-defense test

Washington Times
July 21, 2001
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010721-92323896.htm

SEOUL (AP) -- North Korea criticized the United States yesterday for a missile-defense test and threatened to scrap all agreements with Washington.

The secretive communist state did not specify which agreements, but it has promised the United States not to test-fire its long-range missiles as long as the two sides continue talks on improving relations.

North Korea "is compelled to take a counteraction for self-defense by the U.S. deliberate provocation made to it in a bid to attain its sinister aim," a North Korean Foreign Ministry official told the North's official KCNA news agency, monitored in Seoul.

"North Korea will have nothing to lose even if all the points agreed upon between North Korea and the U.S. are scrapped," said the official, who was not identified by name.

Last week, the United States successfully used a rocket-powered interceptor to destroy a dummy warhead over the Pacific. The Bush administration wants to eventually deploy a missile-defense system capable of protecting the United States and its allies from missile attacks by countries like North Korea and Iraq.

North Korea, along with Russia and China, vehemently opposes the U.S. project, which it says is aimed at dominating the world militarily.

North Korea rattled nerves in Asia and Washington in 1998 by firing a three-stage rocket that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.

It is widely suspected of developing long-range missiles that could reach Hawaii, Alaska and eventually the continental United States.

After months of negotiations, North Korea agreed in 1999 to forgo missile tests for the duration of talks with Washington on improving ties.

There have been no high-level contacts between North Korea and the United States since October, when then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright visited Pyongyang and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Mr. Bush offered last month to resume talks to discuss security concerns, but North Korea has made little more than a tepid response.

The United States keeps 37,000 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against a possible North Korean invasion.

-------- missile defense

Jiang Enlists Ukraine's Support

By Sergei Shargorodsky
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001; 3:32 p.m. EDT
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline153210_000.htm

KIEV, Ukraine -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin enlisted Ukraine's support on Saturday for his country's opposition to U.S. missile defense plans, issuing a joint statement recommending the preservation of the Soviet-era ABM treaty with Washington.

"This treaty is the foundation of the structure of international agreements on limiting and reducing strategic offensive weapons," the two countries said.

In a similarly worded statement released last week, Jiang and Russian president Vladimir Putin said the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty was a "cornerstone of strategic stability" that had to be preserved.

Both China and Russia staunchly oppose U.S. plans to develop a missile shield and scrap the ABM treaty, saying it could spark a new arms race. Jiang and Putin signed a comprehensive friendship accord when they met, widely seen as an attempt by Moscow and Beijing to counter perceived U.S. hegemony.

Jiang arrived in Kiev Friday after the visit to Russia, and to Belarus and Moldova.

The choice of destinations showed the Chinese president's wish to cement closer ties with republics that either are in a union with Moscow, like Belarus, or are seen as candidates to join it, like the Communist-led Moldova and Ukraine. Ukraine declared itself neutral following the Soviet Union's collapse and has been maneuvering between Russia and the West.

Jiang met Friday and Saturday with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. They talked about a wide range of issues, including cooperation on space, aviation and military technology, said Kuchma's spokesman Oleksandr Martynenko.

The countries signed a joint declaration on friendship and cooperation, an agreement on extradition of criminals and a tourism accord, among other documents.

Relations between the countries have been improving since a low point in 1996 when Ukraine angered China by receiving then-Premier Lien Chan of Taiwan. China views Taiwan, ruled by Chinese who fled the Communist takeover of the mainland in 1949, as a renegade province.

In the friendship declaration signed Saturday, Ukraine said it viewed Taiwan as an inalienable part of China and pledged to have no official relations whatsoever with the island.

Jiang's schedule Sunday includes visits to former palaces of Russian czars, the house of writer Anton Chekhov and a supper with Kuchma. The Chinese president is to leave Ukraine on Monday for Malta.

-------

Missile defense: Some still believe it can't be developed

By PETER PAE
July 21, 2001
http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/jul01/pae1072101.asp

Protecting Americans from a foreign missile attack has become the most daunting military challenge of the last two decades - a technological feat that some say is more difficult and costly than building the atom bomb.

Setting aside those risks, President Bush has pushed missile defense to the forefront of his national security plans, reigniting intense debate here and abroad over the political ramifications of fielding such a system and over whether it is even possible.

In theory, the system finally would erase the last vestiges of the Cold War threat of instant annihilation, providing the United States and its allies protection from ballistic missiles through an array of weapons fired or launched from the ground, sea, air and space.

But critics contend that in the nearly two decades since President Reagan launched the "Star Wars" program, and after spending some $75 billion searching for the perfect anti-missile system, the Pentagon isn't any closer to deploying an effective shield against nuclear attack.

"This is the most difficult thing that the Defense Department has ever tried to do," said Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's former chief of test and evaluation. "We're trying to do something that is more difficult than developing the atom bomb, but without the urgency or the national commitment."

Military planners still have not resolved the overall architecture of even a limited shield against a missile attack or defined how all the advanced elements of a defensive system would work.

Moreover, each element of the system would require advances in a broad range of technologies, including sensors to distinguish real warheads from decoys, high-powered chemical lasers able to shoot hundreds of miles and "kill vehicles" with unparalleled reliability.

"It's going to be very tough to weigh all these disparate systems and put them together into an integrated architecture," said Loren Thompson, an advocate of missile defense at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute. "They have different operators, different technologies and they all have to be coordinated. It's going to be very complicated."

Estimates of the cost of even a limited system vary widely, from an economical $80 billion to as much as $300 billion. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called the criticisms of the technology a "red herring," although he acknowledged that more research is needed.

"We have no intention of deploying something that doesn't work, but what the definition of 'work' is, is terribly important," Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "If anyone thinks that you're going to deploy something full-blown that works perfectly - I mean, if that were the case, the Wright Brothers failed dozens and dozens of times before they flew the airplane. If they'd quit after the first failure, we wouldn't have airplanes."

The Bush administration is facing stiff resistance to the plan from allies and foes. Dozens of envoys have been sent to meet with foreign officials, arguing that deploying the system would help alleviate concerns of nuclear proliferation. But the reception so far has been cool.

China has been one of the more vocal critics, contending that much of the system, including the proposal to build a battery of interceptors designed to destroy about a dozen ballistic missiles, specifically targets them.

Indeed, a strategic review under way in the Pentagon reportedly recommends redirecting the focus of military planning from Europe to Asia, including developing new long-range weapons to counter China's military power.

To build a meaningful missile defense, the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 would have to be significantly modified or scrapped. The treaty, itself controversial since the day it was proposed, restricted the Soviet Union and the United States from building a shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of spanning half the globe in 30 minutes and showering a city with multiple nuclear warheads.

Behind the treaty was the idea that if both countries remained naked to attack, neither would risk starting a nuclear war. The concept of "mutual assured destruction" was considered a powerful deterrent to launching the missiles. But Bush and missile defense proponents say much has changed since then. The Soviet Union collapsed and new threats have risen as additional nations have obtained nuclear weapons, built missiles or threatened to do so.

"We need a new framework that allows us to build missile defenses to counter the different threats of today's world," Bush said in May, kicking off in earnest what is now being called the "Son of Star Wars."

"We have more work to do to determine the final form the defenses might take," he said. "We will explore all of these options further."

Exactly what Bush will choose is still up in the air. But from his speech and in recent remarks made by Rumsfeld, analysts have gleaned some idea of the shape of Bush's missile defense plan.

Bush probably will call for accelerating work on ground-based interceptors that President Clinton set in motion last year with the idea of eventually developing a "layered shield" involving anti-missile weapons based in the sea, air and ultimately in space, Thompson said.

Hoping to sell the idea to its allies, the White House already has begun dropping the word "national" from missile defense, asserting that the system could protect nations from both intercontinental ballistic missiles and short-range rockets such as Iraqi Scuds used during the Gulf War.

Under the scenario envisioned by the Pentagon, satellites with infrared sensors initially would detect missile launches and track the flight path, providing information to the various anti-missile systems.

A short-range missile could be shot down by U.S. Army-operated ground-based lasers and missiles, by Navy ships off the coast or by a modified Air Force Boeing 747-400 aircraft flying nearby and carrying chemical lasers.

Space-based lasers orbiting above and interceptor missiles based in Alaska could knock out intercontinental ballistic missiles during their booster and mid-course stages.

All of the systems are in varying degrees of development with the interceptor closest to deployment, perhaps a limited one within three years. Space-based laser is by far the most complex technology and could take another generation or more before it could be deployed, according to the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.

Critics contend missile defense offers a false sense of security, citing other previous attempts at defending the U.S. from attacks, including batteries of 1960s-era Nike missiles that ringed many U.S. cities.

The history of missile defense is replete with failed starts. In the early days of the program, the Pentagon poured billions into such exotic technologies as beam weapons, orbiting nuclear reactors, space-borne mirrors and electromagnetic rail guns that would fire high-velocity bullets from space.

By 1991, former President Bush backed a streamlined $41-billion missile defense system - called GPALS for global protection against limited strike - that aimed to quickly deploy a system that could counter an attack by 200 missiles. Then, as now, the technology was unable to discriminate between real missiles and decoys and the interceptors proved unreliable.

"They have been testing this for the last two decades and they have missed more often than not," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense and space policy group that has been a vocal detractor of missile defense. "Are any of these things going to make me sleep easier at night? No, I'll still be afraid of nuclear war."

Added Jon B. Kutler, president of Quarterdeck Investment Partners Inc., a defense investment bank: "This could be the most expensive video game that didn't work."

----

Scarier Than Nukes

Free for All
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29191-2001Jul20?language=printer

Michael Kelly asks why opponents of President Bush's missile defense plan should not want to give our children "the gift of a world free from the worst fears of the nuclear age" [op-ed, July 18].

Our children have more pressing needs: universal health insurance, adequate access to safe and nutritious food and a good-quality education. While Bush's tax cut will force per capita reductions in spending on each of these issues, somehow, miraculously, there's room in the budget for a missile defense system.

Our children have more to fear from an administration fervently diverting public money into the pockets of the wealthy than they ever would from a rogue state.

-- Marc Ratkovic

-------- pacific

Vote addresses Micronesian suffering
Church of Christ calls for justice over atomic and nuclear radiation

Saturday, July 21, 2001
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
By Mary Adamski madamski@starbulletin.com
http://starbulletin.com/2001/07/21/news/story6.html

Micronesians are still suffering from the fallout of nuclear tests the United States ended 43 years ago and a major religious organization has vowed to be a force for justice on their behalf.

The General Synod of the United Church of Christ earlier this week passed a pronouncement that confesses "silent complicity as United States citizens in perpetuating nuclear poisoning and economic exploitation" of the people in the sparsely settled South Pacific islands.

About 40 Hawaii residents attended the national biennial conference in Kansas City, Mo., which also committed to develop strategies including "ways to pressure the U.S. President, the U.S. Congress and the related agencies of the U.S. government to provide a more just compensation for the Marshallese people affected by the nuclear and atomic radiation caused by 67 tests."

The Hawaii-initiated action was timed to the current negotiations between the United States and the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, said the Rev. Ronald Fujiyoshi of Hilo, one of the Hawaii conference delegates. Washington seeks a 15-year extension of the Compact of Free Association under which it will continue to assume defense and security responsibility. The Marshall Islands government is asking for $2.7 billion for damages.

Residents of Hawaii, which has become the second home for thousands of Micronesians, are more aware of the lingering effects of the nuclear tests than the rest of the nation, said Fujiyoshi.

Many of the people who come here are seeking medical attention for cancer, thyroid disorders and other health problems that are the legacy of fallout now affecting a third generation of islanders. Earlier this month, about 100 Pacific islanders demonstrated outside Queen's Medical Center and other hospitals which will not accept them because they cannot pay. Because of their nonresident status, federal law excludes them from state Medicaid and MedQuest coverage. The state attorney general ruled the islanders are ineligible for public assistance.

"The U.S. is bargaining saying 'we already paid you $150 million' under the initial Compact of Free Association 15 years ago," said Fujiyoshi. "At that time the full effect of 67 atomic tests was not known. Since then 60 boxes of information has become available. Most is blacked out for security reasons but it became obvious that the U.S. government knew fallout would affect people on Utrik Atoll and Rongelop Atoll." People were relocated from some islands in the testing area but not from those, he said.

Utrik resident Ella Ben spoke to the gathering representing the denomination's 6,000 churches. She told about losing a child to cancer and about her own thyroid cancer. "It was very powerful," said Fujiyoshi. "It was the only time you could hear a pin drop in the assembly."

He said the pronouncement "Ministry and Witness with Micronesians" will be used as a teaching document throughout the membership of the United Church of Christ. Members will work to begin a dialogue with government agencies to discuss a way to include the Pacific Islanders within the ranks of qualified non-immigrants who are eligible for government assistance programs.

-------- russia

Divers Begin Work on Raising Sub

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Submarine.html?searchpv=aponline

MOSCOW (AP) -- A team of divers began working on the sunken nuclear submarine Kursk on Saturday, marking sections of the hull where holes will be drilled to attach cables to lift the vessel, a Russian navy spokesman said.

The divers, two Russians and a Briton, descended into the water in a special bell from the Norwegian diving support ship Mayo, which is serving as a base for the salvage operation, navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told the Interfax news agency.

The Kursk sank on Aug. 12, 2000, during a training exercise in the Barents Sea off northern Russia, killing all 118 crew members.

The international operation for salvaging the submarine began this week, as engineers used an unmanned, remote-controlled vessel to measure radiation levels.

The divers, working in shifts, were marking places on sections of the hull where holes will be cut for steel cables to be attached, Dygalo said. The cables will be attached to 26 hydraulic lifting units anchored to a giant pontoon, which will be towed to the northern port city of Murmansk.

The submarine's first compartment, which was mangled in the explosion that sank the Kursk and could contain unexploded torpedoes, is to be cut off and left at the bottom of the Barents Sea when the submarine is raised in September.

Dygalo said Thursday that cameras examining the first compartment this week did not discover any unexploded ammunition.

Russia has maintained that no radiation has leaked from the wreck but says it is raising it to ensure the Kursk's two reactors pose no future danger.

--------

Kazakh plutonium stores made safe

July 21, 2001
By Christopher Pala
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20010721-34113358.htm

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- U.S. officials last week voiced quiet satisfaction after one of the world's largest stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium, located in a sensitive zone, was successfully made theft-proof in what the Energy Department called "one of the world's largest and most successful nonproliferation projects."

More than three tons of plutonium, enough to make about 400 bombs, had been stored in a fast-breeder reactor on the Caspian Sea shore in security conditions one early visitor described as similar to those of an office building.

Today, the plutonium has been fully secured, said Trisha Dedik, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nonproliferation Policy, in an interview July 13 in Almaty, Kazakhstan's economic capital. "It's been a great success."

A day earlier, Miss Dedik and others took part in a ceremony at Aktau with Kazakh officials celebrating completion of the project.

The plutonium was produced by a BN-350 fast-breeder nuclear reactor on the arid northwestern shore of the Caspian, a few miles from the city of Aktau. Both the city and 350-megawatt power plant on the Mangyshlak Peninsula, the first-ever commercial breeder reactor, owed their location to considerable uranium deposits that were mined nearby.

The plutonium had been intended to be shipped to other parts of the Soviet Union for use as fuel in other reactors like it, but only one, the BN-600, was ever built. Located near Yekaterinburg on the eastern slope of the Urals nearly 900 miles north-northeast of Aktau, it ultimately took little or no plutonium from the BN-350, so the material just piled up.

The plant closed in 1999, at the end of its useful life.

After 26 years of providing electricity and water (by powering a desalination plant) to the Aktau region, the plant had an accumulation of 3,000 15-foot cylinders, called fuel assemblies, containing spent nuclear fuel.

About 7,250 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium could be extracted from the assemblies with relative ease, according to the Energy Department.

Nearly half the assemblies emitted little radiation and could be safely handled by workers wearing light protection. The other half were too "hot" to be handled by anything but robots. All spent years in a cooling pond the size of a football field at the plant.

"When I walked in there the first time back in 1995, it had all the security of a modern office building," said Fredrick Crane, an American physicist familiar with the plant.

"It was a clean and well-run reactor," said Mr. Crane. There were some guards, but otherwise all you needed was one code, like in an airport terminal, and you were in."

With each fuel assembly weighing 300 pounds, a couple of strong men with accomplices inside could spirit out the half-dozen cylinders it would take to make a nuclear bomb.

"It was attractive material, and it was accessible," said Miss Dedik of the Energy Department.

Just 500 miles to the south along the Caspian coastline lies Iran and what U.S. officials say is a covert nuclear-weapons program. Eight hundred miles to the southeast is Afghanistan, base and refuge of accused terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, and due west, straight across the Caspian, Chechnya smolders.

"There are fast-breeder reactors in Western Europe and Japan, but the plutonium produced there doesn't accumulate like it did in Aktau. It's reprocessed pretty quickly," Miss Dedik said.

"There just aren't any big stockpiles. Remember, most weapons-grade plutonium is produced by dedicated reactors, controlled by the military, and they're usually much better guarded than this one was."

So in 1996, the government of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United States quietly set up a program to immediately enhance security and, starting in 1998, to package the fuel assemblies to prevent theft.

Miss Dedik and Mr. Crane were among several dozen Americans who worked on the project, which was funded by the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program under the Nunn-Lugar Act. The law was named for its sponsors, Sen. Richard G. Lugar, Indiana Republican, and then-Sen. Sam Nunn, Georgia Democrat.

A torpedo factory in Almaty that had been converted to civilian work was assigned to manufacture big steel canisters in which four or six of the plutonium-rich assemblies -- some "hot," some "cooled" -- were packed together and sealed before being returned to the cooling pond.

Weighing more than a ton, the filled canisters are far too heavy to be handled by anything but a large robot, and all of them now emit lethal doses of radiation.

Last month, after nearly three years and $43 million in U.S. support, the 478th and last canister was welded shut and lowered into the pond.

At the plant, Mr. Crane said, there are now manned gates, closed-circuit TV cameras, X-ray machines and turnstiles with magnetic cards, along with sensors that monitor the nuclear materials around the clock.

The packing is designed to last 50 years, but the plutonium isn't destined to stay at the closed Aktau plant that long.

Eventually, under a decree signed six months ago by Mr. Nazarbayev, the canisters will be taken 2,750 miles by train to the former nuclear-testing grounds at Semipalatinsk, on the other side of this country four times the size of Texas.

There, silos will be dug into the steppe and the fat cylinders will be buried, using a technique perfected in the United States.

"It will be the longest rail shipment of plutonium ever attempted," said Miss Dedik. "They will have to design special transportation casks."

And since the rail line wanders through what is now Russia and Kyrgyzstan, special loops will have to be built so that the plutonium stays in Kazakhstan during its whole voyage.

-------- treaties

Russia's Putin Unhappy With US Plan

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Summit-Putin.html?searchpv=aponline

GENOA, Italy (AP) -- On the eve of his meeting with President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he still doesn't understand why the United States wants to scuttle a 1972 arms control treaty and build a missile defense system.

``It's a simple question -- if the ABM treaty doesn't suit the U.S., then for what reason? There's no concrete answer,'' he told reporters Saturday.

The United States wants to move forward with its proposed missile defense plan, but to do so would likely violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

``We'll have a lot to talk about,'' Putin told reporters at the summit of major industrialized countries.

Putin said his scheduled meeting Sunday with Bush -- only their second after an ice-breaking summit last month in Slovenia -- would center on economic ties. The Bush administration so far has sought to focus on investment and business cooperation with Russia instead of the large aid packages that characterized U.S. policy toward the nation in the 1990s.

Putin said they also would discuss his visit to Bush's Texas ranch this fall.

Moscow fears a U.S. missile defense system would prompt an arms race it could not afford, as well as disrupt international stability. Putin has sought to rally European opposition to the U.S. plan, and Kremlin officials said the issue was raised Saturday during Putin's meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Putin and Blair also discussed their countries' differences over U.N. sanctions on Iraq. Moscow, which wants the sanctions lifted, recently blocked a U.S.-backed British proposal on overhauling them.

``We think the sanctions are not effective,'' Putin said. The sanction have not fulfilled their goal of ensuring that Iraq destroys its weapons of mass destruction because U.N. monitors remain blocked from inspections, he said.

Putin also held his first official meetings with Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Earlier Saturday, Putin proudly joined the world's seven richest nations in seeking ways to help poorer countries. Russians considered the event a sign that their nation is becoming a fuller member of the Group of Eight, rather than a financial disaster desperate for foreign aid itself.

Still, while Russia's economy has enjoyed recent growth after a decade of decline, Putin did not attend the main economic meetings among the other leaders. Presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said the Russian delegation at the summit is actively seeking a write-off or postponement of some of its stifling debt to Western nations.

-------- MILITARY

-------- asia

CENTRAL ASIAN-RUSSIA-CHINA TREATY
Shanghai grouping 'a military alliance'

The Straits Times
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,1870,58617,00.html?

Led by China and Russia, its real aim is to fight Islamic fundamentalism in Central Asia, says Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor

CHINA would be able to send troops to Central Asia to combat Islamic extremism if requested, according to one of the unpublicised terms of the newly formed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

This and other arrangements, such as the setting up of an SCO Anti-Terrorism Centre in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, show that the SCO is by and large a military alliance despite all the disavowals, the July edition of Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor said.

Its founding 'underscores Russia and China's willingness to put its soldiers on the front line against fundamentalism', the magazine said.

The Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan launched the SCO with China and Russia on June 15 in Shanghai.

Although the six member countries have harped more on economic cooperation and non-alignment, the SCO is undoubtedly geared towards combating Islamic fundamentalism, which is seeping out from Afghanistan, Jane's commented.

And the most tangible threat that they now face is from the Islamic Movement of Turkestan, formed in May by two terrorists, Juma Namangani and Tahir Yuldash, with the avowed aim of Islamising the territory from China's Xinjiang region to the Caucasus, the magazine pointed out.

One immediate step that China took to counter the growing Islamic threat was its offer to Kyrgyzstan of 8 million yuan (S$1.76 million) in military support on June 18.

Earlier this year, China had sent three planeloads of military equipment to Kyrgyzstan after Namangani crossed from Afghanistan into Tajikistan and set up a base there.

Security specialists of the SCO gathered in Kazakhstan early this month to hammer out structure, financing and personnel issues for the anti-terrorism centre.

Their heads of state have also agreed to meet once a year, with government officials meeting on a regular basis to coordinate activities.

Jane's also highlighted the global strategic backdrop against which the SCO came into being.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin took office, China and Russia have grown much closer, bound by their mutual distrust of US hegemony and their perceived need to promote a multipolar world, it said.

Just this week, Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Moscow to sign a pact of friendship and cooperation, further cementing the Sino-Russian partnership.

The magazine speculated that the 'long-term result of the gathering is the tacit surrender of defence elements of sovereignty by Central Asia to their 'superpower' neighbours'.

The dominance of Russia and China in the forum is unmistakable, it said, adding that the losers will be the United States and Turkey, whose tepid regional policies made the Central Asian countries look towards Moscow and Beijing.

The SCO might even expand, with Iran, Turkmenistan, Mongolia and India having expressed interest in participating in its activities in one way or another, the magazine said.

----

Powell Prepares for Asia Visit

By George Gedda
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline124102_000.htm

WASHINGTON -- The last three major wars that involved the United States - World War II, Korea and Vietnam - started in Asia. If a new conflagration with global implications is to take place, analysts say, it will probably happen there.

Rivalries are intense and weapons abundant, and the situation has remained largely unchanged for years. That is a major reason U.S. secretaries of state are lured to the region each July for a review of issues with colleagues from the Asia-Pacific region.

This year's meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations begins Tuesday in Vietnam. Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to attend and also will visit Japan, China, South Korea and Australia during his trip.

In Vietnam, representatives of more than 20 countries from the region will spend three days discussing security, political and economic issues.

The Korean Peninsula and Taiwan are two potential flashpoints. The United States is especially wary about developments in these areas because it has commitments in both and could be drawn into a conflict in either one.

"There is no significant chance of a major conflict in Europe," says Robert Manning, Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "There is no chance of a major war with Russia. The locus of the threat of war has shifted eastward."

Dana Dillon, an Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation, points out that a third war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir would be more catastrophic than the first two because both now have nuclear weapons. He noted that the recent summit meeting between the two yielded little progress.

Manning says there is also great concern over continuing instability in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country.

On Wednesday, regional leaders will discuss security issues. Powell will be joined by representatives from Russia, Japan, the two Koreas, Indonesia, China and India, among others. He also will attend a separate gathering on political and economic issues.

One new element of uncertainty in the region is the Bush administration's planned missile defense system.

Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, says the system could prompt a military buildup by China, in effect "legitimizing and perhaps accelerating China's strategic modernization." He says this could affect strategic calculations in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, India and Pakistan as well.

Powell says he will do his best to maintain stable ties with China, a point he will make "absolutely clear" when he visits Beijing at the end of the month.

The ramifications from missile defense will play out over months and years. But crises between China and Taiwan or on the Korean Peninsula could flare up at any time.

Manning notes the anomaly of the continuing tensions across the Taiwan Strait even as China and Taiwan are becoming more economically intertwined.

China is believed to have installed hundreds of missiles within range of Taiwan over the past several years. President Bush has said the United States will do whatever it takes to defend Taiwan.

Also worrisome for the United States is North Korea's seeming unwillingness to match its policy of diplomatic outreach with restraint on the military side.

The North maintains about 700,000 troops and 8,000 artillery systems within 90 miles of the Demilitarized Zone that separates it from South Korea. The North's 1.2 million-member army is the world's fifth largest.

Officials say Pyongyang possesses large numbers of chemical weapons that threaten the 37,000 U.S. forces in South Korea, as well as civilian population centers.

One notable absentee from the deliberations in Vietnam will be North Korea's foreign minister, described as too busy to attend. Powell says he may have discussions with the lower-level envoys Pyongyang is planning to send.

-------- arms sales

UN Arms Traffic Pact in Final Round

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-UN-Arms-Trafficking.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The 189 members of the United Nations negotiated into the early hours Saturday in a make-or-break effort to reach consensus on a plan to halt illegal trafficking in small arms, which kills an estimated 500,000 people every year.

As closed-door talks continued past a midnight deadline, delegations were still wrangling over the hottest issues -- a reference to civilian possession of small arms, limiting the trade only to governments, criteria for small arms exports and a follow-up to the conference.

The United States made clear from the outset it would oppose any U.N. plan that interferes with the right of citizens to own guns and would reject any measure that would bar governments from supplying small arms to ``non-state actors,'' such as rebel groups.

Diplomats said the U.S. delegation was not budging on either issue -- even though virtually every other country wants arms transfers limited to governments or government-approved entities.

Nonetheless, U.N. Undersecretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala said he was hopeful that delegates would reach consensus on a framework to curb small arms trafficking.

``The issues are too important to let it fall now,'' he said shortly before midnight. ``We've made a lot of progress ... so it would be a shame if they don't get a final document.''

Earlier, Belgian Ambassador Jean Lint, whose country holds the EU presidency, predicted a positive outcome.

``The conference is now in its final phase, where naturally everybody is very excited and trying to fight until the last minute for their own position. But some of the difficult issues are beginning to find a solution,'' he said in an interview.

``I don't think I'm mistaken in saying this will not be a failure,'' Lint said.

But campaigners demanding tough controls on small arms exports fear the two-week U.N. conference will be a major failure.

Underlying the difficulty in reaching an agreement are serious differences on how to tackle the illegal but lucrative small arms trade -- with Canada and the European Union demanding much tougher regulations than the United States, China and some other arms producers.

Whether the plan of action being debated can dent the problem remains a major question.

Small arms were the weapons of choice in 46 of the 49 major conflicts fought during the 1990s -- in which 4 million people died, 90 percent of them civilian.

According to U.N. estimates, between 40 percent and 60 percent of the more than 500 million small arms and light weapons in the world are illegal. And the trade in these illicit pistols, assault rifles, machine-guns and other light weapons is valued at about $1 billion annually.

Amnesty International and Oxfam International, the British-based aid agency, said the prospect of delegates adopting a firm timetable for concrete action to stop the illegal small arms trade is negligible.

``The tragedy is that governments are moving to tackle small arms with a shameful sloth that will leave hundreds of thousands dead each year until real preventive action is taken,'' said Oxfam representative Ed Cairns.

``We are all very angry at the conference's failure,'' added Brian Wood of Amnesty, ``but (we) are determined to step up our campaigning to control small arms and cut the killing.''

For many delegates, the most important outcome is to ensure the conference is not a one-time event.

All Western nations, with the exception of the United States, want provisions made for a follow-up meeting and eventually, a legally binding accord to enable authorities to trace supply lines for illegally trafficked weapons. The United States is wary of legal agreements on small arms and believes a mandatory follow-up conference is unnecessary.

----

Spanish Cops Arrest U.S. Fugitive

The Associated Press
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline130302_000.htm

MALAGA, Spain -- Spanish police have arrested a 71-year-old American on the run from U.S. justice for the past 16 years for dealing nuclear weapon mechanisms to Israel.

A police statement Saturday said Richard Kelly Smith has been living in Spain since 1985, when he fled the United States while awaiting sentencing for his conviction on 30 charges of arms trafficking and forged documents.

He was arrested on July 10, said the statement issued by police in the southern coastal city of Malaga.

The statement said Smith, an electronic engineer, ran a business in Los Angeles that manufactured Krypton microchips used in firing nuclear weapons. The manufacture and sale of the chips were under strict control by the U.S. government at the time.

Between 1980-82, he is said to have forged documents that allowed him export the chips illegally to Israel for unspecified large sums of money. Smith was later arrested but fled to Spain while out of prison.

Smith is expected to be taken to Madrid while his extradition is studied.

-------- biological weapons

Bush to Oppose Germ Weapons Pact Draft

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/news/AP-Bush-Germ-Weapons.html?searchpv=aponline

GENOA, Italy (AP) -- In a split with key allies, the Bush administration has decided to oppose a draft agreement to enforce a 26-year-old germ weapons treaty.

The administration, already under fire for rejecting allied-backed initiatives on climate change and small arms trade, has concluded that the guidelines will not stop the spread of biological weapons and could hurt U.S. business interests, according to an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official was attending an economic summit here with President Bush, who has been accused of isolating the United States from its allies on international treaties as well as his push for a anti-missile shield.

American envoy Donald A. Mahley planned to tell negotiators in Geneva next week that Bush supported the Biological Weapons Convention but feared the enforcement rules would be burdensome to some universities and industries and might expose American businesses to commercial theft.

The decision was first reported by the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post.

An administration team recommended in the spring that the proposed rules be rejected, and U.S. officials said at the time that the White House was likely to accept the advice.

Since then, the administration has concluded that the language designed to enforce the treaty is flawed beyond repair.

The treaty, ratified by 143 nations, prohibits the development, production and possession of biological weapons. It still lacks a vehicle for ensuring compliance, and negotiators are trying to create one by November.

The Clinton administration gave its blessing to the protocol.

With its decision, the administration joins China, Libya, Cuba, Iran and Pakistan in voicing opposition to the rules. Allies in Europe and Latin America support the language.

---

U.S. Won't Back Plan to Enforce Germ Pact
Draft 'Unworkable,' Bush Official Says

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28134-2001Jul20?language=printer

The Bush administration has decided to announce next week that the United States cannot accept a draft agreement for enforcing a 1972 treaty on germ warfare, even though the draft is backed by allies in Europe and Asia, according to arms control experts.

An American envoy, Donald A. Mahley, is scheduled to inform negotiators at talks in Geneva on Monday that the Bush administration strongly supports the Biological Weapons Convention but has serious objections to the proposed agreement on how to enforce it, a U.S. official said.

More than 140 countries, including the United States, have ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, a landmark treaty banning the development and production of germ warfare agents. The original treaty lacked any effective means of enforcement. Negotiations on a protocol for verifying compliance have been underway since 1995, and a final vote on the draft is slated for November.

The U.S. announcement will come just as President Bush winds up meetings in Italy with leaders of the Group of Eight nations and Pope John Paul II. Bush has been criticized at home and abroad for isolating the United States from its allies by abandoning the Kyoto global warming treaty and embracing a plan for missile defenses that could violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty within months.

Rejection of the biological weapons protocol, senior State Department officials have acknowledged, is likely to fuel the criticism. Bush said at the start of his European visit Thursday that "we're not retreating within our borders" and "we're willing to listen," but that "I will still continue to stand for what I think is right for our country and the world."

State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher declined yesterday to comment on the U.S. position other than to cite the department's official guidance on the issue, which says, "More work needs to be done to examine measures to strengthen the biological weapons protocol in a way that effectively responds to the biological weapons threat."

But arms control experts inside and outside the government said the Bush administration has concluded that the protocol, as drafted, lacks the teeth to prevent cheating by other countries, yet still would be burdensome to American universities and industries, and might leave U.S. companies vulnerable to theft of commercial secrets.

"There is agreement throughout the government that [the protocol] is unworkable and unacceptable," said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The draft, now more than 200 pages, calls for routine plant inspections by four-member teams with two weeks' notice, although "challenge" inspections could take place with only a few days' notice.

It also limits the time that inspectors could spend on each site, and it restricts the equipment that they normally could carry to a few simple devices, such as tape recorders and personal computers.

If representatives of the countries that have ratified the Biological Weapons Convention vote for the protocol in November, it will be sent to the 189-member United Nations General Assembly. But it would still require ratification by individual nations before it became binding on their conduct.

The draft protocol is already a subject of lively debate among specialists in the United States. John Isaacs, president of the Council for a Livable World, a private group that supports arms control, said he and other experts have been informed that the administration plans to "withdraw" from negotiations on the protocol.

"I think it's a terrible move," Isaacs added. "It's consistent with a series of unilateral actions by this administration. Clearly, the protocol does not do everything the U.S. wants to do. But that is primarily because U.S. industry resisted strong verification measures."

Amy E. Smithson, an expert on chemical and biological weapons at the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, offered a far different interpretation. She said the Bush administration would be right to walk away from the protocol and search for other means of verifying treaty compliance.

Smithson also said the Clinton administration deserves as much blame as industry for failing to become actively engaged in the negotiations in Geneva.

"The process turns out weak results because it's a consensus process," Smithson said. "But more important in this case is that the Clinton administration did not do its technical homework and go in with a robust negotiating position. They were pretty much following Europe's lead, and the Europeans came up with this formula."

Smithson said she did not believe the protocol, as it stands, would be ratified by the Senate. "It would be dead on arrival," she said. "The mandate of this negotiation was to create something that would allow countries to monitor compliance. And this doesn't do that."

In a report on the protocol released earlier this month, Smithson quoted experts from pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms as saying that larger teams of inspectors, with more time allowed at each site, would be necessary to enforce the treaty effectively.

Because biotechnology is rapidly evolving, Smithson said in the report, trying to detect the presence of germ weapons is far more difficult than inspecting for chemical weapons, whose precursor chemicals are well known.

"Those who would endeavor to monitor the BWC must contend with the real and mercurial nature of modern laboratories and pharmaceutical facilities, where virulent characteristics can be spliced into genes and, in a matter of moments, manufacturing plants can be flushed of incriminating evidence," her report said.

Alan P. Zelicoff, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories who was a U.S. delegate to the protocol talks throughout the 1990s, has faulted the Clinton administration's National Security Council for "suppressing" the results of two mock U.S. inspections that showed the difficulty of inspecting for germ weapons.

Those results, according to Zelicoff, could have been used at the talks in Geneva to help produce a more workable inspections system.

-----

USA Has Problems with Germ - Warfare Enforcement Plan

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-arms-us.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Saturday the Bush administration had problems with a proposed agreement for enforcement of a 1972 treaty banning biological weapons.

``We have problems with the protocol but we fully support the Biological Weapons Convention ... the issue is the protocol,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told Reuters. ''We think there's more work that needs to be done.''

Fleischer declined specifically to state the administration's objections to the proposed plan for enforcing the treaty, which prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, or use of biological weapons.

A State Department official said U.S. agencies had been reviewing the protocol.

``They agreed that more work needs to be done to examine measures to strengthen the biological weapons convention in a way that effectively responds to the biological weapons threat,'' the official said.

Diplomats have worked on the enforcement protocol, which would establish measures to monitor the ban, for six years and hoped to complete it by autumn.

More than 140 nations, including the United States, have ratified the 1972 Biological Warfare Convention. But it has lacked an effective means of enforcement.

The draft protocol would allow routine plant inspections by four-member teams on two weeks' notice and ``challenge'' inspections on a few days' notice. It limits the time inspectors can spend at a site and allows them to bring relatively simple equipment, like tape recorders and laptop computers.

The Washington Post reported in its Saturday editions that President Bush's administration had decided it could not accept the proposed enforcement agreement.

The decision was to be announced on Monday by the U.S. envoy to long-running negotiations in Geneva. He would say the United States supports the treaty but has serious objections to a proposed agreement on how to enforce it, the newspaper said, citing arms control experts and an unnamed U.S. official.

``There is agreement throughout the government that (the protocol) is unworkable and unacceptable,'' according to a senior U.S. official who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity.

EFFECTIVE ENFORCEMENT SAID TO BE LACKING

John Isaacs, president of the Washington-based Council for a Livable World, which supports arms control, said on Saturday he had been told the United States was set to reject the agreement.

``I did check with someone at the State Department, and it turns out it is likely this coming week the administration will inform our allies that we won't play the game and we'll take our marbles and go home,'' Isaacs said in an interview.

Isaacs said the United States had expressed concern that compliance with the agreement would be extremely difficult to verify. He said the protocol may be flawed, but that should not be grounds for rejection.

``It's really part of the Bush administration's unilateralism, where we declare the U.S.' right to opt in or opt out of international agreements on our own terms,'' Isaacs said.

The Washington Post report was the second in two months indicating U.S. dissatisfaction with the protocol. According to The New York Times on May 19, an administration review concluded the protocol would be inefficient in stopping cheating, and its deficiencies could not be overcome before the negotiations deadline.

-------- iraq

Iraq Govt. Feeling More Confident

By Waiel Faleh
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline152551_000.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's government is in a buoyant mood following what it calls its victory in the United Nations over sanctions.

"The United States and Britain have nothing left but to admit the fact that they have failed in their evil, aggressive policies toward Iraq," the state-run al-Qadissiya newspaper said Saturday.

Earlier this month, the United States and Britain, facing a Russian veto, were forced to withdraw their so-called smart sanctions proposal to revamp sanctions against Iraq.

The confidence resulting from the political victory may be making Iraq bolder militarily - to the dismay of its neighbors.

U.S. Defense Department officials said late Friday that the crew of a Navy E2-C surveillance aircraft flying in Kuwaiti airspace reported seeing the plume of a surface-to-air missile apparently fired from inside Iraq. The American plane was not hit in the incident Thursday.

If confirmed, that would be the first known instance of Iraq firing a missile into Kuwaiti airspace since the 1991 Gulf War, and could mean Iraq has stationed a missile unit close to the Kuwaiti border. The United States in the past has warned Iraq not to station missiles near Kuwait. A U.S.-led coalition forced Iraq to reverse its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

But on Saturday, a Kuwaiti Defense Ministry official said the sound of an explosion was heard over the demilitarized zone before 9 a.m. Thursday, but said it could have been the result of an Iraqi surface-to-air missile launched against allied aircraft in the southern no-fly zone in Iraq, according to the Kuwait News Agency.

"The state of Kuwait was not attacked," the official, who was not further identified, was quoted as saying, adding the incident "does not concern Kuwait but concerns the countries that perform the patrolling directly."

Iraqi military officials could not be reached for comment on the Pentagon report. But Iraq announced Thursday and Friday it had fired surface-to-air missiles at "enemy warplanes" in Iraqi airspace on both those days.

In another development, Saudi Arabia has accused Iraq of firing at its border guards. Iraq denied the accusation and said that Saudi forces fired at unarmed Iraqi soldiers, killing one. Saudi Arabia sided with the U.S.-led Gulf War coalition.

The United States and Britain patrol no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq established shortly after the Gulf War to protect Kurdish and Shiite rebels against Iraqi government forces. Iraq sees the zones as violations of its sovereignty and in 1998 began firing missiles and artillery guns at the U.S. and British patrols.

Over the last three years, Iraq has occasionally claimed it had hit a U.S. or British plane, but so far no downing has been confirmed.

The last time Iraq significantly increased its challenges of the U.S. and British patrols - the Pentagon said it had been improving its targeting ability - two dozen U.S. and British jets attacked outside the no-fly zone, hitting air defense sites around Baghdad on Feb. 16.

This time, Iraq may be counting on more international support in the face of any attack given the failure of the "smart sanctions" to gain much backing.

The smart sanctions proposal would have eased the flow of civilian goods while tightening an 11-year-old arms embargo and plugging up oil smuggling routes. The Security Council voted instead to continue the oil-for-food program, which enables Iraq to sell oil despite the trade sanctions to buy necessities for its people.

Iraq wants the sanctions scrapped entirely. Under Security Council resolutions, sanctions cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq has dismantled its weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles to deliver them.

-------- israel

Palestinians Welcome G8 Statement

By Susan Sevareid
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline194916_000.htm

JERUSALEM -- The Palestinian Authority on Saturday welcomed a call by the leaders of the world's most powerful industrial nations for international observers to be sent to the region to monitor attempts at a cease-fire.

But the statement issued at the Group of Eight summit in Genoa Italy fell short of expectations voiced by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat earlier Saturday for a decision that would make it "obligatory for the Israeli side to stop this Israeli aggression."

Arafat's call came after one of the worst stretches of violence since a U.S.-backed cease-fire took effect more than a month ago.

A Palestinian was killed late Saturday in the Mougharka area of the Gaza Strip when the Israeli army fired two tank shells toward the neighborhood, Palestinian security officials said. Yehia Subhi Diya, 40, died of shrapnel wounds to the stomach after one of the shells hit his home, the officials and doctors said. The Israeli army said there was no tank shelling in the area.

The army also said two Palestinian gunmen shot at an army outpost in the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim late Saturday, and soldiers threw a grenade and fired light weapons in response.

About 5,000 Palestinians participated in a funeral procession Saturday for one of 14 people to die since Monday: Rajai Abu Rajab, an activist in the military wing of Arafat's Fatah party who died Friday night when an explosion flattened Fatah's Hebron office.

Arafat has not directly commented on the Hebron blast, which Fatah says was an Israeli attack with missiles and Israelis say was a "work accident" - a Palestinian bomb that prematurely exploded while being assembled. But he said the city is only one of many where violence is rising to dangerous levels.

The Palestinian leadership, meeting Saturday in Gaza City, called on the international community to implement as quickly as possible the G8 decision supporting the deployment of observers.

"Send them immediately in order to spare the blood of the Palestinian people," read an official statement.

Palestinians had wanted G8 leaders to toughen their foreign ministers' statement Thursday that urged outside cease-fire monitors, but only if both sides will accept them.

The foreign ministers said in their decision that monitors could help in implementing provisions of the Mitchell report, which has been accepted by all parties and contains security and political measures aimed at eventually bringing the two sides back to peace negotiations.

The G8 leaders decided Saturday to accept the foreign ministers' announcement as is.

"The situation in the Middle East presents a grave danger," read the G8 release. "Third-party monitoring, accepted by both parties, would serve their interests in implementing the Mitchell Report."

Israel opposes the deployment of international monitors.

"There is no danger of coercion (into accepting outside monitors) since both the foreign ministers' statement and the Mitchell report require the consent of both sides to any third-party involvement," Sharon's office said Friday.

Remarks by Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer that, if forced to accept monitors, an expanded CIA role would be acceptable, do not change Israel's opposition to the monitors, Sharon's office said.

Ben-Eliezer, in the first indication Israel may bend on monitors, told Israeli television Friday that "if something will be imposed on us ... I will accept the presence of the CIA here."

The CIA currently coordinates Israeli-Palestinian security meetings designed to restore security cooperation and trust between the parties.

Fourteen people have died since Monday, and each side blames the other for worsening the violence, which recently has included a Palestinian suicide bombing, an Israeli assassination strike, a drive-by shooting and a mysterious explosion. Palestinians fired mortars for the first time in the West Bank; Israel sent in more troops and tanks.

Israeli officials have flatly denied any involvement in the Hebron explosion Friday that Fatah officials said was a strike by two Israeli missiles.

Originally, Palestinian security sources also spoke of two missiles, but numerous witnesses told The Associated Press in the moments after the explosion that they did not see any helicopters over the building.

Also Saturday, two Palestinian activists wanted by Israel were injured in a small explosion in a Nablus apartment, witnesses said. Officials in the local governor's office said a gas canister had exploded.

----

Israel Goes After Palestinian Foes

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pursuing-Palestinians.html

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) -- Israeli undercover agents came calling on suspected bombmaker Mahmoud Juma Hamdan in a white van disguised as a vegetable wagon, spiriting him away from his porch in a dusty village outside Bethlehem.

Two days later and a few miles away, a pair of Israeli helicopters tracked Palestinian militant Omar Saadeh to a chicken coop in Bethlehem and rocketed the cinderblock structure into a pile of rubble, killing Saadeh and three other Palestinians.

With booby-trapped cars, exploding public telephones and clandestine abductions, Israel's security forces have killed or seized dozens of suspected Palestinian militants, brushing aside international criticism that they are inflaming Mideast tensions.

``This is a war against terrorists, and no one has offered a coherent alternative to what Israel is doing,'' said Gerald Steinberg, a political analyst at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv. ``What other option is there? Doing nothing? That would be national suicide.''

Confronted with suicide bombings whose grisly results are seen across the Jewish state, Israeli leaders are under constant public pressure to hit back.

In Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's center-right government, even dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres defends Israel's actions.

Israel says it targets militants who recently carried out attacks or were plotting violence, arguing self-defense as grounds for moving against ``ticking bombs.''

After the Tuesday helicopter strike, Israel said that Saadeh was planning a terror attack at this week's closing ceremony of the Maccabiah, the Jewish Olympics, though it provided no evidence.

But the United States, Israel's leading ally, has urged it to stop. Palestinians call it an ``assassination policy'' and say it further undermines faltering hopes for an end to 10 months of violence and a resumption of peace efforts.

``This is a dirty game that Israel plays to justify its attacks on the Palestinian people,'' Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Israel has killed 28 Palestinians in 20 separate targeted attacks since last November, according to the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights. It is also holding about 20 Palestinians, many suspected in the mob killing of two Israeli soldiers last October, according to human rights groups. None has appeared in court or been charged.

Israel has acknowledged its highly visible helicopter attacks, but has declined to comment on others, such as the two exploding telephones, each of which killed a militant.

It also refuses to divulge details on the abductions, some of which have been carried out with lightning raids into Palestinian-controlled territories.

Sharon, an ex-general, often speaks of wanting to keep opponents off-balance, and the tactic has bred deep suspicions among Palestinians who believe they are being targeted.

At Palestinian Authority offices in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, visitors are often asked to leave their cell phones at the door in case they explode.

In Palestinian cities, militants who previously strutted through the streets brandishing their weapons now tend to avoid public places. Some sleep in different houses every night, and vary their cars and travel routes.

The Israeli raids are widely assumed to be carried out with the close cooperation of Palestinian collaborators, who can watch a target's movements minute-to-minute.

Collaborators are also believed to plant beacons to guide helicopters for pinpoint strikes. In the Bethlehem raid, the helicopters scored direct hits on the small chicken coop with four missiles, but houses only a few yards away were unscratched.

Israel says it has given Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a list of wanted men, many from radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and demanded their arrest. If Arafat's won't act, ``we have a right to exercise self-defense and prevent terrorist attacks,'' said Raanan Gissin, a Sharon spokesman.

Israel has not released the list, though Sharon has said it has 60 names, while his defense minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, put the figure at 128.

Arafat has condemned Palestinian bombing attacks in Israel and has warned militants to stop. But his security officials say they don't intend a broad crackdown.

``In the past, when the Palestinian Authority felt it had a partner in the Israelis, and there was hope of independence and freedom, we had the motivation to act,'' said Rajoub, the Palestinian security chief. ``But in the current circumstances, we cannot take actions against such people while Israeli tanks are shelling our houses.''

Rajoub also criticized the Israeli army for not prosecuting its own soldiers, who he said have ``shot innocent Palestinians.''

In one Israeli nighttime assault, just a few hundred yards from Rajoub's hilltop compound in Ramallah, Israeli troops shot dead five Palestinian policemen at a checkpoint. It later admitted they were ordinary policemen killed by mistake.

In the case of Mahmoud Juma Hamdan, the suspected bombmaker with Islamic Jihad, Israeli security sources said he was involved in planning roadside bombing attacks.

Hamdan, 42, was imprisoned by Israel from 1990 to 1998. Before that he lost a hand and eye in an accidental blast. His family said he couldn't find work, and he spent most of his time hanging out at the three-story family home.

When the ``vegetable van'' pulled up, six undercover agents sprang out, grabbed Hamdan and pushed aside his mother and other female relatives who tried to save him, his family said.

The family has asked the Red Cross to investigate, but has heard nothing.

``We have no idea when we'll see him again,'' said Hamdan's wife Zeinab.

--------

Israeli Call-Up Raises New War Fears
Overseas recruiting suggests offensive against Palestinians is in forefront of military policy

Saturday, July 21, 2001
the Guardian of London
by Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem
http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0721-01.htm

The Israeli army said yesterday that it plans to open overseas recruiting stations, an announcement bound to encourage predictions of an all-out war with the Palestinians.

Ten months into the Palestinian uprising against Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, an army spokeswoman said yesterday that the military planned to open recruitment offices for army reservists in nine cities. They include London and other European cities, New York and Los Angeles - home to more than 100,000 expatriate Israelis - and Bombay and Bangkok.

"It is for Israeli reservists around the world, but it is very very specialized, for emergencies only," the spokeswoman said. "Even if there is a war in Israel, they won't be mobilized on the first or second day - only if there is a long war."

Israeli military intelligence and top commanders have been playing down the likelihood of an all-out war. Despite such precautions, the announcement is bound to fuel prophesies of a fullscale war against Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

In recent days, Israeli and foreign media have printed several versions of alleged battle plans - ranging from an all-out assault against the Palestinians by 30,000 Israeli soldiers to a more modest campaign aimed at retaking select portions of Palestinian-ruled land. "They are talking about the next war as if it is a product that is just about to hit the shelves," an editorial in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper said this week. The newspaper, the largest circulation Hebrew daily, broke the story of the overseas recruitment campaign on its website yesterday.

"The advertising campaign has already passed its peak and the lethal product will be on the market in no time."

The atmosphere of gloom deepened yesterday following a roadside shooting attack by extremist Jewish settlers that killed three Palestinians - including a three-month-old baby - from the same family.

Yesterday, the Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, condemned the attack, and promised: "Israel will apprehend those who perpetrated the abominable murder." Israel has a citizen's army, with compulsory military service for men and women - except for the most ultra-orthodox Jews - and the army is a rite of passage into adulthood for Israeli youth. Distinguished service in an elite unit is a ticket into politics, and the best jobs in the private sector.

After a period of mandatory service, Israelis are also liable for reserve duty, and the military has an estimated 425,000 reservists. In ordinary times, men, who are conscripted for an initial three years, are called for reserve duty of a few weeks every year until the age of 45 for combat units, and older for administrative duties.

Before the intifada, however, it was rare for men to be called up beyond the age of 40. For Israelis, army service is the essence of national identity: a Jew defending a homeland surrounded by hostile neighbors. In earlier wars against its Arab enemies, Israelis living abroad routinely volunteered to return home for fight.

It was practically unheard of to refuse the army until 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon, setting off a war that Israelis consider their equivalent of Vietnam.

However, the 10-month uprising has worn away at some of the fabric of this citizen's army. Since last October, 15 soldiers have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, including 10 reservists, according to Yesh Gvul. The group, which represents conscientious objectors, says its knows of at least 200 reservists who have refused to go to the occupied territories, but estimates the true number of resisters could be 10 times as high.

"I am not surprised at the announcement because everyone knows we are going to war with the Palestinians," said Ishai Menuchin, a reserve army major and the spokesman for Yesh Gvul.

"It is a way to bring more soldiers, and it is a way to show to the Jewish community all over the world that we are in danger and they have to support us. But I don't think too many soldiers will come from abroad because it is not a war for survival."

-------- russia

A Free Pass on Chechnya

Saturday, July 21, 2001; Page A22
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29203-2001Jul20?language=printer

WARMING UP for his summit meeting with Western leaders in Genoa, Italy, today and his separate conference with President Bush tomorrow, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his first full news conference at the Kremlin this week. In it, he was careful to portray himself as the kind of leader the G-7 is hoping he will be: politically moderate; committed to opening Russia's economy; interested, even, in joining NATO someday. On one subject, however, Mr. Putin offered no concessions and no gloss whatsoever: Of Chechnya, he said, "I have no intention of changing . . . my approach."

That approach, as Russian and Western human rights groups have exhaustively documented, is a scorched-earth military campaign by some 80,000 troops that has included the systematic torture, robbery and murder of civilians. Not only has Mr. Putin not toned down his bellicose and mendacious rhetoric about Chechnya in the five weeks since he last met Mr. Bush, but his forces have stepped up "cleansing operations" in the republic. Thousands of civilians have been rounded up in at least seven villages amid widespread reports of torture, disappearances and summary executions. The behavior of Russian forces has been so brutal that even leaders of the Moscow-appointed puppet Chechen administration have resigned or threatened to do so.

The politically savvy Mr. Putin is obviously concerned about his image in the West, yet he clearly felt no pressure to temper his Chechnya campaign or even his description of it just days before a summit meeting with the presidents and prime ministers of the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada. You can hardly blame him: After all, none of these governments has had anything significant to say as reports about the bloody cleansing operations have poured in. In fact, even as news of two particularly grisly sweeps in the villages of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya was breaking two weeks ago, Mr. Bush issued an extraordinary -- we would say shocking -- public endorsement of Mr. Putin. The Russian president "is deeply concerned about extremism and what extremism can mean to Russia," Mr. Bush told reporters, parroting the terms that Mr. Putin often uses to describe the Chechen war. "As you know, I am too." Those words were delivered on July 6 -- the day after the pro-Moscow mayors of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya resigned in protest over an operation that even Russia's commander in Chechnya acknowledged was "lawless."

Mr. Bush's public support has had the effect of virtually silencing almost all other criticism of Chechnya by Western governments, and it has emboldened Mr. Putin to deliver ever-more-inflated falsehoods about the situation there. At his press conference Wednesday he said that Russian cleansing operations "boil down to passport checks and measures to identify people who are on the federal wanted list"; in fact, what happens is that hundreds or thousands of boys and men are rounded up in fields or placed in pits, where many are tortured and some are summarily executed. Mr. Putin also claimed that the judicial system in Chechnya is operating and that alleged crimes by his forces are being investigated and prosecuted; in fact, only one Russian soldier has been convicted, even though Russian human rights investigators have documented abundant war crimes -- including three large massacres, a dump of at least 51 bodies outside Russia's principal military base, scores of cases of torture and more than 100 disappearances.

Mr. Bush's apparent acceptance of the Chechen campaign can only be explained by his equally evident zeal to conclude a deal with Mr. Putin on missile defense. In the weeks since Mr. Bush ended his first meeting with the Russian president with the startling observation that he had looked into his soul and found him trustworthy, it has become clear that the administration is in a great hurry to win Moscow's acquiescence to a modification or abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty within months. We still don't understand why such haste is necessary; and it's also not sure that Mr. Putin will go along, despite Mr. Bush's sweet-talk. But one price of this hasty diplomatic campaign is already obvious: Mr. Bush has abdicated U.S. authority to speak out about human rights in Russia and given Mr. Putin a free pass to pursue the most bloody and criminal campaign of military repression now in the world.

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Solar-Sailing Spacecraft Fails Test

By Andrew Bridges
AP Science Writer
Saturday, July 21, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010721/aponline184655_000.htm

LOS ANGELES -- The test of a prototype spacecraft that sails on the sun's rays failed because it did not separate from the rocket used to launch it, officials said Saturday.

The Cosmos 1 was launched from a Russian nuclear submarine Thursday, but remained attached to the third stage of the rocket originally designed as an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The spacecraft and rocket likely burned up in the atmosphere upon re-entry or crashed on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, officials said.

Members of the Planetary Society's $4 million project had hoped the spacecraft would deploy its two Russian-built solar sails, each four stories tall, during the 31-minute test.

The sails are designed to be pushed along by the gentle, steady pressure of photons from the sun, just as a conventional sail uses wind.

Cameras aboard the spacecraft were to have recorded the lightweight Mylar blades as they unfurled from compact canisters about the size of a loaf of bread.

Members of the mission, which was underwritten by Internet and entertainment company Cosmos Studios and the A&E cable television network, must now decide whether to go ahead with a full-scale Cosmos 1 mission to send a pinwheel of eight blades into orbit.

Bruce Murray, the Planetary Society's president, said he is optimistic the launch would go forward.

Solar-driven spacecraft would be slow to accelerate, but with time should reach velocities that would make travel across great distances possible. The sails could theoretically attain speeds 10 times greater than NASA's Voyager I and II, which travel at 38,000 mph.

-------- environment

Japan Stuck in Middle on Treaty

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Summit-Koizumi-in-the-Middle.html

GENOA, Italy (AP) -- If he follows Washington, he will anger European leaders and perhaps kill a treaty on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If he goes with Europe, he will ruffle Japan's most powerful ally.

What is Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to do?

Wait, most likely.

In his debut at the annual summit of industrialized nations, Japan's new leader has been cautiously playing middleman in a dispute over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an ambitious strategy to reduce the emissions of greenhouses gasses.

More than 80 countries have signed the pact, which requires industrialized countries to reduce their emissions an average of 5.2 percent from their 1990 levels by 2012.

The gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are believed to be a factor in global warming.

Seeing the pact through is of special importance to Japan, which hosted the 1997 conference in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto where it was crafted.

But the Kyoto accord can only go into force if backed by 65 countries representing 55 percent of the industrialized world's emissions. The European Union and its allies account for 49.5 percent of the emissions, and Japan 8.5 percent.

Japanese officials say they believe getting enough countries to sign on should not be a problem.

But without the United States, they say, the treaty would be far less effective -- and they have given no indication of how Tokyo might get Washington to join.

President Bush has opposed the treaty, calling it flawed and saying it could hurt the U.S. economy. He has also raised concerns that the treaty does not include developing countries, whose share of the emissions is growing rapidly.

Even so, European countries, particularly Germany and France, have indicated they would be willing to move ahead without Washington. That makes Japan's support crucial. If Japan follows the United States and withdraws, the pact is certain to fail.

That has put Koizumi in a diplomatic bind.

Officially, Japan wants to see the treaty ratified as soon as possible.

``Japan has a heavy responsibility, and we will do whatever we can to see that an agreement is reached,'' Koizumi said before the Group of Eight talks began.

On the first day of the summit, he launched into a discussion of the treaty with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, and again with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

In both meetings, Koizumi stressed that Japan's position hasn't changed, and vowed to try to persuade the United States to join.

Japanese delegation officials said Koizumi will likely emphasize the urgency of the issue and the need for a quick, meaningful solution involving clear targets.

But they indicated they believe the leaders here may take something of a wait-and-see stance, as detailed discussions at the ministerial level are now under way in Bonn.

Some 6,000 delegates from 180 countries are at those talks. With the U.S. ambivalence, the talks have shown little headway.

-------- genetics

61 Senators Call for Stem Cell Research

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/21/politics/21STEM.html

WASHINGTON, July 20 - A bipartisan group of 61 senators sent letters to President Bush today that urged him to permit the use of federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research.

One letter, begun by Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, was signed by 59 senators who want to see a ban on such research lifted. A second letter, signed by 13 Republicans, was put together by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is a forceful supporter of embryonic stem cell research. Some lawmakers signed both letters.

Of the two letters, Mr. Specter's stakes out the more contentious position. In it the senators urge Mr. Bush not only to permit federally financed scientists to work on cells extracted from human embryos but also to support legislation that would allow scientists to experiment directly on the embryos.

A Congressional ban on embryo research prohibits both types of experiments. But last year the Clinton administration found a way around that ban and issued rules allowing research on stem cells that are now growing in self-perpetuating colonies, having already been extracted from embryos.

Mr. Specter said he believed that at least 75 senators supported federal financing for research, though he did not say whether that included support for his proposal to lift the ban on direct experimentation on live embryos.

The letters come at a time when Mr. Bush, who opposes abortion, is deciding whether to continue, reject or revise the Clinton administration's rules. Advocates argue that embryonic stem cell research can help cure an array of diseases, including Parkinson's. But abortion opponents say the research destroys embryos and, therefore, violates human life.

While the issue of stem cell research is not before Congress now, several lawmakers have indicated they would push for a bill on the issue if Mr. Bush decided to oppose the financing. The large number of senators adding their names to the letters indicates that there are enough lawmakers to overcome either a filibuster or a veto of such a bill.

At a news conference today, Mr. Specter said that support on Capitol Hill was quickly mushrooming. "There is more than a groundswell here," he said.

Senators John W. Warner of Virginia, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas were among the Republicans who signed the Specter letter.

Adding his voice to the chorus, another Republican, Senator Robert F. Bennett of Utah, said today that he would support federal financing under strict guidelines. Mr. Bennett said he waited to make his decision until he learned more about in vitro fertilization, the procedure used to create the embryos that are now at the center of the scientific and moral debate.

Mr. Bennett's daughter, he said, had undergone the fertility procedure to get pregnant.

"From her experience, I have learned that all embryos are not created equal; some are healthy enough to have a chance of survival and some are not," Mr. Bennett said in a statement. "Our daughter's doctors were able to determine, in advance of implantation, which embryos were healthy enough to survive. Those that were not were discarded."

"She believes, as I do, that it would be wonderful if these nonviable embryos could be used to give hope to others suffering from life-threatening diseases rather than cast aside as useless," he said.

In the Kerry letter to Mr. Bush, which was written on Thursday, the 59 senators underscored that point.

"We ought to realize their promise of life," the senators said of the embryos, "rather than lose it altogether."

Senator Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee and a doctor who advises Mr. Bush on health care issues, announced this week that he would support lifting the ban, but with restrictions. Mr. Bennett said he endorsed that same position.

Mr. Bush, speaking at a news conference in London on Thursday, said politics would play no role in his decision. And he will not rush his decision on the sensitive matter, he added.

"It doesn't matter who's on what side, as far as I'm concerned," Mr. Bush said.

"This is way beyond politics," Mr. Bush added. "This is an issue that speaks to morality and science and the juxtaposition of the both. And the American people deserve a president who will listen to people and make a serious, thoughtful judgment on this complex issue, and that's exactly how I'm going to handle it."

-------- health

Bush to Keep National AIDS Council

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/news/AP-Bush-AIDS.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A task force created by President Bush and a panel from the Clinton era will work together on the new administration's AIDS agenda.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said he recommended that the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS continue, even though federal rules governing its existence were set to expire this year.

That group, created by President Clinton will work with a Cabinet-level AIDS task force that met for the first time Friday, Thompson said.

``I was very pleased with the passion and dedication of everyone involved,'' he said in an interview. ``We are really stepping forward with our continued commitment in this national and international fight against the AIDS pandemic.

``This decision will allow us to be able to best continue that,'' Thompson said, adding that the Clinton-era panel will provide many citizens a voice in national AIDS policy.

Thompson said several members whose terms have not expired will stay on, including former Rep. Ronald V. Dellums, D-Calif., who has chaired the panel. The Bush administration also will make some new appointments to the council, which has more than 30 members.

Some AIDS activists and lawmakers in recent months had questioned whether Bush intended to disband the Clinton-era group. A key Bush aide had said as much in a newspaper interview, but the White House later said the official was mistaken.

``The decision to maintain continuity on the commission demonstrates a clear spirit of nonpartisanship and a political milestone in the lives of those infected or at risk of infection with HIV,'' said Daniel C. Montoya, a former panel director who now lobbies on AIDS issues for a Los Angeles organization.

In April, Bush announced a reorganized White House AIDS office with a new chief. The White House also said Thompson and Secretary of State Colin Powell would lead a team of government advisers to examine domestic and international AIDS issues.

At the Group of Eight meeting in Italy, world leaders and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan announced a new global health fund, with an initial contribution of $1.2 billion, to combat AIDS and other infectious diseases. Bush has pledged $200 million from the United States, saying more money will come only if the fund proves a success.

-------- imf / world bank

Summit Protest Statement

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Summit-Protest-Statement.html

A statement released Saturday by summit leaders in response to the death of a protester in Genoa, Italy:

We the leaders of the G-8 express our sorrow and regret following the death in Genoa yesterday.

We have always respected people's right to legitimate protest. We recognize and praise the role that peaceful protest and argument have played, for example in putting issues like debt relief on the international agenda. But we condemn firmly and absolutely the violence overflowing into anarchy of a small minority that we have seen at work here in Genoa and at recent international meetings.

It is vitally important that democratically elected leaders legitimately representing millions of people can meet to discuss areas of common concern. We are firmly determined to carry on our dialogue with the representatives of civil society. For our part, we will continue to focus on the issues that matter most to our people and to the wider world such as the economy, jobs trade and help for the poorest parts of the world, devoting special attention to Africa. Yesterday evening, we dedicated a working session to African together with the secretary-general of the UN and representatives of developing countries.

For all these reasons, our commitment and our work goes on.

--------

Russia Wants Action, Not Words on WTO Membership

July 21, 2001
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-group-r.html

GENOA (Reuters) - A senior aide to President Vladimir Putin expressed dismay on Saturday at the failure of world leaders to translate support for Russian membership of the WTO into concessions at the negotiating table.

Putin was to have met World Trade Organization chief Mike Moore on Friday on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit of leading industrial states and Russia. But Russian officials said ``technical reasons'' led to its postponement.

Putin has set his ministers an end of year deadline to complete negotiations on joining the WTO, which sets global rules on tariffs and trade.

Russia says it has won support from Italy in its demand for a long transitional period to bring its laws up to world standards. U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil has also promised to discuss the issue in detail in Moscow later this month.

But Sergei Prikhodko, Putin's top foreign policy adviser, told reporters at the G8 summit in Genoa that Moscow wanted concrete acts not warm words of support on membership.

``We have the sense...that the serious political impulse from the heads of state and government, who have, on several occasions, including publicly, spoken of their support for Russia's efforts to join the WTO, somehow evaporates on the way to experts or negotiators.''

``The main thing that concerns us is why this serious political impulse has not materialized concretely in the (WTO's) negotiating position'' with Russia, he said.

``On the contrary, as far as the negotiating position is concerned, unfortunately, we hear new demands which are outside the parameters of the usual procedures and rules of the WTO.''

G7 SUPPORT VITAL

The support of the G7 states -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- is vital if Russia's membership talks are to progress.

Russia's bid to join the WTO has stalled over demands that Russia adjust foreign trade laws, remove tariff barriers, cut state agriculture subsidies and defend intellectual property rights to meet WTO standards before talks proceed.

Moscow says it wants to join the trade body as soon as possible, either next year or in 2003, but insists it needs a grace period to adapt its legislation. Abrupt rule changes or delayed membership could hurt Russia's economy, officials say.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin took Russia's case to G7 finance ministers meeting in Rome, briefing them on progress made in structural reforms and passage of a new law to fight money-laundering.

But on Tuesday, European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy told reporters at a joint press conference with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick that Russia still had much more work to do, despite progress on goods and services.

Zoellick pointed to Russia's complex customs system and intellectual property rights as key areas for improvement.

In Russia, where the average wage is just $50 a month, many ordinary people buy illicit copies of music CDs and computer software at a fraction of their legal retail price, robbing artists and companies of millions of dollars in revenues.

-------- police / prisoners

Judge to Fine If Alabama Cannot Move Prisoners

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By DAVID FIRESTONE
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/21/national/21ALAB.html

ATLANTA, July 20 - An Alabama judge declared today that the state corrections commissioner was in contempt of court for failing to move prisoners from county jails to prisons and said the court would begin fining the state for every prisoner not moved out of a jail within 45 days.

Depending on how many prisoners are moved, the fines could cost the financially strapped state more than $30,000 a day.

On May 18, Judge William A. Shashy of Montgomery County Circuit Court ordered Commissioner Michael W. Haley to find room for more than 1,700 inmates who had been left in county jails after their conviction. Sheriffs have said they cannot handle the large number of inmates, and jails have become so crowded that one federal judge compared conditions in Madison County to those on a slave ship.

Gov. Don Siegelman said last month that the state would not be able to comply with the judge's order but that the state hoped to find beds for 1,250 inmates by mid-August.

About 250 prisoners have been moved, leaving 1,445 in jails as of today.

Judge Shashy said today that such promises were no substitute for compliance with his order.

"The commissioner may not simply pass along that burden to counties and sheriffs by refusing to obey when the Department of Corrections' resources become strained," the judge wrote in his ruling.

The judge said the governor's plan contained no assurances that the state would ever be in compliance with the order and said sanctions were the only way to force the state to assume its responsibilities.

"There is a substantial likelihood that, absent prospective monetary sanctions, the commissioner will continue to disregard the orders of the court," Judge Shashy wrote. "Therefore, coercive sanctions are appropriate and necessary."

He said he would fine the state $26 a day for every state prisoner still in a county jail in 45 days, an amount that could add up to $37,570 a day if none of the current prisoners are removed. The money would go directly to the counties that are housing the prisoners.

The judge said that if the state showed good faith by accepting 1,250 prisoners within 45 days, as the governor has promised, he would reconsider the fines.

Governor Siegelman, a Democrat, issued a statement today saying that a problem that built up over decades could not be solved in a few weeks and criticizing the judge's fines.

Prison crowding has been a problem in Alabama for decades because of two contradictory tendencies: the state has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country but the lowest per-capita tax revenues. In the most recent legislative session, the governor and the Legislature chose not to build any new prisons.

Judge Shashy minced no words in blaming the jail crisis on the political system.

"The courts of this state can only go so far in remedying prison and jail overcrowding," he wrote. "The real solution must come from the executive and legislative branches of state government. They have the capacity to fund and provide enough prisons and correctional staff to ensure the safety and well-being of the citizens of this state. While the governor's plan may very well be a good start, this court must deal with the immediate problem."

--------

Officer charged with murder after G8 death

Agence France-Presse
Saturday July 21, 5:05 PM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010721/1/19jed.html

GENOA, Italy, July 21 (AFP) - The police officer who shot dead a young Italian protester during demonstrations against a Group of Eight summit here was charged with murder, the prosecutor's office said.

A second carabiniere officer is also under investigation but a decision on an indictment will only be made after a post-mortem.

Carlo Giuliani, 23, died after being shot during protests Friday.

The interior ministry said initial inquiries showed Giuliani had been shot by an injured carabiniere whose vehicle was cornered by demonstrators.

Witnesses said the vehicle drove twice over the protester's body.

The second carabiniere was at the wheel of the vehicle.

--------

Italy Under Fire After G - 8 Clashes

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Summit-Italy-Image.html

GENOA, Italy (AP) -- Italy spent millions to spruce up Genoa and even asked residents not to hang their laundry outside while summit leaders were in town. But instead of seeing a charming, ancient port city, the world got warlike images of clashes between two armed camps.

The riots between anti-globalization protesters and thousands of police has marred the first two days of the summit, left one man dead and more than 400 injured and embarrassed many Italians.

``This violence is before the eyes of everybody, and everything was done to try to prevent it,'' said Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero.

``Genoa projected outside an image of death, destruction, looting and violence,'' the town's newspaper, Il Secolo XIX, said in a front-page editorial headlined ``All Defeated.''

``G-8, Tragedy in Genoa,'' ``Genoa, Blood over the G-8,'' were some of the other headlines in the Italian news media, which showed images depicting the death of the 23-year old Italian protester.

The riots made headlines in papers around the world.

``Protesters Turn Genoa Into War Zone,'' wrote the Los Angeles Times, while The Washington Post's headline read: ``Protester Killed During Summit Demonstrations.''

Several European papers criticized the police's inability to handle the crowd, while at the same time stressing the need for a European-Union-wide file on violent criminals to prevent such protests from turning into riots.

In Germany, the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel newspaper criticized the government for transforming the city into a ``fortress.''

``Perhaps it was the authoritarian gestures of Silvio Berlusconi that inflamed this war in Genoa,'' the daily wrote in an editorial.

Berlusconi, Italy's premier, was hosting the summit of industrialized nations a few miles away from the scene of the clashes, and appeared shaken by the violence. In a televised speech, he said he was saddened at the news of the death.

The death sparked protests throughout Europe and in Canada.

In Bonn, several thousand environmental demonstrators gathered Saturday morning and held a moment of silence for the demonstrator. Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber demanded an end to such large international summits in the wake of the deadly confrontation at the G-8 meeting.

``Such summit meetings can't devolve into a spectacle of pomp on the one side and violence on the other,'' he said in an interview to be published Sunday in Welt am Sonntag.

Spain's El Mundo said that police forces were unable to handle the protest, but judged that ``the anti-globalization movement's credibility will only survive if it breaks with its fearsome violent infiltrators.''

Further embarrassing Italy, state-run TV RAI did not cover the event live, prompting calls for the resignation of its board of directors. Images of the clashes were beamed to the outside world by two local TV stations.

Others called for the resignation of the country's interior minister, Claudio Scajola, for the way he deployed the 20,000-strong contingent of policemen across the city.

Genoa's Mayor Giuseppe Pericu, a leftist, told reporters Saturday that ``there hasn't been the mindfulness we had all hoped for,''

The protester who died Friday was the first victim since the anti-globalization protest has come to the world scene in 1999 in Seattle. He was also the first fatality in an Italian demonstration in more than two decades.

-------- spying

Spanish Cops Arrest U.S. Fugitive

New York Times
July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Spain-US-Arrest.html?searchpv=aponline

MALAGA, Spain (AP) -- Spanish police have arrested a 71-year-old American on the run from U.S. justice for the past 16 years for dealing nuclear weapon mechanisms to Israel.

A police statement Saturday said Richard Kelly Smith has been living in Spain since 1985, when he fled the United States while awaiting sentencing for his conviction on 30 charges of arms trafficking and forged documents.

He was arrested on July 10, said the statement issued by police in the southern coastal city of Malaga.

The statement said Kelly, an electronic engineer, ran a business in Los Angeles that manufactured Krypton microchips used in firing nuclear weapons. The manufacture and sale of the chips were under strict control by the U.S. government at the time.

Between 1980-82, he is said to have forged documents that allowed him export the chips illegally to Israel for unspecified large sums of money. Kelly was later arrested but fled to Spain while out of prison.

Kelly is expected to be taken to Madrid while his extradition is studied.

-------- activists

Nuclear waste shipments decried

BY AL J. LAUKAITIS
Lincoln Journal Star
Saturday, Jul. 21, 2001
http://www.journalstar.com/local?story_id=4131&date=20010721&past=

The rusty, metal cask looks like a giant dumbbell.

With skull and crossbones and slogans such as "Stop Mobile Chernobyl" and "Mobile X-Ray Machine That Can't Be Turned Off," it draws attention on the road.

Friday the cask, a mockup of a nuclear waste cask loaded on a 20-foot trailer plastered with anti-nuke stickers, rolled into Lincoln. Kevin Kamps and his wife, Gabriela Bulisova, brought it here to spread a message that Nebraska could soon become a crossroads for nuclear waste shipments.

They warn that if nothing is done, "tens of thousands" of such shipments - by truck and by rail - will move across Nebraska on their way to federal storage sites in Idaho and Nevada.

Kamps, a nuclear waste specialist for the Nuclear Information & Resource Service in Washington, D.C., cited a recent shipment of spent nuclear fuel that crossed Nebraska without the public's knowledge. The cargo was from a German reactor and was shipped on three trucks from South Carolina.

Federal regulators gave state officials seven days' notice of the shipment but asked that they keep its movements confidential. The shipment crossed Nebraska with no problems. But several states along the route opposed the shipments, citing safety concerns.

Nebraska officials would not comment on the shipment.

Kamps said people along the routes should be concerned and notified of such shipments. He said that the casks used for the shipments are old and obsolete and cannot survive real-life crashes.

"Irradiated nuclear fuel rods are deadly," Kamps said. "Without radiation shielding, this waste can deliver a lethal dose of radiation to people in a few minutes of time. The federal agencies place a lot of faith in the transport containers, but we have grave concerns about the inadequate safety testing."

The couple began their journey July 9 in West Valley, N.Y., the site of a former nuclear waste reprocessing facility. The federal government plans to ship waste from the facility by rail before Oct. 1. The waste will end up at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab in Pocatello, Idaho, the same destination as the waste from the German reactor.

Kamps said the two containers on the train will be one of the biggest shipments of radioactive waste in the history of the U.S. Department of Energy, and more are planned during the next 39 years.

Estimates indicate 82 percent of rail shipments of radioactive waste would cross Nebraska during that time period, the highest rate for any state. Some 62 percent of highway shipments would cross Nebraska, the second-highest rate among states.

Kamps said the shipments would put Nebraskans at risk. He said a better alternative would be to store the waste on site at nuclear power plants that produce the waste.

"To move the waste from zero mph to 60 mph in a big hurry for no good reason is putting communities like Lincoln at risk," he said.

Tim Rinne, state coordinator for Nebraskans for Peace, agreed that on-site storage should be the alternative until federal regulators come up with a plan of how to dispose of the waste without shipping it across the country.

He said storing it at Yucca Mountain in Nevada or elsewhere is not the answer because it opens the door for a new generation of nuclear power plants and more waste.

Rinne said Nebraskans for Peace supports the use of renewable energy projects like wind farms.

"Nebraska has only four wind turbines while other states like Iowa and Wisconsin are building hundreds," he said. Reach Al J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.

----

Summit Protests Glance

July 21, 2001
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Protests-Glance.html

Protests sparked by the fatal shooting of a protester at the Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy:

--Canada: About 150 people held a vigil at the Italian consulate in Toronto.

--France: Some 300 people stood outside of the Italian embassy in Paris chanting, ``G-8, assassins!''

--Germany: Several hundred protesters staged an impromptu rally at the Italian embassy in Berlin. In Bonn, the site of an international climate change conference, environmental protesters already gathered held a moment of silence. Smaller protests resulting in at least 13 arrests broke out in Cologne, Hamburg and Magdeburg.

--Greece: About 1,000 people, some chanting ``Murderers, murderers,'' protested. Fighting between police and demonstrators broke out in front of a European Union building near the country's parliament in Athens.

--Spain: Van loads of police watched as about 200 people protested in the streets of Madrid.

--Sweden: Three people were arrested before a rally on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons. Police confiscated tear gas, knives and truncheons.

-----

Appeal from the Okinawan grassroots

From: Joseph Gerson <JGerson@afsc.org>
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001

Subject: We need your help
From: REDCARD MOVEMENT [mailto:redcard2usbase@hotmail.com]

The RedCard Movement will start passing out flyers to military base personnel and will also organize a rally in front of U.S. military bases.

To do so, we need the following from you:

(1) placard messages in English and Japanese

(2) Messages to military personnel like the one below. Either we could read them out loud or make a copy and hand them out at the rally.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

THE RED CARD MOVEMENT http://www.cosmos.ne.jp/~redcardm/

(Sample)

Ten Basic Facts Every GI Should Know About Okinawa

1) Okinawa was not originally a part of Japan. The Ryukyu Kingdom was seized by Japan in 1871, and made into a prefecture in 1879. For this, the consent of the Okinawan people was never asked for.

2) Ever since then, Okinawans have been discriminated against by Japanese. (If you are African-American, Asian-American, Latino, or Native American, you will know what this means).

3) Okinawans have never in their history had their lives made safer or more secure by military power. For example, the military bases built here by the pre-war Japanese government did not protect the people. On the contrary, it was because the bases were here that war came to Okinawa.

4) Though World War II was never Okinawa�fs war, its most terrible battle was fought here. In the Battle of Okinawa virtually every building in the central and southern part of the main island was destroyed, and one in four of the Okinawan people were killed. After this experience, the Okinawans can never be persuaded that military force is a protector of life.

5) After invading Okinawa, the U.S. military kept the islands as its own possession for 27 years. About 20% of the land was taken for U.S. bases. Okinawa was governed by the Pentagon. The Okinawan people were citizens of no country. Prostitution was kept legal for the convenience of the U.S. troops.

6) None of the land under the U.S. bases is owned by the United States. At first the U.S. simply siezed this land and paid no rent, which is in violation of international law. In 1952, when the Peace Treaty with Japan was signed (which still left Okinawa in the hands of the U.S. military), the U.S. announced it would start paying rent to the landowners. But the rent was so small that most landowners refused it. Finally, after an "all-island struggle" in support of the landowners, the U.S. was forced to start paying decent rent.�@Yet even today many Anti-War Landlords refuse to sign rental contracts for their land which is under US control.

7) Though Okinawa comprises only 0.6% of all Japanese territory, 75% of all U.S. bases in Japan are in Okinawa. To the Okinawans, this is clear and direct discrimination, both by Japan and by the U.S.

8) In the more than half-century the U.S. has kept bases on Okinawa, the U.S. military has never protected the Okinawans against any foreign invader, real or imagined. Rather, if Okinawa is attacked, it will be because the U.S. bases are here. Moreover, the U.S. military has been unable to protect the Okinawan people against itself. For example, since Okinawa's reversion to Japan in 1972, well over 100 women and girls have been�@raped by GIs. (This is only the number of reported rapes; in Okinawa as in the U.S., most women who are raped never report it). And the number steadily continues to increase.

9) The Okinawan people have never asked to have U.S. bases here. They have never been asked if they would consent to having U.S. bases here. They have never in any form given their consent to the U.S. bases being here. On the contrary, they have struggled against the bases for decade after decade, but their wishes have been ignored by the government of the U.S. and Japan.

10) The U.S. and Japan say the military bases they keep here protect the Okinawans from invasion. But the only countries in history ever to invade Okinawa have been the U.S. and Japan

-----

Police in Brutal Raid on G8 Protesters' Press Center

Sunday, July 21, 2001
by Agence France Presse
http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0721-04.htm

GENOA, Italy, - An overnight raid by Italian police on the headquarters of the anti-globalization movement Genoa Social Forum (GSF) left dozens of activists wounded before a Group of Eight summit ended here, witnesses and hospital officials said Sunday.

The raid on last day of the summit of world leaders began shortly after midnight and ended just before 2:00 am (0000 GMT).

G8 leaders deplored the riots that swept through Genoa, including the shooting death of a protester, in a communique issued at the end of their three-day meeting.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi fielded several questions on the violence and heavy-handed policing at the summit during the final press conference.

He said he had learned of the police raid only that morning in a phone call from his interior minister.

"He told me some arms and weapons were found, and that 60 members of the Black Block were there who were apparently hiding, and being helped by the GSF," Berlusconi said.

The Black Block is an international militant leftist group.

"Apparently, they (police) could not distinguish clearly between violent activists and members of the Global Forum," he said. "Apparently they were colluding," he added.

The GSF, one of a group of organizations who had met with Berlusconi in the run-up to the summit, had set up offices in the ground floor of the A.Diaz school. Around 50 activists protesting against the G8 meeting were staying there.

"They forced their way in and we lay down on the floor immediately," said Michael Gieser, a Belgian journalist staying in the school.

"They came in, blocked the door and kept beating us with sticks and kicking us, one after the other."

Gieser suffered facial lacerations and said he sprained an arm during the raid. He said that about 15 young police continued to club and kick people on the ground even when an officer shouted at them to stop.

Around 40 were injured in the raid, according to the GSF.

British freelance journalist Mark Covell, 33, was thrown to the ground and held by the neck while four or five police kicked him, witnesses said, adding that Covell was left lying unconscious in a pool of blood.

Witnesses said they saw police washing away blood in the street using water from bottles littering the area.

GSF chief spokesman Vittorio Agnoletto said that offices of lawyers for the movement and the independent journalists association Indymedia were ransacked during the raid.

"This reaction is like Goliath against David. It is because they fear a peaceful, non-violent movement. They hope that we will choose violence," he said.

"This is not the situation of a democratic country in the third millennium."

The Genoa Social Forum is an umbrella organization of more than 800 anti-globalization organizations including anti-AIDS groups, debt relief activists and environmentalists. They staged a nonviolent demonstration Saturday that drew more than 150,000 people.

As a helicopter hovering at rooftop height lit up the street with floodlights, activists appeared shaken and horrified, calling the police action an unprovoked and brutal attack,

"If you can't speak your mind in Europe any more, where can you," said one Irish protester who declined to give her name.

"It's Latin America, it's fascism," shouted a shocked onlooker.

Police department spokesman Roberto Sgalla said "about 10" had been hurt in the raid, while other people hospitalized had been injured in the demonstrations of the previous 36 hours.

Police and ambulances took 26 injured to the San Martino hospital, said chief hospital medic Enrico Cavana.

An hour after the start of the raid there was blood on walls and floors, with windows broken, furniture smashed and personal belongings and books strewn all over.

Police spokesman Sgalla told state RAI television that iron bars, knives, blunt objects and black T-shirts had been seized.

Sgalla said the police had moved in after a "tip-off", while the GSF told AFP that at the time of the raid a meeting had been under way to prepare symbolic action later Sunday.

Members of parliament and lawyers called in to help by the GSF militants were refused access to the building.

The police were looking for film and photographs in the possession of the organizers of the anti-G8 demonstrations which degenerated into violence Friday and Saturday, resulting in one death and scores injured in clashes with security forces, the GSF said.

The raid came after two days of violent clashes between anarchists and police that left one demonstrator dead and more than 250 people injured on the fringes of anti-globalization rallies.

Philipp Stein, a German journalist from Berlin and a member of Indymedia, said he was hit when he pleaded with police to stop.

"Because police strategy completely failed during the two days, they decided to hit back hard," said Stein, referring to the earlier clashes.


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