* Australia *

* In the Asia - Pacific region:- (alphabetical, then date order) *

† New section title: Philosophy
"Healing Our World": Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. [this week: ] What's Important? - We are entering troubling times, probably the most troubling in human history. Because of discoveries in the field of genetic engineering, we are on the threshold of being able to create life from non-life, life without nature, life without woman - which many would suggest has been the goal of our male dominated society all along. How will our disconnection from the natural world increase? The possible answers to these questions frighten me. But we must ask them - relentlessly - and do everything in our power to resist. Malidoma Patrice Some, a West African medicine man with three master's degrees and two Ph.D.s, says: "Western machine technology is the spirit of death made to look like life." Vaclav Havel gave us a powerful mantra. He said that the true nature of revolt is to "attempt to live within the truth." By doing this, we step out of living within the lie, reject the ritual of those in power and break the rules of the game, and discover suppressed identity and dignity. We all have the power to do this.
† Thailand and India are to cooperate in nuclear electric energy and the economy [a bilateral investment agreement].
† Tibet: The World Bank has dropped plans to fund the China Western Poverty Reduction [Resettlement] Project. China withdrew its request for funding. The project was the subject of a scathing report by a World Bank-appointed Inspection Panel, which found many irregularities in the Bank's dealings with China, and discovered that the project violated seven out of ten applicable World Bank policies.
† Timor Lorosae: [see too-long list of news topics below.]
† USA western coast: More than 137 species of fish and wildlife - from orcas to caddisflies - depend on the Northwest salmon for their survival. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says: Northwest species now struggling because of depleted salmon runs include the bald eagle, grizzly bear, black bear, osprey, harlequin duck, Caspian tern and river otter. "These populations are in decline, partially due to declining food supply." Pacific salmon are unique in that they die after they reproduce. Their decomposing carcasses feed not only their descendants, but many other animals.
† Vietnam: ASEAN ministers agreed at a meeting in Hanoi that an ambitious plan to build a trans-ASEAN power grid and gas pipeline should be accelerated.

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Articles for the summaries came via:
* ENS        Environmental News Service http://ens.lycos.com
* Greens Aus Lists: Greens Global, Greens Media, Greens Activist, Greens News
* Oz-E       Oz-Envirolink oz-envirolink@altnews.com.au
* PlArk      Planet Ark http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?
   supplied by Reuters
* PMA        Peace Movement Aotearoa pma@xtra.co.nz (International only)
* TimTod     Timor Today http://www.easttimor.com/
* WWN        World Watch News http://www.worldwatch.org/mag/
  I spend only the two weeks it takes me to summarize two weeks' articles from /these/ sources.  D. Complaints? Objections? Write me an e-mail (address above).

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 ALASKA and The ALEUTIANS

 The sea otter population in the Aleutian Islands has declined 70 percent since 1992, and 95% or more throughout much of the Archipelago since the 1980s. An estimated 6,000 sea otters remain in the Aleutian Islands today, a spring 2000 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has confirmed.  In the 1980s the Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimated there were more than 55,000 sea otters in the Aleutians.  Predation by killer whales may be a leading cause of otter deaths rather than Native subsistence harvest. Surveys will be conducted by U.S. Geological Survey and the Alaska Sea Otter and Steller Sea Lion Commission, in conjunction with local tribes. (ENS AmeriScan -09 3/7)


 AUSTRALIA 

Projected Mining for Magnesite in Weetootla Gorge, northern Flinders Range. The traditional owners, the Adnyamanthana people, say the gorge is under threat from the small mining company Manna Hill which recently acquired the mining lease from BHP and intends to open-cut-mine for magnesite. Reasons not to:
· water is rare in this part of the driest state in the driest continent on earth, and Weetootla has a permanent fresh-water spring;
· open-cut mining would be far more destructive than the tunnel already driven into the rock, and it would completely change the topography of this exceptionally beautiful gorge;
· Most importantly; the beliefs of the Adnyamanthana people. William Austin: 'Weetootla Gorge is in the heart of Adnyamathanha country and if mining were to go ahead, the heart of our dreaming, history and connection to land will be destroyed, never to be retrieved. There will be nothing left to show our grandchildren.' (Greens Aus Greens-Activist 4/7)

 Aus Labour Fails on Forests & Genetic Engineering. The highest level of woodchipping of Tasmania's ancient forests in history ruins Tasmania's greening image, Greens Senator Bob Brown said today. Similarly, the ALP has failed to give guarantees on genetic engineering (GE) - there is no opt-out clause for states like Tasmania that don't want GE at all and no 5-year moratorium on all GE releases. "The ALP national conference in Hobart in July-August will be held within two hours drive of the killing fields of the world's tallest hardwood forests which, though full of wildlife, are being chainsawed, burned and poisoned with 1080 in a tragic conversion to agro-forestry plantations. While there are some welcome new environmental initiatives in the policy, the ALP falls well short of the line required to gain Greens' preferences.  It also lacks specifics on greenhouse and nuclear issues," Senator Brown said. (Greens Aus Greens-Media 7/7)

 Honeymoon Uranium mine - Submission Request, by Sam van Rood of the ACF. It is important that Federal and SA Governments formally receive a strong expression of public opposition to the expansion of the nuclear industry through In-Situ Leach uranium mining. All Australians have a right to make a submission to the EIS.  Key Points:
A draft Environmental Impact Statement has been released by the company SCR for public submissions and joint assessment by the Federal and SA Governments.
· Honeymoon mine is to be a liquid nuclear waste dump: The mining company Southern Cross Resources (SCR) of Canada proposes the same techniques as at the Beverley uranium mine with discharge of all mine liquid wastes to groundwater. Some 500 cubic metres of liquid wastes per day of discarded acid leachate and chemical process liquids from the uranium extraction plant, containing some 4,600 tonnes/yr of salts and solid residues in solution, including uranium, radium and various metals, are to be discharged into groundwater reserves;
· SCR intend to use the polluting Acid In-Situ Leach (acid ISL) to extract the uranium at Honeymoon and at other potential mine sites in the region. This has never been practised at a commercial scale in OECD countries. In the former Eastern Europe and Soviet Republics it has led to large scale and intractable groundwater contamination. In disregard for protection of Australia's groundwater reserves, SCR propose to use acid ISL as it produces uranium at some four times the rate of using the less-polluting alkaline leachate that is used in the USA;
· SCR do not intend to rehabilitate mining impacts on groundwater at Honeymoon. They would not be allowed to do this in the USA or in Canada; ISL uranium mining standards in the USA require rehabilitation of groundwater to its original quality, condition and composition. This typically comprises some 30% of mine operating costs. This is a dangerous precedent for mining standards in Australia;
· The SCR is trying to use this EIS to gain approvals for multiple uranium mines. They propose "Amendments" to this EIS to extend approvals to these other mine sites rather than having to submit a separate EIS for each, preventing any credible environmental assessment and public involvement in decision making;
· Community concerns and rights to participate are constrained by the Federal Government limiting the issues to be addressed in the EIS. The Terms of Reference /exclude/ issues of uranium policy, the nuclear fuel cycle and its inherent risks, and the nuclear waste legacy that always results from Australia's export of uranium.
  Public Submissions are due by Wed 2nd August, and should be clearly identified as a:
"public submission on the proposed development of the Honeymoon uranium deposit".
  Please send submissions marked to:
Attention: Manager, Environmental Impact Assessment Branch, Planning SA,
5th Floor, 136 North Tce, Adelaide SA 5000. (Oz-E 3/7)

 Rio Tinto's Lihir mine has spilt cyanide into the ocean. The mine was financed by the Australian Export Credit Agency EFIC. The latest cyanide spill from an Australian mine exposes the Australian Government's record of inaction and in this case support for unsound environmental practices and risks. The cyanide has spilt from Rio Tinto's Lihir Gold mine in Papua New Guinea. "This is the third cyanide accident by Australian mining companies operating overseas in less than half a year" said Mr Geoff Evans, the Director of the Mineral Policy Institute. The Lihir proposal approved by EFIC used 1800 tonnes of highly toxic sodium cyanide annually to extract gold at the mine site. The process leaves considerable cyanide concentrations in the tailings. "The Australian government must apply the same environmental and social standards for lending on overseas Australian projects as would apply to them if they were proposed within the country. It is clear that the costs of bad projects far outweigh the benefits. All Australian business will suffer as our reputation is destroyed by major disasters like BHP's Ok Tedi, Rio Tinto's Lihir and Freeport mines and Esmeralda's cyanide contamination of Eastern Europe," said Mr Evans. (Oz-E 3/7)

 Australian environment an economic challenge.  Australian Treasury Secretary Ted Evans said yesterday one of the challenges for the economy in coming years will be to bear the costs of managing Australia's natural resources.  "Governments are being increasingly obliged to look at the quality of our natural resources, including the water that we drink and in our rivers, the quality of our land and its erosion, and the quality of our air," Evans told the Economics 2000 conference on the Gold Coast in the Queensland State. He said it was not yet clear to what extent the costs involved will been borne by the government, industry, or consumers. "It would be surprising if all of those things could be done without government assistance, being State or Federal," Evans said. (PlArk 7375 7/7)

  The Australian mining company Esmeralda Exploration Ltd will be sued by the Hungarian Government for $110 million damages, for a cyanide spill in the Tisza River.  The claim will be made against Esmeralda as half-owner of the Aurul SA smelter in Baia Mare, Romania, from where thousands of tonnes of cyanide-tainted water spilled in February. Government commissioner Janos Gonczi said the amount of the claim was for costs related directly to the disaster and for long-term damage from the spill, which wiped out fish and other wildlife for the length of Hungary's second longest river. Biologists say the scenic Tisza will take years to fully recover. Hungary had to trawl hundreds of tonnes of dead fish from the river. (PlArk 7416 11/7)


 BANGLADESH 

 Bangladesh yesterday said it had launched a $77 million project to improve management of Sundarban mangrove forest on the country's south bordering India.  "The money is being provided by a number of donors and the project will be implemented over a six-year period," said Conservator of Forests Abdul Mutalib. Work on the project began last April after the Sundarban was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1997. They said Bangladesh was also expected to receive a part of $100 million aid that the United States earmarked to protect world's tropical rain forests. The officials said the six-year Sundarban Biodiversity Conservation Project was aimed at developing a management system and capacity for a long-term conservation of biodiversity. The 5,773 sq km Sundarban, one of the world's biggest mangrove forests, is home to Royal Bengal tigers and hundreds of other species of wildlife. (PlArk 7370 6/7)


 CHINA 

 China will build hundreds of small rural hydropower stations to deliver energy to the countryside, where 75 million people have no access to electricity.  By switching-on the countryside, where 900 million Chinese live, China hopes to boost use of household appliances and raise living standards and halt pollution caused by traditional burning of twigs and sticks. The electrification scheme would bring power to 600 counties by the end of this year, says Wang Shucheng, Minister of Water Resources. An additional 400 rural counties would receive power by 2005 and another 400 would be plugged in by 2010. A rural electrification scheme launched in 1985 has installed more than 4,300 small hydropower stations with total capacity of 23 million kilowatts, [average: 5.3 MW. D.]. The small plants produce about 72 billion kWh annually, supplying power for 300 million people, or about one-fourth of China's population. China has invested $1.57 billion to add a million kilowatts of rural capacity in each of the last six years, it said. The upgrading of rural power grids has been a centrepiece of state-spending on infrastructure to stimulate the economy. The stimulus package began with a 100 billion yuan ($12.08 billion) bond issue in 1998, followed by 60 billion yuan last year. (US$1=8.278 Yuan). (PlArk 7334 3/7)

 The number of giant pandas in China's main reserve for the endangered animal have increased thanks to an improved habitat due to conservation measures, the official Xinhua news agency reported. China's symbolic animal has benefitted from a 37-year drive to replace farmland with forest, move out farmers and improve air and water quality in Wolong Nature Reserve in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the agency said. Zhang Quangui, assistant director of the China Giant Panda Research and Conservation Centre, says a recent survey showed the number of giant pandas living in the 200,000-ha reserve was increasing. Zhang did not say how many pandas now lived in the reserve. Only about 1,000 pandas are believed to exist in the wild, roaming mountainous areas of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. They are threatened by human encroachment and the rampant logging that has denuded most of China's forests. Since the reserve was established in 1963, forest cover in the area has expanded to 70.6 percent from 53 percent of the land, Zhang said. Wolong reserve, outside the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, is home to more than 450 kinds of wild vertebrates, including 57 kinds of rare animals under state protection, Xinhua said. (PlArk 7349 5/7)


 CO2: FUTURE CARS, HOUSEBUILDING AND GREEN ELECTRICITY 

[there's more PR for the Toyota Prius, and an additional 200 US$10,000 solar-electric systems on the Navajo reservation (under a 15 year lease purchase agreement), at:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-12-09.html  ]

 Britain's struggling green energy industry will suffer further under government plans to introduce new electricity trading arrangements (NETA) in November, government officials and industry executives say.  Wind farms, dependent on the vagaries of the British weather, will be among the worst hit as the new trading system punishes generators which cannot guarantee output. "NETA will penalise some renewables because of the way the balancing mechanism will work. It will reward regularity in the market place and some renewables will lose out," said Anna Walker, director general of energy at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at an energy forum this week. Recognising the impact NETA may have on renewables, the government has supported aggregation - a process whereby small generators can join forces to sell electricity and minimise the risk of imbalance penalties. But aggregation had not been tried before and the proposals at present do not appear workable as it will be difficult to get small companies to cooperate. Walker told Reuters the advantage of NETA will be its flexibility and the system could be modified if it doesn't work. (PlArk 7397 10/7)


 GM - BIOTECHNOLOGY

 Wheat industry promises to segregate biotech wheat, bowing to consumer fears about the safety of genetically modified foods. The U.S. Wheat Associates, an export market development farm group, said consumers can be assured an identity preservation system would be implemented before biotech wheat is commercially available to farmers some time after 2003. "It is absolutely essential to listen to our overseas customers and heed what they say," said Heidi Linehan, U.S. Wheat Associates board member. The European Union, Japan and other nations have banned some gene-spliced varieties of U.S. corn, cotton and soybeans. In recent years, U.S. corn growers have been unable to sell certain types of corn to Spain and Portugal, two traditional markets, because the varieties have not been approved by the European Union. The group has acknowledged that when genetically modified wheat is available, marketing it for U.S. exporters would be very difficult. The U.S. could lose valuable market-share to "GM-free" competitors. (PlArk 7333 3/7)

 Edible Vaccines Carry Flavour of Danger. Humans have been able to develop immunity to a virus just by eating a potato. This demonstration of edible vaccines has proponents cheering the potential for inexpensive protection of the world's poorest populations.  But critics charge that engineering plants to carry human vaccines could produce dangerous environmental and human health side effects.  Scientists from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) for Plant Research at Cornell University and the University of Maryland School of Medicine at Baltimore reported that they had developed a genetically engineered potato that delivers protection against E. coli, as well as the Norwalk virus. The research is reported in the July issue of the "Journal of Infectious Diseases." The study, while not providing complete immunity to its human subjects, demonstrated that the concept of a food based vaccine could work. Another BTI study, funded by the British biotechnology company Axis Genetics, plc, began human trials last year of a potato genetically engineered to carry a vaccine for hepatitis B. Opponents of edible vaccines, or biopharmaceuticals, charge that engineering plants to carry vaccines is bad medicine.  "We certainly think its a very bad idea," said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Union. "You don't want biotech vaccines out in the environment where exposure cannot be predicted." Cummins argues that doctors would be unable to control how much of an edible vaccine a person ate. People could take too much of the vaccine, which could be toxic, or too little, Cummins argues. "We're not convinced that this whole notion of splicing vaccines into plants is part of a real commercial effort," Cummins said. "We think its part of a public relations campaign to convince the public that there are benefits to genetic engineering." "This is hype," Cummins concludes. "And if it's not hype, it's a dangerous notion that should be put to rest before it gets out of the lab."  In fact, some bioengineering companies have already been hard hit by public protests. Axis Genetics went out of business earlier this year, after investors abandoned the controversial concept of edible vaccines and other engineered crops. (ENS -06 11/7)

 A white paper, prepared by members from the Royal Society of London, the national academies of science of Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and the United States, and the Third World Academy of Sciences, calls for expanded use of biotechnology to create crops that could relieve hunger and poverty in developing nations. The report encourages private companies to share their technology with scientists and farmers in developing countries. "The obvious concern is that the recent backlash against GM technology will completely overshadow all the promise that the technology offers," said Bruce Alberts, president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and member of the Working Group on Transgenic Plants and World Agriculture.  "It will be critical to ... make wise choices with respect to the application of these technologies," Alberts said. The report lays out the potential for GM technology to assist developing countries, as well as the obstacles that stand in the way of its widespread use. The working group points to a need for concerted, organized efforts on a global scale to identify potential health and environmental risks from GM crops. To that end, "public health regulatory systems need to be put in place in every country to identify and monitor any potential adverse human health effects of transgenic plants, as for any other new variety," the report says.  Not all scientists agree that biotechnology is the best way to solve problems of hunger and environmental degradation. Dr. Miguel Altieri of the University of California at Berkeley suggests a different solution. Agroecology, a mixture of different approaches to agriculture that do not rely on pesticides or transgenic crops, could make a substantial contribution to world food production and is an alternative to biotechnology and the use of fertilizers.  Much of the funding for agricultural research in general - and GM technology in particular - has shifted from the public sector to private corporations in recent years, with an eye toward creating profitable products. At the same time, public and noncommercial research efforts have waned, a trend "that needs to be reversed," the working group advises.  The position paper is available at the (US) National Academy of Sciences' :-
 http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic  (ENS -07 12/7) 

 GM crops safe, offer consumer benefits - scientist.  Genetically modified (GM) crops were not a threat to the environment or human health and had significant consumer benefits, a University of Queensland scientist told a conference in Brisbane yesterday.  GM crops were now grown in 12 countries on a total area of 40 million hectares, twice the area of Britain, Dr Jimmy Botella told the Australian Biotechnology Association 2000 conference. Threats of environmental disaster had not materialised, he said. "Ecologist groups proclaim that there is a possibility of long-term unforeseen consequences for human health but the fact remains that after 13 years of consuming GM food there hasn't been as much as a skin rash caused by this kind of food," Botella said. Data from large-scale commercial fields of GM plants clearly showed that there had been a dramatic decrease in the use of insecticides, herbicides and "other nasty chemicals", he said. Botella is the director of the University of Queensland's Plant Genetic Engineering Laboratory, which employs 20 scientists. Its main interest is the improvement of fruits and vegetables including papaya, mango and broccoli by genetic engineering, the university said in a statement. Almost all plant varieties produced during the last centuries were the result of artificial genetic recombination, Botella said. "GM foods are no more natural or unnatural than the rest but can provide the consumer with enhanced quality and nutritional properties that would (otherwise) be extremely difficult to achieve," he said. One of the many promising applications of biotechnology was to reduce wastage of fresh fruit after harvest, with between 20 and 80 percent of harvested crops lost before they reached the consumer, he said. Losses could reach dramatic proportions in developing countries, forcing small farmers to sell sub-optimal produce. "We have characterised a gene that regulates the production of the plant hormone that controls the rate of ripening in papaya fruits. Through genetic manipulation we are producing transgenic plants in which the gene has been partially silenced, therefore increasing the effective life of the fruits," he said. A trial crop of GM pineapples being grown by Botella's team was ripped from the ground by protesters earlier this year, forcing their removal to a secret location. (PlArk 7361 6/7)

 Prakash is nearly finished collecting thousands of scientists' signatures in support of GM food. He is a member of the newly-formed USDA Advisory Committee on Agricultural Biotechnology, and was in Australia this week. More here:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7380  (PlArk 7380 7/7)

 ANALYSIS - GM sugar delay raises doubts on prospects. Long delays in marketing genetically modified (GM) sugar, due to resistance from environmental and consumer groups, raise questions about its future viability.  GM sugar beet has been approved for growing in the United States but farmers are stalling because soft drinks, food and other industrial users are concerned about growing consumer doubts over its safety. In addition to the U.S., China is expected to start growing GM beet soon and Australia and South Africa could follow with GM cane. The European Union is still laboriously trying to agree rules for GM crop production and marketing, the next EU legislative milestone being the completion of a review of an environmental impact directive, scheduled for summer 2001. Green groups say consumers do not want GM beet. They say the initial beneficiaries would be herbicide producers, seed breeders and growers. Marketing of GM crops in Britain is delayed until the farm trials have ended, probably in 2002, and the green light given.
 The number of sugar beet, fodder beet, oilseed rape and forage maize trial sites has fallen to 48 from 57 following attacks by environmental activists.
 "They are on very thin scientific ice in terms of proving anything from these scientific trials," said Robin Maynard, acting campaigns director of the Soil Association. If one more dropped out in oilseeds or maize then they would fall below the scientifically valid level, he added. "The number of sites has fallen but for the moment there are enough for the scientific work which is continuing," said a spokeswoman for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), responsible for the GM trials. (PlArk 7405 11/7)


 INDIA 

 India will get an $82 million grant to phase out the production of ozone-depleting  substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the country, the government said.  "This is the total funding that would be available to India from the Multilateral Fund for cessation of production of ozone-depleting substances for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol." CFC production in India in 1999 did not exceed 22,588 tonnes and will be phased out in 2010. India's per capita consumption of these substances is less than 3g; c.f. 300g permitted under the Protocol. (PlArk 7338 3/7)

 Ten Royal Bengal tigers, seven rare white tigers among them, have died at a zoo in the eastern Indian province of Orissa. The tigers died early morning 5 July in mysterious circumstances at the Nandankanan Zoo, one of the largest zoological parks in Asia.  Nandankanan zoo director B.C. Prusty told journalists, "On June 23, a tiger died of parasitic infection. Other tigers also developed the same symptoms and they were given preventive injections on the advice of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology experts."  On Tuesday night they became weak and gasped for breath before tottering to their deaths. The zoo, established in 1960, had 55 Royal Bengal tigers.  Nandankanan Zoo, 20 km from the city of Bhubaneswar in Orissa, has been closed to visitors after a cyclone devastated the park recently. A white tiger at the Nandankanan Zoo: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/tigerwhite.jpg  The carcasses of all the tigers have been sent to the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology for post-mortem examinations. Some experts say that due to frequent inbreeding in the Nandankanan Zoo, the progeny of the tigers have become weak and this would ultimately lead to casualties. (ENS -01 5/7). Conflicting theories on what was behind the epidemic: a debilitating parasite or the medicines used to tackle it. Media reports said six others were sick. Interim post-mortem reports revealed lesions on the tigers' internal organs, indicating that they had died of a parasitic infection called trypanosomiasis. (PlArk 7374 7/7)

 India Hit by Lethal Climate Changes. More than 100 people were buried alive in massive landslides and more than 50 others injured today as torrential rains pound across Western India, completely paralysing normal life in many areas - including Mumbai ("Bombay"), the commercial capital of India.  The monsoon rains drench India each year from July through September, but these are the heaviest rains in recent memory, weather officials say. The ecology of the city has undergone a drastic warming during the last 20 years; the winter season has virtually disappeared. The loss of life and property has once again raised the question about the expansion capacity of Mumbai, which has been adding people and traffic quickly. The population of Mumbai has more than doubled during the last decade. At the same time, a severe drought in a number of Indian states has affected the lives of 80 million people. Successive failed monsoon rains have resulted in an impending famine and increased mortality rates. Livestock are dying and food and fodder prices are increasing. These factors have led to increased malnutrition. (ENS -01 13/7) 


 INDONESIA

 Ten survivors from a missing Indonesian ferry packed with Christian refugees fleeing violence in the spice islands were found by a passenger ship on Sunday clinging to debris in the ocean.  The ferry, built to hold 200, sank on Thursday and they had been floating in the sea for four days and three nights. The chance of finding more survivors of the 500 passengers was nil.  Many of those aboard were survivors of a massacre last month, when Moslem fighters stormed a Christian village on the island of Halmahera, setting houses and a church ablaze. The clash claimed 114 lives, and most of the remaining villagers fled.  (Reuters nJK261782 2/7)


 JAPAN 

 Tomen Corp said on Friday it has built a 170-megawatt (MW) wind-power farm in the south of Italy that it said was one of the world's largest. Total cost of the project was about 27.5 billion yen, the company said.  The wind-power farm is on the Appennine Ranges, east of Naples. ENEL will purchase all electricity from the wind farm. (PlArk 7337 3/7)

 Japan's nuclear industry regulator says a lack of safety culture led to the country's worst nuclear accident: two people died and more than 400 others were exposed to higher than normal levels of radiation at the Tokaimura uranium processing plant, 120 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, on September 30 1999. The Nuclear Safety Commission apologized: "We deeply regret that the commission could not fulfill its duties, and we feel tremendous responsibility over being unable to respond to the public's trust." However, the commission went on to blame the plant's operators, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC), for allowing dangerous operations to take place. It said the government was not fully informed about safety management at the plant. The new law, which went into effect in June, stipulates that the central government take the lead in dealing with nuclear accidents. It gives the prime minister responsibility for declaring a state of emergency, setting up a crisis management task force and requesting the dispatch of armed forces if necessary. Map of Japan's nuclear power reactors:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/tokaimuramap.jpg (ENS -12 7/7) 

 G8 Summit to Cover GM Foods and Climate Change. Genetically modified foods, infectious diseases and information technology will be the three main themes at the annual G8 summit next weekend, according to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Environmental issues of climate change, forests and guidelines for funding sustainable development projects will also be covered. The summit, on July 21-23 in Nago City, Okinawa, is of the elected leaders of Japan, the United States, France, Russia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and the European Commission [9th]. Prime Minister Mori said "since a great deal of time is taken to conduct scientific analysis, positions on regulations on GMOs significantly differ between those who adopt the benefit-of-the-doubt approach and those who adopt the precautionary approach." G8 environment ministers and European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström met in Otsu, Japan April 7 to 9 for talks on international sustainable development issues before next weekend's summit. Wallström said the outlook is bright for success of the sixth conference of Parties to the UN climate change treaty (COP6) at The Hague in November. "This meeting is expected to finalize the mechanisms for implementation of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which commits 39 industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of six greenhouse gases. At Rio+10 in 2002 we have to move from words to action. We must also address poverty eradication. Protection of the environment and economic development of the poorer countries can go together." Greenpeace has been staging demonstrations around the world to draw the attention of the G8 leaders to illegal logging in the world's dwindling forests. (ENS -01 14/7) 

[volcanos, earthquakes etc.:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7391 and 7392 ]


 NEPAL 

 Nepal picks U.S. firm to build larger hydropower plant. An American company will be allowed to construct a hydroelectric power plant, a controversial smaller version of which was dumped by the World Bank five years ago.  Bishwanath Sapkota of the Water Resources Ministry, said the U.S.-based Eurorient Investment Group would construct the 402 megawatt (MW) Arun III hydroelectric project in the eastern Arun Valley. Another bidder was Nepal's Susasun Power Company (P) Limited. Nepali officials said the U.S. firm would get a construction licence only after it had provided financing details for the multi-billion dollar facility and an agreement with the buyer for the electricity generated from the plant. In August 1995, the World Bank withdrew from a consortium of Western donors to fund a smaller version of the Arun project to generate 201 MW of hydropower, asking Nepal to develop smaller plants. Its IDA had earlier proposed lending $175 million for the plant which was planned as a government project at a cost of about $1.0 billion. In 1998, U.S. energy giant, Enron Corp, withdrew a multi-billion dollar dam plan on the Karnali river in west Nepal, citing uncertain energy markets. Australia's Snowy Mountain Energy Corporation (SMEC) which is to generate 750 MW power on the Seti river, also in west Nepal, is looking for potential buyers in neighbouring power hungry India. Nepali officials say export of hydroelectric power to India is the only hope to bridge a galloping trade deficit with New Delhi which was $284.7 million in 1998/99. (PlArk 7379 7/7)


 OCEANS 

 Australia presses for South Pacific whale sanctuary; this may emerge as a bargaining chip in moves to control controversial whaling by Japan and Norway, in this week's annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Australia. A South Pacific whale sanctuary could take years to win the required 75% of votes. (PlArk 7329 3/7)

 Unique Seamount Species Threatened by Deepwater Trawlers. Hundreds of new species have been discovered on extinct underwater volcanoes rising from the sea floor in the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea between New Caledonia and Tasmania. But their existence is threatened by fishing trawlers even before they can be catalogued and understood, Australian government researchers warn.  Evolution has taken a widely divergent path on the seamounts, with different species evolving independently in each area. Some are living fossils from groups believed extinct since the Mesozoic, the time of the dinosaurs.  "Creatures have been marooned on their underwater peaks for millions of years," says Dr. Tony Koslow from the CSIRO.  "This past year deepwater trawling for the first time extended from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to previously unfished seamounts on the high seas in the Indian Ocean." The spread of trawl fisheries for orange roughy, alfonsino, and other deep-water fishes threatens seamount communities worldwide, he warns.  Dr. Poore from the Museum of Victoria says seamount communities were extremely vulnerable to the impacts of fishing.  "The extreme age, often over 100 years, for many of the individuals in these species, their fixed habitat and the limited exchange between seamounts all compound the uncertainty of recovery from trawling." There are about 30,000 seamounts in the world's oceans, but most species previously known from this deep ocean environment come from sampling only five of these. The study uncovered more than 850 species, 42 percent more than previously reported from all studies of seamounts in the past 125 years.  Dr. Koslow says about a third of these species are new to science and are likely to be restricted to the seamount environment.  (ENS -02 3/7)

 South Pacific Whale Sanctuary Voted Down. Conservation nations will push ahead with an attempt to win a South Pacfic whale sanctury despite a defeat in the first vote to exclude whaling from the region; three-quarters was needed to win.  The proposal for a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific is expected to resurface at next year's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.  Its importance was given passionate voice yesterday by co-sponsor New Zealand's Conservation Minister Sandra Lee. In a heartfelt speech to the meeting, she described whales as the "chiefly peoples of the ocean world" and vowed never to be dissuaded from achieving their protection. The U.S. Under-Secretary of Commerce for Oceans, D. James Baker, said it was a privilege to co-sponsor the plan too.  Australia, the major sponsor of the proposal, regarded the result (18 of the 35 called on to vote) as a strong basis to go forward. Ireland's Commissioner and current IWC chairman, Michael Canny, proposes a strictly controlled return to commercial whaling in national waters, in exchange for a global ban on high seas whaling. The chair of the IWC scientific committee supports Japan's claims that minke whale populations are abundant enough to sustain commercial harvesting. Japan currently takes 440 minke whales from the Southern Ocean each year. Global surveys of whale populations are not yet complete. Scientific committee chair Dr. Judy Zeh of the United States told the ABC "If commercial whaling were resumed under the revised management procedure it could be managed safely." (ENS -01 4/7)
 Japan and Norway moved a step closer to lifting a 1986 ban on commercial whaling, after many of their foes on the issue agreed to press ahead with drafting new whaling rules.  The IWC backed a proposal by 10 so-called moderate nations, including Sweden, Switzerland, and Ireland, to meet in February to try to advance agreement on rules for whale-hunting ahead of the commission's next meeting in London in mid-2001. The rules of the so-called revised management scheme (RMS) would not cover quotas, but would spell out inspection and monitoring procedures for future commercial whaling. Anti-whaling countries and groups want the rules to also cover killing methods, domestic market inspections, and wider environmental issues. (PlArk 7369 6/7)

 The International Whaling Committee's Scientific Committee says that numbers of minke whales in the Southern Hemisphere are declining. While the figures from 1980s surveys estimated the total population at 760,000, estimates were now probably "appreciably lower," the committee said; the Scientific Committee consists of about 140 scientists named by the 40 IWC member governments.  In the 1959/60 season, before the 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling, Soviet whalers had an official quota of 720 humpback whales. IWC documentation shows they actually took 12,945 humpbacks, roughly the same number that is thought to survive in the whole Southern Hemisphere today. There are in fact three species of right whale, the committee reports, where before it only recognized two. This suggested classification means that the North Atlantic Right whale is now the most critically endangered of any whale species, with less than 300 remaining. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is calling for governments to take urgent measures to ensure the survival of this species, particularly as 90 percent of all unnatural right whale deaths are the result of being struck by ships. Cassandra Phillips, WWF coordinator for whales and the Antarctic, said "All these new findings underline just how much scientific uncertainty remains over the long term effects that the large scale commercial whaling of the 20th Century had on the great whales." (ENS -03 4/7) 

 Global whaling has increased and plans to halt it are fundamentally split after the 2000 meeting of the International Whaling Commission.  The whale kill now stands at 1,255, compared to a low of 326 in 1988, two years after the global moratorium on commercial whaling was put in place. Norway has increased minke whale quotas to 655 this year, and Japan lifted its take to three species under the guise of scientific whaling. A Minister for Dominica in the Caribbean resigned on July 4 over his country's "no" vote on the sanctuary; Fisheries Minister Athie Martin expected Dominica to abstain, and said Japanese aid was being used to manipulate the vote. The critically endangered North Atlantic Right whale's entire population of 300 is thought to have produced one calf this year; under pressure from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, the species has a 7% mortality rate. The Adelaide meeting marked the retirement after 24 years as executive secretary of Dr. Ray Gambell. The new executive secretary is Dr. Nicola Grandy of the United Kingdom.  The next meeting of the commission will be in London, July 2 - 27, 2001. Japan beat New Zealand 19-10 in a secret ballot to host the 2002 meeting. (ENS -01 6/7)

 Killer Algae Found off Sydney and the California Coast. A mutant algae responsible for killing marine life in large areas of the Mediterranean has now invaded the a bay near San Diego. The ocean weed smothers marine plants and animals, and releases a toxin that can destroy the eggs of many smaller species.  "This algae eliminates kelp beds and poses an extreme danger to flora and fauna in the area," said Robert Hoffmann, Southern California environmental coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.  The algae, Caulerpa taxifolia, has destroyed more than 10,000 acres of Mediterranean seabed habitat off of France, Spain, Monaco and Italy. Patches of the algae discovered there in the 1980s were not immediately destroyed, allowing the rapidly growing weed to spread. The algae has also found a foothold in the waters off Sydney, Australia. Caulerpa taxifolia is native to tropical waters in the Caribbean and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, but the fast growing toxic variety of the natural plant, responsible for environmental devastation and severe loss of biodiversity everywhere it has invaded, is believed to have resulted from human intervention. The toxic algae was developed as an aquarium plant by biologists at the Stuttgart Zoo aquarium in Germany. The Oceanographic Museum of Monaco apparently dumped some of the algae into the Mediterranean in 1984, where it spread to cover 1,000 acres by 1992, and more than 10,000 acres by 1999. Caulerpa drives out most sea life, carpeting the ocean floor. The algae smothers fisheries and clam beds, and prevents animals from grazing on invertebrates in bottom muds. Corals, sponges and seaweeds are all smothered by its advance. A toxin in the algae can kill the microscopic marine organisms that form the basis for most marine food chains, and harm the eggs of marine animals.  In 1999, President Bill Clinton banned the import and sale of Caulerpa in the U.S under the federal Noxious Weed Act.  Caulerpa taxifolia invading a seagrass bed:-
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/caulerpagrass.jpg ; also:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/caulerpa4.jpg
 Officials can not simply dig up the patches of Caulerpa in the California lagoon. The algae spreads through fragmentation, meaning each small piece of the plant can regenerate an entire new plant. Each plant stem can grow to be nine feet long, carrying up to 200 fronds. Caulerpa can survive for up to 10 days out of water, reviving and regenerating when high tides or runoff sweep it back into the sea. In the nine small areas where Caulerpa has taken root, scientists plan to cover the areas with tarpaulins and saturate them with chlorine or copper sulfate, killing everything under the tarps. The public is urged to notify the California Department of Fish and Game if they observe Caulerpa anywhere along the California coast. (ENS -06 6/7) 

 Sonar Imaging Could Help Ships Avoid Whales. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island (URI) have developed a sonar imaging system that could help prevent collisions between ships and whales. James Miller, associate professor of ocean engineering at URI, says "Since there's just 300 of these whales left in the world, when you lose one it's a big loss to the population." Northern right whales live in the North Atlantic, where shipping traffic is heavy.  Designed to be mounted on the hull of a ship, Miller's device sends out high frequency sonar signals that deliver real time images of what is in front of the ship. "Ours looks forward and has a very high resolution, so it can play a significant role in minimizing ship/whale collisions. It can also be used to find reefs and submerged rocks that might damage ships." Miller said the sonar is ultrasonic for the whales. "We have seen no indication at all that the whales can even detect the presence of the sonar signal." Miller hopes cruise ships and whale watching ships choose to install the sonar. (ENS -09 AmeriScan 7/7)

 More on Shark "Finning" - where fishing boats catch the shark, cut off their fins and them dump the barely alive, mutilated fish back into the water, at:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7386

 Ten ocean ambassadors from five continents, ranging from nonprofit conservation managers, to an environmental writer and marine scientists, to ocean advocates and policy makers, have been awarded $150,000 each by the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation: www.pewmarine.org/
http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/July00/12July0001.html

 A call for action to save the albatross, one of the world's most majestic sea birds.  Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill warned that some of the 20 species of albatross in the Southern Hemisphere, out of a world total of 24 species, could soon be wiped out if changes were not made to longline fishing practices. "Albatrosses are highly migratory birds flying thousands of kilometres, so individual countries acting alone cannot guarantee their survival." In longline fishing, up to 10,000 barbed hooks are set on lines a kilometre or more long. The giant petrel was also at grave risk. Longline fishing is the preferred method of poachers fishing for Patagonian toothfish, also known as sea bass or black hake. Members of the CCAMLR, an international treaty charged with protecting Southern Ocean resources, estimate 60,000 seabirds are killed by pirate fishermen in the Southern Ocean each year. Albatrosses, whose wingspan can reach 3.5 metres and which spend up to eight years at sea after leaving the nest, dive for baited hooks, are pulled under the water and drown. Australia and New Zealand have been at the forefront of efforts to save the albatross, working with the fishing industry to introduce new longline technology and limit the periods for which the lines are set. Representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, South Korea, Namibia, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Britain and the United States are attending the conference in Tasmania. Hill said this was the first time so many countries had been given the opportunity to meet and discuss ways to protect these birds. (PlArk 7408 11/7)


 OUTER SPACE 

 Scientists find super-hardy South Pole microbes.  In a finding that could have an impact on the search for life on Mars and other planets, scientists say they have detected hardy microbes that seem to thrive in the radiation, cold and darkness at the South Pole. The research on the South Pole microbes, which was supported by NSF, was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. A similar species lives elsewhere in Antarctica, but the type of microbe at the pole seems to have managed to adapt itself to the scarcity of liquid water and excess ultraviolet radiation from the sun there. "While we expected to find some bacteria in the South Pole snow, we were surprised that they were metabolically active and synthesizing DNA and protein at local ambient temperatures of minus 12 to minus 17 Celsius," Edward Carpenter of the State University of New York at Stony Brook said. Astronomers have theorised that Mars, Earth's next-door neighbour, once was warm and wet but now is extremely cold and dry, and therefore inhospitable to life. But the South Pole microbes may have enzymes and membranes that help them cope with their arid, frigid environment. (PlArk 7399 10/7)


 PAKISTAN 

 Hundreds of millions of dollars in drought relief funds have not reached the drought stricken people in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, a former provincial chief executive is alleging.  At the same time, aid workers in the neighboring Sindh province fear the summer monsoon rains will not help and may aggravate the plight of the drought victims.  Courtyard of a drought-striken home in Tharparkar: 
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/pakcourtyard.jpg  Large parts of Balochistan and Sindh are in the grip of severe drought as are areas of Pakistan's neighbours India and Afghanistan. The loss of livestock runs into billions of rupees. In Sindh province, 127 deaths have been reported because of the drought, largely in the Tharparkar district.  Churches Auxiliary for Social Action has blamed global warming for the worst drought in 100 years in India and Pakistan.  On May 5, Pakistan's military ruler, Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf, ordered the central government to release one billion rupees (US$19,231,000) each to the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. He stressed the need to ensure that the money be spent with "care and speed," and administered accountably. Until last week people were queuing up to buy wheat flour in even in the capital Quetta. With the advent of the monsoon rains of summer, in the short term the problems of the victims will be aggravated: "The showers would mean that the ailing livestock would perish since a number of diseases break out during the rainy season. No harvesting is possible during the monsoon months of July, August and September. People turn to daily wage in construction, but construction is at its lowest ebb," said Jiwan Das of Karachi. Officials have a network of personnel who report on the migration of people following a long bout of dryness - in this case three years. (ENS -02 5/7) 

 A enormous, mysterious oily black spill has engulfed the vital nesting grounds of the green and olive ridley turtles near Karachi just at the start of nesting season. Both turtle species are found on the 20 kilometers of Hawks Bay and Sandspit beaches near Karachi. At this site, green turtle nests are laid throughout the year, but most nesting occurs between July and December.  Marine Pollution Control Board coordinating officer, Shazad Amir Ali, said he suspects the source of the pollution could be the Gadani anchorage in Balochistan, Pakistan's only ship-scrapping center.  Admiral Jamil agreed that trawlers and ships do their cleaning close to the coastline near Karachi.  Adult green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are 90 to 110 centimeters long and weigh 280 to 300 pounds. Olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) have an adult shell length of 70 to 75 centimeters and weigh up to 150 pounds.  The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) lists the marine turtles among the endangered species.  Sandspit, a famous coastal resort, is an important breeding habitat of the endangered turtles. The WWF has plans to establish a wetlands education center there. But the unchecked flow of industrial and municipal waste in the area is posing a serious threat to the habitat. (ENS -01 10/7) 

 PHILIPPINES

 Philippine search and rescue workers have recovered 100 bodies from the Payatas garbage dump after torrential rains brought down the mountain of garbage in the northern Manila suburb of Quezon city.  More than 100 other people are missing and may be dead. Fifty-eight people have been rescued, authorities said. About 780 others are in an evacuation center.  A week of heavy rains including two major storms loosened the mountain of garbage. The Payatas dump caught fire when a power pylon fell over and ignited the methane gas released by the huge pile of garbage.  People who make their living scavenging the garbage for marketable and recyclable items were caught in the avalanche of trash. A community of about 3,000 surrounds the dump. It was supposed to be closed last October, but it remains open because there is no alternative site for Quezon City's more than 700 tons of daily garbage. Officials say they have repeatedly tried to relocate the hundreds of scavengers and junk-yard workers living around the dumpsite, but most have refused to leave or have returned shortly after being moved. (ENS -02 10/7, 11/7)  Scavengers each earn about 200 pesos (US$4.50) a day. Three times the size of a football field, the dump absorbs about a quarter of the 4,500 metric tonnes of solid waste churned out daily by factories and homes of Manila's 10 million people. Typhoon Kai-Tak swept towards Taiwan on Sunday after triggering floods which drowned 44 people on Luzon island. (PlArk 7412 11/7)


 PHILOSOPHY

 Healing Our World: Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
 What's Important?
  We are entering troubling times, probably the most troubling in human history. Because of discoveries in the field of genetic engineering, we are on the threshold of being able to create life from non-life, life without nature, life without woman - which many would suggest has been the goal of our male dominated society all along.  What will the souls of these pitiful creatures be like? How will the value of life be reduced even more? How will it be possible to value some animal or person that can be created in a tube, in a dish, and grow like a plant? How much easier will it be to torture and kill such a creation because it was so easy to create?  How will our disconnection from the natural world increase if we create beings that are not born connected to that which has connected life from the beginning of time - a mother's womb? The possible answers to these questions frighten me. But we must ask them - relentlessly - and do everything in our power to resist the temptation of the Machine.  Malidoma Patrice Some, a West African medicine man with three master's degrees and two Ph.D.s, says: "Western Machine technology is the spirit of death made to look like life."  It makes life seem easier, comfortable, cozy, but the price we pay includes the dehumanization of the self. To sleep in a cozy home, a good bed and eat great, chemically produced food we must rhyme our lives with speed, rapid motion, and time. The clock tells us everything and keeps us busy enough to forget that there could be another way of living. 
  Water is so cheap that we still wash our cars with it and flush our toilets with it. Yet only one percent of all the  water on planet Earth is fresh water and of that, much is already poisoned with industrial chemicals. But why worry? All we have to do is turn on the faucet and out it comes. 
  We place so little value on our atmosphere, the very air we breathe, that we continue to drive polluting vehicles and purchase goods manufactured by companies that put tens of thousands of pounds of pollutants in the air each day. Seventy-eight million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and 1,800 tons of ozone depleting chloroflourocarbons are added to our atmosphere every day worldwide. But why worry? All we have to do is go outside and breathe and it seems OK.
  We place so little value on our food resources that we fill our plates, eat what we want, and throw the rest away. Each day in the United States alone, we throw out 200,000 tons of edible food. But why worry? The supermarkets stay full and there seems to be no shortage of food.  Vaclav Havel gave us a powerful mantra to live by in his book "The Power of the Powerless." He said that the true nature of revolt is to "attempt to live within the truth." By doing this, we step out of living within the lie, reject the ritual of those in power and break the rules of the game, and discover suppressed identity and dignity. 
 We all have the power to do this. 
 RESOURCES 
 1. Try on a new perspective and see how it fits. Visit the Indigenous
 Women's Network at http://www.honorearth.com/iwn/ 
 2. Read an interview with Malidoma Patrice Some at
 http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC34/Some.htm 
 3. Follow the work of Malidoma Patrice Some at
 http://www.malidoma.com/Malidoma/index.html 
 4. Monitor the destructive elements of our culture at Corporate
 Watch at http://www.corpwatch.org/ 
 5. What would life be like without the TV? Explore this at the TV Turn
 Off Network at http://www.tvturnoff.org/ 
 6. The Center for Media and Democracy will help you sift the truth
 from the hype at http://www.prwatch.org/ 
    [This piece is at:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-14g.html ]
  Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and the manager of Discovery Park for the City of Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation. He can be found in his new home in Seattle, watching the Machine all around him. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at:
 www.healingourworld.com (ENS -14g 14/7) 


 THAILAND 

 India, Thailand to cooperate in nuclear energy, economy. Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and his Thai counterpart Surin Pitsuwan signed a bilateral investment agreement and an agreement on cooperation for the use of nuclear electric energy. Some of India's main items of exports to Thailand are oilmeals, gems and jewellery, castor oil, marine products, machinery and instruments. India's imports from Thailand are textile yarn, electronic goods and newsprint. (PlArk 7414 11/7)


 TIBET 

 World Bank Drops Tibetan Resettlement Project. The World Bank has dropped plans to fund the China Western Poverty Reduction Project. China withdrew its request for funding after the World Bank Board of Directors indicated that it was not willing to approve the project without meeting again in 15 months to reassess how changes to the project, recommended by Bank management, had been implemented. The project was the subject of a scathing report by a World Bank-appointed Inspection Panel.  The Panel found many irregularities in the Bank's dealings with China, and discovered that the project violated seven out of ten applicable World Bank policies.  The project would have facilitated China's continuing population transfer programmes, which have already made Tibetans a minority in much of their own nation. The Chinese Government have indicated they will go ahead with the project using their own funds. Australia Tibet Council: www.atc.org.au (Greens Aus Greens-Activist 11/7)


 TIMOR LOROSAE

http://www.easttimor.com/ . -NEWS- 03/07/00: 
1)  Officials meet over complex property issue (South China Morning Post) 
2)  UN wants talks on East Timor constitution to start in September(AP) UNITED NATIONS
3)  UN seeks $20.9 million for Timor refugee operation (AP) GENEVA 
4)  Oil, Gas Treaty to Be Renegotiated with Australia: UNTAET (Lusa) DILI 
5)  US puzzled by Indonesia’s unwillingness to control Militias (US Department of State) NEW YORK 
6)  Guardian on Carmel: Exile ends for scourge of Suharto (The Guardian) JAKARTA 
7)  UN soldiers injured in beach explosion in East Timor (AP) DILI 
8)  IOC, U.N. steer devastated country's Olympic bid (USA Today) DILI 
 -REPORTS-
9)  Timor: six months of UNTAET: An assessment. (James Dunn) 
10) Press Briefing by de Mello 29 June 00 (UNTAET) DILI 
11) UNHCR Briefing Notes: 30 Jun 2000 (UNHCR) GENEVA 
12) Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin Week 24/2000 (WHO) DILI 
13) Refugee returns, West Timor; Update 30 Jun 2000 (IOM) GENEVA  (TimTod 3/7)

 -NEWS- 04/07/00:
1)  Xanana's Australian bride "key" resistant - Portuguese Ambassador (Lusa) DILI 
2)  West Timor villagers want East Timorese refugees out! (Associated Press) KUPANG 
3)  Accidental explosion prompts Portuguese demand for emergency line (Lusa) DILI 
4)  Police investigate three new finds of human remains (Lusa) DILI 
5)  Japan-funded market rebuilding program starts (Kyodo News) DILI  (TimTod 4/7)

 -NEWS- 05/07/00:
1)  TNI apologizes to West Timor locals for acts of intimidation (Antara) ATAMBUA 
2)  Falintil forces to receive US$100,000 from East Timor budget (UNTAET) DILI, 4 June 2000 
3)  Decision related to E Timor athletes participation (IOC) LAUSANNE 
4)  UN Refugee Agency Restarts Work In West Timor Camps (Associated Press) GENEVA 
5)  Australia rethinks its role (Asian Wall Street Journal) CANBERRA 
 -PRESS RELEASES-
6)  East Timorese protest at July 4 party at U.S. mission in East Timor (Alliance for Justice)  (TimTod 5/7)

 -NEWS- 06/07/00:
1)  Gusmao soon to begin weaving East Timor democracy. (Reuters) WELLINGTON 
2)  Indonesia to Back Xanana for East Timorese Presidency (Xinhua News Agency) JAKARTA 
3)  80 Rights organizations seek U.N. tribunal for Indonesia (Reuters) LONDON 
4)  Filipino peacekeepers in Timor commended (Philippine Star) DILI 
5)  Jakarta links U.S. arms embargo to unrest (The Washington Post) JAKARTA 
6)  Indon military plans defense against “invited” foreign forces. (Jakarta Post) JAKARTA 
 -PRESS RELEASES-
7)  IFET writes Annan to support international tribunal (IFET) 
 -REPORTS-
8)  UNHCR: Briefing 4 July 2000 (UNHCR) TIMOR  (TimTod 6/7)

 -NEWS- 07/07/00:
1)  Coup fear in Indonesia (Jane's) LONDON 
2)  Indonesia "totally dependent on U.S." for 70% of military (Jakarta Post) WASHINGTON 
3)  Indonesia again appeals for easing of US arms embargo. (AFP) JAKARTA 
4)  A lesson from Timor: Don't coddle the Indonesian military (International Herald Tribune) KUPANG 
5)  Jakarta and UNTAET set up joint committee (Jakarta Post) SURABAYA 
6)  Over 1,000 people estimated killed in last year's violence in East Timor (UN Newservice) DILI 
7)  Australia’s defence plan riles Indonesia (The Age) CANBERRA 
8)  Under Clearing Skies (Time Magazine) DILI 
 -REPORTS-
9)  Future Security Forces To Be Studied (UNTAET) DILI 
10) West timorese journalists visit East Timor (UNTAET) DILI 
11) UNTAET Humanitarian Pillar Situation Report 30Jun-05Jul 2000 (UNTAET)  (TimTod 7/7)

 -NEWS- 10/07/00:
1)  Refugees and west Timor locals in renewed fighting (Bali Post) KUPANG 
2)  West Timor governor bows to ultimatum to resettle refugees (Indonesian Observer) JAKARTA 
3)  Political clarification in transition (Green Left Weekly) 
4)  Indonesia & UNTAET form joint border committee (Agence France Presse) JAKARTA 
5)  Falintil guerrilla army to professional force (Jane's Intelligence Review) 
6)  Indonesia stands firm on Timorese pensions (Jakarta Post) SURABAYA 
7)  Agreement reached on border demarcation but not on Oe Cusse corridor (Lusa) DILI 
8)  Portugal Telecommunication to invest in Indonesia and East Timor (Indonesian Observer) JAKARTA 
9)  Indonesian photojournalist captures E. Timor's pain (Yomiuri Shimbun) TOKYO 
10) Indonesia's military boss rallies to Canberra's defence (Australian Financial Review) JAKARTA 
 -PRESS RELEASES-
11) Asbestos contamination in East Timor (APHEDA) 
 -REPORTS-
12) IOM suspends Return operations (IOM)  (TimTod 10/7)

 -NEWS- 11/07/00:
1)  Peace restored in West Timor after riot & looting by militia thugs (Indonesian Observer) 
2)  Unwieldy UN in urgent need of reform (The Irish Times) 
3)  Radicals Face-down Police at Occupied Building (Lusa) DILI 
4)  Timor troops fighting disease war (cerebral malaria) (NZ Herald) 
5)  Timor racketeers seized in dawn raid (NZ Herald) DILI 
6)  Coffee is backbone of devastated East Timor's economy (AP) ERMERA, East Timor 
7)  UN Peacekeeping Force Announces Troop Reductions (Lusa) DILI 
8)  Timor’s new international consumer class (The Guardian) DILI 
 -REPORTS-
9)  UNTAET Daily Briefing 10 July 2000 (UNTAET) DILI 
10) UNTAET Daily Briefing July 7th 2000 (UNTAET) SRSG  (TimTod 11/7)

 -NEWS- 12/07/00:
1)  New Peacekeeping Head: Lt-General Boonsang Niampradit (The Nation, Thailand)  
2)  International team of military experts to examine security needs (Sydney Morning Herald) DILI 
3)  Delay in the registration procedure in Timor (UNHCR) GENEVA 
4)  Delay in the registration procedure for refugees (UNHCR) GENEVA 
5)  Crew of USS Russell restore three schools in Dili (USS Russell Public Affairs) 
6)  U.S. Navy dental team pulls more than 1,000 teeth in 10 days (U.S. 7th Fleet News) DILI 
7)  Military medical teams improve health conditions in Dili (US Navy) DILI 
 -PRESS RELEASES-
8)  Timorese Demand Release Of U.S. Documents (Democracy Now) DILI 
 -REPORTS-
9)  IOM resumes operations (IOM) DILI  (TimTod 12/7)

 -NEWS- 13/07/00:
1)  Army chief implicated in counterfeit money ring: report (Agence France Presse) JAKARTA 
2)  Group occupies building ear-marked as police station (RDP Antena 1 Radio) 
3)  Former militia leader on trial for firearms possession (AFP) KUPANG 
4)  Australian spies knew Balibo five at risk (Sydney Morning Herald) SYDNEY 
5)  Tom Hyland: A reluctant hero (Reality) DUBLIN 
 -PRESS RELEASES-
6)  Timorese Demand Release Of U.S. Documents (Democracy Now) DILI 

 -NEWS- 14/07/00:
1)  Coalition government approved, ministers chosen – UN (Lusa) DILI 
2)  Horta welcomes approval of transition cabinet (Lusa) DILI 
3)  *E Pluribus Unum* East Timor (Washington Post) DILI 
4)  Jakarta governor promises jobs for 40 East Timorese militia (AFP) JAKARTA 
5)  Australia says revenue, not border, focus of Timor talks (Dow Jones Newswires) CANBERRA 
6)  Thai general named as new Timor force commander (Agence France Presse) BANGKOK  (TimTod 14/7)


 USA WESTERN COAST

 More than 137 species of fish and wildlife - from orcas to caddisflies - depend on the Northwest salmon for their survival, a revelation that makes salmon recovery efforts of far greater importance than the protection of a single species.  A new report released by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has found that salmon play a vital role in watershed health. "We need to start giving out the whole story of what made the ecosystem; it's an abundance of fish on the spawning grounds," said Jeff Cederholm, a salmon research scientist with Washington Department of Natural Resources, principal author of the report. Orcas, also known as killer whales, rely on salmon for their food.  Northwest species now struggling because of depleted salmon runs include the bald eagle, grizzly bear, black bear, osprey, harlequin duck, Caspian tern and river otter.  "They are all so closely tuned with the pacific salmon that many of these populations are in decline, partially due to declining food supply."  Pacific salmon are unique in that they die after they reproduce. When salmon return from the ocean, they bring vital nutrients with them to the watersheds where they were hatched. Through their decomposing carcasses, the salmon spawning process offers a vital source of food not just for salmon and other fish species, but for a whole host of organisms in the watershed.  Prior research has documented that salmon rely on the decomposing salmon carcasses as a major food source.  "They achieved total ecosystem enrichment," Cederholm says. "Salmon really are a keystone species. ... For example, the reestablishment of the grizzly bear may be impeded by not having the primary food source it evolved with. The abundance of all these things is interrelated."  Of the 137 species documented as dependent on salmon, 41 are mammals including orcas, bears and river otters, 89 are birds, including bald eagles, Caspian terns and grebes, five are reptiles and two are amphibians.  "We think we see one little change," said Cederholm. "But behind it, it's the whole ecosystem." Cederholm says the nutrient enhancement program is a good stopgap measure to get much needed nutrients back into the streams, but it is a far cry from what is needed to restore streams to their historically nutrient-rich state.  Historically, salmon carcasses likely totaled three to five tons for every kilometer of stream. "I have this personal view that we must stop killing these wild fish, we must stop impeding their progress to the spawning grounds. If Gresh is right, if we are returning just five percent of these nutrients to the spawning ground, we must rebuild those runs. The wild fish that are left are the nucleus to start from."  Cederholm says hatchery production serves no purpose other than to "perpetuate the false idea that salmon are still abundant."  The report: "Pacific Salmon and Wildlife: Ecological Contexts, Relationships, and Implications for Management," is available from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: johnsdhj@dfw.wa.gov  (ENS -02 6/7) 


 VIETNAM 

 ASEAN ministers seek acceleration of energy plan; Energy ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed at a meeting in Hanoi yesterday that an ambitious plan to build a trans-ASEAN power grid and gas pipeline should be accelerated. This would contribute greatly to ASEAN "energy security". In their meeting, which followed June 30-July 1 consultations between senior ASEAN officials and officials of Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry, the minsters stressed the need to develop masterplans for the projects. The statement said the ministers also emphasised the need for "accelerating international and local finance and capital" to bring the projects to reality. Achievements since the ministers last met in Bangkok a year ago included: (1) an agreement to finalise the masterplan for the gas pipeline by 2001, and (2) the setting up of the ASEAN Forum on Coal to promote inter-ASEAN coal trade and coal supply for power generation.  ASEAN, which groups Vietnam with Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines, has set a target date of 2020 for the completion of the pan-regional pipeline and power grid. (PlArk 7347 4/7)

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