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University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, October 2, 1991
NATION/WORLD
NATION/WORLD BRIEFSE
Moscow
Report says Chernobyl protective shield inadequate A protective shield to prevent radiation leakage from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant does not meet safety standards and should be reinforced, the Tass news agency reported yesterday.
An immense steel and concrete "sarcophagus" was built around Reactor No. 4 after the catastrophic explosion April 26, 1986, that spewed poisonous radiation across the Ukraine, Byelorussia and much of Europe. But the report said, the protective shield is safe adequate.
But the report said, the protective shield is not adequate
"Inside the sarcophagus, there is no ventilation, gas-cleaning or dust-suppression system," Tass said, citing the findings of a parliamentary commission. "Rain is seeping through and leaching radioactive elements into the ground."
According to specialists, new protective measures are needed to make the facility safe, including the placement of a new cover over the existing shield, the state news agency said.
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Renewed fighting ends sixth Yugoslavian cease-fire
Widespread fighting broke the 9-day-old truce in secessionist Croatia yesterday as the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army went on the offensive in response to Croat attacks on its bases.
Statements from Croatia and the Yugoslav army said yesterday's battles were among the worst since fighting began three months ago. Since then, Serbia has been able to control the country.
*All indicators ultimately point toward a military solution to the problem, said Mario Nobilo, representative for Croatian President Franjo Tudjama.*
The Yugoslav army seemed intent on seizing the few remaining Croat positions in eastern Croatia before the wet fall weather and low morale caused more reservoirs to desert. More than a 1,000 reservoirs already had deserted.
Washington
Congress passes increased benefits for unemployed
Congress yesterday overwhelmingly approved legislation providing up to 20 extra weeks of benefits for the long-term unemployed, pushing the lawmakers toward a new veto showdown with President Bush.
The House sent the $6.4 billion legislation to the White House on a 300-118 vote. A few hours earlier, the Senate voted 65-39 to approve the bill.
"Recognize one plain and simple fact: that the people who elected you president of the United States need your help," said Rep. Thomas Downey, D-N.Y., in remarks aimed at the president. Downey was one of the measure's chief sponsors.
The victory margin in the house was 11 votes more than the 289 supporters needed to overturn a Bush vote if all 438 House members vote.
-From The Associated Press
U.S. troops pull out of Korean DMZ
The Associated Press
Korean officials call for arms reductions, self-reliance in defense
SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. soldiers withdrew yesterday from a strategic border with Communist North Korea and handed their camps and patrol mission over to South Korean troops for the first time in 38 years.
South Korean officials said a brief ceremony marked the departure of U.S. troops from the sensitive area just south of the truce village of Pamunjum inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates the rival Koreas.
The withdrawal was symbolic of a U.S. military shift from leadership to a supporting role in guarding the 155-mile Korean border.
From now on, all but a small number
of U.S. soldiers guarding the isolated truce village will stay outside the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ.
The DMZ, extending the width of the Korean peninsula roughly along the 38th parallel, was established in the 1933 armistice agreement that ended the three-year Korean War. Armed clashes then have flared inside it.
U. S. soldiers inside the DMZ have served as a trip wire to deter hostilities between the two Koreas since the end of the Korean War. They defended the western corridor, a short-cut to Seoul, the capital.
Washington has announced a long-term plan for gradual reduction of its military forces in Asia. It has 43,000 troops in South Korea under a mutual
defense treatv.
South Korean officials have called for a gradual shift to self-reliance in national defense. South Korea's military has been under U.S. operational command since the end of the Korean War.
In a Cabinet meeting yesterday, President Roh Tae Woo urged a "forward-looking" step toward arms reductions, citing a sweeping change around the peninsula that would follow the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons under an overall policy announced by President Bush.
North Korea has demanded that all U.S. troops and nuclear weapons be removed from South Korea.
Iraq OKs helicopter use for inspections
U. N. missile team led by American is first to test validity of Baghdad's latest concession
The Associated Press
MANAAM, Bahrain - Baghdad gave final clearance yesterday for three U.N. helicopters to enter Iraq. They will be used by inspectors to track down Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, a U.N. official said.
Alastair Livingston, head of the regional office of the U.N. Special Commission overseeing the search, said the helicopters would make the best way to navigate the area said they should be ready for surveillance flights beginning tomorrow.
The Iraqis gave in to U.N. demands last week and agreed to allow the inspectors to use the three German-made weapons to attack suspected flights to suspected weapon sites
of Iraq's long-range Scud missiles and biological weapons.
A U.N. team that went to Baghdad yesterday will be the first to test whether Iraq will live up to the agreement for use of the helicopters. The team is searching for Scud missiles and launchers.
The inspection teams are operating under terms of the Persian Gulf war cease-fire, which calls for elimination
Englund said he also intended to
Previous U.N. teams have had to restrict their work to the Baghdad area because they lacked transportation to other parts of Iraq. Helicopters are also needed to make surprise visits, inspectors said.
Douglas Englund, an American who leads the 20-member mission team, said he would use the helicopters to search western Iraq and to supervise the destruction of 28 Seud launches to attack Israel during the gulf war.
blow up one assembled and one incomplete long-range "supergun" halfway between Baghdad and Mosul. Several surprise calls on undec勒ed Iraqi sites where Scud missiles may be stored are planned as well.
In Bahrain, meanwhile, the 44-member nuclear weapons team that was detained in a Baghdad parking lot for five days last week worked on a plan to provide evidence they seized concerning Iraq's secret nuclear arms program.
Iraq has denied trying to develop nuclear arms, but the documents uncovered in Baghdad prove the country was not involved in nuclear warheads. U.N. officials said
The inspectors collected 25,000 pages of documents and used 19 hours of videotape and more than 700 rolls of film to copy other papers. All were shipped to the International Atomic
Energy Agency, a U.N. organization based in Vienna, Austria.
The documents detail the technical aspects of Iraq's nuclear program, the people leading it and foreign sources of materials, U.N. officials said.
However, they have not identified the foreign companies that supplied them.
David Kay, American leader of the nuclear team, said yesterday that the foreign contribution should not be exaggerated. He said he thought the project had received less outside help than previously thought.
“This was in many ways an indigenous Iraqi program,” he said in an interview on ABC's “Good Morning America” to say a lot of very capable scientists and engineers there and they were at work on this program.”
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