U.S.,
RUSSIAN EXPERTS TESTING `DIRTY BOMBS' IN
EFFORT TO COMBAT THREAT
Mar
17, 2003 The Associated
Press reports: "In New Mexico's desert
and Russia's Ural Mountains, U.S. and Russian experts are experimenting with
simulated ''dirty bombs'' to see how such radiation weapons and potential
terrorist tools might work, officials of the two countries say.
It's
a sensitive area in which some information is withheld to keep clues to
bomb-building out of terrorists' hands. But American and Russian specialists
attending a global conference on dirty bombs disclosed some aspects of recent
testing so the public knows everything is being done to deal with the threat.
These
so-called ''RDDs,'' for radiological dispersal devices, haven't made an
appearance yet, but the al-Qaida terrorist network, for one, is reported to
have shown a serious interest in developing them.
Dirty
bombs would combine conventional explosives with strontium, cesium or some
other highly radioactive isotope used for such purposes as cancer radiotherapy,
searching for oil deposits and sterilizing food. They wouldn't cause the immediate mass
casualties or devastation of nuclear weapons, but they are much simpler to make
and the contamination and fear of radiation poisoning could cause general panic
and shut down sections of cities for years.
Some
600 scientists, government officials and others at the three-day conference
that ended Thursday focused on tightening protection of radioisotopes in use
worldwide, stopping illicit trafficking and planning emergency responses to
such attacks. Others, meanwhile, are trying to learn how a dirty bomb would
behave if detonated…"
EXPERTS:
NO STOPPING WEST NILE'S MARCH ACROSS U.S.
Mar
18, 2003 CNN
reports: "West Nile virus may well complete its coast-to-coast spread this
summer, infecting large numbers. There's
no good way to predict, as the deadly virus is from a family that's notoriously
fickle. But during last year's record-setting epidemic -- more than 4,000
people became ill and 274 died -- only a handful of states escaped human
illness. Even some of those harbored infected mosquitoes and birds.
And
no, the harsh winter in much of the country probably won't lead to a reprieve.
Many mosquitoes can survive the cold ... ready to start spreading infection
once it's warm enough to re-emerge.
Another
myth: that if crows aren't dying in your neighborhood, West Nile probably
hasn't spread there yet. Dead birds of any species are suspicious. But of more
concern are birds West Nile doesn't easily kill, like common house sparrows.
They harbor far more of the virus in their blood than crows do, yet few die --
offering a highly infectious feeding trough for mosquitoes who bite them and
then bite us.
Tackling
this virus 'is unbelievably complex,' says Dr. Lyle Petersen of the CDC and
Prevention, the nation's chief West Nile specialist. The one sure discovery is
that 'where West Nile has been, it stays.'
He
cautions that he has no crystal ball to accurately predict if West Nile...will
prove as bad this year. But Petersen
says another large epidemic 'would not be surprising,' with West Nile hitting
each of the 48 contiguous states. Not counting Alaska and Hawaii, only nine
states have escaped human illness so far.”
SADDAM
WARNS OF WORLD WAR IF U.S. STRIKES
March
17, 2003 The Associated
Press reports: "President Saddam
Hussein warned Sunday that if Iraq is attacked, it will take the war anywhere
in the world 'wherever there is sky, land or water.' Saddam's threat was made during a meeting
with military commanders and his remarks were carried by the official Iraqi
News Agency. It came as President Bush said Monday was the 'moment of truth'
for the United Nations to demand Baghdad's 'immediate and unconditional
disarmament.'
Saddam
told his commanders: 'When the enemy starts a large-scale battle, he must
realize that the battle between us will be open wherever there is sky, land and
water in the entire world.' Saddam also
denied Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction, as the United States and
Britain claim. 'Are weapons of mass
destruction a needle that you can conceal in a head cover or in the scarf of an
old woman that (U.N. weapons) inspectors cannot find?' Saddam asked. 'There are no weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq,' he added, joking: 'Well, give us time and the necessary means and we
will produce
any
weapon they want and then we will invite them to come and destroy them.'…"
UN
WARNS OF WORLDWIDE THREAT FROM KILLER PNEUMONIA
March
16, 2003 Reuters
reports: “The World Health Organization warned on Saturday of a worldwide
health threat as a mystery killer pneumonia spread from east Asia to other
parts of the globe. Releasing a rare
‘emergency travel advisory,’ the United Nations health agency said an ill
passenger had been taken to an isolation unit in Frankfurt, Germany, on
Saturday after being removed from a plane en route from New York to Singapore.
Some
155 other passengers who had been due to change planes or stay in Frankfurt
were placed in quarantine there, while the remaining 85 passengers and 20 crew
on the Singapore Airlines flight continued their journey, German officials
said.
A
spokesman for the Geneva-based WHO said there were reports two people had died
in Canada, taking the death toll to nine worldwide since the first outbreak of
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), an atypical pneumonia whose cause is
not yet known, was detected in China in February. ‘This syndrome, SARS, is now a worldwide
health threat,’ WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland said in a statement.
Among
the dead is an American businessman taken ill in Hanoi after visiting Shanghai.
He died on Thursday in Hong Kong where 47 cases have been reported. Some 40
people were being treated in Hanoi, where one nurse died on Saturday, according
to local health officials. Cases have
also been reported in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
WHO
spokesman Dick Thompson said the passenger taken from the plane in Frankfurt
was a Singapore doctor who had visited New York after treating some of the
first suspected SARS patients in Singapore..."
EU,
NATO SIGN MILITARY PACT
March
16, 2003
UPI reports: “The European Union and NATO
Friday signed a groundbreaking agreement to share secret information, paving
the way for the EU to take over the military alliance's peacekeeping role in
Macedonia later this month in the 15-member bloc's first ever military
operation.
NATO
Secretary-General George Robertson and Greek Foreign Minister George
Papandreou, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, signed the
deal at a ceremony in Athens. It allows
EU-led forces to use strategic planning facilities at NATO's Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, Belgium and sets up a secure system
to exchange classified military data between the two bodies.
Papandreou
said the inking of the pact ‘underlines the confidence between the two
organizations at a particularly crucial time for the Balkans and for Europe in
general.’
At
the start of the year, the EU took control of Bosnia and Herzegovina's police
force and plans to replace NATO peacekeepers in Macedonia by the end of
March..."
REPORT
SAYS US MUST FACE NUCLEAR THREATS
March
15, 2003 The Boston
Globe reports: "The threat of
terrorists setting off a crude nuclear bomb in a major city is real and should
be urgently addressed, concludes a private report issued yesterday on
controlling nuclear materials.
Senator
Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana and chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, called the findings critical to persuading lawmakers and
the Bush administration that more needs to be done to safeguard nuclear
materials around the world. The report
concludes that the easiest way to prevent such a tragedy is to keep terrorists
from obtaining material they can use for a weapon. However, it adds, hundreds
of tons of nuclear material continues to be kept with inadequate security in
hundreds of locations across the globe.
''The
scope of the effort does not match the scale of the threat, at a time when
these programs are more essential than ever,'' Lugar said at a press
conference.
The
report, part of a project at Harvard University, is the latest in a string of
studies on global efforts to keep nuclear materials and warheads out of the
hands of terrorists or rogue states…"
Compiled
by L. Jim Tuck, Pastor
UCGIA, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa & Stockton, California