Nicaragua has destroyed 1,000
Soviet-made missiles
Nicaragua destroyed 334
Soviet-made surface-to-air
missiles on Wednesday, bringing
the total to about 1,000 so far
this year, the Defense Ministry
said.
The SAM-7 missiles were
destroyed at the El Papalonal
firing range of a military base,
70 km west of Managua. In May
and July, Nicaragua destroyed
batches of more than 300
missiles each.
The ministry said in a statement
that President Enrique Bolaños
ordered the destruction on the
basis of a regional security
treaty to limit weaponry in
Central America.
The United States have
repeatedly urged Nicaragua to
rid itself of the missiles,
saying they could fall into the
hands of terrorists and be used
against civilian targets such as
aircraft.
Earlier this month, Bolaños told
visiting US Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld that his country
would eliminate its SAM-7
stockpile within about 18
months.
The army had said 400 SAM-7
missiles out of its original
stock of over 2,000 will be kept
for national defense.
Shortly after the destruction on
Wednesday, a Managua-based
appeals court issued an
injunction blocking further
demolition.
The opposition Sandinista
National Liberation Front, which
governed Nicaragua in the 1980s
when the weapons were amassed,
appealed that the destruction
violated the Law of State Assets
as the action was not authorized
by the National Assembly.
A Sandinista-sponsored law
passed on Nov. 10 demands that
Bolaños consult with Nicaragua's
legislature over the use and
disposal of the country's
arsenal.
But the government argued that
Bolaños ordered Wednesday's
destruction in accordance with a
parliamentary resolution passed
in April, before the law was
approved.
Brazil wins IAEA approval for
uranium enrichment
Brazil announced Wednesday that
it has won approval from the
International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) to start enriching
uranium at its Resende plant.
The announcement followed an
IAEA inspection of the
Industrias Nucleares Brasilenas
(INB) facility in Resende last
week.
"All procedures outlined for the
visit were completed," the
Science and Technology Ministry
said in a statement.
"This means that from the point
of view of international
safeguards, the INB plant
fulfills conditions for the
start of operations with the
introduction of UF6 uranium
gas," the ministry said.
UF6, uranium hexafluoride, is
the chemical form of uranium
that is used in the enrichment
process.
"Now what remains to be done is
a security license, which will
be issued by the National
Nuclear Energy Commission before
mid-December," the statement
said.
The Resende plant, located in
southeast Brazil, is the axis of
the country's nuclear program.
The ministry did not say whether
IAEA inspectors were granted
full access to the centrifuges
in the plant, which Brazil had
said it would not.
Brazil has claimed that
unrestricted inspections would
expose sensitive Brazilian
technology, which could be
stolen by other countries if
opened to outsiders.
Later, Brazil proposed that the
IAEA inspect the valves and
tubes leading to and from the
centrifuge, but not view the
centrifuges in full.
Enriched uranium produced by the
plant would be used in Brazil's
Angra I and Angra II nuclear
plants.
|
|
|
In the
market for a change? Click
here! |
Chile, Australia, US to develop
passport alert system
Chile, Australia and the United
States have agreed to develop an
automatic information exchange
and alert system on lost or
stolen passports, the Chilean
government said on Wednesday.
Chilean Interior Minister Jose
Insulza, Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer and US
Secretary of State Colin Powell
reached an agreement on the
sidelines of the 12th Economic
Leaders' Meeting of the
Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum held
here over the weekend.
The system will help improve
public security, the sides said
in a statement.
|
|
