North Korea
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog headed to North Korea on Tuesday on a landmark visit, hopeful of making progress on closing its atomic facilities, but U.S. officials sounded a more cautious note.
Reuters 13th March 2007
BBC 13th Mar 2007
The United States has seen signs in recent days that North Korea is preparing to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex as called for under a six-country agreement, a U.S. official said on Monday, but other officials were more cautious.
Reuters 13th Mar 2007
Trident
JACK McConnell has infuriated Labour colleagues in London by suggesting that tomorrow’s Commons vote on replacing the Trident weapons system will not be Britain’s final decision on keeping nuclear weapons.
The First Minister made the remarks yesterday after Nigel Griffiths, MP for Edinburgh South, resigned as a government minister to protest against replacing Trident – fuelling Labour whips’ fears of a major backbench rebellion tomorrow. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are mounting an intensive lobbying campaign against Labour rebels, insisting that the vote will affect Britain’s national security for the next generation.
Scotsman 13th Mar 2007
CABINET ministers were last night frantically trying to head off a huge revolt by Labour MPs over plans to upgrade Trident missiles. More than 100 backbenchers are thought ready to rebel after Deputy Commons Leader Nigel Griffiths quit yesterday over the £20billion revamp of Britain’s sub-launched nukes. Mr Griffiths will make a devastating attack on the plans when he outlines the reasons for his departure before MPs vote on Trident.
Mirror 13th Mar 2007
Guardian 13th Mar 2007
A member of the government resigned on Monday in protest against plans to renew Britain’s nuclear arsenal and Prime Minister Tony Blair fought to quell a growing rebellion in his party over the issue. “I am confirming that I have resigned from the government with a heavy heart but a clear conscience,” Nigel Griffiths, deputy leader of the lower house of parliament, told BBC News 24 television after handing in his resignation letter.
Reuters 12th Mar 2007
Sky 12th Mar 2007
BBC 12th Mar 2007
Herald 13th Mar 2007
LABOUR leadership hopeful Michael Mea-cher is set to join the backbench rebellion over plans to replace Britain’s nuclear dete-rrent — believing it could see a bigger backlash than the Iraq war.
Oldham Chronicle 12th Mar 2007
SCARBOROUGH MP Robert Goodwill will be voting with the Govern-ment over its plans to replace the Trident nuclear weapon system.
Scarborough Evening News 13th March 2007
Ruth Wishart: This week our elected representatives have a clear-cut opportunity to honour our non-proliferation pledge and to try, despite our role in Iraq, to assert some moral leadership. An opportunity to put an end to the muddle-headed hypocrisy which rails against nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, having conveniently averted our eyes from the development of nuclear weaponry in India and Pakistan while conniving in the ludicrous pretence that Israel doesn’t have any.
Herald 13th Mar 2007
Ahead of an upcoming vote in the UK parliament on the government’s plan to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia has written to WCC member churches in the country praising and expressing support for their efforts to stop this.
Christian Today 12th Mar 2007
Ekklesia 12th Mar 2007
Iran
Iran’s isolation over its nuclear ambitions worsened yesterday when Russia announced an indefinite delay to a joint nuclear power project and accused Teheran of abusing its goodwill.
Telegraph 13th Mar 2007
Scotsman 13th Mar 2007
Times 13th Mar 2007
Guardian website 12th Mar 2007
Channel 4 News 12th Mar 2007
Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami has urged caution to avoid another UN resolution against Iran over its nuclear programme.
BBC 12th Mar 2007
Middle East Online 12th Mar 2007
Transport
Driving a nuclear-powered car may sound a bit like something out of Thunderbirds, but it could soon be a reality if the oil industry’s nuclear overtures come to anything. That’s one prediction in Trading Climate Change, JP Morgan’s latest contribution to the City’s voluminous output on the impact of global warming.
Telegraph 13th Mar 2007
Officials at the Department for Transport have warned that Metronet faces financial meltdown if it does not tackle cost overruns. It is owned by Balfour Beatty, WS Atkins, the Canadian engineer Bombardier, EDF Energy and Thames Water.
Guardian 13th Mar 2007
Libya
The United States is close to reaching an agreement with Libya for cooperation on a nuclear medicine centre but for now has no plans for the kind of broad nuclear energy development Tripoli has suggested, a U.S. official said on Monday.
Reuters 13th Mar 2007
Nuclear Spin
“We just find it maddening that Hill & Knowlton, which has an $8 million account with the nuclear industry, should have such an easy time working the press,” concluded the Columbia Journalism Review in an editorial in its July / August 2006 issue. The magazine was rightly bemoaning the tendency of news outlets to present former Greenpeace activist Patrick Moore and former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman as environmentalists who support nuclear power, without noting that both are paid spokespeople for a group bankrolled by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). NEI represents nuclear power plant operators, plant designers, fuel suppliers and other sectors of the nuclear power industry. Hill & Knowlton is NEI’s public relations firm, though it’s not the only firm working to build support for nuclear power.
PR Watch 12th Mar 2007
Climate
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will today announce plans to introduce legally binding limits on carbon emissions that will be set at five-year intervals. The new green law will also place a duty on ministers to report every year on the progress being made and the action being taken to ensure the UK stays on track. The unexpected move to introduce “carbon budgets” is designed to head off criticism from Tories and some Labour backbenchers who wanted the government to sign up for legally binding 3% a year emissions cuts. The government will claim that the five-year model, to be outlined in the draft climate change bill, is a more intelligent and flexible policy.
Guardian 13th Mar 2007
