Page 10 - DESPA FLIP 2 APRIL,2016
P. 10
U.S. NEWS A3
Saturday 2 April 2016
Leaders warn of harrowing risk of nuclear-armed terrorists
Continued from Front Front row, from left, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Jordan’s King Al Sharif Abdullah penalties for nuclear smug-
Bin Al Hussein, President Barack Obama, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Chinese President Xi gling. Those tweaks were
But he said it wasn’t for lack Jinping, join other world leaders in waving as they pose for a group photo during the Nuclear approved in 2005 but have
of the terrorists trying: Al- Security Summit, Friday, April 1, 2016, in Washington. sat dormant awaiting ratifi-
Qaida has sought nuclear cation from a critical mass
materials, IS has deployed (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) of nations, reached only in
chemical weapons, and the past few days.
extremists linked to the Brus- and more isolation. metric tons two decades same at another. Still, frustration over the
sels and Paris attacks were Aiming to show concrete ago to 586 metric tons as of On the global front, a slow pace of reducing nu-
found to have spied on a action, leaders came to 2013. And the U.S. and Ja- strengthened nuclear se- clear stockpiles shadowed
top Belgian nuclear official. the nuclear summit with pan announced they’d fin- curity agreement was fi- the summit.
The two-day summit held commitments in hand. ished removing hundreds nally poised to take force, The absence of key play-
other, more positive signs of Latin America and the Ca- of kilograms of weapons- extending safeguards for ers, especially Russia, fur-
the world coming together ribbean are now free of grade material from a nuclear materials being ther underscored the lack
to confront the broader nu- highly enriched uranium, Japanese research reac- used, stored and transport- of unanimity confronting
clear threat. the White House said, prais- tor, and pledged to do the ed while requiring criminal global efforts to deter nu-
The U.N. Security Council ing Argentina by name for clear attacks.
members who brokered converting its remaining After six years of prod-
a sweeping nuclear deal stockpile into a less dan- ding by Obama and oth-
with Iran last year held up gerous form. Fissile mate- ers before him, the global
that agreement as a mod- rials like highly enriched stockpile of fissile material
el for preventing nuclear uranium and separated remains in the thousands of
proliferation, as they gath- plutonium are necessary metric tons. What’s more,
ered on the summit’s side- ingredients to make nucle- security officials warn that
lines to review the deal’s ar bombs. the ingredients for a “dirty
implementation. The United States, in newly bomb,” such as cesium
Obama also spent part of declassified statistics, said and cobalt, are alarmingly
the summit huddling with its own national inventory insecure in many parts of
the leaders of South Korea of highly enriched urani- the globe.
and Japan about deterring um has dropped from 741 Ahead of the summit, few-
nuclear-tinged provoca- er than half of the countries
tions from North Korea, in a participating had agreed
powerful show of diplomat- to secure their sources of
ic unity with two U.S. treaty radioactive substances,
allies. Similarly, Obama’s which are widely present
sit-down with Chinese in hospital, industrial and
President Xi Jinping offered academic settings. q
the two strategic rivals a
chance to illustrate mutual
concern about the North, a
traditional Chinese ally.
Undeterred, North Korea
only hours later fired a
short-range missile into the
sea and tried to jam GPS
navigation signals in South
Korea — precisely the kind
of act that South Korean
President Park Geun-hye
had warned would trigger
even tougher sanctions
State health officials urged to
get ready now for Zika in US
MIKE STOBBE boom.
AP Medical Writer When West Nile virus, trans-
ATLANTA (AP) — The U.S. mitted by a different mos-
government urged health quito, moved through
officials around the coun- the U.S. about 15 years
try Friday to get ready now ago, health officials were
in case there are outbreaks caught flat-footed, Dr.
of the mosquito-borne Zika Georges Benjamin, execu-
virus this summer. tive director of the Ameri-
A Zika epidemic has been can Public Health Asso-
sweeping through Latin ciation, told a Zika summit
America and the Carib- at the Centers for Disease
bean, and officials think it’s Control and Prevention.
likely some small clusters of The Zika virus causes only
Zika will occur in the U.S. a mild and brief illness, at
when mosquito numbers worst, in most people. q
