You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF AUSTRALIA RALLIES PACIFIC STATES AGAINST BINDING GREENHOUSE TARGETS london Australia is to lead a bloc of south

Pacific countries which will oppose legally binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions at this year's United Nations annual climate convention in December. A meeting of the 16-member

South Pacific Forum last week endorsed Australia's call for individual nations to set their own targets. John Howard, prime minister, said concern over rising sea levels was

exaggerated. The meeting had been called to decide a regional strategy for the UN meeting in Kyoto, Japan. Australia argues that a blanket cut on emissions will unfairly penalize the

Clinton administration, has resigned. “It is time for me to step back, rest and reflect,” she says. O'Toole, a medical doctor who worked for the congressional Office of Technology

Assessment before joining the administration in 1993, was the driving force behind an effort to expose unethical human subjects research conducted by the US government. More recently, she

led a health and safety crackdown at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state, where the contractor was fired after the discovery of a leak of radioactive tritium. Federico Peña,

the energy secretary, issued a statement expressing his “deep regret” at O'Toole's sudden departure. “She embodies the best in public service,” he said. “She has made a

difference.” TELESCOPES SURVEY INFRARED SOURCES washington A comprehensive telescopic survey of the entire infrared sky began last week, with the goal of updating a 30-year-old catalogue of

near-infrared astronomical sources. The Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), led by the University of Massachusetts and funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the

National Science Foundation, will last for three and a half years. A pair of dedicated 1.3-metre telescopes observing from Mount Hopkins, Arizona and Cerro Tololo, Chile, will photograph the

sky and catalogue an estimated one million galaxies and 300 million stars as well as quasars, asteroids, and brown dwarfs. The telescopes will use detectors developed for the Hubble Space

Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). 2MASS is expected to be 25,000 times more sensitive than a similar infrared sky survey completed in 1969.

‘EUGENIC’ STERILIZATIONS ADMITTED BY JAPAN tokyo The Japanese government has acknowledged that 16,000 disabled women were sterilized without consent between 1949 and 1995 under the Eugenic

Protection Act of 1947. Seventeen groups representing women and disabled victims compelled the government to carry out an investigation, following similar revelations in Sweden. They also

requested an official apology and compensation, but the government has so far shown no intention of responding. The law was passed to authorize abortions and sterilizations with eugenic

objectives. It was abolished recently on the grounds that it was a violation of human rights. The announcement was precipitated by recent controversy in Sweden, where 60,000 Swedes were

involuntarily sterilized over a period of 40 years, until 1976. CLINTON THREATENS TO VETO NIH BUDGET BILL washington US president Bill Clinton has threatened to veto a government spending

bill in the House of Representatives that raises the budget for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by six per cent to $13.5 billion. Clinton said last week that he would veto the $279

billion bill funding the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education in 1998 unless Republican-inspired education-related amendments and spending cuts opposed by the

president are withdrawn. The fiscal year ends on 30 September. If no 1998 bill has been enacted by then, a temporary spending measure is expected to be introduced to keep the NIH budget at

its current levels. A companion Senate bill increases NIH funding by 7.5 per cent. ‘RULES TREAT STUDENTS AS ECONOMIC REFUGEES’ munich The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the

German Rectors' Conference (HRK) have criticized Germany's interior minister for tightening restrictions on overseas students at a time when science officials have become concerned

at the diminishing number of students from overseas who want to study in Germany. Under proposals suggested by Manfred Kanther, the interior minister, overseas students would need to prove

in advance that they have sufficient funds to complete their studies before being admitted to study in Germany. But Theodor Berchem and Klaus Landfried, the presidents of the DAAD and HRK,

describe the proposals as “unnecessary barriers”, which will in turn discourage students from wanting to study in Germany. They say that the recruitment situation is unlikely to improve if

students are treated as “economic refugees”. NASA ATTACKED OVER MIR MISSION RISKS washington Congressional critics have called on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to

stop sending its astronauts to the accident-prone Russian Mir space station. In an emotional hearing last week, James Sensenbrenner (Republican, Wisconsin), chairman of the House Science

Committee, said: “The risks on board Mir have increased while the scientific benefit has decreased.” Sensenbrenner asked Daniel Goldin, NASA's administrator, who was not present, to

reevaluate his decision to leave the NASA astronaut David Wolf on the station for a four-month stay. Sensenbrenner and other committee members even invoked the memory of the 1986 disaster of

the space shuttle Challenger, asking “Does someone have to get killed?” NASA, however, insists that Mir is safe and has proceeded with plans to launch Wolf and his crewmates into orbit this

week. The agency is under no obligation to follow Sensenbrenner's wishes. But the hearing is likely to worsen the already strained relations that exist between Goldin and the

committee's chairman. ISRAELI MINISTRY ‘RUNNING OUT OF RESEARCH FUNDS’ jerusalem Israel's Ministry of Commerce and Industry has warned that it will be unable to provide any new

research and development grants this year if the treasury fails to provide additional funding. According to a ministry spokesperson, a shortage of grants could cause Israeli high-tech

industry to transfer its research overseas. The ministry is currently negotiating with the Ministry of Finance for additional funding for this year, and is opposing cuts planned for next

year. Ministry officials say that their budget for research and development is $450 million short of what is needed to fund any further grants this year, and there will be a greater

shortfall next year if the proposed budget cut is maintained. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE News in Brief. _Nature_ 389, 324–325

(1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38588 Download citation * Issue Date: 25 September 1997 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/38588 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will

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