Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 15:35:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Alice McCombs <amccombs@igc.apc.org>

Contents

1. Standard & Poors Confirms Freeport Credit Ratings Cut
2. Asian Crisis Forces Coal Project Postponements
3. WISCONSIN: 40,000 sign petition for Mining Moratorium
4. Mining Impact Coalition has its own domain on the Web
5. Educom Update, 1 January 1998
6. Destruction of Kirthar National Park in Pakistan due to oil exploration.
7. Exxon Corp 'Gives' $20 million to School!  Aren't they nice!
8. Media's Dark Age Conference, Athens

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1. Standard & Poors Confirms Freeport Credit Ratings Cut

pchatterjee                     reg.westpapua              9:30 AM  Jan 10, 1998

Posted at 1:07 p.m. PST Friday, January 9, 1998

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's Rtgs
Cut;S&PWatch,Neg

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--S&P's CreditWire 1/9/98--In conjunction with
the lowering of the ratings on the Republic of Indonesia (double-'B'
long-term foreign currency credit rating/CreditWatch, Negative), Standard &
Poor's today lowered its ratings on Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
(see list of ratings below).

The ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were
originally placed Dec. 31, 1997. The ratings on the senior unsecured and
subordinated debt of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and senior
unsecured debt of Altief Freeport Finance Co. reflect the structural
subordination of these obligations to Freeport-McMoRan's principal
operating subsidiary, PT-FI.

The downgrade reflects:

-- Continuing concerns relating to Freeport-McMoRan's exposure to the heightened
political and fiscal risks of the Republic of Indonesia, as the company's
primary asset is a massive copper and gold mining operation in Indonesia.
However, the company enjoys some protection from sovereign risk, as it
serves primarily export markets and generates revenues in U.S. dollars.

-- The adverse impact of the recent deterioration of gold and copper prices
on the company's financial performance.

Standard & Poor's will continue monitoring the impact of the increased
risks of the Republic of Indonesia as well as the significant weakening of
gold and copper prices on the company's business position and financial
profile. -- CreditWire -0-

RATINGS LOWERED AND REMAINING ON CREDITWATCH NEGATIVE
Ratings
To From
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

Corporate credit rating                    BB+  BBB-
Senior unsecured debt                      BB   BBB-
Subordinated debt (Prelim.)                BB-  BB+
Preferred stock                            BB-  BB
Preference stock (Prelim.)                 BB-  BB
Alatief Freeport Finance Co. B.V. (P.T.)
(Gtd. by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.)
Senior unsecured debt                      BB   BBB-

--30--HK/na..

CONTACT: Laura Christopher, New York (1) 212-208-1889 Ronald A Johnson,
New York (1) 212-208-5201 Dmitri P Nayduch, New York (1) 212-208-8396 For
more information on criteria or subscriptions:
http://www.ratings.standardpoor.com

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2. Asian Crisis Forces Coal Project Postponements

pchatterjee                     reg.westpapua              9:30 AM  Jan 10, 1998

The following may include the two southern california edison, OPIC
sponsored, coal projects. Not sure. It may amuse you that the cousin of the
IMF deputy managing director negotiating with Indonesia is an avowed
Stalinist in South Africa.

Pratap

Posted at 5:48 a.m. PST Saturday, January 10, 1998

Indonesia says to review or delay 15 projects

JAKARTA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Indonesia's President Suharto decided on Saturday to
review or postpone 15 major infrastructure projects due to the country's
financial crisis, the official Antara news agency said.

The news agency quoted State Secretary Murdiono as saying the projects to be
reviewed included two coal-fired power plants estimated to cost a combined $3.5
billion.

Projects to be delayed include toll roads, smaller power stations and a new
airport in the city of Medan.

Eight projects were to be reviewed, including the two plants and other
toll-roads.

``All the projects will definitely be developed eventually,'' Murdiono told
Antara, adding that the decision was taken to conserve foreign exchange.

``Because of that, the president decided to postpone (the projects),'' he said.

Posted at 7:20 a.m. PST Saturday, January 10, 1998

Suharto issues decree postponing gov't projects

JAKARTA, Jan. 10 (Kyodo) -- Indonesian President Suharto on Saturday evening
issued a new decree postponing and reviewing 15 government and state-related
projects that earlier had been postponed and reviewed but then allowed to
go ahead, according to a copy of the decree that Kyodo News obtained.

The decree was issued less than 24 hours before the anticipated arrival
Sunday of Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).

IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus also will visit Indonesia on Wednesday,
while U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is expected to arrive
Monday.

''The president of the Republic of Indonesia, considering the need to
overcome the monetary crisis..., decided to withdraw the presidential
decree which allow the projects to go ahead,'' the decree said.

In a telephone call to the state-run news agency Antara, State Secretary
Murdiono said the projects need a big amount of money and if they continue, the
government will be hard-pressed to find a solution to the current monetary
crisis.

The 15 projects were earlier among 156 government and state-related
projects worth about 38 billion U.S. dollars that the government had
postponed and ordered reviewed Sept. 20 in a presidential decree.

But on Nov. 1, six weeks after the decree, Suharto quietly signed a new decree
allowing 15 of those 156 projects -- including one recently proposed giant
power plant -- to proceed ''in accordance with the results of study.''

The 15 projects included Sarulla, a geothermal energy project on Sumatra Island,
invested by Unocal Corp. and the Nusamba Group led by Mohammad ''Bob''
Hassan, Suharto's close ally.

Also on the list was Tanjung Jati A, a huge power plant in which Suharto's
second daughter Siti Hediati Prabowo was the investor along with
conglomerate Bakrie Group.

The Nov. 1 decree comes just a few weeks after an Oct. 8 government statement on
economic policy which announced Indonesia was turning to the IMF.

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3. WISCONSIN: 40,000 sign petition for Mining Moratorium

For Release, January 8, 1998
For more information contact: Caryl Terrell, Sierra Club 608-256-0565
Keith Reopelle, Wisconsin Environmental Decade 608-251-7020

MADISON, State Capitol

Today conservation and environmental groups presented over 40,000
signatures to the co-sponsors of the Mining Moratorium Bill, SB 3.

"In a few days the full Assembly will take final action on the Mining
Moratorium Bill, SB 3. These petitions with over 40,000 signatures of
constituents throughout the state ask the Legislature to pass the Mining
Moratorium." said Caryl Terrell, Legislative Coordinator for Sierra Club -
John Muir Chapter. So far, every sulfide ore mine ever built has caused
dangerous pollution. More than 12,000 miles of U.S. rivers have been
permanently damaged by mine pollution. Sport fishing has been destroyed and
tourism damaged.

"The question is Can the Assembly Republicans and Governor Tommy Thompson
hear this plea from so many citizens over the noise of Exxon's multimillion
dollar public relations and lobbying campaign," continued Terrell. "We are
asking that Assembly Representatives pass SB 3 in the same form that it
passed overwhelmingly in the Senate last spring."\

"This is a classic example of the money versus the people," said Keith
Reopelle, Legislative Director of Wisconsin's Environmental Decade. "Exxon
has the Big Bucks but we are hopeful that the Legislature will vote with
the overwhelming public support for this bill."

"The River Alliance of Wisconsin urges the Assembly to respond to citizen
demands and just say 'no' to unproven mining technology," said Sara
Johnson, Executive Director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin. "Exxon's
proposed use of unproven technology sparked the nation's leading river
conservation organization, American Rivers, to designate the Wolf River as
the 'Fifth Most Endangered River in North America.' A vote for the Mining
Moratorium Bill is a vote for the Wolf River."

"Over 6200 Citizen Action members have written letters about this mining
issue to their representatives" said Bob Hudek, Co-Executive Director of
Wisconsin Citizen action. "This is THE critical issue that the Assembly
must act on this session."

Receiving the petitions were the lead authors of SB 3, Assembly
Representative Spencer Black and Senator Kevin Shibilski.

The Mining Moratorium Bill is a practical approach to prevent a mine from
being built until the mine technology can be proven safe. SB 3 provides
that no permit for a metallic mine ins a sulfide ore can be issued until
the mining company shows evidence of a mine in a similar sulfide ore body
that has operated for 10 years without pollution and evidence of a mine is
a similar sulfide body that hs been closed for 10 years without significant
environmental damage.

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4. Mining Impact Coalition has its own domain on the Web

Date: January 8, 1998
From: mic@miningimpacts.net

You are invited to drop in on Mining Impact Coalition at its new home on
the web: http://www.miningimpacts.net/index.html

Mining Impact Coalition (MIC) is the international organization of Mining
Impact Coalition of Wisconsin Inc. MIC formed this global coalition to
educate people, conduct research and facilitate communication about the:

  Social, economic and environmental impacts of unsafe mining and
  Sustainable use of the world's mineral resources

Resources available at the MIC site:

  The latest issue of their newletter, DownStream.
  Cartoons by Bill Krupinski.
  Photographs showing what metallic sulfide mining does to the environment.

Visitors can subscribe to MIC's email listserv.

Comments, suggestions, and contributions of content/links for the site are
welcome.

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5. Educom Update, 1 January 1998

Date:   Thu, 01 Jan 1998 15:24:11 -0500
From: Edupage Editors <educom@educom.unc.edu>

              * E D U C O M * U P D A T E *    1 January 1998

Educom Update is an electronic information service covering news about
Educom, its member institutions, its corporate affiliates, and other
organizations that share Educom's goals for transforming education through
information technology. To submit news and calendar information, send mail
to info@educom.edu.

NEW ON THE NET

*Scientific Journals. Eight scientific publishers make their journals
accessible online through the American Chemical Society's new site,
ChemPort. More than 200 journals are accessible, as well as the world's
largest database of chemical literature and patents. For more information,
visit ChemPort in North America at http://www.chemport.org, in Europe at
http://www.chemport.fiz-karlsruhe.de, or in Japan at http://jst.chemport.org.

*Virtual Library. LibrarySpot, a virtual library resource center, brings
together library information and reference sites organized into several
areas, including Reference Desk, Reading Room, and Libraries Online -- a
gateway to more than 2,500 libraries around the world. For more
information, see http://www.libraryspot.com.

************************************************************************
To subscribe to Educom Update, send a message to listproc@educom.unc.edu
and in the body of the message type: subscribe update (your name).

To unsubscribe to Educom Update, send a message to listproc@educom.unc.edu
and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe update.

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6. Destruction of Kirthar National Park in Pakistan due to oil exploration.

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 18:49:16 +0500
Sender: owner-elan@csf.colorado.edu
From: "SRCALP" <ayazl@paknet3.ptc.pk>

Friends,

Here is a troubling news from 19th December's  Dawn( English Daily of
Pakistan)(http://www.dawn.com).

Kirthar National Park is the largest wild-life sanctuary in Sindh (and
Pakistan) and home to many endangered species of animals, but in its usual
style, some departments are willing to cause its destruction by allowing
oil exploration in the park. The first step in this process is an
Environmental Impact study by the very company interested in doing the oil
exploration! It appears the (Sindhi) local officials are taking a stand
against the illegal activity, but the Director General Petroleum
Concessions Federal Government has decided to bypass them
and to let Premier Oil (Britain based multinational) go ahead anyway.

Here's the story from Dawn:

>                  Oil exploration team visits Kirthar park
>
>                            By Our Staff Reporter
>>
>    KARACHI, Dec 18: A team of Premier Oil has entered the Kirthar
>    National Park on Thursday to conduct an environmental impact
>    assessment despite being refused a permission from the Sindh Wildlife
>    Department, it is learnt.
>
>    According to the sources, three members of the team flew in using the
>    Edhi Air Ambulance, while others comprising Zoological Survey of
>    Pakistan officials and others drove there in three four-wheel drive
>    vehicles.
>
>    Sindh Wildlife Conservator Mohammad Umer Memon responding to the Dawn
>    queries, however, denied having any information regarding the
>    PremierOil team entering the park.
>
>    The team comprises Waqar Zakaria, Dr Rubina A. Rafiq, Mr Hidayat, four
>    ZSP official Abrarul Hassan, Sadat Hussain, Shafiq Ahmad, Shamim
>    Fakhri and two former students of Quaid-i-Azam University Haleem
>    Siddiqui and Ayaz Ahmad and others.
>
>    The team that used Edhi Air Ambulance earlier took an aerial view of
>    the game reserves, Kambhu Jabal, Ranikot Fort, Dumbar and Kirthar
>    mountain range before landing at Karchat, which is in the centre of
>    Kambhu and Khirthar mountains having the most dense Sindh Ibex
>    population.
>
>    The Hegler and Bailey, consultants of the PremierOil, team is expected
>    to stay in the park for a few weeks for its EIA.
>
>    When Dawn contacted the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) on Thursday,
>    the conservator said that the PremierOil had asked the SWD for
>    permission to conduct the EIA in the national park.
>
>    The department has taken a stand that since oil exploration, mining or
>    other such commercial activities are not permitted in the national
>    park so they were refused the permission to start the work in the
>    protected area.
>
>    Hyderabad Deputy Conservator Ghulam Rasool Channa, under whose
>    jurisdiction the park is, said that the field officer of the park, Mr
>    Jamali, who stays at the Karchat Centre, has been directed not to
>    allow any unauthorised person to carry out any illegal activity. If
>    the PremierOil team has gone to the park it will be returned, he
>    assured.
>
>    Chief of Edhi Air Ambulance, Col Sajid responding to the Dawn said
>    that three people - two men and a woman - were taken to the Kirthar
>    National Park in the morning and the helicopter landed at the Karchat
>    Wildlife Centre in the park, the passengers stayed back and the
>    helicopter has returned.
>
>    Responding to Dawn's query a local private public relations firm for
>    the PremierOil said six to seven people have gone to the Kirthar Park
>    on Thursday morning. They are consultants of the PremierOil and they
>    will study the area for a few days. Accroding to the firm, the (DGPC)
>    director general petroleum concessions have allowed them to conduct
>    the study. The firm, however, could not reply if the team had the
>    permission from the Sindh Wildlife Department which controlls the
>    park.
>
>    It may be recalled that a Briton based multinational oil giant
>    PremierOil has been awarded the Dumber block by the federal government
>    for oil exploration. Over 95 per cent of this block comprises Kirthar
>    National Park, which is the biggest park in the country and is the
>    first one from Pakistan that was listed with the United Nations.
>
>    When the PremierOil came to start the work it was stopped by the SWD
>    from entering the park. Since then the oil company had been trying to
>    get the permission, but the SWD has refused to allow them for oil
>    exploration, and for conducting an EIA by the consultants of their own
>    choice. The SWD has said that the international NGOs working for the
>    nature conservation like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) or the
>    IUCN - the World Conservation Union be asked to help conduct the EIA
>    in this environmentally sensitive area.

Awaiting your reply, suggestions & cooperation.

Ayaz Latif Palijo
Chairman Sindh Research Council(SRC).   Editor  Monthly Subuh Theendo.
Address: B-48, PRINCE TOWN, (QA),   HYDERABAD, SINDH,  PAKISTAN.
Ph:92-221- 651947, 651725          E-mail address: ayazl@paknet3.ptc.pk

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7. Exxon Corp 'Gives' $20 million to School!  Aren't they nice!

From: Doug Schoellkopf <entropy@eden.com>
Organization: Office Automation
X-Old-Sender: owner-wisc-eco@igc.apc.org

Exxon Education Foundation: The President's Message

A number of years ago, a magazine - I think it was The New Yorker -
published a cartoon showing two men in a skyscraper office. The name on the
glass door to their office indicates that it is the headquarters of a
charitable foundation. One of the two men is standing by the window,
tossing out twenty-dollar bills. The other man is saying, "That's not the
way we do things around here, Hunnecutt."

That message is equally pertinent to the philanthropic activities
of corporations and corporate foundations.

If corporate philanthropic budgets were unlimited, throwing money at
problems might work. But, of course, such budgets are not unlimited, and in
the real world, unfocused grant making is unlikely to produce much in the
way of results.

Effective philanthropy is carefully focused and inevitably involves
difficult choices. Because our philanthropy is conducted with money that would
otherwise be distributed as dividends, we are constantly reminded of
our responsibility to Exxon Corporation's stockholders. Although United
States tax regulations prohibit our foundation from activities that produce
direct and tangible benefits for our corporate benefactor, we do strive to
support educational reforms that will strengthen our market-based economy and
our democratic political system and enhance the competitiveness of the
energy and chemicals industries.

At a time when public policy issues are increasingly grounded in
science and technology and are becoming increasingly complex, our schools
are turning out more and more students who are ignorant of the
fundamentals of science and of the scientific process. It is in the best
interests of all citizens - including corporate citizens like Exxon - to
reverse this trend. Unless we have the ability to recognize and engage in
sound scientific reasoning, we risk a future where crucial public-policy
decisions are
shaped not by reasoned assessment of risks, costs and benefits, but by the
hype and hyperbole of specialized interests.

In 1996, we further sharpened our focus on science and mathematics
education with the announcement of a five-year, $5 million initiative to
improve pre-college science education. This new program complements both
our Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Program
(STEM), launched last year, and our Mathematics Education Program, now in
its tenth year.

Those of you who have read earlier foundation reports know that we have
already done extensive work in pre-college science, particularly through
our support of the Lawrence Hall of Science's Chemicals, Health,
Environment and Me (CHEM) project and through Exxon Corporation's Energy
Cube distribution.

Those recent programs focused on the development and dissemination
of new supplementary science education materials. The new thrust aims to
improve K-12 faculty understanding of what constitutes appropriate science
learning for elementary and secondary students and how to teach to bring
about that learning.

The cornerstone of this program is a new partnership with the National
Science Teachers Association (NSTA) to distribute a copy of the recently
published National Science Education Standards to every school in ten
states and the District of Columbia and to train at least one teacher in
each of those schools in the application of the standards. These points of
contact will then
introduce the other teachers at their schools to the standards.

The NSTA has already begun to test this model in Texas, which, with over
8,000 public schools, has the second-largest school population in the
nation. The experience in Texas will guide the implementation of the
project in the other states. We are helping not only with financial support
but also by recruiting Exxon employee volunteers to work with science
teachers. Rollout of the
program in other states will begin in 1997.

We also are striving to better prepare teachers of science before
they get to the classroom. In 1996, we made a pair of linked grants to the
University of California at Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science and the
Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle. This effort brings together
work our foundation has supported for many years on elementary school
science materials (Dr. Herbert Their at Lawrence Hall) and on teacher
education (Dr. John Goodlad at the University of Washington, Seattle).
These two respected educators will collaborate with faculty at 10
teacher-training institutions across the nation and surrounding elementary
schools to better prepare pre-service teachers in science.

A theme that cuts across most of the programs and projects undertaken by
our foundation (including those discussed above) is opening educational
opportunities to previously excluded groups. It is essential for both
the international economic competitiveness and the long-term social
equilibrium of our nation to hold no one back on account of race, ethnicity
or gender. For many years, a former colleague at the foundation L. Scott
Miller has quietly worked through intelligent grant making and pioneering
research to promote high
educational achievement among minorities. We are particularly pleased
to be able to congratulate Miller for his book, An American Imperative:
Accelerating Minority Educational Achievement, being named book of the year
for 1997 by the American Educational Research Association.

Sincerely,

Edward F. Ahnert
President

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8. Media's Dark Age Conference, Athens

newsdesk           Keep announcements to 50 lines or less!10:46 AM  Jan  1, 1998
(at igc.org)

From: "veranoodles" <veranoodles@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 18:02:14 +0000

      Media's Dark Age: A Dialogue for the
              Twenty-First Century
               (May 24-28, 1998)
              www.iacenter.org/wms/

This conference is organized by Women for Mutual
Security (WMS), will be a thought provoking week of
debate and discussion on the invasive corporate and
government control of the news and information and a
challenge to that control and its consequences. This
will be a unique gathering of international journalist,
scholars and activists.

By bringing together some of the world's leading media
critics, the Media's Dark Age Conference will expose
the limitations imposed on public debate and perception
by government "management" and corporate censorship of
the news. The conference hopes to generate a new level
of understanding of the modern media in the era of
globalization while encouraging the creation of an
international alternative media.

1. TOPICS FOR THIS CONFERENCE

*Corporate control and ownership of the media
*Economic globalization of news and information
*Western control and ownership of international news
    reporting
*Role of media in manufacturing public opinion
*Links between media and military industries
*Media "code" words: semantic distortions and
    manipulations
*Monopolies, mergers and their effect on news and
    freedom of speech
*Role of advisors in shaping the content of media
    publications and programs
*Control of press coverage during critical
    international events
*The Internet as a model for 21st century media
*Analysis of coverage of issues affecting: women,
    labor, race, education healthcare,
    poverty and the environment
*Media coverage of popular people's movements
    internationally
*Press and the Freedom of Information Act
*Role of alternative media in providing
    balanced news coverage

This conference will be held in Athens, Greece and will
be hosted by the Andreas Papandieou Foundation and
Women for Mutual Security.

For more information and a list of speakers visit our
web site at www.iacenter.org/wms/

Conference registration fee $200 registration is
limited to 120.
All entries must be made before March 1, there will be
no refunds after march 31, 1998.

For information in the U.S. contact:
Women for Mutual Security
5110 W. Penfield Road
Columbia, MD 21045 USA
Telephone, 410-730-7483 or fax 401-964-9248

For international information:

Women for Mutual Security
email MPAP.ATH.FORTHNET@FORTHNET.GR

Checks should be written to: Women for Mutual Security,
Please include your name, address, country, and
organization.

                     --30--
veranoodles@earthlink.net

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