GRACHEV, PERRY BLOW UP US NUCLEAR SILO…

Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and US Defense Secretary William Perry stood on the edge of a Missouri cornfield near Whiteman Air Force Base on Saturday and, each with a finger on the detonators, set off an explosion that destroyed a Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile silo.

The demolition was meant to affirm the two countries’ commitment to nuclear arms reductions mandated by the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), signed in 1991. At the height of the Cold War, the former Soviet Union had some 2,500 missile silos, launchers and heavy bombers and the United States had 2,250. But under START I, those must be cut on both sides to 1,600 by December 2001. Many experts believe both sides probably will cut them to below that number.

…Fail to Resolve Bosnia Peacekeeping Role…