31.   Shops, schools and factories across Nepal were closed Friday in a general strike to protest a proposed treaty with India.

32.   Suggested Japanese amendments to the draft text would effectively deprive the proposed treaty of real teeth on major issues.

33.   The administration also says it will push ahead with a proposed treaty to eliminate chemical weapons.

34.   The Clinton administration, swayed by Pentagon generals and weapons manufacturers, is the only major government still resisting the proposed treaty to outlaw land mines forever.

35.   The five declared nuclear powers have raised concerns about a proposed treaty establishing Southeast Asia as a nuclear weapons-free zone, Thai officials said Wednesday.

36.   The proposed treaty protocol offers negotiators a wealth of features for compromise, including the timetable and the types of gases to be covered.

37.   The United States said Wednesday that it had failed in its attempts to force compromises in a proposed treaty on banning land mines.

38.   U.S. officials refused to confirm that separate talks were under way with China, saying only that Washington continues to have discussions with other countries on the proposed treaty.

39.   WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland has made the proposed treaty a key part of efforts to win global backing for her Tobacco-Free Initiative.

40.   Yeltsin told Obuchi that the Russian government also was eager to negotiate on deeper cuts under a proposed START III treaty.