PLUTONIUM . . . FRIENDS IN (STOLEN) ARMS

The intelligence chiefs of Russia and Germany agreed to cooperate in an effort to stop nuclear smuggling. According to a joint statement released in Germany, the two countries "emphasized the urgent necessity of putting a stop to the illegal trade in radioactive and nuclear material, regardless of its origin." The sketchy agreement is the fruit of a three-day visit to Moscow by German envoy Bernd Schmidbauer, whom an alarmed Chancellor Helmut Kohl sent over after Munich police confiscated 350 grams of plutonium traced to Russia.