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LONDON — The draft of a treaty to ban cluster munitions was adopted by a group of 111 nations on Wednesday in Dublin after Britain dropped its longstanding opposition to any limitations on the weapons. The sudden shift by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is under pressure to combat his Labor Party’s declining political fortunes, created fresh pressures on the United States, which had counted Britain as one of its staunchest allies in opposing the ban. The treaty, hammered out in two weeks of talks in Dublin, had been under negotiation since February 2007. The nations accepting the treaty are...

The US will no longer be able to stockpile cluster bombs at its military bases in Britain under government proposals for an international ban on the controversial weapons, it emerged last night. As diplomats from more than 100 states unanimously passed a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs around the world, it emerged that British ministers are prepared to go further. The government has agreed to scrap the two types of cluster weapon in the armoury of British forces, but it will also ask the US to get rid of its cluster bombs based here, and it will no...

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Diplomats say more than 100 nations have reached agreement on a treaty that would ban current designs of cluster bombs. The treaty also would require the destruction of stockpiles within eight years. The breakthrough Wednesday followed agreement on two key sticking points after 10 days of Dublin negotiations. However, the discussions in Ireland did not involve the biggest makers and users of cluster bombs: the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan.

Israel: Cluster Bombs Used Legally Against Terrorist Targets By Israel News Agency Staff Jerusalem ----- December 26, 2007 ....... The following was communicated by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Government Press Office to the Israel News Agency.The Israel government has provided the legal opinion of the Israel Defense Forces Military Advocate General regarding the defensive use of cluster bombs during Second Lebanon War against terror targets. The Israel Defense Forces Military Advocate General, Brig. Gen. Avihai Mendelblit, concluded his evaluation of the implementation of IDF orders given during the Second Lebanon War...

HUA HIN, Thailand - Many people in the US were surprised to learn that some of the alleged terrorists in the London and Glasgow attacks were medical doctors. But Asians were more interested to learn that they were Indians. India has the world's second largest population of Muslims after Indonesia, but this is the first instance of Indian Muslims being involved in international terrorism. For example, not one Indian citizen is detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the US keeps terror suspects. Three of the core suspects in the London/Glasgow affair, Kafeel Ahmed, his brother Sabeel Ahmed and their cousin...

WAR PREPARATIONS AND WAR STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE EAST by J. R. Nyquist The Syrian army has been mobilized and is digging defensive positions. Syrian military leaders have been meeting with Iranian military leaders to coordinate war preparations. The Russians and Chinese have been sending significant arms shipments to Syria, including advanced MiG-31 fighters, Chinese-made C-802 anti-ship missiles, Metis-M and Kornet anti-tank missiles (used to stop the Israeli offensive in Lebanon last year), and sophisticated anti-air missiles. A new generation of Russian weapons, fielded after the “collapse” of the Soviet Union, have strengthened Syria’s overall military position. It is not...

The non-governmental organisation Handicap International has criticised Switzerland's position on cluster bombs, as a key conference on the issue gets underway. It said Switzerland had adopted an "ambiguous" standpoint by supporting a partial moratorium on cluster bombs, and called on the country to implement a full ban. The three-day conference in Peru, which starts on Wednesday, is aimed at broadening support for an international declaration banning cluster munitions by 2008. This was initiated by 46 nations in February in Norway. Switzerland was among those to sign up and it is expected to send a delegation to the Peruvian capital, Lima....

You might think that Easter would be an occasion for an MSM outlet like ABC to invite in a serious Christian theologian or minister to discuss issues of death and resurrection. Please. I did say "an MSM outlet." ABC's Good Morning America decided the best way to celebrate Easter today was to devote one segment to an anti-war activist who had organized a "cluster bomb hunt" to parallel the White House's Easter egg hunt, and another segment to a mocking examination of the Easter bunny. In the first segment, GMA's Kate Snow interviewed Brian Hennessey, organizer of the "cluster bomb...

4/9: Cluster Bomb, WMD&bin Laden Hunt outside White House's Easter Egg Roll -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply to: event-294810909@craigslist.org Date: 2007-03-15, 11:47PM EDT We're doing a new kind of demonstration outside the White House to bring attention to the civilian costs of war and cooked "intelligence" as an excuse to bomb and invade. It's called a Cluster Bomb and WMD/bin Laden Hunt and it will take place April 9 outside the White House Easter Monday when the White House is doing their Easter Egg Hunt. We expect 40,000 people to be crossing Lafayette Square and dozens of media. It's very family-orientated and designed...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Friday rejected an international call to abandon the use of cluster bombs, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We ... take the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement," McCormack said. Forty-six countries meeting in Oslo on Friday pledged to seek a treaty banning cluster bombs by next year, with major user and stockpiler Britain and manufacturer France signing on, Norway said. "We, ourselves, have already taken a couple of other steps with regard...

Poland, Romania and Japan refuse to ban cluster bombs Friday, 23 February, 2007 @ 4:54 PM Oslo - A declaration calling for a 2008 treaty banning cluster bombs was adopted Friday by 46 out of 49 nations attending a conference in Oslo, despite the absence of the U.S. Norway's deputy foreign minister Raymond Johansen said Poland, Romania and Japan did not approve the final declaration. Officials for Human Rights Watch and the Cluster Munition Coalition also said those three countries dissented. The gathering was snubbed by some key arms makers — including the U.S., Russia, Israel and China — but...

American troops in Baghdad, alongside Iraqi forces, have been engaged in a fierce battle with insurgents over the past several days. The United States, with the support of Iraqi leaders, has developed a plan to stabilize Baghdad and the al-Anbar Province. The President has told Congress that he intends to move an additional six brigades to Iraq for this operation. My own recommendation to President Bush has been to move the 27 Iraqi battalions presently in quiet areas of the country into Baghdad. Further, I have recommended that U.S. troops move to “leverage” their positions, emphasizing advisory teams, intelligence, precision...

Report: Hizbullah fired cluster rockets at Israel Human Rights Watch says Lebanese group fired cluster rockets into civilian areas of northern Israel during recent war

Five year-old Imane Salam found a strange new toy lying just outside her family home. "My daughter was playing in the garden and I heard a big bang and saw her on the ground," recalled her mother Samar, 30, as she watched over Imane's bed in Tyre's Najar Hospital. "She'd lost one finger on her left hand. We'd heard that there were cluster bombs in the area but we never thought we could have this kind of bomb in the garden. According to the experts maybe the bomb was part buried in the ground, because if she'd picked it up...

THE US is investigating whether Israel violated US rules in its use of US-made rockets armed with cluster bombs in Lebanon, the State Department said today. "We have heard the allegations they were used and we are taking a look at that," said State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. He was responding to questions about an article in Friday's New York Times which said the State Department's Office of Defence Trade Controls opened the probe this week after reports that three types of American cluster bombs were discovered in southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian deaths. "Once we have determined...

Hamid Asan Hasan dropped his wallet, and as he stooped to pick it up he spotted the small round object. Curious, he picked that up too. It exploded and blew off part of his hand. The Lebanese army passed out leaflets Thursday to warn residents of south Lebanon to beware of just such weapons. It was too late for Hasan, who was injured Sunday, one day before the cease-fire took hold to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. "The place is full of unexploded ordnance, shells and mortars," said Chris Clark, program manager for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination center...

Clip and save] State Department seeks to delay supply of M-26 artillery rockets to Israel Israel Asks U.S. to Ship Rockets With Wide Blast By DAVID S. CLOUD The New York TImes August 11, 2006 www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/middleeast/11military.html?hp&ex=1155355200 &en=4887d0ebeb1cdf33&ei=5094&partner=homepage WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 - Israel has asked the Bush administration to speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, which it could use to strike Hezbollah missile sites in Lebanon, two American officials said Thursday. The request for M-26 artillery rockets, which are fired in barrages and carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area, is...

JALALABAD, November 12 (PNS): Indiscriminate Cluster bombing during ongoing US military assaults on Afghanistan has been tremendously affecting civilians including mainly children and women.Unbelievable and horrible scenes completely captivated the members of PNS special reporting team, which travelled Jalalabad to gather facts of losses by US bombardment. "Death toll is countless" Medics of Public Health Hospital Dr Gull, Dr Ramzan and director South East Health Division Mullah Sher Ali told reporters "while the condition of severely injured individuals is deplorable". They further added that the people affected by Cluster bombing are rapidly becoming handicapped, as their body parts have to ...

<p>December 13, 2003 -- The activist group Human Rights Watch has claimed that "hundreds of civilian deaths" in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq "could have been prevented" if only America hadn't used cluster munitions or tried to "decapitate" the Iraqi leadership using intercepts of satellite phone calls. This could be true. After all, war is an inherently messy thing - a kingdom of difficult, often deadly choices.</p>

(New York, December 12, 2003) – Hundreds of civilian deaths in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq could have been prevented by abandoning two misguided military tactics, Human Rights Watch said in a comprehensive new report released today. The use of cluster munitions in populated areas caused more civilian casualties than any other factor in the coalition´s conduct of major military operations in March and April, Human Rights Watch said. U.S. and British forces used almost 13,000 cluster munitions, containing nearly 2 million submunitions, that killed or wounded more than 1,000 civilians. Meanwhile, 50 strikes on top Iraqi leaders failed to...