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US agrees to negotiate on cluster weapons treaty
Geneva (AFP) Nov 7, 2007 The United States on Wednesday said it would support talks to draw up a treaty regulating the use of cluster munitions, but remained opposed to any outright ban. Speaking at a meeting of states in the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), US ambassador Ronald Bettauer said Washington was no longer opposed to talks on expanding the treaty to cover cluster munitions. "While we have taken no position yet as to the outcome of negotiations on this topic, we did determine that we should support the initiation of a negotiation on cluster munitions within the CCW framework," Bettauer said. Some 68 nations have voiced their support for a Norwegian initiative for an international treaty to ban cluster bombs by 2008. But Bettauer said on Wednesday that the United States still believed cluster munitions were "legitimate weapons when employed properly and in accordance with existing international humanitarian law." "We should not now prejudge the negotiations themselves. We need to agree on a negotiating mandate that is broad, general, and brief," the US ambassador said. Diplomatic sources said that only Russia now remained opposed to talks leading to a possible treaty. Cluster bombs, dropped from aeroplanes or fired as artillery, contain hundreds of bomblets, also known as submunitions, which scatter over wide areas. Many of the bomblets do not explode on impact, and lie dormant for years or decades. In many cases, they blow up when children pick them up to play with them. The bombs are largely found in the Middle East, where they are used by Israel; in southeast Asian countries, where the United States deployed them in the 1970s; and in the former Yugoslavia. Related Links The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com
First Northrop Grumman-Built Production T-38 Trainer Aircraft Makes Its Final Touchdown In LA
El Segundo CA (SPX) Nov 07, 2007The first production-configuration T-38 pilot training aircraft built for the U.S. Air Force by Northrop Grumman Corporation landed at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and rolled to a stop for the very last time. The sleek, white supersonic aircraft now sporting a NASA logo, a blue nose-to-tail racing stripe and tail number N963, came to rest on the tarmac outside the former LAX Imperial terminal -- now home to the Flight Path Learning Center and Museum -- where company executives, employees and aviation enthusiasts had been waiting excitedly to witness aviation history. |
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