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Nations sign cluster bomb treaty

U.S., Russia snub cluster bomb ban

Cluster bomb treaty: Signing begins to bring ban on production

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 8 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/74407?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Cluster+bomb+treaty%3A+Signing+begins+to+bring+ban+on+productionch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Israel+and+the+Palestinian+territories+%28News%29%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CDefence+policy%2CPolitics%2CWorld+newsc5=Policy+Society%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Richard+Norton-Taylor%2CPeter+Walkerc7=2008_12_03c8=1128081c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Israel+and+the+Palestinian+territoriesc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FIsrael+and+the+Palestinian+territories" width="1" height="1" //divpGovernments from around the world today began signing an international convention banning the production of cluster bombs â€“ unexploded canisters that have killed and maimed thousands of civilians and remain scattered dozen of countries./ppAt the Oslo signing ceremony, Norway, which has led the efforts to ban cluster munitions, was the first country to sign. It was followed by Laos â€“ where cluster bombs dropped by US planes more than 30 years ago a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/03/laos-cluster-bombs-uxo-deaths"are still killing civilians/a, and Lebanon, another country affected by the weapons./ppBy the end of tomorrow, around 100 of the United Nations' 192 members will have signed up. Once 30 countries have ratified the convention, it will become part of international humanitarian law./ppThere will, however, be a number of notable absentees, including the US, China, Russia, India and Pakistan as well as Israel, which fired many cluster bombs during the 2006 Lebanon war. /ppCampaigners hope the treaty might help change global attitudes towards the munitions, as a 1997 treaty did on land mines, prompting some nations to sign up later./ppIntended primarily as anti-personnel weapons, cluster bombs open up in mid air to release dozens of individual devices, known as bomblets, which scatter across a wide area./ppWhile the bomblets are intended to explode when they hit the ground, many do not and can lie dormant for years. Victims often include farmers tilling land and children, attracted by the bomblets' bright colouring./ppThe US and other nations insist cluster bombs have a legitimate military use. One group that deals with the issue, Handicap International, says 98% of cluster-bomb victims are civilians and 27% are children./ppThe convention has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Red Cross, and a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/02/weaponstechnology-armstrade"on the guardian.co.uk/a by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his German counterpart./ppThe weapons had "rendered huge tracts of land unusable, cutting farmers off from their crops and visiting further suffering on families forced to risk their lives simply to pursue their livelihoods", said Matthias Schmale, international director of the British Red Cross./ppMiliband and Steinmeier said their goal was a "truly global treaty on cluster munitions", while noting that "many of the major users, producers and stockpilers of cluster munitions" had not yet agreed to sign it./ppDuring the 34-day Lebanon war in 2006, up to a million devices failed to explode and this summer more than 40.6m square metres were identified as still being contaminated, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. More than 200 civilians died in the year after the Lebanon ceasefire. Cluster bombs also caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system./ppAt least 75 countries currently stockpile cluster munitions. More than 30 have produced the weapons. Unexploded cluster bombs have also killed civilians in Afghanistan, Chad, Eritrea, Chechnya, Sierra Leone and Vietnam./ppDespite initial misgivings within the military, Britain, which fired Israeli-made cluster bombs in its attack on Basra in 2003 and had been the third biggest user of cluster bombs after the US and Israel, has agreed to get rid of its stockpiles of land-fired and air-launched cluster weapons. British diplomats are trying to persuade the US to get rid of stockpiles at its bases in the UK, officials said yesterday./ppToday's convention excludes weapons that fire fewer than 10 explosive submunitions designed to locate a "single target"./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israelandthepalestinians"Israel and the Palestinian territories/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast"Middle East/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/defence"Defence policy/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Pv0_3CgGT7A_RxYi5FNqpi1sfdY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Pv0_3CgGT7A_RxYi5FNqpi1sfdY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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Nations sign cluster bomb treaty

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Annonces lesjeudis.com

- 1 days and 13 hours ago

Societe : ATOS ORIGIN - Lieu de travail : Ile de France - Type de contrat : CDI - Salaire : A négocier - Detail : Atos Origin est leader en France sur les prestations d’infogérance. Nous proposons à nos clients des prestations d’intégration de produits, d’administration de systèmes, de sécurité des SI, de mise en exploitation de projets, et de gérance d’exploitation. Cette offre repose sur un système qualité consolidé par une organisation et le référentiel ITIL. Afin de renforcer nos équipes, nous recherchons un Ingénieur système pour assurer l'activité opérationnelle sur les plateformes SUN. Vous avez pour rôle de garantir le bon fonctionnement, la disponibilité et assurez le suivi des évolutions des infrastructures systèmes Unix. Vos missions principales sont les suivantes : - Participer aux projets d'évolution technique et applicatif puis assurer le suivi de leur mise en oeuvre. - Assurer les opérations quotidiennes d'administration système sur tout le parc SUN - Mettre en oeuvre les process définis dans tous les domaines (changements, incidents, ...), - Participer aux escalades techniques, - Participer aux plans des moyens, - Assurer le suivi des documentations d'infrastructure. - Analyser et suivre les performances De formation bac+4 en informatique, vous justifiez d'une expérience de 3 ans minimum sur un environnement similaire. Vous maitrisez l'environnement technique suivant : Serveurs de toute la gamme SUN avec une activité principale sur les serveurs high-end (SF4800, SF6800, SF15K, SF25K) Les fonctionnalités associées (Dynamic Reconfiguration, SRM) Les produits SYMANTEC (VxVM, VxFS ) et la haute disponibilité : Cluster SUN et Veritas Cluster Server Vous connaissez SAN et stockage EMC2 Vous faites preuve d'autonomie et êtes force de proposition sur les solutions techniques. Vous possédez un excellent relationnel.

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Guardian Daily podcast: Britain’s hidden child abuse; plus MPs to clash over Green arrest

alphaB-Crystallin: A Hybrid Solid-State/Solution-State NMR Investigation Reveals Structural Aspects of the Heterogeneous Oligomer.

Journal of Molecular Biology

- 1 days and 15 hours ago

Publication Date: 2008 Nov 14 PMID: 19041879br/Authors: Jehle, S. - van Rossum, B. - Stout, J. R. - Noguchi, S. R. - Falber, K. - Rehbein, K. - Oschkinat, H. - Klevit, R. E. - Rajagopal, P.br/Journal: J Mol Biolbr/br/Atomic-level structural information on alphaB-crystallin (alphaB), a prominent member of the small heat shock protein family, has been a challenge to obtain due its polydisperse oligomeric nature. We show that magic-angle spinning solid-state NMR can be used to obtain high-resolution information on an approximately 580-kDa human alphaB assembled from 175-residue 20-kDa subunits. An approximately 100-residue alpha-crystallin domain is common to all small heat shock proteins, and solution-state NMR was performed on two different alpha-crystallin domain constructs isolated from alphaB. In vitro, the chaperone-like activities of full-length alphaB and the isolated alpha-crystallin domain are identical. Chemical shifts of the backbone and C(beta) resonances have been obtained for residues 64-162 (alpha-crystallin domain plus part of the C-terminus) in alphaB and the isolated alpha-crystallin domain by solid-state and solution-state NMR, respectively. Both sets of data strongly predict six beta-strands in the alpha-crystallin domain. A majority of residues in the alpha-crystallin domain have similar chemical shifts in both solid state and solution state, indicating similar structures for the domain in its isolated and oligomeric forms. Sites of intersubunit interaction are identified from chemical shift differences that cluster to specific regions of the alpha-crystallin domain. Multiple signals are observed for the resonances of M68 in the oligomer, identifying the region containing this residue as existing in heterogeneous environments within alphaB. Evidence for a novel dimerization motif in the human alpha-crystallin domain is obtained by a comparison of (i) solid-state and solution-state chemical shift data and (ii) (1)H-(15)N heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectra as a function of pH. The isolated alpha-crystallin domain undergoes a dimer-monomer transition over the pH range 7.5-6.8. This steep pH-dependent switch may be important for alphaB to function optimally (e.g., to preserve the filament integrity of cardiac muscle proteins such as actin and desmin during cardiac ischemia, which is accompanied by acidosis).br/br/post to: a href = http://www.citeulike.org/posturl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fentrez%2Fquery.fcgi%3Fcmd%3DRetrieve%26db%3DPubMed%26dopt%3DAbstract%26list_uids%3D19041879title=Entrez+PubmedCiteULike/a

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Cluster bomb treaty to be signed

Forty years on, Laos reaps bitter harvest of the secret war

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 21 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/43908?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Forty+years+on%2C+Laos+reaps+bitter+harvest+of+the+secret+warch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=World+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+MacKinnonc7=2008_12_03c8=1127780c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=c13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2F" width="1" height="1" //divpThe entrance to Craters restaurant is guarded by a phalanx of bombshells, each as big as a man. Opposite, the Dokkhoune hotel boasts an even finer warhead collection. For tourists who have not cottoned on, the Lao town of Phonsavanh lies at the heart of the most cluster-bombed province of the most bombed country on earth./ppThe haul of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is just a taster of that littering the countryside, or sitting in vast piles around homes and scrapyards. The deadly harvest from the US bombing of this landlocked country 30 years ago in the so-called "secret war" as the real battle raged in next-door Vietnam has become big business. Steel prices that surged on the back of soaring demand from China's go-go economy drove up scrap prices five-fold in eight years in impoverished Laos. It sent subsistence rice farmers, struggling make to ends meet amid spiralling food and fuel prices, scurrying into their fields in search of the new "cash crop"./ppBut it comes at a high price. At least 13,000 people have been killed or maimed, either digging in fields contaminated with live bombs or, increasingly, in their quest for lucrative scrap metal. Half the casualties are young boys, most killed by exploding tennis-ball-sized cluster bomblets - christened "bombies" locally - that are everywhere./ppThe scale of the contamination is mind-boggling. Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bomb-load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the second world war. Of the 260m "bombies" that rained down, particularly on Xieng Khouang province, 80m failed to explode, leaving a deadly legacy./ppOverwhelmed by the immensity of the clear-up, Laos - which has dealt with just 400,000 unexploded munitions - had resisted the signing today in Oslo of a treaty banning cluster bombs and demanding that remnants be cleared within 10 years. But the country has had a rethink and will now be a key player in the ceremony./ppFor Laos it could be a godsend, focusing world attention on its plight and bringing international resources to tackle the problem. With 37% of agricultural ground made unsafe by unexploded munitions in a nation where four-fifths of people farm the land, the scourge has stifled development./ppYet farmers eking out a living below the dollar-a-day poverty line have no choice. Bombs unearthed as they gingerly peck at the soil are planted around, or moved to the side of the field./pp"In the end the Lao people regard lack of food as much greater threat than unexploded bombs," said David Hayter, the Lao country director of British-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG). "It's just that each UXO death is marked by a big bang, but deaths from lack of food or poor water are less noticeable."/ppFatalistic acceptance of the danger is fostered by familiarity. Bomb remains are fashioned into everyday items: cluster-bomb casings become fencing; houses perch on stilts crafted from 500lb bombs; mortars with fins are used as table lamps. "People's familiarity is the most striking thing for me," said Jo Pereira, an occupational therapist with the Lao charity Cope, which fits UXO victims with prosthetic limbs. "They've lived with it for so long. Much of it is in their houses. Children think 'we've got those at home' and don't see the risks."/ppSo when scrap metal prices rocketed many saw it as a heaven-sent opportunity to boost meagre incomes. For those unable to grow enough rice to feed their families throughout the year, there is little choice but to collect UXO scrap despite the dangers./pp"People have lived with this for two generations," said Gregory Cathcart, an MAG programme officer. "They don't view it as risky. It's simply a cash crop. The problem is the main scrap on the surface is gone, so they've to dig it up which is extremely dangerous."/ppCheap Vietnamese metal detectors costing as little as pound;7.36 boost the business. Landless families have turned full-time scrap collectors, earning up to pound;2.70 a day if they unearth six or seven kilos. Stumble on half a cluster bomb casing of "best Detroit steel" and they hit pay-dirt, worth pound;20 to pound;27./ppNo such luck for Sher Ya, 25. He plonks a plastic bag of bullet casings on the scrap dealer's scales and anxiously eyes the needle. His teenage brother dredged the shells from their village rice field. It earns a welcome 40p. "My family grows only enough rice for six months," he said. "So when we're not planting or harvesting we collect bomb scraps. It's scary, but we've no choice."/ppThe trade is so lucrative that scrap dealers ferry collectors by truck to virgin forests every day. Sypha Phommachan, 45, need not to go to such lengths. Farmers around Thajok village beat a path to the scrap dealer's door. A pile of fragments, casings, and mortars is all she had left after the foundry took away nearly eight tonnes a few days before./pp"That took me about three weeks to collect," she said. "That's quite slow because it's the rice harvest season and people are busy farming. In a couple of months they'll be out furiously collecting to raise cash for the Hmong festival." Yet she carefully inspects the bomb harvest, rejecting live munitions. She knows the risks. In the six years she has lived in the village, 10 people have been killed collecting scrap. One 50-year-old man died three months ago when he tossed half a "bombie" he believed safe into the wicker basket on his back. It exploded and the ball-bearings it threw out went clean through his chest, killing him instantly./ppToday's treaty banning the stockpile and use of cluster munitions is due to be signed by 107 countries - including the UK, which has been the third biggest user. Those holding out include the US, China, Russia and Israel. /ppBut Richard Moyes, co-chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, is confident that the convention will change the climate. "We sense we'll see a dramatic decline in cluster munitions use even among states that don't sign."/pa href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0isZpde_2gKB0VQVLsihe6OOssY/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0isZpde_2gKB0VQVLsihe6OOssY/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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100 countries join clamour for global bomb ban on cluster bombs

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 21 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/11618?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+100+countries+join+clamour+for+global+ban+on+cluster+bombsch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=World+news%2CIsrael+and+the+Palestinian+territories+%28News%29%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CDefence+policy%2CUK+news%2CPoliticsc5=Policy+Society%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Richard+Norton-Taylorc7=2008_12_03c8=1127765c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Israel+and+the+Palestinian+territoriesc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FIsrael+and+the+Palestinian+territories" width="1" height="1" //divpMore than 100 governments, with some notable exceptions, will sign an international convention today banning the production of cluster bombs whose unexploded canisters have killed and maimed thousands of innocent civilians and are dangerously scattered over more than 20 countries./ppThe convention is enthusiastically welcomed today by the Red Cross, and on the Guardian's website by David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his German counterpart. The weapons had "rendered huge tracts of land unusable, cutting farmers off from their crops and visiting further suffering on families forced to risk their lives simply to pursue their livelihoods", said Matthias Schmale, international director of the British Red Cross./ppMiliband and Steinmeier said their goal was a "truly global treaty on cluster munitions". They noted that "many of the major users, producers and stockpilers of cluster munitions" had not yet agreed to sign it. These countries include the US, China, Russia, India and Pakistan as well as Israel, which fired many cluster bombs during the 2006 Lebanon war. /ppUp to 1m devices failed to explode during the 34-day conflict and this summer more than 40.6m square metres were identified as still being contaminated, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). More than 200 civilians died in the year after the Lebanon ceasefire. Cluster bombs also caused more civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003 and Kosovo in 1999 than any other weapon system./ppAt least 75 countries currently stockpile cluster munitions. More than 30 have produced the weapons. Unexploded cluster bombs have also killed civilians in Afghanistan, Chad, Eritrea, Chechnya, Sierra Leone and Vietnam./ppDespite initial misgivings within the military, Britain, which fired Israeli-made cluster bombs in its attack on Basra in 2003 and had been the third biggest user of cluster bombs after the US and Israel, has agreed to get rid of its stockpiles of land-fired and air-launched cluster weapons. British diplomats are trying to persuade the US to get rid of stockpiles at its bases in the UK, officials said yesterday./ppToday's convention excludes weapons which fire fewer than 10 explosive submunitions designed to locate a "single target". /ppOne of the most difficult issues during the negotiations in Dublin this summer leading to the convention was whether troops from countries who signed up to it would be criminally liable if engaged in joint operations with countries which had not signed such as the US for example . The text does not prohibit such "military cooperation". But British forces, like those from any other country which had signed the convention, would be required to discourage the US from using the weapons, and not stockpile them./ppThe convention will become part of international humanitarian law once 30 countries have ratified it./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israelandthepalestinians"Israel and the Palestinian territories/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast"Middle East/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/defence"Defence policy/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/R3nv3_x62cIa5bTp6V3FS6YzOu4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/R3nv3_x62cIa5bTp6V3FS6YzOu4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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