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Ollie Pile, an operations manager with de-mining charity The Halo Trust, left, and one of his local deminers, David Japaridze, excavate an unexploded ordinance, which was used in August during fighting between Russia and Georgia, in the Georgian village of Akhaldaba, on Oct. 31
OSLO, Norway - Nations began signing a treaty banning cluster bombs Wednesday in a move that supporters hope will shame the U.S., Russia and China and other non-signers into abandoning weapons blamed for maiming and killing civilians.
Norway, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18 months ago, was to be first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit by the weapons.
Organizers said 88 countries were expected to sign on Wednesday and around 100 out of the world's 192 U.N. member nations will have signed by Thursday.
Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles that scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors.
"Banning cluster bombs took too long. Too many people lost arms and legs," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said as he opened the conference.
U.S., Russia claim legitimate uses
Washington, Moscow and other non-signers say cluster bombs have legitimate military uses such as repelling advancing troop columns. But according to the group Handicap International, 98 percent of cluster-bomb victims are civilians, and 27 percent are children.
The Bush administration has said that a comprehensive ban would hurt world security and endanger U.S. military cooperation on humanitarian work with countries that sign the accord.
Activists said ahead of the signing that they hope the treaty will nonetheless shame non-signers into shelving the weapons, as many did with land mines after a 1997 treaty banning them.
"Once you get half the world on board, its hard to ignore a ban," said Australian anti-cluster bomb campaigner Daniel Barty. "One of the things that really worked well with the land-mine treaty was stigmatization. No one really uses land mines," he said.
Children, elderly 'victimized'
The anti-cluster bomb campaign gathered momentum after Israel's month-long war against Hezbollah in 2006, when it scattered up to 4 million bomblets across Lebanon, according to U.N. figures.
"In southern Lebanon, for more than two years, children and the elderly have been victimized (by cluster munitions)," Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Saloukh said.
Norway called a conference to ban cluster bombs in February 2007. In May, more than 100 countries agreed to ban cluster bombs within eight years.
The treaty must be ratified by 30 countries before it takes effect.
"I think it's awesome that 100 countries are coming to Oslo to sign (the new cluster bomb treaty)," said American Jody Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to ban land mines.
Associated Press
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Gordon Brown has presented a slimmed-down legislative programme for the coming year in a Queen's Speech focusing tightly on measures to help Britain through the economic downturn.
The programme for the Prime Minister's last full year before a general election includes 13 new Bills, along with a Constitutional Renewal Bill which will be introduced "when time allows".
The package's centrepiece is a Banking Bill designed to enhance financial stability through measures to reduce the likelihood of banks getting into difficulty, improve the tools available to the authorities when they do and strengthen protection for depositors if they fail.
In an address prepared for her by the Government, the Queen told MPs and peers that ministers' "overriding priority" in the new parliamentary session will be "to ensure the stability of the British economy through the global economic downturn". And she added: "My Government is committed to helping families and businesses through difficult times."
The programme represents a scaling back of the draft legislative programme set out by the Prime Minister in May, with less urgent bills dropped or merged to allow ministers more time to address the UK's economic difficulties.
Most notable absence from the May list is a Communications Data Bill which would have paved the way for a national database of phone calls and emails, but has been postponed by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
The programme includes measures to give local councils greater decision-making power and new means to promote the economy of their area, as well as a legal duty for them to respond to petitions from the public.
The construction sector, which has been one of the main victims of the recession, is to be helped with new measures to provide a "fairer" system of commercial contracts and more cash flow.
A Welfare Reform Bill will introduce new requirements for disabled people and single parents to seek work, with the aim to cut Incapacity Benefit claimants by one million, help 300,000 lone parents and one million older people into work and achieve an all-time high employment rate of 80%.
The Bill will also abolish Income Support in favour of a new streamlined system of out-of-work benefits. A Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill will place new responsibilities on migrants wishing to settle in the UK, slowing down the path to citizenship if they commit crimes or fail to integrate. It will also bring Customs functions under the UK Borders Agency, providing an "integrated approach to border control".
-Nova
Gordon Brown has moved to stem growing repossessions with a £1 billion package to allow struggling homeowners to defer mortgage payments for up to two years.
Eight major lenders, accounting for about 70% of the UK mortgage market, have signed up to the plan to help those hit by a sudden drop in the family finances.
Targeted at middle earners as part of wider Government efforts to shore up confidence in the economy, it will be available on mortgages worth up to about £400,000.
The move was announced to the Commons by the Prime Minister in addition to an economy-focused legislative programme set out in the Queen's Speech.
The mortgage plan will be available from early next year to those hit by a significant and temporary decline in their finances, through redundancy or a shortage of overtime, for example.
Customers of HBOS, Abbey, Nationwide, Lloyds TSB, Northern Rock, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC will be able to negotiate deferrals of their loan interest payments.
The Government hopes more banks will in time join the scheme, under which the Treasury will guarantee all the payments that are deferred.
Officials expect liabilities to reach about £1 billion and losses - through borrowers' ultimate failure to pay - to be about £100 million.
The move is particularly aimed at middle income families. Single earner households with mortgages worth up to £200,000 who lose income already get payments covered.
Mr Brown also announced Government-owned lenders Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley would not begin repossession proceedings until households were six months in arrears.
-Nova
House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin has revealed police did not have a warrant to search Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green's parliamentary office.
Mr Martin told a crowded Commons he "regretted" a "consent form" was signed by Serjeant at Arms Jill Pay for the search. "I did not personally authorise the search," he said.
A warrant will always be required in future for police to search MPs' offices, he added.
However, Mr Martin said there was "no special restriction" on the police searching the Parliamentary precincts and added a joint committee on Parliamentary privilege had said in 1999 that the precincts of the House should not be a haven from the law.
The seizure of material belonging to Mr Green will be referred to a committee of seven senior MPs.
Mr Martin's statement came after a furious political row blew up over the arrest of Mr Green and the searching of his offices in relation to a series of Home Office leaks.
Mr Green said after the statement: "Can I make it absolutely clear that I believe Members of Parliament are not above the law? An MP endangering national security would be a disgrace. An MP exposing embarrassing facts about Home Office policy which ministers are hiding is doing a job in the public interest."
A constitutional law expert, Geoffrey Robertson QC, said the search of Mr Green's Parliamentary office was unlawful and added Scotland Yard could now be sued for substantial damages.
Scotland Yard's acting chief Sir Paul Stephenson has defended his officers' actions, saying detectives in any inquiry, no matter how sensitive, must follow the evidence "without fear or favour".
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is expected to make a statement to the Commons tomorrow regarding Mr Green's arrest.
-Nova
Hundreds of businessmen and women have stood in silent solidarity at a candlelit vigil in London to honour those who died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks one week ago.
The one-hour ceremony took place at Canary Wharf as commuters left work, and was intended to show support for India's financial centre in the wake of the massacre.
Among the many people paying tribute to the dead was London-based business man Hiro Harjani whose nephew was in Mumbai visiting relatives at the time of the attacks.
Tragically, Mohit Harjani, 32, who ran a business in Dubai, and his wife Lavina, 28, were having dinner at the ground floor restaurant at the Oberoi Hotel when gunmen burst in and both were killed.
"We need solidarity," said Mr Harjani, 47, who learnt of his family's loss on Friday morning in a phone call from his father.
"We need to get together like this. I'm going to support every event. We need answers. We need the global community to be aware and to take more action. This is not just an India and Pakistan problem, it's a world problem.
"It could spark a third world war." He added: "We have to keep making noises until everyone wakes up."
Also at the vigil, organised by Indian charity SewaVolunteers, was Anwar Hasan, the group representative for Tata Group, which runs the Taj Hotel targeted during the violence.
"In the 60 hours that the terrorist attacks lasted in India, I watched each and every minute of it on television.
"Not being in India, I felt I had to be part of something happening collectively. I thought 'I couldn't sleep if I wasn't part of this candlelit vigil'."
-Nova
Up to six inches of snow is expected to fall in parts of Britain and motorists have been warned to expect hazardous driving conditions.
Snow showers are set to hit the Midlands, northern England and Scotland over the next 24 hours.
Northern Ireland and parts of Wales will also be affected, according to MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association.
A weather system sweeping in from the west will bring up to six inches of snow on higher ground, and between one and two inches in lowland areas.
Widespread frost and below-freezing temperatures will be seen across the country, reaching a low of minus 10C in parts of Scotland.
MeteoGroup forecaster Paul Mott said: "In Scotland and the far north of England the snow will be very slow to melt, lying there for a couple of days at least.
"Driving conditions will be fairly hazardous. There will be a strong to gale-force south-easterly wind, creating the risk of drifts."
Most of southern England will escape the worst of the weather. Some sleet and light snow is possible on higher ground, but is not likely to settle.
It will be a wet start for London and the south of England, with moderate rain and the occasional heavy shower clearing up over the course of the day.
After a chilly start, milder air will come in from the west, lifting temperatures to 3-4C in Scotland and 10C across southern England.
-Nova
Loyalist and republican paramilitaries in Northern Ireland are to get one last chance to hand over their weapons under a Government amnesty.
They will have until St Valentine's Day in February 2010 to decommission without running the risk of being charged.
Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward is seeking parliamentary approval to extend legislation introduced before the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in a bid to persuade all the terrorist organisations to hand over guns and explosives.
The IRA agreed to decommission in September 2005 but all other groups, including the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), have held on to their weaponry.
Under the terms of the 1997 Northern Ireland Decommission Act, guns handed over to General John de Chastelain, the head of the international decommissioning body, would not be subject to forensic testing or criminal proceedings.
But just hours after loyalists were linked to the the discovery of four blast bombs abandoned at a children's play park in south Belfast, the Government signalled its intention to set a date to end the amnesty.
Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said: "We have hit the end of the track for those who still hold illegal weapons. The recent political progress towards devolution of justice and policing is a further clear demonstration that society in Northern Ireland has moved on.
"It is time that those holding illegal weapons moved on as well. They have tested the patience of the community for long enough.
"This is their final opportunity to join the rest of society in building a shared future for Northern Ireland or else face the consequences."
-Nova