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Barack Obama is on a mission to reset relations between the US and Russia with nuclear reduction at the cornerstone of his plan. US arms control experts predict the two sides could aim to reduce their arsenals to 1,500 nuclear warheads apiece. Mr Obama's plans continue what the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty began in 1991. It was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. In a rare interview with Sky News, the former Soviet Leader insisted further nuclear reduction is vital. He said: "If we don't get rid of nuclear weapons the 40 countries that are not members of the...

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday formally nominated Ellen Tauscher, a seven-term member of Congress who is considered an expert on defense, as his top arms control official. Tauscher, who represents a California district, has a record of introducing arms control and counter proliferation legislation and has campaigned for greater oversight of the US Missile Defense Agency. She said in a statement in March, after details of her impending appointment emerged, that she

Legislation against selling, making, hiring or importing samurai swords in England and Wales has come into force. Those breaking the law face six months in jail and a £5,000 fine. Carrying a sword in public is already illegal. Exemptions will cover swords which are used for re-enactments or antique weapons kept on display by collectors. Eight years ago a councillor was killed by a man wielding a samurai sword in the office of Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones. Anyone found guilty of importing samurai swords will face up to seven years in prison and an unlimited fine. ... Currently...

This is a bit dated, but then, I had no idea... Did you realize that Albania is the first country to destroy its entire chemical weapons stockpile (18 tons!)?

MOSCOW—Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in a key European arms control treaty, the Kremlin said Saturday. The Kremlin said in a statement the need to pull out of Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty was linked to "extraordinary circumstances ... which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures." The treaty is seen as a key element in maintaining stability in Europe. It establishes limitations on countries' deployment of tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, attack helicopters and combat aircraft.

The futility of arms control -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 10, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Vox Day -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com The first ordinance bearing on military matters in the Capitularies of Charles the Great is one showing his anxiety to keep as much armour as possible within the realm. In 779 he orders that no merchant shall dare to export byrnies from the realm. This order was repeated again and again in later years, in the Capitula Minora, cap. 7, and again in the Aachen Capitulary of 805; the trade in arms with the Wends and Avars is especially denounced...

* Bush calls for promoting use of nuclear power both at home and abroad WASHINGTON: The United States is seeking to build an international coalition of nuclear powers to provide safe fuel and stop sensitive technology reaching rogue states, officials said. Robert Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said the programme aims to “prevent future Iran” - a reference to the increasingly tense standoff over suspicions that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. The United States wants to stop “countries which seek to acquire sensitive technology associated with enrichment and reprocessing with real purposes...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear arms control treaty Sunday and urged a peaceful solution to the international crisis over concerns it is seeking to develop atomic weapons, a day after its hard-line president issued a veiled threat to withdraw from the pact. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, began a mission to Iran to learn just what controls remain on nuclear sites and equipment after Tehran ended all but minimum cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. In Vienna, Austria, a diplomat told The Associated Press Saturday that some International Atomic Energy Agency...

WASHINGTON - State Department officials appointed by President Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less-experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties. The reorganization of the department's arms control and international security bureaus was intended to help it better deal with 21st-century threats. Instead, the maneuver has thrown the agency into turmoil and produced an exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters, according to 11 current and former officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.The reorganization was conducted largely...

Michèle Alliot-Marie, the French defence minister, has argued that sales of weapons technologies to China could slow Beijing's push to develop its own capabilities, which was part of the reason why her country backed lifting a European Union arms embargo on China. Although Ms Alliot-Marie insisted France had strict export regimes that would prevent most lethal technologies getting into China's hands, she said in an interview with the Financial Times that Beijing was likely to have advanced arms in five years with or without western help. "The lifting of the embargo could be a better protection for us than maintaining...

The Bush administration will work closely with Tokyo in trying to rein in the arms trade with China, a senior U.S. State Department official said Monday. Specifically, Washington is keen on persuading countries that have a policy of not selling arms to Beijing to continue doing so, said visiting U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton. In a lecture in Tokyo, he expressed concern about countries that want to sell arms to Beijing and cited Israel and Russia as providing weapons technology to China. Bolton also expressed concern at moves within the European Union to review its arms embargo against China,...

Arms control activists urged U.N. treaty writers on Monday to approve a system for tracking small arms sales around the world, saying it was easier to track lost airline luggage than a machine gun. Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms called for a legally binding global marking and tracing treaty covering small arms and ammunition at the start of a two-week U.N. conference weighing how to deal with the problem. "A piece of lost luggage can be traced from San Francisco to Sierra Leone within hours, yet deadly weapons disappear without trace on a...

Shortly after the terrorist attacks, the Bush administration lifted those sanctions on Pakistan and India that had been imposed after both countries tested nuclear weapons. Additional sanctions remained in place for Pakistan, as well as other countries the Bush Administration wanted to coax into playing a key role in the anti-terrorism coalition. The administration therefore included in a draft anti-terrorism bill sent to Congress a provision that would have lifted all restrictions on military aid and arms transfers for the next five years in cases where doing so would help fight terrorism or other threats to international peace and security....

KRAKOW, Poland (AFP) - Up to 80 nations gathered in southern Poland to mark the first anniversary of a Washington-sponsored pact aimed at stemming the spread of weapons of massive destruction, hailing Russia's decision to come aboard. John Bolton, US under secretary of state for arms control, described Russia's announcement earlier Monday that it would sign up to the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) as a "major development", which should close off valuable lanes to traffickers of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). "This is a major development, a very welcome decision," Bolton told a news conference, after Russia's foreign ministry announced...

George W. Bush: Man of the year Posted: December 31, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc. As Person of the Year, 2003, Time has chosen the American Soldier, a decision with which no patriot will quarrel. Whatever one believed about the necessity, wisdom or justice of the Iraq war, the American soldier did his duty and did it admirably well. But if the old standards had prevailed at Time – What man had the greatest impact on world affairs, for good or ill, in 2003? – the Man of the Year would have to have been George...

The American-led invasion of Iraq was justified in part because Saddam Hussein retained scientists capable of building nuclear weapons,Washington’s top arms control official said yesterday. In an interview with the Associated Press, John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, said that whether Saddam’s regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction “isn’t really the issue.” “The issue I think has been the capability that Iraq sought to have... WMD programs,” Mr. Bolton said at the American Embassy in Paris. Mr. Bolton said that Saddam kept “a coterie” of scientists he was preserving for the day when he could build nuclear...

Pizza Manager Arrested For Waving At Cars POSTED: 6:57 p.m. EDT July 5, 2003 RICHMOND, Mich. -- A Little Caesar's pizza parlor manager was arrested outside his store. Richmond Police took Kevin Briggs into custody after he refused to stop carrying a sign and waving at passing vehicles. Police say his version of advertising violates city ordinances. Briggs argues he has a constitutional right to wave as much as he wants. Briggs is out on bond. He's due in court on July 14.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States reserves the right to take military action to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, a leading member of President Bush's administration said on Friday. "It has to be an option," John Bolton, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, told BBC radio when pressed on the issue. But he stressed that it was one among an array of possibilities and relatively low down the agenda. "The president has repeatedly said that all options are on the table, but that is not only not our preference it is far, far from our...

13 February 2003 U.S. Committed to Multilateralism, Rademaker Says(Rademaker addresses Conference on Disarmament in Geneva) (4120) The United States is "profoundly multilateralist," and in a number of recent instances "we have chosen to provide the leadership -- the backbone -- required for multilateralism to succeed," a key State Department official says. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker told the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva February 13 that the United States has "stayed the multilateral course" over the last three months "even as Iraq has attempted to pick and choose the terms of its compliance (with U.N....

The White House tried to increase support for its policy on Iraq yesterday, releasing a detailed report outlining the various ways Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has failed to remove weapons of mass destruction from his country (see GSN, Jan. 23). The eight-page report, What Does Disarmament Look Like?, contrasts the disarmament of Iraq with the successful disarmament of other countries. The report also presents a detailed outline of Iraq’s efforts to hinder inspections and of discrepancies in the declaration Iraq submitted to the U.N. Security Council in December. To contrast Iraq’s failure to peacefully disarm, the report describes the successful...