GENEVA: Thirty-one countries still hold stockpiles of cluster munitions despite signing a treaty to ban them, according to a report by anti-arms lobby groups published on Friday. Britain, Germany and the Netherlands hold the largest stocks, said the report by Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action. Britain has 38.7 million sub-munitions, which are used in cluster bombs, Germany holds 33 million and the Netherlands has 26 million, the report said The three count among 96 countries that have inked the Convention on Cluster Munitions since it opened for signing last December. Seven countries have since ratified the treaty, which needs 30 ratifications to come into force. But while the signatory states of the treaty have committed to destroying the stockpiles, other countries holding significant stockpiles have not, according to campaign groups. The biggest volume of 730 million sub-munitions is held by the United States, which has not joined the treaty and is therefore not obliged to eliminate its stock. "The US is out of step with most of its major military allies," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
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