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AFP: Russia to boost Obama with nuclear treaty: report
Moscow and Washington want to reach a deal on a key nuclear disarmament treaty before US President Barack Obama receives his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying Friday.
The source, quoted in the Kommersant daily, said the Obama administration wanted to sign an agreement on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) before the Nobel ceremony and that Moscow was willing to oblige.
"On December 10 the ceremony for awarding Nobel laureates will take place... Our partners want the document to be signed before the Nobel Peace Prize is given to Barack Obama," the Kremlin source was quoted as saying.
Germany to U.S.: Take Away Your Nukes! - TIME
Germany's new coalition government put the finishing touches to its policy program this weekend, promising moderate tax cuts to help support the economy, a reduction in the length of compulsory military service, and the continued operation of the nation's aging nuclear power plants. No big surprises there. But one detail could have interesting international repercussions: the man designated to be foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, is pushing for the U.S. to remove its remaining nuclear weapons from German soil.
It’s Not Iran, Stupid by Gordon Prather -- Antiwar.com
President Obama sent a message, via Energy Department Secretary Steven Chu, to the September meeting of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, reaffirming the commitments he made, to seek "a world without nuclear weapons," in his "electrifying" speech in Prague and in his United Nations Security Council Resolution 1887.
In making their decision to award Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee "attached special importance to Obama’s vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons."
BBC NEWS | Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Committee said he won it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".
The committee highlighted Mr Obama's efforts to support international bodies and promote nuclear disarmament.
Mr Obama - woken up with the news early on Friday - said in an address at the White House that he was "surprised and deeply humbled" by the award.
He said he did not feel he deserved to be in the company of some of the "transformative figures" who had previously received the award.
Speaking outside the White House, he said he would accept the prize as a "call to action".
U.N. chief, Gorbachev call for end to nuclear arms | Reuters
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for world leaders to display political will to work toward genuine reductions and an eventual ban of nuclear weapons.
Addressing the same forum at the U.N.'s European headquarters, former president of the old Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev echoed the plea, declaring: "Nuclear weapons must be destroyed. We must rid ourselves of this threat."
"The greatest challenge in nuclear disarmament has always been the task of bridging the gap between words and deeds," declared Ban, speaking in the wake of a U.N. Security Council call last month calling for scrapping nuclear arsenals.
AFP: Obama to push nuclear-free world at Security Council
US President Barack Obama will on Thursday chair an unprecedented summit at the UN Security Council to rally world support for nuclear non-proliferation and advance nuclear disarmament.
The talks come as Iran's suspect energy program has once again been thrust into the spotlight, with world powers warning more sanctions could follow if Tehran refuses to comply with UN demands to rein in its nuclear ambitions.
The summit will be the first time the 15-member council will be chaired by an American president, with Obama having set combating nuclear proliferation as a priority of his new administration.
Associated Press: US rejoins nuke-test treaty session 10 years later
After a 10-year gap, the United States on Thursday rejoined a biannual conference designed to win more support — including from the U.S. Senate — for the treaty banning all nuclear bomb tests.
The session brought together foreign ministers and other envoys from more than 100 nations that have ratified or at least signed the 1996 treaty. A speech by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton scheduled for later Thursday represented the first U.S. participation since 1999.
The pact has lingered in a diplomatic limbo since a Republican-dominated Senate rejected it that year, but U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to now "aggressively" pursue ratification.
The Associated Press: Key elements in UN nuclear resolution
Key elements in the resolution adopted unanimously Thursday by the U.N. Security Council:
NUCLEAR-FREE
Resolved "to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons."
COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY
Urged all states to ratify the treaty, which outlaws all nuclear tests everywhere. Lack of ratification by a handful of nations, including the U.S., has kept the treaty from entering into force.
FISSILE MATERIAL CUTOFF TREATY
Called for negotiation of a treaty that would ban production of fissile material used for nuclear weapons.
STRENGTHENING NONPROLIFERATION TREATY
President Obama's remarks to UN Security Council | knoxnews.com
Here's an excerpt from President Obama's opening remarks today at the United Nations Security Council summit on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.
"Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city -- be it New York or Moscow; Tokyo or Beijing; London or Paris -- could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies, and our very way of life."
Here's a link to news report from New York Times and below is the full text of Obama prepared remarks:
The Associated Press: US faces UN pressure on nuclear test-ban treaty
This time around, U.S. Senate skeptics who killed the nuclear test-ban treaty a decade ago must take into account a new, $1-billion verification network underpinning the pact, the treaty chief said Wednesday.
In 1999, "the system was a blueprint," Tibor Toth said of the high-tech web of stations on alert for nuclear bomb tests. Now "I could call it a `verification Manhattan Project," he said, referring to the all-out U.S. program that built the first bombs in the 1940s.
Toth, who heads the U.N.-affiliated Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, spoke with The Associated Press on the eve of a conference of some 150 nations convened every other year to urge those that have not ratified the treaty, including the United States, to do so.
The two-day session will be held in parallel Thursday with a summit of the 15 U.N. Security Council members on the subject of nuclear nonproliferation, presided over by U.S. President Barack Obama.
BBC NEWS | Obama shelves Europe missile plan
US President Barack Obama has shelved plans for controversial bases in Poland and the Czech Republic in a major overhaul of missile defence in Europe.
The bases are to be scrapped after a review of the threat from Iran.
Mr Obama said there would be a "proven, cost-effective" system using land- and sea-based interceptors against Iran's short- and medium-range missile threat.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed the US decision, calling it a "responsible move".
The Associated Press: Washington talking about ban on nuclear blasts
A U.S. official says dialogue about a global ban on nuclear blasts is under way in Washington.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty outlawing all nuclear explosions will only enter into force once adopted by the 44 states that participated in a 1996 disarmament conference and possessed nuclear power or research reactors at the time. So far 35 have ratified the document, excluding the United States.
The U.S. Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino said Tuesday: "everyone is talking about what it takes" but acknowledged opinions were split.
Other holdouts include China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan.
On the Net:
* http://www.ctbto.org/
Churches back nuclear-free Africa | Ekklesia
Following recent action by Africa, a majority of the world's countries have now banned nuclear weapons from their national territory for the first time. The change happened when an all-Africa treaty entered into force in July. International civil society organizations including the World Council of Churches (WCC) played a catalytic role.
Taking a shared approach to a safer world, Africa became a nuclear-weapon-free zone when Burundi recently became the 28th state to ratify the Treaty of Pelindaba. A WCC delegation visited the central African country in March 2009 to encourage the step. The addition of 54 countries in Africa means that 116 nations are now within treaty zones banning nuclear weapons.
The WCC Central Committee has saluted Africa's new nuclear-free status in a September 2009 statement and invites further church support for such actions. The committee has also urged Russia and the United States "to join China, Britain and France in ratifying the treaty protocols that give Africa added protection" from nuclear attacks.
nrc.nl - Labour party wants US nuclear weapons removed from Dutch soil
Labour in the Dutch parliament wants the US to remove its nuclear weapons from the Netherlands. The presence of American nuclear arsenal at the Volkel airfield has never been officially admitted.
A Dutch poster from the 1970s protested the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.
A Dutch poster from the 1970s protested the deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.
Labour member of parliament Martijn van Dam on Thursday asked defence minister Maxime Verhagen, a Christian democrat, to officially call on Washington to remove its nuclear weapons from Dutch soil.
Labour and the Christian democrats are coalition partners in the Dutch government, but Verhagen told parliament that he is not keen on following up on Van Dam's request. Verhagen said he opposes unilateral nuclear disarmament as long as international disarmament talks between the big powers are still ongoing.
UN Secretary General calls for more nuclear free zones_English_Xinhua
Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, on Wednesday called for more nuclear free zones, modeled on the Latin America wide area created in Mexico in the late 1960s, at the opening session of a disarmament conference here.
"We are hoping to see progress on this topic, especially in the Middle East," Ban told the opening session of the 62nd United Nations conference on disarmament which began on Wednesday in Mexico City.
He praise Central Asian nations for putting such a zone in place in 2006, and Latin America for pioneering the trend with the Tlalteloco agreement, signed in Mexico City in 1967.
AFP: Obama provides hope for nuclear test ban treaty: UN monitors
A new era of US diplomacy under Barack Obama is providing fresh momentum for a global ban on nuclear tests, monitors in a UN-backed group said Tuesday.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), drawn up in 1996, has been signed by 181 countries and ratified by 149. But it needs to be ratified by nine others, including China and the United States, before coming into force.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) said recent positive signals from the Obama administration will persuade other countries to ratify. A conference is being held in New York this month to speed up the process.
2009 Hiroshima peace ceremony a missed chance for world's nuclear powers to come together - The Mainichi Daily News
When the Israeli ambassador to Japan attended the peace memorial ceremony in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, the United States, Britain and France became the only nuclear powers never to have participated in the annual event marking the atomic bombing of the city.
The city of Hiroshima has issued invitations to the peace ceremony to the world's nuclear powers every year since 1998. In the first year, India and Pakistan sent their ambassadors to the ceremony, followed by the Russian ambassador in 2000 and a Chinese consul in 2008. However, the U.S., France and Britain have never dispatched a representative to the solemn occasion.
ORNL workers fight nuclear proliferation - Oak Ridge, TN - The Oak Ridger
If set off in a place like New York City, a nuclear bomb could "totally disrupt" the United States' economy and society, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory director said.
Local employees are working to try to prevent that from happening, said Larry Satkowiak, ORNL director of global security and nonproliferation programs.
He said about 150 Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees are involved in a variety of efforts designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, including inspections, international negotiations and export controls, and removal of hazardous equipment and materials from countries like Libya and Iraq.
Japan ready for 'no nukes' | The Japan Times Online
As the Obama administration contemplates major reductions to its nuclear arsenal, Japan's commitment to nuclear disarmament is being tested as never before.
In his Prague speech on April 5, President Barack Obama said, "We will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others to do the same." He went on to say, "we will begin the work of reducing our arsenal."
But in between these two landmark pledges he said, "as long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies."
Africa Renounces Nukes
Treaty's Entry Into Force Makes Entire Southern Hemisphere Free of Nuclear Weapons
Over the last 13 years, all 53 African nations have signed the Treaty of Pelindaba.
A Treaty making Africa into a zone free of nuclear weapons entered into force on 15 July 2009, in turn expanding the nuclear-weapon free territories to cover the entire Southern hemisphere. The Treaty of Pelindaba entered into force when Burundi deposited its instrument of ratification, becoming the 28th nation to do so. Over the last 13 years, all 53 African nations have signed the Treaty of Pelindaba.
The IAEA has issued the following statement:
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