Pakistan opposes cluster bomb ban

OSLO (AFP) - Some 100 nations began putting their names Wednesday to a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs, amid calls for major arms producers such as China, Russia and the United States to join them.
Norway - which played a key role in hammering out the worldwide ban on using, producing, transferring and stockpiling cluster munitions - was the first of 92 countries to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) on Wednesday, with another handful expected on Thursday.
“This is a historic day when a majority of states are committing to ban cluster munitions, making a new international norm that will make a considerable difference for thousands and thousands of people all over the world,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said after signing the treaty.
Laos, the country most affected by cluster bombs, was the second nation to sign Wednesday’s treaty at Oslo city hall.
Between 1964 and 1973, the US Air Force dropped 260 million cluster bombs on Laos, or the equivalent of a fully-loaded B-52 bomber’s payload dropped every eight minutes for nine years.