Darmstadt, located close to Frankfurt am Main in Germany, hosts two major European and one US space facilities: the European Space Operation Centre (ESOC), which plans and conducts satellite operations for the European Space Agency; the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), which delivers weather and climate-related satellite data and images; and on the outskirts of the town a US spy station, which is part of the global Echelon surveillance system.

Two days of discussion, strategizing, planning, and protest will inform us all about the increasing role of space in the European Security and Defense Policy, about NATO and European missile defense plans, how these are related to US plans to dominate space in order to control the Earth, and what we can do about it.

More info: Global Network

---

The government has "stack-ed the deck" in favour of an immediate decision to replace the Trident submarine fleet that carries Britain's nuclear deterrent, according to one of the US's most eminent physicists.

Richard Garwin, principal architect of the first US hydrogen bomb design and a long-standing consultant to successive US administrations on security matters, says the decision announced by the government in December to build three or four submarines to replace the existing Vanguard-class ships is "highly premature".

From: Financial Times

 (More)

---

AN SNP-LED Scottish Executive would openly challenge the government's decision to renew Trident by imposing a £1 million toll on every warhead transported in nuclear convoys.

SNP leader Alex Salmond says the levy will be the centrepiece of his attempt to prevent a new generation of nuclear weapons being based on the Clyde.

From: Sunday Herald

 (More)

---

IPPNW Switzerland cordially invite you to attend a symposium, which will take place in the spring of 2007, from March 22nd to 25th on beautiful Monte Verità, above Ascona in the Southern Swiss Canton of Ticino. The general topic will be the „Growing nuclearisation of the world“. Specifically we want to discuss, if the time has come to promote Nuclear Weapon Free Zones in Europe and the Middle East.

More info, programme, registration, etc. on the website: www.ippnw.ch

 (More)

---

We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a larger failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth.

From: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

 (More)

---

 (More)

The US is about to announce the replacement of its submarine-launched nuclear warheads in a move that could shape Britain's planned £25bn upgrade for its Trident force.
Sources say UK scientists from the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston and its sister site at Burghfield may have helped the US to develop its reliable replacement warheads (RRW).

(from: The Herald)

 (More)

---

AN SNP-LED Executive would put itself on a collision course with the UK government by criminalising ministers and civil servants who prepare the groundwork for using nuclear weapons based in Scotland.

Nationalist leader Alex Salmond has said he will back a bill as first minister which would thwart the renewal of the Trident missile system. He believes the measure will help make Holyrood the political centre for ridding Scotland of weapons of mass destruction.

(from: Sunday Herald)

 (More)

---

An update on parliamentary work on nuclear weapons in Belgium.

Compiled by Hans Lammerant

Bombspotting - Vredesactie
www.bombspotting.be - www.vredesactie.be

 (More)

---

Authors :
Henry A. Kissinger, président de la société de consultants Kissinger Associates, secrétaire d'Etat américain de 1973 à 1977 ;
Sam Nunn, ancien président de la commission du Sénat américain chargée des services armés ;
William J. Perry, secrétaire à la défense de 1994 à 1997 ;
George P. Schultz, membre de l'Institut Hoover, secrétaire d'Etat américain de 1982 à 1989.

L’arme nucléaire représente aujourd'hui une menace considérable, mais offre aussi une chance historique. Il revient à la puissance américaine de faire entrer le monde dans une nouvelle ère : celle d'un consensus solide en faveur de la fin du recours mondial à l'arme nucléaire qui permette d'éviter sa prolifération aux mains d'acteurs potentiellement dangereux, pour qu'au bout du compte le nucléaire cesse d'être une menace pour la planète.
 (More)

---

Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Jan 4, 2007. pg. A.15

Nuclear weapons today present tremendous dangers, but also an historic opportunity.
U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage -- to a solid
consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to
preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands, and ultimately ending
them as a threat to the world.

 (More)

---

Leaders of the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church in Scotland have condemned sectarianism in Scotland and Trident renewal in their first ever joint New Year statement.

Leaders of the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church in Scotland have issued their first ever joint New Year statement in which they condemn sectarianism and strongly criticise the government's plans to replace Trident.

by Maria Mackay, Christian Today

 (More)

---