Britain, pushed by the US, is trying to insert a massive loophole in the treaty banning cluster weapons. Mark Garlasco reports.

The UK government should abandon its insistence on exempting certain weapons from the new cluster munitions treaty, says Human Rights Watch.

At the end of last year, I was invited to write a guest editorial for the excellent Friends of Lebanon society. F.O.L. is a London based group, without any political or religious affiliation, whose aim is simply to work towards a better and more peaceful Lebanon.

Children are particularly fond of picking them up, writes Johann Hari, since they look like brightly-coloured toys.

Ahead of a conference in Vienna this week, aimed at hammering out a ban on cluster bombs, the government has once again reneged on its commitment to a ban on these weapons that, in the words of Gordon Brown, “cause unacceptable harm to civilians”.