Top Level Group Urges UK Leadership on Multilateral Disarmament

Cross-Party Group Urges End to Nuclear Weapons Threat - The Guardian [link]

• A cross-party group of senior politicans joined former defence chiefs today to promote the cause of nuclear disarmament, an issue they described as critical but too often ignored.
• They launched the Top Level group of parliamentarians, including former foreign and defence secretaries from both main parties.
• Des Browne, a former defence secretary and convener of the group, said it would provide an authoritative voice in support of Barack Obama's appeal for nuclear disarmament. He hoped similar groups would be set up elsewhere around the world. 
• For more information about the Top Level Group, please visit their website.

Congress Pushes Forward with the "Pressure Track" on Iran - Foreign Policy's The Cable [link]

• As the administration still holds out hope for its engagement strategy with Iran, Congress is working furiously to set up a whole host of sanctions bills that could be used by the administration if and when Obama's outstretched hand fails to convince Tehran to unclench its fist.
• Several different Iran sanctions bill are at various stages of the legislative process, but the Senate Banking Committee decided today to approve a bill that collects all of them into one package.
• "The President of the United States has rightly adopted a two-track policy, in my view, of engagement backed by the prospect of further sanctions and I support his approach," said Dodd, "Our legislation strengthens what has come to be known as the ‘pressure track.'"

Germany and NATO's Nuclear Dilemma - FAS Strategic Security Blog [link]

• The new German government has announced that it wants to enter talks with its NATO allies about the withdrawal of the remaining U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany.
• Germany and many other NATO countries apparently don’t want to be protected by U.S. forward-deployed tactical nuclear weapons, which they see as a relic of the Cold War that locks NATO in the past and prevents it’s transition to the future.

Russia to Boost Obama with Nuclear Treaty - AFP [link]

• The [Russian Kommersant Daily] reported that compromises had been reached on two key issues: the limit on the number of "carriers" that can deliver warheads and how the START replacement treaty will address missile defence.
• "Compromise solutions have been found on these parameters of the treaty," Kommersant quoted a source, identified as a participant in Wednesday's talks with Jones, as saying.

Tickling the Dragon: Nuclear Accidents in the US and Russia - Boing Boing [link]

• In May 1946, Slotin, a researcher on the Manhattan Project, became the second person in history to be killed by a criticality accident, the unintentional triggering of a nuclear chain reaction.
• As the cold war neared an end in the 1980s, scientists in the USSR began to share information with their American counterparts, and, for the first time, we learned about the Soviet Slotins. Now, their legacy will shape the way emergency personnel respond to nuclear accidents and terrorism and, hopefully, make it easier to save lives...