Overview of nuclear weapons in Europe:

• http://www.abolition2000europe.org/map/ (nice map but a little bit outdated)
• http://mcmilitary.org/en/nuclear_weapons_and_missile_defense (updated for nuclear weapons, missile defense will follow later)

Background report from 2005: http://nukestrat.com/us/afn/nato.htm
This report does not contain the latest withdrawals from Lakenheath and Ramstein, but the author follows the subject very closely through his blog at FAS: http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/

On Monday 15 February, at the Big Blockade of the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, one of the seven gates was blockaded by uniquely by women. A planning group of around ten women had got together to organize the ‘women’s gate’. They were members of the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Campaign, the London group of Women in Black against War, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the electronic network Women against NATO, the London Feminist Network, and other groups.

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House were shocked and angered by the decision of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to settle with BAE Systems. As a result of the settlement there will be no opportunity to discover the truth behind alleged bribery and corruption in the many BAE deals that were under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

London-listed Vedanta Resources came under further pressure over ethics as Britain's Church of England said it was selling all its shares in the company, worth around £3.8 million.

“We are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect of companies in whom the Church investing bodies hold shares,” said Mr John Reynolds, the chairman of the Church's Economic Investment Advisory Group, which acts as the main advisor to the Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board.

On 7th February 2010, 8 peace activists entered the Brussels Holiday Fair and impersonated flight attendants of the Israeli airline company El Al. They handed out fake free plane tickets to Israel, which referred to the fact that El Al contributes to the transport of arms to the country. Their theatrical intervention didn't go down well with the Israeli security agents who were observing the Fair.

Between the 22 -25 of January 2005, WRI held its international conference in Ahmedabad, India. One of the main topics of the conference was the issue of war profiteering, with a special relation to its impact to the livelihoods of local communities. Here we report on some of the workshops on this topic.

Transnational campaigning against war profiteering – making links with the arms trade movement (ENAAT) and the local communities

Facilitator: Wendela de Vries

Talk at the international seminar in Milton Keynes, 12-13 February 2010.

Cynthia Cockburn