We write to pass on the sad news of the death of Dr. Jean-Louis Valatx, honorary president of the Association des Vétérans des Essais Nucléaires (AVEN) - the French association of nuclear test veterans.

The international community must wake up to the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the Australian chairman of a new disarmament body says.

"The scale of the havoc and the devastation that can be wreaked by one major nuclear weapon alone puts 9/11 and almost everything else into the category of insignificance." - Gareth Evans.