After sitting down for talks with Russia over the inevitable battle for the vast oil and gas reserves lying under the Arctic Sea, Denmark has concluded that only international law can ultimately resolve the issues of ownership. Five nations lie along the Arctic coastline – Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada, and the US – and all have competing claims to the area. Read the full story

Oslo was the site of a gathering of representatives from more than 120 countries who came to Norway’s capital to sign a landmark treaty banning the use of cluster munitions. That the US, China and Russia were no-shows wasn’t surprising. But Finland’s fierce opposition to the ban caught many nations off guard. Read the full story

Joining a group of 108 other nations, Norway has sent a proposal to its national parliament to destroy all of its existing cluster munitions and ban their future use. It is the end result of an international convention that Norway signed in Dublin earlier in the year, and a move welcomed by peace groups aiming to eliminate one of the cruellest and most undiscriminating weapons in modern warfare.

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