President Obama is being urged by the US Senate to sign an international treaty banning land mines. Sixty-eight senators have signed a letter asking Obama to support a comprehensive review of the nation’s policy on land mines. Senator Patrick Leahy said, “We want to show we have enough people to ratify a treaty. I think there’s an excellent opportunity that we’ll finally do it.” In November, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that the Obama administration had decided against signing the treaty.

Ian Kelly: “We made our policy review, and we determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies, if we sign this.”