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Proposals put forward at the United Nations for a new international agreement regulating the use of cluster bombs have been rejected in a vote in Geneva, from where Imogen Foulkes reports.

Two long weeks of negotiations, but no deal. The United States had argued that its proposal to eliminate all cluster

munitions

produced before 1980 was the last chance to get the world's biggest producers and users - the US, China and Russia - to introduce at least some controls. But 111 UN member states have already signed up to the Oslo convention banning cluster bombs, and many of them regarded the US proposal as a step backwards.

Human rights activists in Mexico have asked the International Criminal Court to investigate President Felipe Calderon and other top officials over the alleged torture and killing of civilians during the fight against drugs gangs. James Read reports.

More than 18,000 people have signed the petition asking the ICC's chief prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes against humanity by both sides in Mexico's drugs war, but the Mexican government has

categorically

rejected the move. It says its security policy

is subject to

the rule of law and cannot constitute an international crime. An investigation by the ICC is theoretically possible, but prosecutors would have to decide that crimes against humanity had taken place and that there was no prospect of a proper investigation in Mexico. Those decisions could take months or even years.