Gaza

New York  - The United Nations on Wednesday called on governments to sign and ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which will ban the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs.

Since its adoption in Dublin in May 2008, the convention has been signed by 95 countries and ratified by four - the Holy See, Ireland, Sierra Leone and Norway.

Mexico City - US President Barack Obama is set to visit Mexico on April 16-17, the Mexican government said Wednesday.

Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are set to discuss "several matters in the hemispheric and global agenda that are of interest to both nations, particularly taking into account the active participation of both countries in several regional and global forums," said Max Cortazar, spokesman for the Mexican Presidency.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to visit Mexico on March 25-26 for meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.

New York - The UN Security Council discussed Wednesday ways to improve cooperation with the African Union after a study showed that peace still does not exist in many parts of Africa despite the deployment of largescale UN peacekeeping operations.

"From the Horn to the Great Lakes to West Africa, conflict is endemic," said the study by a six-member panel headed by former Italian Prime Minister and European Union statesman Romano Prodi.

New York  - Acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea trebled in 2008 with the pirates taking an estimated 30 million dollars in ransom, the United Nations said Wednesday in an updated report on shipping lanes between the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean.

The International Maritime Bureau recorded 293 acts of piracy in 2008, 111 of which took place off the Somali coast, for a total increase of 200 per cent last year in the Suez Canal-Indian Ocean corridor alone.

Damascus - A delegation of Damascus-based politicians from the radical Hamas group is planning a European tour, a senior Hamas leader said Wednesday, in a further sign of shifting European attitudes towards the group.

Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas politician based in Damascus, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that several European countries had extended invitations to the group, and that the delegation planned to accept them.

Baraka declined to name the countries or the exact dates of the visit, "for fear Israel would erect obstacles to prevent their happening."