PUTIN WARNS AGAINST WEAPONS IN OUTER SPACE. In a letter read
by Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov to an international
conference in Moscow on the peaceful use of outer space,
President Putin said that "we have a duty to safeguard peace
in outer space," because "the experience of international
space activity shows the need for care in this field,"
Russian and Western agencies reported on 11 April. The
meeting attracted 250 delegates from 104 countries, but
neither the U.S. nor Britain was represented because the
governments of those countries concluded that the Moscow
session was intended to oppose U.S. plans to build a national
missile defense (NMD) system, dpa reported. PG
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