Doomsday Clock moved back by a minute
President Barack Obama's election has been a factor in moving the timepiece back by one minute
A symbolic Doomsday Clock has been shifted back a minute to represent the world's progress in lessening the threat of nuclear destruction.
The New York timepiece was created by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1947, two years after the US dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan in World War Two. It was first set to seven minutes to midnight, but was moved forward by two minutes in 2007, to reflect the world's failure to stop the threat of nuclear weapons. The latest change to the clock occurred on 15th January.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's (CND) Kate Hudson said: "This shift reflects the significant improvement since the end of the Bush era. Both Presidents Obama and Medvedev are committed to nuclear abolition and have put the issue firmly at the centre of the international political agenda.
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"From the aggressive escalation of the Bush years we have seen a significant change in the US administration's approach to nuclear weapons. Now almost all states are pushing in a more sane direction.
"The progress towards major US-Russian reductions in warheads is creating an improved international climate ahead of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May - but now we need to translate aspirations into results."
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