Contributions from the Column Facts and trends Basic education for all threatens to fail Technology alone cannot close the digital divide Deutsche Welle Academy: advanced training under one roof Germany promotes Israeli-Palestinian contacts Two-thirds of GTZ projects are successful Development budget: Ministry satisfied, NGOs disappointed Unexploded bombs Climate protection: poor countries get more attention Hunger in the world 1/2004   Unexploded bombs and other explosive remnants of war are in future to be cleared by countries that control a former war zone. A total of 91 countries, including the USA, signed at the end of November a corresponding protocol to the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. The protocol will come into force when 20 countries have ratified it. It also obliges the signatory states to inform aid organisations of unexploded munitions in the areas in which they are working. Experts estimate that 650,000 tons of unsafe and exposed munitions are lying around in Iraq – a legacy both of the various wars there in recent decades and the country’s own production. In particular, bomblets’ from cluster-bomb air strikes are regarded as an enormous danger because they can explode at the slightest touch. (uke)