NEW YORK (DPA) — The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council vowed Tuesday never to use – or threaten to use – atomic weapons against five Central Asian countries that have agreed to ban nuclear arsenals.

The United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China, all of whom are nuclear powers, signed the protocol to the Treaty on Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in Central Asia in a ceremony at UN headquarters in New York.

Five Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, signed a treaty creating a nuclear-weapon-free zone in 2009. The treaty commits the signatories to refrain from developing, acquiring or possessing nuclear weapons.

"Today, we take yet another – and significant – step to advance nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament by signing the protocol," Tom Countryman, US assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, said.

Chinese UN envoy Liu Jieyi said his country was “committed to strictly complying with the obligations of this protocol after signing and ratification,” while his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin called the signing “the first such example in the world” and “a huge step towards finalizing the international legal status of the zone.”

"By signing this protocol, France undertakes to neither use nor threaten to use nuclear weapons against the five countries of Central Asia," Jean-Hugues Simon-Michel, French envoy to the conference on disarmament, said.

He hoped that the five Asian nations “may now serve as an example encouraging other regions of the world to engage in equally constructive dialogue.”

By Bill Smith (DPA)

BEIJING — Police in China's capital detained about a dozen rights activists after they held a small seminar to mark the 25th anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, supporters said Tuesday.

Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was held in criminal detention on suspicion of "picking quarrels and causing trouble" after Saturday's event, Si Weijiang, another lawyer and friend of Pu, told dpa by telephone.

Police summoned Pu for questioning on Sunday and detained him late Monday while searching his home and seizing his computer, mobile phone and other items.

At least four other activists who attended the seminar were detained on similar criminal charges, while four others were released after questioning, according to online reports by activists and rights groups.

Those detained after attending the seminar included well-known online activist Liu Di, film professor Hao Jian, and Hu Shigen, a veteran dissident who spent 16 years in prison.

Philosophy professor and democracy activist Xu Youyu also faced criminal charges. Xu's wife was scheduled to collect a formal notice of criminal detention from police on Wednesday, according to a fellow activist.

Renee Xia, the international director of China Human Rights Defenders, called the detentions "particularly chilling."

Authorities have placed several other prominent activists under house arrest to prevent them from marking the anniversary of the 1989 protests, while Gao Yu, an outspoken journalist, disappeared last month.

The ruling Communist Party allows no public commemoration of the crackdown overnight on June 3-4, 1989, and it has rejected repeated calls for an open investigation of the use of tanks and live ammunition against the protesters.

Xia said she expected "tighter restrictions than ever on the rights to peaceful assembly, association and expression," before June 4.

"The Chinese government's attempt to silence any expression about Tiananmen is a continuation of its 25-year policy to shelter those responsible for the massacre from accountability," she said.

The informal Tiananmen Mothers group has confirmed the deaths of some 200 people in the crackdown but says it believes the total number of casualties is much higher.

Zhang Xianling, whose 19-year-old son died after he was shot in the head near Tiananmen Square in 1989, spoke at Saturday's seminar on behalf of the Tiananmen Mothers.

Chinese courts have sentenced some rights activists to several years in prison after convicting them on the wide-ranging charge of "picking quarrels and causing trouble."

KABUL (DPA) — The search operation to find the bodies of villagers buried under a mudslide in north-eastern Afghanistan resumed after relatives rejected the government's decision to halt the operation.

The disaster buried the Ab-e-Barik village in Argu district after heavy rains on Friday, leaving about one-third of the 1,000 families missing and feared dead.

"We had to start the operation again as the villagers insisted on finding the bodies of their loved ones, see them one last time and bury them," Gul Ahmad Bedar, deputy governor for Badakhshan province said Tuesday.

Vice President Karim Khalili on Saturday said the search operation was halted, arguing that all the missing people had been buried by the mud. He announced the village to be a mass grave.

"But the villagers did not accept the suggestion, saying they want to bury their dear ones," Bedar told dpa.

"Therefore, we hired some 400 workers to pull the bodies out from about 50 metres of mud," he said, adding that the operation may take at least a week.

The number of the missing is estimated at 2,000 to 2,100.

More than 300 bodies have been so far recovered and identified, according to officials. About 700 families have been displaced and are living in the open around the ruined village.

The government, international aid organizations, businessmen and politicians have provided donations. Some foreign countries promised to send aid.

"We received the daily essentials from Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates yesterday," said Naveed Ferotan, spokesman for the provincial governor spokesman. "Also, Pakistan and Turkey have said they would help the victims.

He said presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani donated 600,000 Afghanis (10,500 dollars) during his visit to the village on Monday.

Before that, Khalili and fellow Vice President Younus Qanooni brought 40 million Afghanis (about 700,000 dollars) of government support, he said.

An official for the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority in Badakhshan province rejected reports of shortages, saying there were "enough materials."

"We have received more than we expected. There are breads, cooked meals, potable water, milk, medicines, warm clothes, tents and temporary shelters. We transfer them every day to the victims," Mohammad Asef said.

He said people from neighboring, unaffected villages had also come to the area to try to claim some of the materials.

"Now we categorize the vulnerable and those who are not victims."

The deputy governor said that they plan to buy a 160-acre plot of land to build houses for survivors who have lost their homes.