Sir: Jack Lang's call for the French government to follow Robin Cook's lead on an ethical approach to arms exports is significant ("French take up Cook's arms challenge", 13 August). The key to responsible control of the arms trade lies in international co-operation to defeat the argument "If we don't sell, someone else will."

`Everything was themed, and it came as a minor relief to note that the sparrows did not fly in wearing Dumbo outfits. Everything, that is, except the toilets. This was a disappointment.'

fishing lines

More than 350 people were killed when a cyclone swept Bangladesh's flat coastal region yesterday, according to newspaper reports, which said that more than 100 people died in the islands of Maheshkhali, Kutubdia and Saint Martin's. Some 250 were killed in Cox's Bazaar and 2,000 people were believed injured in the port city of Chittagong, and about 100 fishermen from the coastal district of Patuakhali were missing at sea. Official sources confirmed only nine deaths, but said the figures could go up today.

Rock the casbah, urges the Belgian designer Dries Van Noten. Styling by Sophia Neophitou. Photographs by Thiemo Sanders

Melanie Rickey on an accessory that wins in Hollywood and the High Street

A mass exodus of refugees is only one of the region's problems, writes Andrew Gumbel

Sir: The contention that arms sales enable Britain to "punch above its weight in diplomacy" ignores the reality of the contemporary global arms market ("British lion claws a king-sized stake in the world's arms bazaar", 26 February). The increasingly competitive scramble for defence contracts in the post-Cold War era has made the world's arms bazaar a buyer's, rather than a seller's market. Importers are not only able to arrange favourable economic agreements; they can also exert political leverage, so eager are the exporting nations to retain contracts in the shrinking global market.

I have in my hand a list of the names of the guilty men. I am prepared to publish that list.

'Tis the season to be sensual. Eleanor Bailey on the new touchy- feely interiors

`We painted them up. You ended with a piece that looked as if it came from a bazaar'

Heaven-o, how are you? The greeting may take some getting used to, but Kleberg County commissioners are supporting a campaign to take the "hell" out of hello. County Judge Pete De La Garza said they voted unanimously for a resolution urging the use of "heaven-o".

Old cutlery gives taste to dining, says John Windsor

good thing