The unregulated sale and transfer of weapons harms the poor and threatens peace and security around the world, said the Vatican's UN representative.

The Mayan human rights activist Rosalina Tuyuc Velásquez of Guatemala is the winner of Japan’s Niwano Peace Prize.

Thousands of children are forced every day to serve in armed gangs or armies as combatants, spies or in sexual servitude.

“Dear friends of the United States, Mexico needs your help to stop this terrible violence that we’re suffering,” President Felipe Calderón said.

Famine and state-building in Somalia is a top priority for the new Caritas Internationalis secretary general, Michel Roy.

The city of Homs has now endured almost four weeks of Syrian army attacks with artillery and heavy weapons.