United Nations, Billion | featured news

The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first-ever treaty on global arms trade that seeks to regulate the $70 billion international trade in conventional arms ranging from light weapons to battle tanks and warships.

U.N. member states have failed to reach agreement on a new treaty to regulate the multibillion dollar global arms trade.

Turnover of cross-border organized crime is about $870 billion a year, more than six times the total of official development aid, and stopping this "threat to peace" is one of the greatest global challenges, a U.N. agency said on Monday.

The planet's population, now almost 7 billion, is expected to reach the 9 billion mark before 2050, according to a revised United Nations projection announced Tuesday.

The number of Internet users will surpass two billion this year, approaching a third of the world population, but developing countries need to step up access to the vital tool for economic growth, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday.