The U.S. wont join the U.K., France and other major Western allies at the United Nations today to sign the first international treaty regulating the $85 billion a year global arms trade.
The absence of the worlds top arms dealer at the 10:30 a.m. ceremony in New York drawing some 60 nations casts a shadow over a decades-long push to stop illegal cross-border shipments of conventional weapons. By contrast, some of the worlds most violent nations, from drug-plagued Mexico to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, will be among the signatories.