Small weapons of mass destruction

NUCLEAR, chemical and biological weapons may grab the world's attention as threats to human life. But it is hand-held and cheap weapons that deliver most violent death in wars today. A Kalashnikov rifle costs as little as $30 and there are some 70m of them scattered around conflict-ridden places. Illegal and unregulated flows of small arms are said to fuel conflicts from Colombia to central and western Africa to Papua New Guinea.