By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Members of the United Nations are in the final days of negotiations on what could become the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion (46.1 billion pounds) global conventional arms trade. The treaty drafting conference at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York City will continue through Thursday. A new draft text was circulated to the states participating in the conference last Friday, which rights groups criticized as disappointing.

Republicans teamed up with Democrats Wednesday to introduce gun control legislation in the US Senate that aims to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill. It is one of a handful of new bills, including a beefed-up ban on assault weapons, being considered in the wake of the December tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut that saw a gunman kill 20 children and six adults. Republican sponsor Senator Lindsey Graham said the newest bill sought to "ensure that those who have been declared an imminent danger to themselves or others aren't legally able to obtain a firearm."

In 1998, Ismael Watkins was walking down a street when a bullet hit him in the neck. He never took another step. Today, the 33-year-old relies on a wheelchair to get around and still remembers those life-changing moments as if they had happened yesterday. "I heard the shot, it hit my neck, another grazed my neck," Watkins told AFP, sharing how, at age 18, he had just become a father when his fate took a turn for the worse. Watkins' story is by no means unique. Every year, hundreds of young African Americans are wounded or killed by weapons in the United States.

Charged with shooting dead his girlfriend, fallen South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has put a renewed spotlight on gun violence in a country where 42 people are killed a day. The champion athlete is accused of firing four bullets from his 9-mm handgun into model Reeva Steenkamp in a premeditated murder on Valentine's Day. "We have a very good gun law in South Africa and in the last ten years we have seen a 50 percent reduction in gun deaths," said Gun Free South Africa's Adele Kirsten.