POPE FRANCIS SPEAKS

The head of the Catholic Church lambasted the weapons trade as "the industry of death" in response to a question from a child about war."Why so many powerful people do not want peace? Because they live off wars!," he said during an event with schoolchildren at the Vatican on Monday.

The Pope told the children that some people make money by producing and selling weapons.
"And this is why so many people do not want peace," he said. "They make more money with the war!" The $400 billion global arms industry has seen trade soften slightly in recent years, though sales in Russia and Saudi Arabia are on the rise.

American companies account for more than half the world's arms trade. The U.K. is the next largest weapons producer, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and Russia is another major global seller.

Russia has begun investing heavily to upgrade its capabilities. Local defense companies boosted sales by more than 20% last year, driven by demand from the country's military.