In the tiny Canadian Arctic town of Igloolik, where there are barely 1,500 inhabitants, around 5 young adults commit suicide every year. Filmmaker Linda Matchan, in association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, is documenting the efforts of a circus troupe there called Artcirq, formed to offer young people hope.

More than 30 heads of state met this week for a summit designed to create an alternative to the Organization of American States. The conference, however, has been overshadowed by a spat between Colombia's Alvaro Uribe and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Worldfocus looks at reactions from U.S. and Latin American writers.

During a recent upswing in drug violence in Mexican border towns, many critics of the drug war called for a change in U.S. policy toward marijuana use. Meanwhile, New Jersey just became the 14th U.S. state to allow marijuana for medical use. View our maps to compare current U.S. marijuana policy to laws in Europe and the rest of the world.

Between 2003 and 2006, more than 30,000 militia members in Colombia were de-mobilized. Human Rights Watch has said that de-mobilization has been flawed and that violent successor groups operate in three-quarters of Colombia's departments. In conjunction with photographer Stephen Ferry, Human Rights Watch profiles three men who have received death threats.

On February 13, around 1,300 Mexicans took to the streets of Ciudad Juárez to protest the continued presence of the armed forces in the northern border city. Civil rights groups say the deployment of 6,000 combat troops has worsened the drug-related crime wave and have organized a "March of Anger" to voice their opposition. Read how bloggers are reacting.