■ Canada
Murder rate shoots up
Canada's murder rate shot up last year to its highest in nearly a decade. Statistics Canada (Statscan) said 658 people were murdered last year, meaning the homicide rate was up 4 percent from 2004. It gave no reason for the increase, which followed a dramatic 13 percent jump in 2004. The national homicide rate was 2 per 100,000 population, Statscan said. That is relatively low by international standard and less than half that of the US rate, which was 5.5 per 100,000 in 2004, according to the FBI. Edmonton, the capital of the western province of Alberta, had the highest rate with 4.3 homicides per 100,000 people.
■ Mexico
Left-winger gives no ground
The country's leftist presidential candidate said on Thursday he would never recognize the results of the July 2 election as legitimate, and his supporters protested outside the offices of a national airline he accuses of giving illicit support to his rival. With Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's followers mounting new protests every day, Roman Catholic Bishops called on Mexicans to pray for the healing of political rifts caused by the still-disputed presidential election. Lopez Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, lost the race to conservative, ruling-party candidate Felipe Calderon, by a margin of less than 0.6 percent.
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