HOUSTON – The number of murders last year in Houston hit a 12-year high and increased by 13.5 percent over 2005, figures the mayor attributes in part to the arrival of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
Houston had 379 homicides in 2006. That was the most since 1994, when 419 murders were reported, police said. In 2005, the city had 334 homicides.
Mayor Bill White pointed to Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans as one reason for the increase.
“We did have a surge in population from a city where the hom icide rate is eight times the national average,” White said.
Houston’s population increased by 148,000 people in 2006, many of them Katrina evacuees, according to the city’s planning department.
The swelling population helped keep Houston’s homicide rate relatively steady, rising from 16.33 victims per 100,000 residents in 2005 to 17.24 victims in 2006. Nationally, the murder rate increased by 1.4 percent last year, according to FBI figures.
MORE BRIEFS
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
Man drowns, dozens saved in rip currents
A man drowned and dozens of holiday weekend swimmers were rescued as strong winds created powerful rip currents on busy South Florida beaches.
Emile Buzhaker, 62, of New York, was pronounced dead after being pulled from rough water Sunday, police said.
Fort Lauderdale lifeguards saved at least two dozen other swimmers from rip currents Saturday and Sunday, while lifeguards in other nearby beach cities reported dozens of rescues.
Hank Oppenborn, operations supervisor of Miami Beach’s Ocean Rescue Division, said unusually warm water led hundreds to the beach while easterly winds whipped up riptides.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip
Kidnappings, warring end week-long truce
Violence erupted in the Gaza Strip on Monday, with warring Palestinian factions firing at each other and kidnapping rivals, and gunmen abducting a foreign news photographer.
The clashes in the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City broke a week-long pause in the violent confrontation between the Islamic Hamas, which controls the government, and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah.
At least two people were wounded in the gunfire Monday, security officials said, and reports of the numbers of Fatah and Hamas activists kidnapped ranged from three to 11. In the past, kidnapped militants have usually been released unharmed.
Gunmen also abducted from Gaza City a photographer from the French news agency Agence France-Presse. AFP said Jaime Razuri, 50, of Peru was abducted as he got out of his car. There was no claim of responsibility.
TOKYO
Japanese births rise
for 1st time in 6 years
Japanese births rose for the first time in six years in 2006, according to statistics announced Monday, offering a glimmer of hope for a rapidly aging society.
Japan’s population of 127 million shrank in 2005 for the first time on record, mostly due to a steadily falling birth rate, raising the prospect of a severe labor shortage and difficulties in paying the health bills and pensions of large numbers of elderly.
But preliminary data for 2006 showed there were 1.086 million births in Japan last year, 23,000 more than the previous year, the Health Ministry said Monday.
Based on that data, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun calculated the birth rate for last year at 1.29 babies per woman, up slightly from a record low of 1.26 in 2005. Despite the increase, the rate is still far below the 2.1 rate needed to keep the population steady.
