Angel >> Peace, somewhere, finally Amidst the depressing daily litany of bombings, anthrax panic, looming famines, political assassinations, global recession, and Mid-West meltdown, the one bright spot of good news this week came from Northern Ireland, of all places. The IRA announced it would begin disabling a large part of its arsenal, which is especially good news considering that the head of the fragile coalition government stepped down in July, saying the IRA would never agree to conditions for a lasting peace. He's back, and trying to convince others to stay.

Insect >> Montreal's burgeoning homicide rate Following a particularly vicious weekend, in which a 17-year-old boy was randomly shot by a biker on St-Denis, a 20-year-old man was stabbed to death on St-Laurent and a 23-year-old woman was found, according to police, "burned to a crisp" in her Queen Mary apartment, the city's homicide rate now stands at 57. That's 20 more than this time last year, three more than Toronto, and almost five times as many as Vancouver. Murder-suicides pushed the rate up higher this year than others. The number of murders is expected to top 70 by year's end. Chill out, Montrealers, and please stop killing one another!