Initiative on Security and Globalization Effects

Decapitated bodies dumped on the streets, drug-war shootings and regular attacks on police have obscured a significant fact: a falling homicide rate means people in Mexico are less likely to die violently now than they were more than a decade ago. Mexico City's murder rate today is about on par with Los Angeles and is less than a third of that for Washington, DC. Yet many Americans are leery of visiting Mexico at all. Drug violence and the swine flu outbreak contributed to a 12.5 per cent decline in air travel to Mexico by United States citizens last year, says the US Department of Commerce.

An Iraqi appeals panel that angered Shi'ite leaders by suspending a ban on candidates accused of links to Saddam Hussein's Baath party until after an election reversed its decision on Sunday, politicians said. The change came as Shi'ite parties held protests and vowed to purge Baath loyalists. It took some wind out of a furor that has stoked tensions before the March 7 vote, and parliament delayed a planned debate on the issue as a result.

The Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda called on Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula to wage holy war against Christians and Jews in the region, a further sign of the group's ambitions to mount new strikes outside its base. Yemen is in the throes of a major crackdown on the global militant network's regional off-shoot, which grabbed the world's attention when it claimed a failed bomb attack on U.S.-bound plane in December.