Daily update August 15

New Mexico: Pistol Pete mascot to lose pistol
Yahoo News

" New Mexico State University's mascot, Pistol Pete, is being disarmed. University officials have also stripped the word "Pistol" from Pete's name. The new logo shows Pete twirling a lasso. The old Pete toted a pistol. .... The decision to remove the pistol had more to do with a consensus when picking from several designs of the new logo, rather than any push for the mascot to stop brandishing a weapon, Boston said.He acknowledged there are mixed feelings among alumni, but said he has heard more positive feedback than negative." (08/15/05)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050815/ap_on_sp_co_ne/aggie_mascot

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South Africa: Police inspector held over shooting of son
The Mercury

"A 48-year-old Pietermaritzburg police inspector, with about 20 years' service, has been placed under arrest in connection with the death of his 23-year-old son in a shooting incident at the weekend. .... Preliminary investigations established that father and son had been involved in an argument earlier in the day, and it was alleged that the son returned to his father's home that evening and resumed the altercation. During the argument he allegedly produced a knife and tried to stab his father, who retaliated by firing a shot, killing him." (08/15/05)

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=2837072

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Canada: Fewer gund seized at US border
Grand Forks Herald

" As Canadian politicians express alarm about a rising tide of guns smuggled from the United States, statistics suggest federal border guards are seizing fewer firearms than in previous years, the Globe and Mail reported this morning. The Canada Border Services Agency said it has intercepted 318 guns so far in 2005, below the more than 1,000 seized guns that border guards have averaged annually during the past five years, and far fewer than the 1,500 seized annually in the 1990s. .... And while Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair was widely quoted last week as saying his officers have seized more than 2,000 guns so far in 2005, civilians in his statistics department say the chief inadvertently "misspoke."
Their official tally is only 1,151, consistent with the pace of seizures in recent years." (08/15/05)

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/12388173.htm