'Omarion was in London during the tragic bombings that struck this morning,' a statement by the singer's publicist AR PR Marketing, released hours after the bombings, said.

Making no mention of the fatalities or casualties of the blasts, the singer's statement concluded, 'He would like his fans to pray that he has a safe trip and a safe return home. He appreciates your support.'

He was in London for Saturday's Live 8 show, his publicist Shana Gilmore told Reuters from Los Angeles. Asked why anyone should pray for him, Gilmore said, 'He wasn't hurt or anything, but just the fact that he was there and all that.'

What is remarkable, however, is that the Liberals' 1995 controls -- requiring all owners and guns to be licensed -- seem to have had no discernable impact. Following implementation of those regulations, firearms deaths simply continued at the rate of decline begun in 1991.

There are other indications of the most recent controls' uselessness. 'In each year,' Ms. Wilkins writes, 'about four-fifths of all firearms-related deaths were suicides.' And while in the past decade and a half firearms suicides have been cut in half, the overall rate of suicides has dropped just 15%, all of which is likely explicable by the ageing Canadian population. (Nearly every Western country has experienced a similar decline in suicides in cases where the average age of its citizens has risen.) While firearms suicides went from 4.5 per 100,000 population in 1979 to 2.0 in 2002, 'suicide by suffocation/hanging ... rose from 3 to 5 deaths per 100,000.' While gun controls may have helped reduce the number of firearms suicides, they did not lower the overall rate of suicides, meaning, at best, controls merely encouraged troubled Canadians to find other methods for taking their own lives.

Police here say a man confronted several people outside a downtown bar this morning with a loaded gun to confront people he'd been fighting with, but was subdued before the gun could be used.

A round was fired from the gun, but it was an accident caused by a person who picked up the gun before officers could arrive at the scene, Iowa City police said.

No one was injured, police said.