Major attacks on a minority. Dozens of members of a beleaguered religious sect are killed, during attacks on two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan.

Where they settle down, so does crime. In American cities where immigration is on the rise, it seems that murders and robberies are on the decline.

He doesn't want to make a federal case out of it. Alberta's Finance Minister tells us why his province doesn't want Ottawa to be in charge of securities regulation.

I love Sedaris in the springtime. An encore presentation of an interview with an American humourist proves David Sedaris has plenty of fire -- but no more smoke.

The treacle-down theory. A British school slaps a coat of syrupy paint on its fences -- to convince its students to adhere to the official schedule.

And...he doesn't let the chips fall where they may. That's because the buffalo named Bailey, Junior is so well-trained that he can ride around in his owner's Pontiac Parisienne.

As It Happens, the Friday edition. Radio that's glad to hear there's nothing new under the bison.

It was a deadly day in Pakistan.

Some eighty people are dead, and dozens more wounded, after two mosques were attacked this afternoon in Lahore. The attacks targeted the Ahmadiyya community -- a minority Islamic sect. Gunmen held hostages, detonated suicide bombs, and battled with police.

Saleem Ul-Haq Khan was in one of the mosques. We reached him in Lahore.

There's insecurity about the new securities regulator.

This week, federal Finance Ministry Jim Flaherty unveiled the Conservative Government's new legislation, which will transfer power from provinces to the federal Canadian Securities Regulatory Authority. The idea is to get rid of the current patchwork of provincial regulators -- each of which has a jurisdiction limited to its own turf -- and create a central authority. Mr. Flaherty argues that improve the investigation of financial crimes, and better enforce current laws.

But, as with any transfer of power from the provinces to Ottawa, several provinces are not particularly happy about the arrangement. In particular, Alberta.

Ted Morton is Alberta's Finance Minister. We've reached him in Calgary.

When Father Gregory Boyle founded Homeboy Industries, he had one concept in mind: "Nothing stops a bullet like a job."

The Los Angeles-based gang-rehabiltation program is now the largest in the United States. Homeboy Industries employs ex-gang members in its businesses, which include a café and a T-shirt printing shop. The program also offers counseling, tutoring and tattoo removal.

But now, Homeboy Industries has run into some serious financial trouble. And with a five-million-dollar deficit, its future is uncertain.

We reached Father Boyle in Los Angeles, California.

We all have favourite songs. The ones we believe express our views on life, love, or -- if you're a Jimmy Buffett fan -- getting loaded in a Hawaiian shirt. When you get married, or dumped, or hired, or fired, you pull out that record or CD or iPod and skip to those songs, to help you feel your feelings more keenly, and with an awesome bass line.

Florida governor Charlie Crist has at least one favourite song. He's currently running for the United States Senate as an independent, having broken from the Republican Party. And Mr. Crist thinks that this favourite song of his also works as a critique of one of his Republican opponents, a certain Marco Rubio. So Mr. Crist used the song in campaign ads, in an attempt to get across that Mr. Rubio's ideas are a political cul-de-sac.

The song is "Road to Nowhere", by Talking Heads. Which, you could argue, is a bit on-the-nose. Or, if you're David Byrne -- current solo artist, and former head Talking Head -- you could argue it's a violation of copyright. Because Charlie Crist didn't secure the rights to "Road to Nowhere" before he used it in his campaign materials. And if Mr. Byrne wins the suit he just filed, that will cost Charlie Crist a million dollars. Not great for a guy who's trying to seem fiscally prudent.

Acording to David Byrne, politics has nothing to do with it. He just doesn't like people using his songs without permission. And he's seeking a million bucks because, according to his lawyer, Lawrence Iser, that's the amount Mr. Byrne has been offered for the rights to the song in the past.

Incidentally, Lawrence Iser also served as Jackson Browne's lawyer, when the singer sued John McCain for using the song "Running on Empty" during his 2008 presidential campaign.

And Mr. Iser is, in his words, "fairly astonished" to catch Charlie Crist doing the same thing.

But his opponent, Marco Rubio, can't claim the moral high ground. He's been using the Steve Miller Band's "Take The Money and Run" to soundtrack his claims that Mr. Crist took money from Republican supporters, before he decided to go independent. And last week, Steve Miller asked Mr. Rubio to please stop using his song.

So be careful when you use a song to get your point across. You could wind up in a dead end. Speaking of which, here are the Talking Heads. And don't worry: we're paying them royalties for this.

When Arizona authorities passed a new law targetting illegal immigrants and immigrant communities last month, supporters of the legislation often cited fears that increased immigrants lead to increased crime. But a study in the newest issue of "Social Science Quarterly" may give them reason for pause.

The study found that increases in immigration in U.S. cities actually led to a drop in homicide and robbery.

The author of the study is Dr. Timothy Wadsworth of the University of Colorado. We reached him in Boulder, Colorado.

When Jillian Zwicker's husband got a transfer overseas, she felt the move would be too hard for her cat Dusty. So the Calgary resident decided to fly the pet she'd doted on for ten years to her father's house in Saint John, New Brunswick, using Air Canada. But things didn't go exactly as planned.

Jillian and her family made it to Saint John. Dusty didn't.

Here is Jillian Zwicker talking to Paul Castle on the CBC New Brunswick afternoon show 'Shift', for the record.

The FIFA soccer World Cup will soon be upon us. And while non-sports fans will only whisper "Amen" when it's over, desperate fans will be on their knees throughout the tournament, praying that their nation can find Cup glory.

However, in these tournaments, prayers are often rather slapdash, thrown together at the last minute. Things like, "Oh, please, let that not be a yellow card." They reek of desperation. Luckily, one bishop has seen the light, and decided to organize this soccer-based genuflecting.

The Right Reverend Nick Baines, the Bishop of Croydon, has written some formal prayers for the 2010 World Cup. We reached him in Bournemouth, England.

On a drive through the Prairies, it's not unusual to spot bison through high-fenced pastures, just off the highway. And it's also not unusual to be relieved about those high fences on those bison farms -- because the huge, fragrant animals can be quite dangerous.

Which is why you would find it unusual to see Jim Sautner in his car, with a six-hundred-and-eighty kilogram bison in the passenger seat.

We reached Mister Sautner in Edmonton.

It's often been said that good fences make for good neighbours. And when it was first said, by an unnamed guy in Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall", it's seemed to mean that he just liked to keep other people's stuff out.

But in the case of one school in the U.K., keeping stuff out is just a minor reason for a good fence. The main reason is keeping people in. And that required a re-defining of what constituted a "good" fence.

Mike Purkins is a vice principal at Sir Charles Lucas Arts College in Colchester, England. We reached him at work.

David Sedaris doesn't just write funny essays. He also dispenses very serious advice.

For example, in his most recent book, "When You Are Engulfed In Flames", he reveals a previously unknown, one hundred per cent effective system for quitting smoking. It's a fairly complicated system, but, in the interests of brevity, I'll reduce it to one important step: move to Tokyo.

It's not going to work for everyone. For one thing, it's pretty radical. For another, he calculates that it cost him almost twenty thousand dollars. Which is, of course, outlandish. But combining the outlandish and the ordinary is one of David Sedaris's great skills.

David Sedaris actually started his career as a humourist in an unlikely medium: public radio. NPR's Ira Glass first put him on air in the early 'nineties -- and Mr. Sedaris then became a frequent contributor to the program "This American Life".

He appeared on Canadian public radio in July of 2008 -- when he joined Maureen in the As It Happens studio to talk about "When You Are Engulfed In Flames". Here now is an encore presentation of their conversation.