GANG-RELATED VIOLENCE SURGES IN SOME U.S. CITIES

With law enforcement focused on terrorism, gang-related bloodshed on
America's streets is rising to levels not seen since the mid-1990s, when
the crack epidemic was still raging, authorities say.

Homicides are up sharply this year in cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland
and Little Rock, Ark., a surge attributed largely to gang members killing
each other or those caught in the cross-fire.

Other major cities, including Philadelphia, New York and Miami, are seeing
a decline or little change in homicides this year. And bloodshed in the
cities with rising death tolls is still considerably lower than it was
during the very peak of the crack trade in the early 1990s.