"From the desk of Bethany Khan..."

According to Reuters:

A Canadian pig farmer was convicted Sunday of killing six women in New Westminister, British Columbia.

Robert Pickton, 58, lured the women to his farm’s slaughterhouse before killing them, cutting up their bodies and feeding them to his pigs.

He is accused of killing 26 Vancouver prostitutes. Prosecutors say that they are preparing to mount a second trial that will deal with the remaining 20 murder charges.

Investigators found human remains on Pickton’s farm, including skulls and feet.

A woman testified to the court that she witnessed Pickton cutting up the bodies of the women he had killed during the middle of the night.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the Guardian Unlimited:

City council officials in Havana have nominated Fidel Castro for a parliament seat Sunday.

Castro, 81, must hold a position on the Cuban parliament if he wants to remain president of the communist-run country after the countries elections in January.

Castro has not been seen in public since his emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

His younger brother, 76, has been running Cuba since his older brother ceded power of provisional government to him as vice president.

Previously Cuba’s prime minister, Castro has been the (unchallenged) president since 1976

Posted by Bethany Khan at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to CNN:

The Iranian government has made the decision to forbid the second printing of a Farsi translation of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel.

The novel by the famed Latin American writer, which was translated into Farsi, received many complaints from conservatives who believed the novel was promoting prostitution.

The ban has provoked a greater interested in the novel, and on Saturday, the black market was selling copies of the book at more than twice their list price.

The novel, actually titled “Memories of My Melancholy Whores� was translated into Farsi as “Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts,� tells the story of an elderly man who decides to forgo his habit of using prostitutes on his 90th birthday by sleeping with a 14-year-old virgin, and ends up falling in love with the young girl.

Officials at Niloofar Publications, which published the first edition of the novel, confirmed Saturday that they have been forbidden to put out the second edition.

Since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, Iran has tightened censorshop of books, films and music.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 9:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to Reuters UK:

Israeli police raided government offices Sunday in Jerusalem.

The raids are party of three ongoing criminal investigations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Olmert, a former Jerusalem mayor, is suspected of having arranging an illicit discount on a house that he bought, and for allegations of bid-rigging and cronyism.

Fraud investigators raided 20 sites, which included the Industry and Trade Ministry, Israel Lands Administration, Jerusalem Municipality and Postal Authority for potential evidence to add to the investigations.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to CNN:

A fundamentalist church in Baltimore, Maryland was ordered by the federal jury to pay $10.9 million to the father of a marine whose funeral was picketed by members who blame soldiers’ deaths on America’s tolerance of homosexuals.

The family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder sued the Westboro Baptists Church in Topeka, Kansas, and its leaders for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Church members picketed Snyder’s funeral chanting derogatory slogans and holding signs with messages such as “God Hates Fags.�

The church has picketed dozens of other funerals of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claming that God is punishing the U.S. because of its tolerance for gays.

Church leaders say that the federal jury’s judgment will do nothing to stop their future protests.

Marine's father: "I couldn't let them get away with doing this to our military"

Church members also picketed the funeral of Coretta Scott King in February 2006, because of her support for gay rights.

Several states have adopted laws about funeral protests and Congress has passed a law barring protest from occurring on the grounds of federal cemeteries.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the Guardian Unlimited:

Hillary Rodham Clinton celebrated her 60th birthday Thursday night at New York’s historic Beacon Theater by way of a campaign fundraiser.

The star-studded event included friends, family and campaign supporters who brought in more than $1.5 million for Clinton’s presidential bid.

Supporters, such as comedian Billy Crystal, and musicians Elvis Costello and the Wallflowers donated as much as $2,300 a piece to attend the birthday dinner.

This was the second major birthday fundraiser for Clinton’s political campaign this week. Movie director Rob Reiner hosted a party her at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday night, which brought in several Hollywood celebrities to attend.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According the Guardian:

The Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is based in New York accused Syria Wednesday of “besieging� human rights activist by preventing them meeting and traveling abroad and forcing them to live in fear of repression.

The HRW report states that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is not as liberal as his father, Hafez, who was the president in 2000.

The study finds that there has been a political and social crackdown since 2001, when President al-Assad took office.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the Star Tribune:

Former Vice President Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for
warnings that Gore called “a planetary emergency.�

Gore shared the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of scientists who have been warning the public about their dire message of global warming since 1990.

Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth,� won the 2007 Academy Award for best documentary.

"I will accept this award on behalf of all the people that have been working so long and so hard to try to get the message out about this planetary emergency," Gore said in an appearance Friday in Palo Alto, Calif., and four members of the U.N. climate panel.

Gore donated his share of the $1.5 million prize winnings to a nonprofit foundation he founded the Alliance For Climate Protection.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the Guardian Unlimited:

In Wisconsin Sunday at least five people were killed in a shooting.

The shooting happened in the north-east city of Crandon.

Crandon, population 2,000 is located 255 miles north of Milwaukee.

Initial reports said that the suspected gunman was a police officer.

A witness told local radio station WTMJ that the shooting happened just before 3am.

“It's a pretty tragic situation here,� said Forest County supervisor Tom Vollmar. “There are five or six people dead.�

Posted by Bethany Khan at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to Reuters UK:

85 militants from Palestinians who were stranded in Egypt since the Hamas seized Gaza in June were finally able to return to their home country.

Egypt has taken a some-what diplomatic neutral stance of not openly supporting or rejecting the violent removal of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by the Fatah faction from the Gaza strip.

The militants had refused to travel on an alternative return route that runs through Israel for fear of being arrested.

While tension is constantly brewing in the Middle East, there are plans for a November peace summit with the invitees consisting of Arab leaders from Egypt, Syria, the United States, and a few other choice Arab and European countries.

Reuter reporter Nidal al-Mughrabi concludes that any softening of Egypt’s policy toward Hamas would like anger Abbas and the United States.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to Reuters (Canada), The United States announced Sunday to Arab states in the Middle East that they must renounce violence and genuinely seek an end to the conflict, as the United Nations invites Syria and seven other Arab countries to a peace meeting.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the members of the Arab League panel comprised of: the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt were “natural invitees� to the U.S.-hosted conference.

Jordan and Egypt are the only countries of the Arab League panel that have full relations with Israel, while Syria is accused of providing arms and money to pro-Palestinian groups that are against peace with Israel.

Rice said that attending the peace conference, which is expected to be held in Washington D.C. in November, came with some strings.

“We hope that those who come are really committed to helping the Israelis and the Palestinians find a way through. And that means renouncing violence, it means working for a peaceful solution,� Rice told reporters at a news conference of the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union.

The United States wants the countries that comprise the Arab League panel to take part in the peace conference in order to bring peace between Israel and its neighbors.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the The Wall Street Journal, A new Iranian television series "Zero Degree Turn," that focuses on a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman is gaining international interest.
"Zero Degree Turn" is the most expensively produced show on Channel One - the Islamic republic's state-owned television.
In spite of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stance that the Holocaust was a myth, this new television show is the first of its kind that deals with the cross-cultural tensions between Iran and Israel
According to MSNBC the hero, Habib Parsa, is based on a true story of Iranian diplomats who gave Iranian passports to over 500 Jews to help them escape concentration camps.
Producers wanting to realistically portray fashion during the 1940s had to get approval from the government, so that actresses could appear without mandated dress code of headscarves and full body robes.
"Once, I wept when I learned through the film what a dreadful destiny the small nation had during the world war in the heart of so-called civilized Europe," said Mahboubeh Rahamati, a Tehran bank teller.
*The article written for The Wall Street Journal was a bit more engaging to read, and it was not written in the AP style. The journalist was more creative and wrote extensively about the story plot, whereas the MSNBC coverage, which was written in the AP style, focused more on he history of conflict between Muslims and Jews living in Iran, and how the series is overcoming many trials by broadening the scope of all of the citizens who call Iran home - regardless of their different religions.

Posted by Bethany Khan at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)