Dozens of Western peace activists, including 32 Americans, participated in a convoy in Pakistan over the weekend to protest deadly American drone strikes in the tribal belt between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The motorcade was turned away Sunday from entering South Waziristan and reaching the town of Kotkai, the hometown of the founder of the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani government, as my colleague Salman Masood reported, had been expected to block the group.

The activists, most of them from the group Codepink, object to the civilian deaths that occur in the aerial strikes against Taliban fighters and other militants. (Rendezvous recently explored the controversy over drone warfare in a piece, "Are Drone Strikes Worth the Costs?")

"We kill a lot of innocent people," said Medea Benjamin, a cofounder of Codepink and part of the delegation in Pakistan. She called the attacks "barbaric assassinations."

Speaking of the tribal areas, she said, "This is a culture that very much believes in revenge, and then they seek revenge by trying to kill Americans. So we are just perpetuating a cycle of violence and it's got to stop somewhere, and that's why we are putting our bodies on the line by trying to go to Waziristan to say no."

Maine state Senate candidate Colleen Lachowicz is not a witch.

She is, however, an orc assassination rogue with a potty mouth - and the Maine Republican Party believes that disqualifies her from public office.

In an unusual press release issued Thursday, the Maine GOP attacked Lachowicz for a "bizarre double life" in which she's a devotee of the hugely popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft. In the game, she's "Santiaga," an "orc assassination rogue" with green skin, fangs, a Mohawk and pointy ears.

Lachowicz is a Democrat running against incumbent state Sen. Tom Martin in south-central Maine, a heavily Democratic district of about 80,000 people. Martin, elected in 2010, is the first Republican to hold the seat since the 1960s, and his seat is one Democrats are eager to flip back.

Lachowicz has blogged under her own name about her World of Warcraft achievements as well as left-wing politics in a dedicated section of the liberal DailyKos.Com. The Maine GOP excerpted several provocative lines form her posts including one on tax policy that concludes, "Now if you'll excuse me, I may have to go and hunt down Grover Norquist and drown him in my bathtub."

Other postings use curse words and make to the joy of "stab[bing] things," joke about "being in a Socialist guild" and admit to "seriously slacking off at work."

The convicted ex-coach heads to court Tuesday to hear his sentence. Diane Dimond reports on the new accusers who have stepped forward since the trial - including his own adopted son, whose birth mother speaks exclusively about why Matt Sandusky is remaining silent. Plus, local law enforcement's fears of keeping Sandusky safe from vengeful attacks, and what he's been up to in jail.
No matter what sentence is ultimately imposed upon 68-year-old Jerry Sandusky, it seems likely the former Penn State football coach will die in prison. The challenge for local law enforcement tasked with transporting him from the Centre County Correctional Facility to the Bellefonte, Penn., courthouse on Tuesday is to keep him alive long enough to hear the sentence.

"My big concern is that we get him in and out of there without someone shooting him," Sheriff Denny Nau told The Daily Beast. "We worry about someone who wasn't necessarily abused by him but abused by someone during their life breaking through. I told my officers, 'We don't need another Jack Ruby here.'"

There has already been bloodlust directed at Sandusky. In anticipation of the June verdict that found Sandusky guilty of 45 charges of sexual abuse against young boys, hundreds of former abuse victims and local residents converged on the courthouse, waiting until well past 10 p.m. to raucously cheer their approval. Some of the demonstrators carried or held the hands of small children. One told The Daily Beast that evening, "Sandusky should rot in hell. Or let him loose - we'll take care of him!"

Venezuelan president retains power after 14 years in office, recording 54.5% of the vote against rival Henrique Capriles

Venezuela's Hugo Chávez has once again defied his doubters by winning a new term of office in this Sunday's presidential election after what had been billed as the closest race of his political life.

To the euphoria of supporters in and around his campaign headquarters, the National Electoral Council announced the president had secured 54.4% of the votes, while his rival Capriles was behind with 44.9%. Some votes were still to be counted, but the council said the result was not in doubt.

Chávez tweeted, "Thank you, my God. Thanks to everyone. Thanks my beloved people!!! Viva Venezuela!!!! Viva Bolivar!!!!!"

As the result was announced, his supporters burst into cheers and songs of "Viva Le Patria" and "Ooh Aah, Chávez won't go."

The investigation into the DJ's alleged sexual abuse has unearthed a culture where celebrities exploited their power with impunity - and other names are cropping up

When Vera McAlpine is buried on Wednesday, having died last week at the age of 90, the friends and relatives attending the service will cast their minds back to another death in the family 41 years ago. And as they gather, they will inevitably wonder why Vera went to her grave never having seen justice done over the death of her daughter.

Clair McAlpine, a dancer on Top of the Pops, was just 15 when she took her own life by swallowing two bottles of sleeping pills on March 29, 1971. Vera had discovered her daughter's body lying on the floor of her bedroom at their home in Watford in Hertfordshire.

Beside the corpse were the empty bottles and Clair's red diary; a diary that contained disturbing claims written in the girl's own hand that suggest she may have been a victim of Sir Jimmy Savile's alleged sexual predatory instincts.

Savile, almost a year after his own death at the age of 84, now stands accused by more than 40 women of rape or sexual assault. Most of his victims were at the time of the alleged offences still teenagers; young, impressionable girls whom Savile groomed and preyed upon. When he passed away last year, Savile's death was mourned by a nation.

Thousands lined the route as his coffin was driven though his home town of Leeds. In life, he had been a national treasure, one of Britain's most famous broadcasters, who had raised upwards of £40 million for charity. In death, his life and times are being properly investigated and make uncomfortable reading. There are serious questions over the role played by the BBC in possibly covering up his alleged offences and even in aiding and abetting them. The culture of the times suggests famous men like Savile and others, such as the pop star Gary Glitter and the record producer Jonathan King - in King's case he abused boys - could allow them to prey on children and, despite the rumours and innuendo, get away with it for years

No moments of reprieve in the probing documentary by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, 5 Broken Cameras, which chronicles the struggle in the West Bank Palestinian village of Bil'in.

The soldiers arrive in the dead of night. They kick, they smash, they destroy. They break in, rudely awakening an entire house and its inhabitants, including children and babies. One officer pulls out a detailed document and declares: "This house is declared a 'closed military zone.'" He reads the order - in Hebrew and in a loud voice - to the sleep-dazed, pajama-clad family.

This young man successfully completed his officers' training course. Perhaps he even believes, deep down, that someone has to do this dirty work. And he reads out the order solely to justify why the father of the household, Emad Burnat, is forbidden to film the event on his own video camera.

There are no moments of respite or reprieve in the probing documentary by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, 5 Broken Cameras, which was screened, among other places, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque last weekend after collecting a number of international prizes and having been shown on Channel 8.

Venezuelans are electing a new president, choosing between incumbent Hugo Chavez and his main rival Henrique Capriles Radonski, the first opposition candidate in Chavez's 13-year-rule. No other candidate is within striking distance of a win.

­Voting is scheduled to end at 6pm (22:30 GMT). But the National Electoral Council (CNE) said the polling stations will not be closed until there are no more voters lined up, adding it will begin issuing preliminary results when they show an irreversible trend at about 9pm (01:30 GMT Monday).

Venezuelans are to choose a new leader for the six-year term beginning February 2013.

Member of House science committee says evolution, Big Bang theory and embryology are 'lies straight from the pit of hell'

A Republican congressman who sits on the science committee of the House of Representatives has dismissed evolution, the Big Bang theory and embryology as "lies straight from the pit of hell".

Paul Broun, who is running for re-election as Georgia representative this November unopposed by Democrats, made the comments during a speech at a baptist church last month. A videoclip of the event was posted on YouTube on Friday.

In the clip, Broun, who is a doctor, says that "as a scientist" he has found data that shows the earth is no older than 9,000 years and was created in six days. Mainstream scientific thought holds that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, give or take the odd millennia.

Broun also says that theories regarding the origins of the universe and evolution represent "lies to try and keep me and all the folk that were taught that from understanding that they need a saviour".

Several thousand demonstrators have taken to the streets of Madrid to protest against public health and education cuts as the Spanish economy is experiencing its second recession, with the highest level of unemployment in the eurozone.

The protesters marched through central Madrid on Saturday, holding banners reading "Neither cuts nor privatizations." Many demonstrators were civil servants who will face a wage freeze next year.

"I work in a hospital, but I'm about to end up unemployed," 58-year-old nurse Victoria Gutierrez told AP. "On Oct. 30, my temporary contract will finish and it won't be extended. We have minimum cover on every floor at every hospital," she said. "This is affecting not just hospitals, also education and civil services, everything."

The Dutch government is drafting a decree that would give it the power to overrule anyone aiming to practice ritual slaughter in the Netherlands. The move has received mixed reactions from Jewish communities throughout the country.

The decree, which was signed by Dutch Agriculture Minister Henk Bleker, is aimed at defining the practice's future in the Netherlands.

Ritual slaughter - which is known as 'scechitah' to Jews and 'dhabihah' to Muslims - involves making an incision across the animal's throat, allowing the blood to drain out. The slaying of conscious animals is a requirement of Jewish and Muslim law.

The declaration says that slaughtered animals still conscious 40 seconds after having their throats cut would be stunned - deeming them unsuitable for kosher or halal purposes. It also issues regulations on knife sizes and where the animal can be cut.

Both faiths maintain that ritual slaughter is humane because the animal quickly loses consciousness as it bleeds to death.

However, animal rights campaigners say the practice induces unnecessary suffering to the animal.