Gadhafi to attractive Italian women: Convert!

Moammar Gadhafi is reported to have paid 'hot Italian women' (this is not the first reported incident) to listen to one of his riveting lectures on Islam, life and religion as well as why they should convert. The Associated Press has reported that the women were paid an undisclosed sum, and were rounded up from a local modeling agency.

Following the lecture, the women were reportedly taken back to the Libyan ambassador's residence, given their own copies of the Koran and yet another religious lesson. The women were reportedly 'converted on the spot'.

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NYC mosque debate will shape American Islam

Adnan Zulfiqar, a graduate student, former U.S. Senate aide and American-born son of Pakistani immigrants, will soon give the first khutbah, or sermon, of the fall semester at the University of Pennsylvania. His topic has presented itself in the daily headlines and blog posts over the disputed mosque near ground zero. What else could he choose, he says, after a summer remembered not for its reasoned debate, but for epithets, smears, even violence? Read the full article from the Associated Press.

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Woot bites back at AP: You owe us $17.50 for copying our content

When Woot!, an internet company that sells just one item a day, found out that the Associated Press had quoted a portion of its announcement on the company's sale to Amazon.com in a news article, it sent the AP a letter, detailing how the newswire owed the company $17.50 for the use of their content.

Associated Press, which has long asked for a licencing fee when quoting portions of articles or an article in its entirety, wasn't very amused by the newly acquired e-commerce company's satirical stab at them. 

According to the letter sent to the Associated Press:

The AP, we can’t thank you enough for looking our way. You see, when we showed off our good news on Wednesday afternoon, we expected we’d get a little bit of attention. But when we found your little newsy thing you do, we couldn’t help but notice something important. And that something is this: you printed our web content in your article! The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn’t that the very thing you’ve previously told nu-media bloggers they’re not supposed to do?

So, The AP, here we are. Just to be fair about this, we’ve used your very own pricing scheme to calculate how much you owe us. By looking through the link above, and comparing your post with our original letter, we’ve figured you owe us roughly $17.50 for the content you borrowed from our blog post, which, by the way, we worked very very hard to create. But, hey. We’re all friends here. And invoicing is such a hassle in today’s paperless society, are we right? How about this: instead of cutting us a check for the web content you liberated from our site, all you’ll need to do is show us your email receipt from today’s two pack of Sennheiser MX400 In-Ear Headphones, and we’ll call it even. 

[Story via the Consumerist] 

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