In brief: Bombs target Shiite procession

Islamabad, Pakistan – Three bomb blasts tore through a Shiite Muslim procession Wednesday in Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, killing at least 28 people and wounding 200 others, authorities said.

The attacks occurred as thousands of Shiites marched through Lahore’s streets in a traditional mourning procession for Yaum-i-Ali, one of Shiite Islam’s most revered holy figures. No one claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The attacks were carried out at a time when Pakistani authorities have been preoccupied with massive floods that ravaged large sections of the country this summer.

‘Gay’ replaced to quiet giggles

Sydney, Australia – An Australian school principal has asked students to stop using the word “gay” when singing a classic children’s song, but said today no offense was intended – he was simply trying to keep the kids from laughing.

Principal Garry Martin of Le Page Primary School in Melbourne said he instructed students to substitute the line “Fun your life must be” for the original “Gay your life must be” when singing “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.”

Martin said he was playing a recording of the song for the students about a month ago when the line “gay your life must be” produced a flurry of giggles throughout the classroom. Some of the students use the word “gay” as a schoolyard taunt, he said, but don’t understand its meaning.

“It wasn’t misplaced political correctness, it wasn’t homophobia, there was nothing really calculated in doing it,” he said. “I could’ve stopped the whole class and gone into a very caring, supportive explanation of gay being quite a reasonable choice in lifestyle that some people make, but I was only talking with 7- and 8-year-olds and I think that sort of thing is better explained more fully with parents.”

His decision erupted into a controversy after one of the students told his parents about Martin’s change to the song.