* One of the candidates in Iraq's national election on Sun. is Hakim al-Zamili, a Shiite who is thought to have organized death squads. He has a place on a prominent Shiite election slate--the Iraqi National Alliance slate, which includes former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari--and as early-voting results began to trickle in earlier this week, it looked likely that he would win a place in the country's Parliament. Iraqis and some commenting on the election have expressed concern that his eligibility to serve in Iraq's government will be seen as unfair to Sunnis, who were not allowed to run for office if they had been alleged supporters of the Baath Party. He was arrested in 2007 when American and Iraqi officials began piecing together a case against him with charges including murder, kidnapping, and corruption. His two-day trial was "marred by accusations of witness intimidation" (The New York Times) and the charges were dropped. Of the allegations that he masterminded kidnappings and killings, Zamili has said: "Each and every person resisting and opposed to the occupation is a terrorist, a thief, a criminal." He quotes Gandhi in portraying himself as a political martyr. "It was a benefit to me because people related to me. They saw me suffering. And suffering is good for the soul."
* Same-sex couples can now get married in Washington, D.C. Couples are applying for marriage licenses, and the first weddings will occur next week.
* Harold Ross, editor of the New Yorker from 1925 to 1951, took his job so literally that he even edited literary quotations contained in articles -- in an article quoting Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "In Memoriam," Ross changed "Nature, red in tooth and claw" to "Nature, red in claw and tooth" because, he reasoned, the animal's claws would get bloodied first.
* Unlike grand tours by other classically trained musical groups from Europe, the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra has slogged through the U.S. by bus, sleeping two to a room and stopping for food at Wal-Marts. From The New York Times: "Performing arts centers and concert halls in smaller cities and towns around the country are hungry for classical music programming. ...lesser known, and lower priced, foreign orchestras provide a solution. Foreign orchestras, no matter the level, provide a lure of the exotic." Said one musician from the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra (anonymously, for fear of being blacklisted from future jobs): "Musicians are human beings, too, and they should be treated like humans."
* Artist Sophie Blackall illustrates poignant listings she finds on the New York craigslist "missed connections" site and runs the images on her blog, http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com.