WINNIPEG - A rally to mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia took a political turn in Manitoba on Thursday, as hundreds chanted in favour of the province's controversial anti-bullying bill. The crowd outside the legislature cheered as NDP Education Minister Nancy Allan promoted Bill 18 — a proposed law that would require schools to accommodate gay-straight alliance groups. Allan lashed out at critics who say the idea violates the religious freedom of faith-based schools.

OTTAWA - Canada is obstructing efforts to compensate three men who suffered torture in Syria — effectively ignoring a key recommendation from the United Nations Committee against Torture, says Amnesty International. In a brief to the UN committee, the human rights group says it is "profoundly concerned" that Canada has not heeded the committee's call to provide redress to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin. The three Arab-Canadians were brutalized in Syrian prisons, in part due to lapses by Canadian agencies documented by a federal inquiry in 2008.

Hong Kong's security minister came under fire Wednesday for saying that women should "not drink too much" if they wanted to avoid being raped. Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok was presenting figures on crime in the city for the first quarter, which showed that rape cases soared 60 percent, when he made the comments. "All of these (rape) cases happened between those who know each other. They are either friends, close friends or they just met a few hours ago," Lai said Tuesday.

A US abortion doctor could face the death penalty after being found guilty of murdering three babies with scissors after they were born alive in his filthy Philadelphia clinic. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was said to work out of a facility resembling a house of horrors, a place that smelled of animal urine and had fetal remains scattered about in jars and jugs. He was convicted by a jury in a Philadelphia court, the district attorney's office said. Judge Jeffrey Minehart set Tuesday of next week as the day for starting the death-penalty hearing for Gosnell.