Stewart search

Los Angeles, March 28 (Reuters): CBS is planning to launch a prime-time search for the next Martha Stewart even as the fallen doyenne of domesticity may be headed for less genteel surroundings in a federal penitentiary.

Seizing on the growing popularity of the TV talent-search genre, CBS has teamed up with LMNO Productions to create a 10-episode reality show that sets out to fill the shoes of the lifestyle trendsetter who drew millions of fans through her magazines, books, TV shows and home products.

Death row

Riyadh (Reuters): A convicted Saudi murderer escaped death by seconds when he was forgiven by his victim’s father as he knelt down before the executioner’s sword, a Saudi newspaper reported on Sunday. Okaz daily said 21-year-old Abdul-Karim al-Ghoraid, who killed a friend in a dispute five years ago, was moments away from being beheaded in a public square in Saudi Arabia’s northern town of Tabuk on Friday. “I knelt and lowered my head, praying to God that he would forgive me and grant that my head be cut with the first blow of the sword,” Ghoraid told the newspaper. Suddenly the victim’s father shouted out from the crowd: “I forgive you”, the paper said, which meant Ghoraid could walk free. People started dancing and praising God, Okaz said. Saudi Arabia, which implements strict Islamic sharia law, under which relatives of a murder victim can accept “blood money” instead of the execution of the offender. But the newspaper said Ayad bin Mohammad al-Sabr waived his right to the compensation for his son’s death.

Big Story

San Antonio (Texas) (Reuters): Toy Story 3 will be big. Walt Disney Co. studio chief Dick Cook said he was leaning toward making the third installment of Toy Story, Pixar Animation Studios Inc’s 1995 hit, as a feature movie rather than a straight-to-home video project in a few years.

Passion plea

Kuwait (Reuters): Kuwait should lift a ban on Mel Gibson’s controversial film The Passion of The Christ as it exposes the role of Jews in his death, a top Shia Muslim cleric said on Saturday. “We demand the information ministry to allow the film The Passion of The Christ, peace be upon Him, to expose the role of the Jews, the killers of prophets,’ said Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Mohri.