Shakil Adil / AP

Pakistani children pray for the recovery of 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai during a candlelight vigil in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday.

While 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai remained in the hospital recovering from a gun shot to the head, fellow school children in Pakistan gathered Friday to offer prayers for her recovery.

Yousafzai was targeted and shot by gunmen Tuesday on a school bus in Pakistan under order of the Taliban because of her outspokenness on education for girls and against the Taliban. She had previously blogged for the BBC on these issues under a pseudonym. Three suspects were arrested.

Radio Free Europe reports:

The prayers in schools and other places across Pakistan on October 12 are in response to a call by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government for people around the nation to express solidarity with Yousafzai.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf is due to visit Yousafzai on October 12 as the gravely wounded schoolgirl recovers in a military hospital in Rawalpindi.

Prayers were held throughout the country Friday as leaders condemned the attack. A spokesman called Yousafzai's condition "satisfactory," but said the next two days are critical.

Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

Pakistani Muslims pray for the early recovery of child activist Malala Yousafzai during Friday prayers in Karachi on October 12. Pakistanis at mosques across the country prayed Friday for the recovery of the schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban as doctors said the next two days were critical.

Evan Vucci / AP

Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign rally Oct. 9, 2012 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told The Des Moines Register he does not plan to pursue abortion-related legislation if elected.

The media immediately seized on the comments as a promise by Romney to back away from some of his harsher rhetoric on abortion. He has said he would prefer Roe v. Wade, which protects a woman’s right to abortion, be overturned and that abortion should be allowed only in instances of incest, rape, and to protect the health of the mother.

Yet, parsing the words of a man who has changed his mind on this subject in the past (he ran as a pro-choice candidate for the U.S. Senate and governor of Massachusetts), isn’t easy.

Here’s what he said:

“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” Romney told the Register’s editorial board on Tuesday.

So no current legislation, but does that mean he would consider approving anti-abortion legislation brought forward by a Republican Congress? A clarification from a Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul seemed to suggest he would.

“Mitt Romney is proudly pro-life, and he will be a pro-life president,” she said in one statement. In another, she went further: “Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections of life.”

When Romney appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press in September he once again re-affirmed his anti-abortion position and said he would “encourage pro-life policies” if elected president and appoint Supreme Court justices that would reverse Roe v. Wade.

Romney said he would seek to ban the use of U.S. funds being used overseas for abortion in both the Meet the Press and Register interviews.

Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan has taken even stauncher positions on abortion in the past, supporting legislation that sought to limit abortions to cases of “forcible rape,” a divisive term.

Both the Obama campaign and Planned Parenthood criticized Romney’s comment to the Register as just another demonstration of his flip-flopping. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund called it a “misleading” comment.

“Let’s be clear: Mitt Romney wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, end federal funding for Planned Parenthood preventive services, end insurance coverage for birth control, and repeal health protections for women,” the organization said in its statement.

Update: Sesame Workshop, which produces Sesame Street, has asked the campaign to take down the ad, according to a statement by the nonprofit. "We do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads," it wrote on its blog.

The Obama campaign released a new ad starring Sesame Street's Big Bird that pokes fun at a Mitt Romney line from last week's first presidential debate.

Romney promised during the debate to "stop the subsidy to PBS," the network that broadcasts Sesame Street. "I love Big Bird...But I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it," he added.

The new 30-second spot from the president's re-election campaign dismisses Romney's stance on PBS and Big Bird as overblown paranoia.

"Bernie Madoff. Ken Lay. Dennis Kozlowski. Criminals. Gluttons of greed," the ad begins. "And the evil genius who towered over them? One man has the guts to speak his name."

 Cue Romney at the mic saying "Big Bird" over and over again.

"Big, yellow, a menace to our economy," the ad continues. "Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about, it's Sesame Street."

Cut to a benign, sleeping Big Bird cuddled up with a stuffed teddy bear. 

MSNBC's Chuck Todd pointed out during Daily Rundown that the ad is not a serious one for the campaign given that it is playing on national cable and broadcast stations rather than in battleground states where it could have a real impact on the race.

Newsweek, September 16, 2012

Newsweek kicked off the week with an unfortunately named cover story, "Muslim Rage," timed to address the anti-American protests erupting across Muslim countries in the last week. It is written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, who escaped an arranged marriage in her native Somalia by immigrating to the Netherlands.

In it she argues that those Muslims who believe "blasphemers,"—such as the makers of the anti-Islam YouTube video that helped to spark the recent burst of violence, as well as herself—deserve punishment are not a minority. From Newsweek:

The Muslim men and women (and yes, there are plenty of women) who support—whether actively or passively—the idea that blasphemers deserve to suffer punishment are not a fringe group. On the contrary, they represent the mainstream of contemporary Islam.

Although the author ultimately argues for patience on the American side, the piece, which is accompanied by a photo of anguished looking, angry Muslim protesters, immediately set off a debate on how Americans view the Muslim world and how the United States should react to the ongoing protests as well as in terms of a longer-term strategy in the region. Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the Jerusalem Fund, a Washington-based non-profit for the Palestinian cause,told Politico he thought the cover was joke and the imagery "is extremely unhelpful."

When Newsweek tweeted out its article it suggested readers discuss the cover story using the hashtag "MuslimRage." It also seemed to tweet its excitement about "#MuslimRage!" in another tweet: "This week's Newsweek cover, on newsstands & the iPad today: #MuslimRage! Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes on how she survived it."

The legions of Twitter decided to react with their own non-violent, humorous social media protest of sorts. The tongue-in-cheek tweets smartly showcase the silliness of grouping all Muslims into one lump stereotype—minus the rage.

The magazine is standing by its cover. Its public relations director Andrew Kirk told Politico that the cover "accurately depicts the events of the past week."

The former Susan G. Komen for the Cure executive who resigned earlier this year amid the controversy over the breast cancer organization’s decision (later reversed) to pull funding from Planned Parenthood is out with a new book telling her side of what happened.

Karen Handel, former secretary of state for Georgia, a Republican, and the former senior vice president of public policy for the Komen Foundation, alleges it was Planned Parenthood, the “left,” and the “liberal media” who made the decision political, not Komen leadership.

“Komen was looking at how to deliver breast health services in the best, most effective way,” Handel said on Andrea Mitchell Reports Thursday. “Unfortunately, what transpired is you saw the left and Planned Parenthood bullied up on Komen over just $700,000. When Komen was about breast health, not about politics, Planned Parenthood made it about politics.”

Asked about the charges lobbed by Handel, Planned Parenthood provided a statement to Lean Forward by Eric Ferrero, a vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “It is incredible that there are people who still want to inject politics into breast cancer detection and treatment," Ferrero countered. "Each year, Planned Parenthood health centers perform nearly 750,000 breast exams. We’re proud of our work to help detect breast cancer, and our focus is always on the patients who rely on Planned Parenthood health centers for this lifesaving care."

Although Komen founder Nancy Brinker denied it, many believed Handel, who had only recently joined the organization when the controversy began, played a significant role in coordinating the decision to reallocate grant funds for breast cancer services away from Planned Parenthood.

Handel, who has been vocal about her pro-life, Christian conservative beliefs, complained she was “singled out” for scapegoating by the “liberal media,” and the “left.”

In her book “Planned Bullyhood,” a not-so-subtle play on Planned Parenthood’s name, Handel also alleges that politicians from both the right and left – Republican strategist Karl Rove and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz – pressured Brinker to resume funding to Planned Parenthood. (Spokespeople for Rove and Wasserman Schultz have denied Handel’s characterization of events.)

Handel characterized the roughly $700,000 in grants Planned Parenthood was set to lose for breast cancer screenings and other breast services as “inconsequential,” saying, “Planned Parenthood wanted the alignment with Komen because it gave them legitimacy, credibility, allowed them to wrap themselves in the pink. That’s what this was about.”

Although Komen, under pressure from some of its own members, ultimately relented in just a few days and returned funding to Planned Parenthood, Handel says she wishes they had “held the line.”

Planned Parenthood announced an expansion of its breast health program last month, which was enabled by the more than $3 million it raised in less than four days from about 77,000 individuals who offered their financial support when the initial Komen decision was made public.