A United Nations initiative to bring together Iraqi refugees and their hosts in Jordan is being seen as a success. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has distributed free meals every evening during the holy month of Ramadan to more than 800 Iraqis and needy Jordanians in an effort to bring the two sides together.

"The Ramadan tents and meal distribution show the increase in the level of vulnerability among Iraqis, but also among Jordanians who are being affected by the large presence of Iraqis," Imran Riza, UNHCR's representative in Jordan, said. He called for locals who needed assistance to be helped in the same process.

Officers at Seattle Animal Shelter have rescued 110 parakeets that were apparently caught and confined in one huge cage by a man and kept in the living room of his one-bedroom apartment home. The discovery was made Tuesday after a law enforcement officer with the Seattle Humane Society conducted a welfare check at the apartment following several complaints of noisy birds by the neighbors.

Neil Deruyter, an animal control officer with the society described the man in his 50s and said that he had been collecting the birds for about five years, according to Seattlepi.com reports.

After granting an interview with the New Yorker magazine last summer Ryan Jordan or "Essjay" was exposed. He had posed as a professor to edit material on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, which relies on volunteers to write and edit its content. Those volunteers must be qualified and show proof of their qualifications.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has demanded a closure of an Israeli pen at Kibbutz Eilot, north of Eilat, used to keep cows. He complained of bad odors that are blown over the border by winds last week and hindered his stay in Aqaba.

Following the complaint, Jordanian officials contacted Israel last week and requested the odors be neutralized. The Environment Protection Ministry also ordered the kibbutz to dispose of all pollutant materials on its property.

Car-crazy Kevin Beresford has traveled across the U.K. to take photographs of parking garages and lots for a calendar he wants to publish.

According to The Sun newspaper, Beresford took hundreds of pictures of various garages and lots across Britain to choose only 12 of his favorites to be included in the calendar.