1. Sony will release The Interview on Christmas Day
Kim Jong Un visits Catfish farm
2. Comment: EGYPT – SINAI – The Islamic State’s (IS) “Sinai Province,” formerly the group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, released a video of its executing two men who worked for the Egyptian army, and its setting up a roadblock on the El Arish – Rafah highway to capture more agents.
video ( 10 min40 ) ( graphic )
3. The BBC clip of a segment of the German reporter’s trip inside Mosul.
4. Do we all worship the same god?
(Here is an article that is way way overdue. As I have said many times when I had the BlogTalk radio program as well as here on Vlad, God of the Torah, the New Testament, the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita may all be equally untrue but they are not of equal consequence. The attributes are as different as daffy duck and superman and their reality is irrelevant compared to the actions of the believers as they create reality based on the assigned attributes of their respective deities)
Indonesian authorities have vowed to scrap virginity tests for female civil servants following international outrage that the country’s police force is continuing to use the ‘outdated and degrading’ practice.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) last month launched a scathing attack on the country’s lawmakers after it interviewed multiple women within the police force who were subjected to the examination.
While the country’s police force is yet to relent on its use of the test, Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo has announced aspiring civil servants and public administrators will no longer be required to undergo it.
Indonesia’s aspiring civil servants will not be required to undergo virginity tests, but the country’s police force is refusing to stop its use of the practice. File image used
The minister announced the practice would stop at the Institute of Public Administration – a leading school for civil servants – saying it was a ‘pity’ that a woman could fail the test despite being competent for the job, The Bangkok Post reported, based on a report by the Kompas Daily.
Thank you M., Richard, Buck, UK Pete and all. More to come. Yep. More. and its only 2:30
CANADA – John Baird to Egypt to push for Canadian’s release
OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is off to Egypt next month to push for the release of imprisoned Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy.
Baird says he will use soft diplomacy to try to win the release of the Al Jazeera journalist who will be entering his 13th month in captivity by the time Baird is in Cairo.
Baird tells Ottawa radio station CFRA that Canada has been working hard behind the scenes and he will continue that work at the highest political levels in the Egyptian capital next month.
Fahmy, 40, was arrested in December of last year along with two colleagues, Australian correspondent Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed.
Fahmy was sentenced to seven years in prison for supporting the banned Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.
He denies the charges against him.
http://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/5230126-baird-to-egypt-to-push-for-canadian-s-release/
I wonder if that’s because William Sampson’s obviously wrongful incarceration and torture in a Saudi prison, which led to his early death, ‘taught the Canadian government to be more proactive in the release of Canadians wrongfully tortured and detained overseas,’ or if it might have helped Mr. Sampson to have been more culturally enriched than he was. He certainly never thought the Canadian government did much on his behalf.
I see there are reports that it in the end it took the release of five Saudis from Guantanamo to get Sampson released.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/29/william-sampson-dead-canadian-survived-prison-torture-in-saudi-arabia/
#4
It always gets me when I hear someone say, with great sagacity, that we all worship the same God. What a stupid statement that is. Allah hates Christians almost as much as he hates Jews, and he says so quite plainly in his little book. Why would Christians and Jews worship a God who hates Christians and Jews? We’ve got to stop being so terribly stupid about this…
Very good, not only that Jehovah acts differently from Allah, and does this in both the Old and New Testaments, the only people who believe that it is all one God are those who have never read the Bible/Torah and the Koran.
AUSTRALIA – Two men arrested in Sydney in counter-terrorism operation
A man has been charged after he allegedly was found with documents designed to facilitate a terrorist attack against potential government targets in Sydney, police say.
Sulayman Khalid, 20, from Regents Park in Sydney’s west, faced Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday after he was charged by counter-terrorism police overnight.
A second man, Maywand Osman, 21, was also charged by counter-terrorism police overnight with breaching a control order.
[…]”He was charged in relation to having a document that was designed to clearly facilitate an attack.
“Certainly the documents talked a little bit about potential government targets and so on, and what that did, coupled with other things that were seized during the search warrant, gave us significant concern to be able to act early.”
He said those potential targets were around “federal and state entities” in Sydney.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/two-men-arrested-in-sydney-in-counterterrorism-operation-20141224-12d8kt.html
USA – Bin Laden ‘Shooter’ Under Investigation for Leaking Secrets
The man who claims he killed the world’s most wanted terrorist is now being probed for saying too much about the mission.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/23/exclusive-bin-laden-shooter-under-investigation-for-leaking-secrets.html?via=desktop&source=twitter