News articles have an enormous marketplace and give a platform to share ideas, draw attention to incidents, communities and situations that need change. They give educated comments and decision  and we rely on reporting to be honest with educated comments. However the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, plans to sue an American news network, Fox News, for inaccurate reports about Muslim 'no-go areas' in the city, claiming the people of Paris had been insulted and the city’s image had been damaged. Recently Fox News network ran multiple reports describing areas of Paris and British cities that were governed by Sharia law and off-limits to non-Muslims. Her comments came as a senior US politician said that in some European countries immigrant communities lived outside the reach of the law and the police.

Since last November the Indonesian town of Poso and the surrounding province have seen an escalation of targeted attacks and barbarism causing increasing ‘panic’ among people and appeals to the government to assure safety. Recent weeks have seen kidnappings, assassinations by Islamic Tendency with the barbaric mutilation of bodies. In spite of the 2001 peace agreement to end years of bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians, the region looks set to fall into chaos again. The situation is delicate, so much so that the police and local authorities invite citizens - for security reasons - not to leave their homes. The prohibition is extended to the farmers, who cannot tend their fields. In an attempt to end the violence, activists and human rights groups in the area have promoted a peace initiative, calling for the state to intervene to ensure the safety of citizens.

The Christian community in Niger experienced weekend violence that claimed the lives of ten people and led to the destruction of dozens of places of worship and Christian homes. The protest started in the country’s second city, Zinder, quickly spreading to surrounding areas. Ten people died, and more than 70 churches were destroyed, along with Christian schools, organisations including an orphanage run by the Assembly of God Church.  Forty orphans are under the care of police. Over 30 Christian homes were looted and burnt. Those affected are left them with ‘only the clothes on our e backs.’ Lack of security forces intervention turned Christians and their properties into easy targets for the protesters and looters. Niger’s president said, ‘Those who plunder places of worship, persecute and kill their Christian compatriots, or foreigners living on the soil of our country, did not understand anything about Islam’. The church has called Christians to respond with the love of Christ.

Towns in the provinces have experienced a return of armed confrontations. There is no let-up for the civilian population and people are continuing to cross over the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo to seek refuge there. Fighting is reported between the Seleka and anti-Balaka in Dékoa, fierce fighting in Djimbi between Goula and  Runga tribespeople (all Seleka) has lead to a number of deaths with townspeople hiding in their houses. Muslims and French Sangaris troops have been locked in mortal combat in Bria. Sadly this is the climate in which preparations are being made for the Bangui Forum which is supposed to be a national dialogue that will restore peace to the CAR. Delegations including representatives of different religions will go up and down the country holding preparatory talks in different places. (Including areas where fighting is going on).

The murderous attack on the office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo has renewed the debate in Australia about Section 18C of the federal Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Free market think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, has called on the Abbott Government to repeal Section 18C. The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has also backed calls for the Government to revisit the debate about freedom of speech. ACL Managing Director Lyle Shelton said all public debate should be conducted respectfully but it should not be against the law to ‘insult’ or ‘offend’. ‘Inciting hatred or violence would still be an offence, but not ‘insulting’ or ‘offending’,’ Mr Shelton said.

On Monday a wave of violence that closed embassies and businesses engulfed the poorest country in the Arab world and could reshape its political landscape. Street battles raged between Shiite Houthi rebels and government forces in Yemen's capital and talks between President Hadi and representatives of the Houthi rebels broke down. (Houthis rejected a draft constitution dividing Yemen into six regions.) On Tuesday, Houthi rebels shelled the presidential palace and seized the state-run media. The commander of the Presidential Protection Force said, ‘what is happening is a coup.’ The powerful Houthi rebel movement dominates northern Yemen and seeks to strengthen the rights of the Zaidi sect (20-30% of the population). Clashes between government forces and Houthi rebels may strengthen Al Qaeda's position. Yemen is number 14 on Open Doors World Watch List of persecutors of Christians.

In Argentina swastikas were etched on a Jewish community centre, a Jewish cemetery was desecrated while swastikas were painted on Rabbi’s homes, Synagogues and Israeli Cultural buildings. In Australia swastikas were painted on a Central Synagogue. Flyers were placed in mailboxes of Jewish neighbourhoods inviting people to join Squadron 88, a white supremacist group. In Antwerp, Belgium, a rabbi walking to Synagogue was stabbed in the throat and a Belgian doctor refused to treat a Jewish woman. In Brazil swastikas were painted on a Jewish cultural centre In Bulgaria ‘death to Jews’ and a swastika were painted on Sofia’s Synagogue. In Canada obscenities and swastikas were painted on bus shelters, playgrounds, schools and synagogues. In Holland a Holocaust monument was desecrated, an apartment displaying the Jewish flag was firebombed and the country's Chief Rabbi’s home was attacked. In Ireland Mexico, Morocco Russia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and New Zealand Jewish communities are being targeted.

In an act that is being repeated across Zimbabwe, government authorities have declared new ownership of the Maleme farm in Bulawayo, Matabeleland, threatening its Christian owners with arrest for refusing to leave the land that houses the Shalom and Ebenezer Christian ministries. Having made an official appeal for the reversal of this land acquisition, the leadership team is currently involved in difficult negotiations with district officials. Zimbabwe’s Ebenezer ministry trains apprentices in agri-business skills. Mr Cunningham, owner of the Maleme farm, was told on 18 December that the land had been allocated to a new owner, Mr Mashingaidze and that this decision had been finalised. Later the same day, the lands officer accompanied the new owner to Maleme farm so that he could take inventory of all his assets, warning the Christian owners that if anything was taken from the site, this would be considered theft.

A multi-agency international operation, led by Central Bureau of Investigation, has stumbled upon an organised racket of trafficking young Nepalese girls to Dubai for alleged prostitution, Delhi's IGI airport is the transit point for their travelling to the gulf country. The investigation has revealed that nearly 6000-8000 Nepalese girls aged between 20 to 30 years have been trafficked to Dubai via Delhi till December 2014.The agency has informed the ministry of external affairs, ministry of home affairs, bureau of immigration and Nepal authorities through Interpol about the organised syndicate, which sends the girls on tourist visas. The sources said during the inquiry which was being covertly conducted by the agency, probe officers collected information from Foreign Regional Registration Office, Air India, Qatar Airways, Bureau of Immigration and 15 travel agents based in Delhi.

At least one-third of the country’s territory is now under ISIS influence, with recent gains in rural areas that can serve as a conduit to major cities that the so-called Islamic State hopes to eventually claim as part of its caliphate. Meanwhile, the Islamic extremist group does not appear to have suffered any major ground losses since the strikes began. The result is a net ground gain for ISIS, according to information compiled by two groups with on-the-ground sources. In Syria, ISIS ‘has not any lost any key terrain,’ Jennifer Cafarella, a fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War who studies the Syrian conflict, explained to The Daily Beast. Even US military officials privately conceded to The Daily Beast that ISIS has gained ground in some areas, even as the Pentagon claims its seized territory elsewhere, largely around the northern city of Kobani.