On Wednesday Dec.10th, the day after the CIA released a report on an American torture programme in Guantanamo Bay, the Australian Federal Attorney-General George Brandis was heckled by a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, David Hicks, at an awards ceremony in Sydney. ‘Hey, my name is David Hicks!’ he shouted, ‘I was tortured for five-and-a-half years in Guantanamo Bay in the full knowledge of your party! What do you have to say?’ As Senator Brandis walked off the stage at the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Mr Hicks told reporters Mr Brandis was a coward for not answering his question.

DRC has stunning landscapes and is rich in natural resources (literal goldmines are beneath the ground). It's extremely hot at certain times of year and rainy at others. But life is brutal. During recent weeks the town of Beni has been repeatedly attacked by militia. Photos of 100+ raped and mutilated corpses of women and children were too awful for the media to print. On Saturday night 37 people were massacred by militants in Oicha village in what the French call 'arme blanche', no guns – only machetes and knives. These attacks are becoming crueller and more frequent. In June an ‘Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict’ summit in London devised an international protocol, describing ways to bring rapists and their commanders to justice  and commitments to help sexual violence survivors to report crimes and get the support they need. Prayer is needed for international funding for this initiative. See also: 

The African Christian Democratic Party says it is shocked by South African State Security claims that they were not aware that IS was recruiting South Africans to fight in Iraq and Syria. Iraq’s Ambassador to South Africa, Dr Hashaim al-Alawi confirmed that IS is recruiting in South Africa and said he shared the information with the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. So far, he said three South Africans fighting for IS have died and their deaths were subsequently claimed to have been in car accidents. According to media reports, al-Alawi said recruitment and fund-raising for IS was being carried out by groups in South Africa positioning themselves as offering humanitarian assistance.

In an unprecedented joint intelligence bulletin, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security say they have intelligence that IS is trying to recruit people in the United States to target members of the military. They are using social media to track military personnel down. The FBI warned members of the US military to protect themselves by erasing all information on social media accounts that could help ‘violent extremists’ learn their identities. It's the strongest warning to date about possible attacks by IS. Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent, said, ‘We understand that you are young, you communicate through social media, but we are telling you that's how IS finds people they potentially target.’

In 2011 the Burma Army broke a 17-year ceasefire in Kachin State, displacing over 120,000 innocent civilians. Many fled to refugee camps where food and healthcare is limited and the risk of trafficking is high. In these places of despair, Partners Relief and Development has been working with local organisations to train and equip volunteers to lend a helping hand. The volunteers are themselves refugees helping their fellow refugees. Partners says these volunteers live by one rule, ‘Love your neighbour’. Already 150+ volunteers have been trained. Altogether they are caring for nearly 8,000 internally displaced person's . Those who need food receive it. Those who are sick are cared for. Community is brought into a thrown-together refugee camp in the midst of tensions as a coalition of 15 civil society organizations call for the army to withdraw. See also: 

Hundreds of extremist Islamists attacked a Christian school in Bangladesh in response to locals who were outraged by rumours stating the school was forcing Muslim children to convert to Christianity. The school welcomes children of all faiths. A spokesperson from Love Bangladesh Mission said the mob of about 200 people didn’t injure the children but 12 of its 14 members of staff were badly beaten. Millions of Bangladeshi students attend madrasas that were established in the 1970s, soon after Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. There are two kinds- private Quomi madrasas and state-sponsored Alia madrasas. Some madrasas are hidden in secrecy and viewed with suspicion for their links with militant Islam. The furious mob’s ‘most wanted’ was Michael Robin Mondol, who is in charge of both the school and church. They were calling his name loudly, but the staff managed to hide him.

At midnight on Monday al-Shabab Somali militants killed 36 non-Muslims after separating them from Muslim workers. The victims were captured while sleeping in their tents at a quarry in Kormey. al-Shabab carried out the attack because of the presence of Kenyan forces in Somalia. There is growing concern in Kenya about security in regions bordering Somalia after a spate of similar attacks. Borders with Somalia and Ethiopia are dominated by largely Muslim Somalis. Many of those killed came from the south of Kenya where Christians predominate. These attacks affect the economy and social make-up of the region as most of its workers - skilled and unskilled - are non-Muslim Kenyans. Many Christians, including nurses and teachers, fled the area after a bus attack last week.  A presidential adviser has warned that al-Shabab is trying to fan a religious war. Christian leaders have publicly accused Muslim leaders of not doing enough to tame radicalism within their ranks.

Attacks in Jerusalem are continuing to increase. Examples are a  firebomb at Jerusalem’s ‘co-existence’ school, the foiling of a Hamas cell’s planned attack in the West Bank, and cars and vans are being used more and more as weapons to ram into pedestrians by militant Palestinian organizations. The open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was partially undermined by a Salafist terror group that fired their own rockets into Israel. The Gaza war has not solved any problems. Hamas is still shooting test rockets into the sea and want to repair the damaged tunnels. Behind the scenes the Palestinians plan to bring a resolution to the UN Security Council that requires Israel to withdraw from the ‘occupied territories’ by November 2016. The pressure on nations to take a stand on one side or the other grows. In October British Parliamentarians voted to support the recognition of a Palestinian State. See:

Last Wednesday Senator David Leyonhjelm from the Liberal Democratic Party introduced a bill into the Senate to remove the concept that marriage is between a man and a woman. The bill would allow any Australian to marry regardless of ‘sex, sexual orientation and gender identity’. His extreme libertarian ideology assumes all men are islands and that there is no such thing as society. Fortunately there are many members of Australia’s federal parliament who are for marriage as it is. This means Senator Leyonhjelm’s bill faces an uncertain future. So why is it being brought up? Mr Abbott promised pre-election to empower his party to decide whether the coalition has a conscience vote on same-sex marriage, and Senator Leyonhjelm believes there is enough support for that to occur.

Kabul is protected by a fortress-like ‘ring of steel,’ with police and soldiers manning roadblocks and spot-checking vehicles, but in recent weeks suicide bombers have managed to carry out attacks metres away from the office of the city's police chief and near an international military base, They have also attacked convoys and bombed the car of a prominent female parliamentarian. The parliamentarian survived but civilian casualties were high. On Sunday 45 people were killed when a bomber detonated his explosive vest in a crowd of spectators during a volleyball game. On Tuesday in Nigeria an estimated 50 were killed when two teenage female suicide bombers detonated their devices in a busy Market in Maiduguri. Boko Haram is blamed for the deaths of 1,500+ this year in Nigeria. Last month there were five separate suicide bombings in Iraq, killing 130+. British citizen Kabir Ahmed is reported to have carried out one of these suicide bombings.