Dozens of journalists - many freelancers without news organisation backing - disappeared in 2012/13 in Syria. On Tuesday ISIS posted a video claiming to show kidnapped American journalist James Foley’s death. He was kidnapped in Syria nearly two years ago. The authenticity of the video, which was also posted on YouTube, could not be verified. YouTube later took down the 4 minute, 40-second video titled, ‘A Message to America,’ showing the journalist kneeling in a desert landscape, clad in an orange jumpsuit  - a reference to the uniforms worn by prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Standing to his left is a masked ISIS fighter speaking in English with what sounds like an East London accent. Pulling out a knife, he says that Mr. Foley’s execution is in retaliation for the recent American airstrikes ordered by President Obama against the extremist group in Iraq.

On Monday Prime Minister David Cameron said, ‘This is not simply a humanitarian mission. We are determined to do what we can to help Iraq combat this new and very extreme form of terrorism.’  He spoke amid a series of dramatic developments on the ground that will fuel concerns about mission creep. British military planes are flying deeper into Iraq to capture surveillance footage of jihadist fighters which is being used to help Kurdish and Iraqi forces on the ground. Regular soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment were in the Kurdish region last week – despite Downing Street’s assurances that there would be no ‘boots on the ground’. At least 1,000 Royal Marines are being deployed to Jordan in a long-planned joint military exercise with the US. The Defence Secretary said the mission has escalated beyond a humanitarian one. Read more: 

On 9 August a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager. Police and witnesses' accounts varied. The confusion fuelled protests by locals which invited outside agitators bring in gunplay and further violence. Community religious leaders failed in their attempts to dissuade the angry from violent protests. The national president of Black Lawyers for Justice blamed unspecified outside provocateurs for further trouble. Then demonstrators were urged to make their voices heard during the daylight where they can be seen and not be the cover for violent agitators who hide in the crowd and then create chaos. But that idea failed.  Because of inconsistencies in reported facts, and the ethnic balance in the background to this incident there will now be a civil rights investigation. Meanwhile, schools in the area are cancelled this week and businesses are being looted or burned. Proprietors stand guard over their businesses with guns and the National Guard have been called in.

Twenty-five tonnes of scrap metal are at the heart of a major religious recycling project - the plan is to transform them into the first Catholic church built in Communist Cuba since the 1959 revolution. The beams were once part of the stage built for Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to the city in 2012. The building team need one final permit of five to get started. The days when believers would baptise their children in secret or attend mass surreptitiously in distant neighbourhoods have passed, and even Communist Party members now practise their religion openly. However, since Fidel Castro took power five decades ago the Catholic Church has only renovated existing properties or rebuilt where old ones collapsed. New churches were never sanctioned. Nowadays, local Catholics meet to pray in private houses and are struggling with gradually increasing numbers. Across Cuba, the Catholic Church says around 60% of the population are baptised, though only a small fraction regularly practise their faith.

A Believer in Pakistan writes, ‘He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.  He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. Daniel 2:21-22.  Al Qaeda is lashing out hard in Pakistan. Many are being killed, particularly minority groups like Christians. We never hear about it in the news because the Pakistani government does not want it broadcast (they´re supposed to have everything ‘under control.)' The army is still trying to take out the Taliban in the northwest part of  the country. Please pray for two huge separate marches on Thursday. Two major political parties want to overthrow the government. One is led by Imran Khan, the second is led by Tahir ul Qadri. These are not peaceful marches. Lives could be lost and property damaged, but people are getting fed up with the present government.’ For more information about these marches planned for Pakistan's Independence Day click the more button.

Ebola is spread through close physical contact with infected people in West African countries practices around religion and death involve close physical contact. All previous outbreaks of Ebola occurred in places where the disease was already known. In Uganda and the DR Congo for example the education message about avoiding contact has had years to enter the collective consciousness. In West Africa there has not been time for the necessary cultural shift where hugging is part of religious worship. Also The Wellbeing Foundation Africa said the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is no surprise. They have the worst doctor-patient ratios in West Africa. (Liberia at 86,275-to-1 and Sierra Leone 45,588-to-1) This deadly pandemic should serve as a wake-up call to all in global health and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and national governments and aid agencies. ‘Weak health systems threaten the global community, including the developed world.’ See: 

Bassem Eid, a senior Palestinian human rights activist and political commentator, writes on the website of i24 News, ‘The majority of Palestinians oppose firing rockets into Israel. The Palestinians have understood that these rockets will achieve nothing. Palestinians have called on Hamas to stop firing on Israel and to try to negotiate with the Israeli occupation. But Hamas has never considered Palestinian needs - only its own political interests. Since Israel began its attack in Gaza on July 8 following an increase in cross-border rocket strikes by Hamas nearly 1,900 Palestinians have died. Hamas continued firing rockets at Israel knowing full well what the result would be. Hamas paved the road for the death of our people. We knew Hamas was digging the tunnels that would lead to our destruction. Hamas was never interested in ‘liberating the Palestinian people from the occupation and Israel could never destroy the infrastructure set up by Hamas. Only we, the Palestinian people, could dismantle it.’ See also: 

Bassem Eid, a senior Palestinian human rights activist and political commentator, writes on the website of i24 News, ‘The majority of Palestinians oppose firing rockets into Israel. The Palestinians have understood that these rockets will achieve nothing. Palestinians have called on Hamas to stop firing on Israel and to try to negotiate with the Israeli occupation. But Hamas has never considered Palestinian needs - only its own political interests. Since Israel began its attack in Gaza on July 8 following an increase in cross-border rocket strikes by Hamas nearly 1,900 Palestinians have died. Hamas continued firing rockets at Israel knowing full well what the result would be. Hamas paved the road for the death of our people. We knew Hamas was digging the tunnels that would lead to our destruction. Hamas was never interested in ‘liberating the Palestinian people from the occupation and Israel could never destroy the infrastructure set up by Hamas. Only we, the Palestinian people, could dismantle it.’ See also: 

The total number of Kurdish Christians is probably in the tens of thousands. There are large numbers in the Syrian Catholic, Orthodox, Assyrian, Armenian Catholic, and Chaldean Catholic churches. Thousands of Christian families have fled violence and threats in other parts of Iraq and found refuge in the Kurdistan Region. Since the ISIS campaign Kurdish forces (Peshmerga) have been the most effective at battling them. (Iraq’s security forces discarded their weapons, uniforms and command posts then fled ISIS advances). The Peshmerga helped regain control of key cities and have put up a strong fight. The Kurds are outgunned by ISIS militants, who possess heavy artillery and armoured vehicles amassed by purchasing weapons with extortion-racket money, seizing from Iraqi forces fleeing their posts, and collected during years of fighting in Syria. The CIA is now shipping weapons directly to the Peshmerga fighters. Australia, France and Britain are providing aid but not military action.