My Way News - Some fearful Christians hope to flee Iraq
AP reports: "Both church spires and mosque minarets rise above the low-slung houses. Violence is rare. [...] And yet, many Christians here say they want to flee a town where their ancestors have lived for generations and, if possible, to abandon a country where their religion has survived for some 2,000 years - longer than in Europe - but one they fear is growing ever more violent."

My Way News - British government's identity card plan begins
AP reports: "The British government began its identity card program for foreign nationals Tuesday - six years after heated debate over whether the costly plan is an effective tool against terrorism, identity theft and welfare fraud. [...] The cards will contain a computer chip with fingerprint information and other data, including date of birth and nationality, but will not contain religious or ethnic data."

My Way News - UN urges aid for Zimbabwe despite political crisis
AP reports: "U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm Tuesday at the desperate humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe [...] U.N. officials say more than 5 million people face imminent starvation in Zimbabwe and cholera is spreading in the country and the region."

My Way News - UN reports more cholera deaths in Zimbabwe
AP reports: "More than 50 cholera deaths have been reported in Zimbabwe in the past day, bringing the toll to 366 since August, the United Nations said Tuesday."

My Way News - Thanksgiving sky: Jupiter, Venus, moon together
AP reports: "Starting Thanksgiving evening, Jupiter and Venus will begin moving closer so that by Sunday and Monday, they will appear 2 degrees apart, which is about a finger width held out at arm's length, said Alan MacRobert, senior editor at Sky and Telescope magazine. Then on Monday night, they will be joined by a crescent moon right next to them, he said."

My Way News - Study says HIV could be eliminated in a decade
AP reports: "The virus that causes AIDS could theoretically be eliminated in a decade if all people living in countries with high infection rates are regularly tested and treated, according to a new mathematical model."

Israel: Hizbollah arsenal has tripled in size - Telegraph
The Telegraph reports: "Israel has accused Lebanon's militant Shia group Hizbollah of tripling its arsenal to 42,000 rockets, many with a range long enough to reach beyond Tel Aviv."

My Way News - Venezuela's Chavez welcomes Russian warships
AP reports: "Russian warships arrived in Venezuela Tuesday in a show of strength aimed at the United States as Moscow seeks to expand its influence in Latin America."

My Way News - Indonesian AIDS patients face microchip monitoring
AP reports: "Lawmakers in Indonesia's remote province of Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips - part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease."

Comment: I think this is part of a larger trend of tech diffusion in which these things start out in small and powerless populations (children, the sick, the elderly, pets) before expanding to the larger population. It will be interesting to see if the Indonesian government is able to force people to get chipped against their will. You don't have to be a Christian to find that idea troublesome.

My Way News - Man killed at Scientology building had church ties
AP reports: "An Oregon man who was fatally shot as he wielded samurai swords and tried to attack guests at a landmark Scientology building was a former follower of the religion who had made at least a dozen previous threats against the church, officials said Monday."

My Way News - Siberian quake triggers false US seismic reports
AP reports: "A powerful undersea earthquake off Russia's eastern coast on Monday caused automated monitoring systems to falsely indicate small temblors in Idaho and California, scientists reported. The real quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 and struck the Sea of Okhotsk 195 miles west of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was centered at a depth of about 300 miles."

My Way News - Witnesses: Large meteor streaks across Canada sky
AP reports: "Scientists say they hope to find remnants of a meteor that brilliantly lit up the sky before falling to earth in western Canada. University of Calgary planetary scientist Alan Hildebrand called it one of the largest meteors visible in the country in the last decade."

World Net Daily - North Korea enraged by launch of Gospel gas balloons
WND reports: "North Korea long has had a record of banning Christianity and torturing and killing Christians. WND reported a Christian ministry launched a campaign seeking to have North Korean students who were caught reading the Bible freed from jail."

My Way News - Economy, not rights, rules the new China-US world
AP reports: "The crisis that Obama is inheriting has pushed aside the old points of contention and underscored how profoundly the power equation between Washington and Beijing has changed."

My Way News - Strong quake hits waters off western Indonesia
AP reports: "The U.S. geological agency says a strong earthquake has struck in the waters off western Indonesia. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey put Saturday's preliminary magnitude of the quake at 6.8."

WND - Every language by 2025 is Bible translators' goal
World Net Daily reports: "A $50 million donation is being used to kick off an effort to reach an estimated 200 million people around the world with a Bible written in their own language by the year 2025."

Comment: This sounds like a worthy effort, but I can't imagine it would cost that much, haven't they ever heard of the internet? If they translate and publish on the web, it should be much cheaper and faster than traditional publishing.

My Way News - Japanese Christian martyrs to be beatified
AP reports: "Samurai warriors, housewives and children were crucified, thrown into hot springs and tortured, but refused to renounce their religion. Japan's extraordinary but relatively unknown history of Christian persecution is finally receiving recognition in a beatification of 188 martyrs."

Comment: I'm really surprised to learn about this history of persecution. I knew that there was a long and storied history of missionaries in Japan, but I didn't know about the persecution, I'm glad they are being honored.

My Way News - Rocket hits Israeli city, Gaza still sealed
AP reports: "Palestinians fired a rocket at an Israeli city near the Gaza Strip on Friday but caused no casualties, police said, as the Israeli military continued its closure of all crossings into the coastal territory because of ongoing rocket fire."

Comments: The Palestinians really do want peace, they just have a lot of amateur rocket hobbyists with bad aim.

My Way News - Germany drops attempt to ban Scientology
AP reports: "Germany has said it considers Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution, calling it less a church than a business that uses coercion to take advantage of vulnerable people. A report on extremism last charged that Scientology 'seeks to limit or rescind basic and human rights, such as the right to develop one's personality and the right to be treated equally.'"

My Way News - Britain's Miliband calls Iran world threat
AP reports: "Britain's foreign policy chief said Friday that Iran continues to pose the most serious threat to the world, warning that Tehran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons risks an arms race across the Middle East."