“Japan will provide $12 billion of soft loans to build India’s first bullet train, the two nations announced during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that also yielded deeper defence ties and a plan for civil nuclear cooperation… Under defence deals announced on Saturday, the two sides will share technology, equipment and military information, but the long-awaited sale of Japanese aircraft in a deal worth about $1.1 billion was not concluded” (Reuters, December 12, 2015).

“An evangelical preacher from Northern Ireland who branded Islam satanic has been charged with spreading a ‘grossly offensive’ message. In a May 2014 sermon [broadcast online], James McConnell told worshippers… in Belfast: ‘Islam is heathen. Islam is satanic’” (AP, December 14, 2015). The prosecutor in the case claimed that Mr. McConnell’s comments had “nothing to do with religion or freedom of expression” (ibid.).

“Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 34 nations have agreed to form a new ‘Islamic military alliance’ to fight terrorism with a joint operations center based in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh… The new counterterrorism coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as war-torn countries with embattled militaries such as Libya and Yemen.