Our first Christmas YouTube of the year! And what a heartwarming one it is, too: the Killers, performing a country-tinged “Don’t Shoot Me, Santa.”
“Don’t Shoot Me Santa” may be more “Bad Santa” than “Silent Night,” but what makes this single especially heart-warming is that all the proceeds of the song will go to Bono’s (RED) campaign, which raises money for AIDS in Africa. The single will be available for download through iTunes on World AIDS Day, December 1.
Controversial expat British teacher Gillian Gibbons, who was jailed in Khartoum for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear “Muhammad,” is to be freed, having been granted a presidential pardon.
The breakthrough came after a meeting between two British Muslim peers, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, with Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir.
Lord Ahmed said al-Bashir had agreed to pardon the teacher.
Asked whether Gibbons had been pardoned, a presidential adviser told Reuters: “Definitely, yes.”…
Reacting to the news, Khalid al-Mubarak, of the Sudanese embassy in London, said: “Congratulations. I am overjoyed.
“She is a teacher who went to teach our children English and she has helped a great deal and I am very grateful. What has happened was a cultural misunderstanding, a minor one, and I hope she, her family and the British people won’t be affected by what has happened.
There is, at this time, no word on whether the Americans now intend to place her in custody for referring to the problematic plush in question as a Teddy Bear.
As we here at the ol’ raincoaster blog have noted, December 5th is the Day of the Ninja. You may wish to ninjafy yourself, or you may wish to ninja-proof yourself (as if such a thing can be done!) in preparation for the dread event.