Facebook leaked to have Offered Over $3 Billion to Buy Snapchat

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Facebook leaked to have Offered Over $3 Billion to Buy Snapchat

The complete story behind the reported Facebook $3 billion offer rejection by Snapchat appears to have been let out of the bag, thanks to the Sony email hack.
If the leaked emails (via BusinessInsider) between Snapchat and Sony Entertainment are to be believed, it seems that the Facebook offer was a lot more than $3 billion.

According to BuisnessInsider report, “Malcolm Gladwell sent an email to Snapchat board member (and Sony Entertainment CEO) Michael Lynton asking if the company was crazy to turn down $3 billion.”

To which Lynton replied saying that, “if you [Gladwell] knew the real number you would book us all a suite at Bellvue.”

The report further noted, citing an email from Mitch Lasky (a Snapchat board member), that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel would have received $1 billion if the Facebook deal had gone through.

“Evan proposed a new deal today to Tencent and DST that includes $40MM in secondary for him and Bobby. Never told me … in fact told me the exact opposite. When I confronted him about it, he said, ‘well I just turned down a billion from Zuck'” noted the report.

The Sony email hack also reveals that Snapchat is interested in launching a music label.

According to a leaked email (via BuisnessInsider) allegedly written by Sony’s President of Global Digital Business, Dennis Kooker to Michael Lynton, Spiegel met with Kooker, on June 5, where he had shown interest in launching a music label for Snapchat, which could also work well with existing features in the app.

“He thinks every music service in the market is shit and he wants to be a curator, […] He doesn’t want to build a music service but he would like to have a record label so he could focus on the artists that he wants to use the platform to promote. He also wants to participate in the upside that he will create by promoting them on the platform,” Kooker allegedly wrote in that mail.

Source and Original Content by Ndtv

Supreme Court Rejects Glasgow Midwives Case

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Supreme Court Rejects Glasgow Midwives Case

The Supreme Court has rejected the case of two midwives who refused to be involved with abortion procedures.

Last year, at the Court of Session, Concepta Wood and Mary Doogan won the right to refuse to assist with abortions on conscientious grounds at any point in the procedure.

But NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) appealed the case and the Supreme Court ruled this morning in favour of the trust.

Mary Doogan and Connie Wood, the midwives in the case, commented on the judgment: “We are both saddened and extremely disappointed with today’s verdict from the Supreme Court and can only imagine the subsequent detrimental consequences that will result from today’s decision on staff of conscience throughout the UK.

“Despite it having been recognised that the number of abortions on the labour ward at our hospital is in fact a tiny percentage of the workload, which in turn could allow the accommodation of conscientious objection with minimal effort, this judgment, with its constraints and narrow interpretation, has resulted in the provision of a conscience clause which now in practice is meaningless for senior midwives on a labour ward.”

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) which paid the midwives’ legal expenses throughout the case has said that senior midwives who refuse to participate in abortions could be forced to leave the profession.

Paul Tully, general secretary of SPUC, said: “The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children acknowledges the great debt that the whole pro-life community owes to Mary Doogan and Connie Wood for fighting this battle over the past seven years. They have fought not only for their own careers, but for all current and future members of the profession who uphold the right to life of everyone, from the time of conception, without discrimination. We are bitterly disappointed for them.

“Today’s decision sadly makes it likely that senior midwives who refuse to kill babies will be forced to leave the profession. Junior midwives might still be able to work in labour wards where abortions are performed but they will be restricted to ‘staff midwife’ status at best. They could easily be placed in an impossible situation by pro-abortion superiors, and would be unable to receive promotion to a more senior role without fear of being required to violate their consciences. This will affect anyone who objects to abortion, of any religion or none. It will create a second-class status in midwifery for those who only deliver babies and don’t kill them.

“Furthermore, the court has used the opportunity of this case to decide that the conscience clause in the Abortion Act does not apply to general practitioners and that hospital doctors asked to prescribe abortion drugs will not be covered by the conscience clause. We anticipate that this will lead to renewed efforts by health officials to force doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion either to compromise their respect for human life or to leave the profession. SPUC will support and encourage doctors to resist any such bullying approach.

“The pro-abortion lobby has long argued that conscientious objectors should be required to refer women seeking legal abortion to other practitioners. Bodies such as the Department of Health have qualified this by saying that this only applies when the statutory grounds for a legal abortion apply, but the Supreme Court has said that any medical professional who refuses to provide an abortion should arrange for a referral to someone else who will do so. This seems to go far beyond the scope of the Abortion Act, and furthermore is not even an issue there was any need for the Court to decide in this case.

“The Court has nevertheless said that midwives and doctors with conscientious objections are obliged to refer abortion patients to colleagues who don’t object to abortion. This goes further than the General Medical Council, for instance, whose current guidance Personal Belief and Medical Practice says that doctors should refer patients to another doctor, but does not require them to check their colleague’s pro-abortion credentials.”

Mrs Wood, from Clarkston in East Renfrewshire and Ms Doogan, from Garrowhill in Glasgow, were employed as labour ward co-ordinators at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow.

Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald

Thousands Dance the Tango to Celebrate Pope Francis Birthday

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Thousands Dance the Tango to Celebrate Pope Francis Birthday

More than 2,000 people turned up in St Peter’s Square today to dance a tango for Pope Francis on his birthday.

The Pope, who is 78 today, was greeted with happy birthday songs as he drove through St Peter’s Square and stopped to blow out the candles on a birthday cake that Argentine priests presented to him.

At the rear edge of the square thousands of people celebrated the Pope’s birthday by dancing the tango, the Pontiff’s favourite dance.

A Vatican spokesman also told the Catholic News Service that volunteers will be giving out gifts to the homeless in Rome today in honour of the Pope’s birthday.

Source and Original Content by Catholic Herald

‘Jesus is all We Have Left’, Vicar of Baghdad

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‘Jesus is all We Have Left’, Vicar of Baghdad

All Christians in Iraq have left is the love of the ‘refugee child’ – Jesus, according to the Vicar of Baghdad.

In his Christmas message from Bethlehem, where he is based after being forced to leave Baghdad for his own safety, Canon Andrew White refers to the refugee camp in the north of Baghdad where members of his staff have “fed and clothed, provided mattresses and cradles for the thousands and thousands of internally displaced people” who have fled the ravages of Islamic State forces.

A ‘refugee tent for Jesus’ has also been put up as a symbol of the presence of Christ among those who are suffering.

White writes movingly: “I will never forget the day in Baghdad when we had some visitors. They had come to see what it was really like for Christians in Iraq. They were so surprised by how happy the thousands of people were in our congregation. ‘How can you be so happy when you are surrounded by suicide bombs, mortar rockets and such violence?’ One of our young people answered the statement. ‘You see when you have lost everything, Jesus is all you have got left.’

“All you have got left is the love of that refugee child. That to us in the Middle East is all that matters this Christmas.”

He concludes: “Christmas is a time when we should never lose the meaning of this Christ Child who came to us so that by simply trusting in him we will have a life filled with hope and purpose and love. He is still with us 2000 years after he first came. This Christmas let us not forget that he so loves us that we must love him and in response our life will be changed forever.”

Source and Original Content by CT

Rev Libby Lane; First Woman Bishop for Church of England

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Rev Libby Lane; First Woman Bishop for Church of England

A saxophone-playing Oxford graduate who lives a “Christ-centred life” has been appointed the first woman bishop in the Church of England.

Downing Street this morning announced that the new Bishop of Stockport will be Rev Libby Lane, currently vicar of St Peter’s, Hale, and St Elizabeth’s, Ashley in the Chester diocese. She will be consecrated at the end of January.

Because she will not be a diocesan bishop, she will not be among the women bishops that will be fast-tracked into the House of Lords. Bishop of Stockport is a suffragan or assistant bishop post in her current diocese. Southwell and Nottingham is understood to have women on its shortlist for a new diocesan bishop and Oxford is also likely to consider women when the appointments process begins next year.

Libby Lane, who is married to a male priest, George, making them one of the Church’s first clerical couples, was among the first women to be ordained as a priest, in 1994. Her pastoral life has been concentrated in the north, in the dioceses of Blackburn, York and Chester. The couple have two adult children.

Although not a “name” outside the Church, she is highly rated within it and came to the attention of senior bishops as one of eight clergy women elected as observers to the House of Bishops.

Speaking at Stockport town hall this morning, she said: “I am grateful for, though somewhat daunted by, the confidence placed in me by the Diocese of Chester. This is unexpected and very exciting. On this historic day as the Church of England announces the first woman nominated to be Bishop, I am very conscious of all those who have gone before me, women and men, who for decades have looked forward to this moment. But most of all I am thankful to God.

“The church faces wonderful opportunities, to proclaim afresh, in this generation, the Good News of Jesus and to build His Kingdom. The Church of England is called to serve all the people of this country, and being present in every community, we communicate our faith best when our lives build up the lives of others, especially the most vulnerable. I am excited by the possibilities and challenges ahead…Read More

Source and Original Content by CT

Tourism Booms in Tiny Spanish Town due to Botched Jesus Painting

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Tourism Booms in Tiny Spanish Town due to Botched Jesus Painting

A bad restoration job on a fresco of Jesus two years ago has led to a surge in tourism in the small Spanish town.

It sparked outrage, laughter and Internet memes in abundance when Cecilia Giménez took her paintbrush to the 120-year-old Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Elías Garcia Martínez.

Giménez, an artist who says she did the restoration with the permission of the local priest, virtually obscured the face of Jesus, and made the crown of thorns look more like a fuzzy hairdo.

But since the restoration more than 150,000 tourists from around the world have visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy in Borja, northern Spain, to see the painting.

Andrew Flack, who is working on a comic opera of the story, told the New York Times that it was a “story of faith”.

“Why are people coming to see it if it is such a terrible work of art? It’s a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by the media into a phenomenon. God works in mysterious ways. Your disaster could be my miracle,” he said.

Visitors are charged €1 to enter and look at the painting on the wall of the 16th century church.

This Christmas the town’s lottery tickets have an image of the Ecce Homo on them, and there has been a scene in a Spanish film in which thieves try to steal the painting…Read More

Source and Original Content by CT

Japanese Village Claims ‘Real Jesus’ Died There at Age 106, Fathered Children

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Japanese Village Claims ‘Real Jesus’ Died There at Age 106, Fathered Children

A small village in Japan claims to be the final resting place of Jesus Christ, arguing that the founder of Christianity got married to a local and had children.

Shingo, a rural community of about 3,000, claims to be the sight of Christ’s tomb, where local legends say that Jesus came there after He was crucified.

A recent article by inquisitr.com noted that this claim is in “regional apocryphal religious writings known as the Takenouchi Documents.”

“The writings claim the body that was crucified on that bloody Golgotha belonged to Jesus Christ’s younger brother, Isukiri,” the Inquisitr posted on Monday.

“They say Jesus lived a very normal life, much unlike the one He was accorded back in Jerusalem, where He was revered as a God who could easily perform unbelievable tasks and miracles.”

Over the past several years, stories about Jesus that go contrary to what the Holy Bible explicitly says have garnered much attention.

Many stories, including some that are centuries old, have claimed that Jesus escaped the crucifixion, got married, had children, and died of natural causes far away from Jerusalem.

Many local legends, from England to Japan, have claimed that a younger Jesus visited there for some period of time, taking advantage of the lack of biblical records on Jesus’ life from early years to age 30 when he began his ministry.

Matt Slick, president of Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, told The Christian Post that the Shingo claim “has no merit at all.”

“The Bible tells us that as a young boy He remained in subjection to His parents, Luke 2:51. This would require that He stay with his parents to take care of them, this was part of the Jewish requirement and law found in Exodus 20, in the 10 Commandments that says to honor your mother and your father,” Slick explained.

“For him to have left and gone to another country would have violated that law. Jesus could not have done that. Furthermore, Jesus died on the cross (and rose from the dead) in Jerusalem. This was recorded by the eyewitnesses in the Gospels…Read More

Source and Original Content by CP

Thieves Use Prayer to Steal Cash,Credit Cards From Supermarket Shoppers

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Thieves Use Prayer to Steal Cash,Credit Cards From Supermarket Shoppers

Police in the Northwest suburbs of Atlanta are on the lookout for a two-women tandem that has used the allusion of prayer to distract and steal from gullible supermarket shoppers, who leave their personal items inside their cart.

The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office posted an alert bulletin on Monday to its Facebook page warning local shoppers throughout the Atlanta metro area to be wary of friendly strangers in stores who start up conversation and then offer to lead in prayer, claiming to try and help solve a shopper’s personal problems.

The police alert states that a team of two women are carrying out a prayer distraction scam on unsuspecting shoppers at local stores in the tri-county area. The scam entails one of the women distracting a shopper by sparking up a conversation that ultimately leads to the targeted victim bowing her head as the woman leads in prayer, while the partner sneaks up and swipes the shopper’s credit cards, cash and other valuable personal items that are sitting in the cart as the shopper is distracted.

Police have surveillance footage of one instance where the scammers struck at a Walmart in Hiram, Georgia. There, they made their move of talking, praying and stealing credit cards and cash from a woman’s purse, which was in her shopping cart.

“A female suspect usually strikes up conversation with a female patron in the store. After a few minutes, the suspect then asks the patron to pray with them. Once the patron bows their head, another female suspect comes in and steals that person’s cash and credit card out of their purse,” the police alert explains. “This is happening at stores all across the metro Atlanta area and has occurred at the Hiram Wal-Mart.”

As Atlanta’s news channel 2, WSB-TV, reports, the clarity in Walmart’s surveillance video has helped police to identify the women they believe have been orchestrating the prayer scam. The scammers are believed to be Shayla Sutherland and Jessica Pina.

Investigators will meet on Tuesday to map out the locations where the two are said to have also conducted distraction thefts. Police believe the same scammers struck in various stores spanning across three Georgia counties directly to the Northwest of Atlanta: Cobb, Douglas and Paulding.

“I work hard for all I get and when people think they can just take it, it’s unbelievable,” shopper Mercedes Shropshire told WSB-TV.

Source and Original Content by CP

Damita’s New Husband Reveals Recent Arrest

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Damita’s New Husband Reveals Recent Arrest

Reuben Chandler, 37, the husband of Deitrick Haddon’s ex-wife, Damita Haddon (now Chandler), is known for his lengthy diatribes on social media.

This time, he has made himself the topic of conversation, revealing his own recent arrest.

In a December 13 Facebook post, Chandler attached his official mug shot, captioning the photo, “Lol. Hey. It happens!! Lol,” adding the hashtag, “‪#‎StillWinning”.

According to Hillsborough County, Florida Sheriff’s Office, the CEO of REDD photography was booked September 13, 2014 on a “contempt of court” charge…Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN1

Christian Faithfuls Defend Atlanta Fire Chief After He Was Suspended for Views on Sexuality

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Christian Faithfuls Defend Atlanta Fire Chief After He Was Suspended for Views on Sexuality

Georgia Baptist Convention leaders are rallying to defend Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, who has been suspended without pay for a month and ordered to undergo sensitivity training over a book he wrote that upholds a biblical view of sexuality.

Cochran is a deacon, Sunday School teacher and Bible study leader at Atlanta’s Elizabeth Baptist Church, which is affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention.

A two-time Atlanta fire chief, Cochran also served as U.S. Fire Administrator under President Obama from 2009-10.

J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia convention, said in a news release issued by the GBC Public Affairs Committee, “It is time for believers to stand up for their religious beliefs, biblical principles and fellow Christians who are punished or marginalized for their faith.” White affirmed the Public Affairs Committee for its “call to action for all fellow believers to take a stand.”

The news release called on Christians and people of faith across Georgia to:

— sign a petition in behalf of Cochran at http://gabaptist.org/petition on the Georgia Baptist Convention’s website;

— support Cochran by purchasing his book on Amazon, “Who Told You That You Are Naked?” which is at the center of the firestorm; and

— enlist as many churches and believers as possible to contact Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to reverse his actions against Cochran.

To the mayor, the Georgia Baptist committee called on Reed to:

“– Acknowledge Chief Cochran’s First Amendment Rights,

“– Make a public apology for the suspension and grief it has caused the Chief and his family, and

“– Restore Chief Cochran’s pay and reputation as an honorable Fire Chief.”

Reed suspended Cochran over such passages in the chief’s 162-page self-published book as a definition of uncleanness being the “opposite of purity; including sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism, pederasty, bestiality, and all other forms of sexual perversion.”

Cochran’s book stemmed from a series of men’s studies at Elizabeth Baptist Church titled “A Quest for Authentic Manhood…Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN1

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