Midday Roundup: ISIS executes Norwegian, Chinese hostages

Raging on. Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) said today it has killed two captives, one Norwegian and one Chinese, after not receiving ransoms for the two men. The group published two images of the men in its English-language magazine, saying they had been “executed after being abandoned by kafir nations and organizations.” “Kafir” is the Arabic word for infidel. In the images, the men appeared to have been shot. They were previously identified as Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, 48, from Oslo, and Fan Jinghui, 50, a freelance consultant from Beijing. ISIS today also released a picture showing the purported bomb used to bring down a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula last month.

Chief counsel. The House Select Committee on Infant Lives has appointed an experienced Justice Department attorney to investigate the abortion and tissue procurement practices of Planned Parenthood. March Bell will serve as the staff director and chief counsel for the subcommittee, which formed in October after the release of a series of videos showing abortionists haggling over the prices of baby body parts with undercover journalists posing as tissue procurement agents. The committee will spend a year looking into whether Planned Parenthood broke any federal laws. Bell previously worked as the senior counsel for trafficking in persons in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice and has served as counsel to congressional committees before. “Already an expert in investigating human trafficking, terrorism, and organized crime, March is well-suited to ask the tough questions required of the abortion lobby,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List.

Family matters. U.S. Roman Catholic bishops are vowing to uphold the traditional view of marriage. “I don’t think because five Supreme Court justices changed the public policy on such a fundamental issue that we should just accept it,” said Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan. Alabama Bishop Robert Baker said the bishops should join other religious groups in working to protect government workers who refuse to participate in same-sex weddings.“Those, for example, who are judges or civil authorities who can easily lose their positions, their jobs for refusing to participate in ceremonies that go contrary to their religious convictions,” Baker said. Attendees at the bishops meeting also gave a standing ovation to a Vatican representative who helped arrange a meeting between Pope Francis and Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who briefly went to jail over her convictions about marriage. Davis joined a group of people who greeted the pope at the Vatican Embassy during his visit to Washington, D.C., in September.

Shooting scrutiny. Tensions remain high in Minneapolis after police on Sunday shot an African-American man during a confrontation. Protesters are demanding the release of police video from the incident. Jamal Clark, 24, was a suspect in a domestic assault when police arrived at the scene. When Clark interfered with paramedics aiding the victim, a scuffle ensued and police shot him. “There was a whole entire complex of people living in the apartment said they saw him cuffed with his hands behind his back,” said Adja Gildersleeve of Black Lives Matter. Drew Evans with the Minnesota state police told KSTP-TV Clark was not in handcuffs when he was shot, but police are still investigating the incident.Clark is on life support at a local hospital. Police have not revealed the names of the officers involved.

Beleaguered battle. Another deadly suicide bombing killed 32 people in northeastern Nigeria on Tuesday night, three weeks after twin suicide bombings at mosques in the region took the lives of 42 people. Nigeria has made inroads recapturing territory from the terror group Boko Haram this year, but militants with the group still have plenty of places to hide in the forests in the northern part of the country. President Muhammadu Buhari today ordered the arrest of former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki for stealing almost $2 billion that should’ve been spent arming the Nigerian military. Buhari’s office said Dasuki’s alleged crimes seriously hampered the government’s fight against Boko Haram.

WORLD Radio’s Steve Coleman and Mary Reichard and The Associated Press contributed to this report.