Merry Christmas Australia! – Russia begins dropping cases against the Greenpeace Arctic 30 – Fighting spreads in South Sudan – Branson wants a boycott after a country passes ridiculous legislation – Joy to the world, North Korea is at it again.

The United Nations now says thousands are dead in the South Sudan crisis, with the discovery of mass graves and other evidence of “breakdown in respect for the most basic rights of people.”  A mass grave in Bentiu contained the bodies of 75 government soldiers from the Dinka ethnic group, and there are at least two more mass graves to be examined.  Australia and pretty much the rest of the world are warning foreigners to get out of South Sudan.

The treason trial of Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been delayed over security concerns, after explosives were discovered on his route to the court in Islamabad.  Police say the material had not yet been fashioned into a bomb, but Musharraf’s lawyers said that their client could not appear in court because of the threat.  He still must appear in court on 1 January to hear charges read against him.

A British surgeon is under suspension while authorities investigate a claim he “branded” his initials on a patient’s liver.  A colleague reportedly found the initials during a routine follow-up operation on the unnamed patient at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.  It is alleged the surgeon used a beam of argon gas – used for sealing blood vessels – to write them.

UK Business tycoon Richard Branson is calling for a boycott on Uganda after its parliament approved a draconian bill to sentence LGBT people to life in prison.  Brandson said, “Governments must realize that people should be able to love whoever they want.”  US President Barack Obama described the bill before it was passed as “odious” and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu compared it to apartheid.

Russia has begun dropping the cases of the Greenpeace Arctic 30 under the recently-approved amnesty bill, beginning with Britain’s Anthony Perretta.  All 28 activists and two journalists seized by commandoes after their protest against Russia’s oil drilling in the arctic are expected to be able to leave the country. 

Italy has begun clearing the migrant reception center on Lampedusa following a series of protests against unsanitary conditions and mistreatment of migrants, some of it captured on video.  The migrants are being clown to the Italian mainland, and Prime Minister Enrico Letta is planning legislation to speed up the immigration process.  The Lampedusa facility was designed for short-term use but quickly turned into a long-term refugee camp with the huge increase of Africans and Middle Easterners seeking asylum in Europe.

Satellite imagery suggests North Korea is making “wide-ranging, extensive” efforts to fully reactivate its main nuclear complex.  The Johns Hopkins University's US-Korea Institute says large amounts of soot and ash indicates production of fuel rods to be used in a plutonium reactor.  South Korea’s intelligence agency says the North was capable of staging another atomic test anytime but had so far showed no signs of doing so.