The Globe and Mail's Geoffrey York on working in the paranoid, authoritarian country that is China, with its omnipresent security apparatus.

Here's the CTV.ca story about Amanda Lindhout and the others, which has some video attached.

The video apparently had the kidnap victims, presumably still in Somalia, making some demands of politicians. However, Lindhout's audio had been muted in the video.

Here's some quotes and notes from Leonard Vincent of Reporters without Borders, taken from an interview with CTV Newsnet :

"We don't know exactly why this video was shot and why it was broadcast on al-Jazeera. That is why we have strong doubts about this whole event. According to the informatqion we have from the field, nothing has really changed ... the demands are still the same, and that is money.'

The release of such a video may be to pressure the negotiators or to draw international attention.

As such, Vincent said reporters covering the story "should be very careful" and ask questions about when and why the video was shot, and why the kidnap victims are making pleas to politicians when the issue has always been money.

One shouldn't jump to the conclusion that the kidnappers are now making political demands, he said.

Gen. David Petraeus, the new head of U.S. Central Command, tells the BBC that what's been done in Afghanistan hasn't worked.