The Lagos Government has announced the closure of Creek Road from Mr Biggs to Warehouse road junction in Apapa area of the State. The government on Friday explained that the closure was for construction by HITECH. The Ministry of Transportation, in a statement, by Bolanle Ogunlola, Head, Public Affairs Unit, said that the closure commenced […]

Lagos shuts Apapa roads, gives alternative routes

Nigeria (Blank NEWS Online) –:  In addition to the actions taken so far by the Delta State Government to address the menace of flood in Asaba, the state capital, further […]

LG International will expand its palm oil operations in Indonesia for the first time in six years. This is a move for the trading company to focus more on the food resource business. The company recently broke the ground for the palm oil plant. It plans to complete the construction by the end of the first half of next year and start producing 110,000 tons of palm oil a year. This is an increase of 30,000 tons from the current capacity. Back in 2009, LG International jumped into the food re...

LG International Corp., Korea's leading general trading company, is set to kick off the operation of a cement factory in Myanmar for which it has invested for two years. This is part of the company's strategy to preempt the rapidly growing Myanmar market by becoming the first general trading firm to build a cement plant in the Southeast Asian nation. According to industry sources on September 11, LG International is currently making a pilot run of the cement plant in the erstwhile reclusive c...

Introduciton On 5 December 2017, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published its proposals for a revised UK Corporate Governance Code. The Code is shorter, building on the FRC’s...

Wasiirka Shaqada iyo Arrimaha bulshada ee Xukumadda Federaalka Soomaaliya Sadiiq Xirsi warfaa ayaa sheegay in si habsami leh uu u socdo barnaamijka Baxnaano oo loogu talagalay in lagu kaalmeeyo dadka danyara ah. Wasiirka Warfaa ayaa sheegay in mashruucaan uu yahay mid ay leedahay Dowladda Soomaaliyeed, isla markaana uu taageero ka heysto Bankiga aduunka waxaana bishii […]

The post Dowladda Soomaaliya oo sheegtay in si habsami leh uu u socdo barnaamijka baxnaano. appeared first on Horseed Media • Somali News.

On 10 April 2020, a Government Decree was issued that prescribes the application of different company law rules as part of the government’s Economic Protection Action Plan. This adds new opportunities for corporate decision-making to mitigate ...

The Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment)(Governance) Regulations 2015 were laid before Parliament on 28 January 2015.  Issued under the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, these...

The UK is changing the way in which it taxes share options and share awards held by employees who move between countries. Some employees will gain and some employees will lose. As an employer, if you have employees on assignment from overseas or you...

On 12 August this year, the Insurance Act 2015 will introduce the most significant changes to insurance law in 110 years – how will it affect the shipping industry? The Act applies to all insurance policies taken out by businesses which are subject ...

Following close consultation with IFI's including the IFC, World Bank and EBRD, Tunisia has launched a review process to aid with the structuring and implementation of new PPP projects. Eversheds Sutherland was privileged to have been spec...

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How does the communication within a team take place in the home office? Due to the increasing intensity of preventive measures against the spread of corona, more and more companies are closing down their locations and, where possible, relocating bus...

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Introduction Following the declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 30 January of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to the coronavirus crisis (please see our last briefing here), the vi...

Introduction Following the declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 30 January of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to the coronavirus crisis (please see our last briefing here), the vi...

Border Closure Update In an attempt to stem the virus outbreak in Europe, a number of European Union (EU) and Schengen zone Member States exercised their right to temporarily re-introduced border controls between themselves and other Member States. ...

Introduction Financial services firms’ corporate governance and risk cultures is a ‘hot’ topic with financial regulators globally. Regulators have noted that serious corporate governance and conduct failings of financial services f...

  The BEE Commission’s report 2018, between 2017 and 2018, had no significant change in the levels of transformation, with black ownership reflecting a decline to 25.2% from 27% and current management control still sitting at 38% for blac...

Weare delighted to have partnered with the International Renewable Energy Agency and the Terrawatt Initiative in the development of the Open Solar Contracts which were launched recently at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. The publication...

Following the detection of a new coronavirus strain of pneumonia in Wuhan, China in late 2019 (now named ‘COVID-19’), the subsequent scale of the outbreak and the measures undertaken by various governmental authorities to contain it, hav...

Following the detection of a new coronavirus strain of pneumonia in Wuhan, China in late 2019 (now named ‘COVID-19’), the subsequent scale of the outbreak and the measures undertaken by various governmental authorities to contain it, hav...

In late February, China expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents after the newspaper’s publication of an opinion column that Beijing condemned as racist. ......

Nanjing University life science faculty's discovery of the anti-tumor mechanisms of high-salt diet was recently reported by Nature Communication and hailed by colleagues as a disruptive step of progress. Professors Zhang Junfeng and Dong Lei's team at the State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology of School of Life Sciences published in the online journal on April 7, 2020, the paper 'High-salt diet inhibits tumor growth in mice via regulating myeloid-derived suppressor cell differentiation' (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15524-1). The publication drew widespread interest from at home and abroad. The Nature Research Cancer...

9 May, 2020 - by John Finucane Sinn Féin MP John Finucane has condemned loyalist threats against journalists and said the PSNI must do all in its power to put the crime gangs responsible out of...

Eversheds Sutherland and Smart Dubai consider the future of AI governance and how a proactive approach can create a trusted ecosystem and address ethical concerns. Authored by Charlotte Walker-Osborn and Erica Crosland Read the article here >...

New regulations on foreign investment in France were published on January 1, 2020. These texts make numerous changes to the legal framework for investment control in France. Financial relations between France and foreign countries are, in principle,...

Overview On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, the sixth time that the WHO has made this declaration since adop...

The Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) has quietly published a further chapter of its internal Operational Handbook containing guidance on how its staff should assess and evaluate the compliance programmes that they investigate (the “Gui...

Andrés Cañizález is a Venezuelan journalist and Doctor of political science

The post The Future of Journalism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Savio Carvalho is a Global Campaign Leader at Greenpeace International. Twitter: @savioconnects

 
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it
                                                                                                               ― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

The post Why the International Day of Multilateralism Must Start a New World Order appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The Athletic's David Aldridge told The Japan Times that Hachimura is "a very diligent, hard worker" who should "play for many years on good teams."

[Dalsan Radio] A suspected has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of Kalsan TV journalist Said Yussuf after he stabbed him 5 times yesterday evening in Mogadishu.

Loyalist terrorists in the North have issued threats against journalists working for the Sunday Life and Sunday World newspapers.

In the lead-up to the Truth Matters conference in October, we will be focusing our attention on the sufficiency, authority, and clarity of Scripture. Of our previous blog series, none better embodies that emphasis than Frequently Abused Verses. The following entry from that series originally appeared on February 10, 2016. -ed.

Next week will mark the second anniversary of Jamie Coots’s death. He was a father, pastor, and one of the stars of the National Geographic Channel’s reality series, Snake Salvation. The show followed Coots’s life and ministry as a prominent leader in a sect of Holiness Pentecostals who incorporate handling poisonous snakes into their worship in fulfilment of the promise of supernatural power and protection in Mark 16:17-18.

Coots died from a snakebite.

Snake handling—once popular throughout the Appalachian states—has dwindled to a tiny subculture of Pentecostals who believe in the practice of the extreme signs and wonders described in Mark 16:17-18. Specifically, they teach that they have the ability to cast out demons, speak in tongues, handle poisonous snakes, drink poison, and heal the sick (they also expose themselves to open flames, although that particular sign is not included in Mark’s gospel). And every couple years, the movement garners headlines because another pastor or congregant has died attempting to fulfill those supposed promises.

Virtually all other charismatics would disavow such extreme behavior, while holding just as tightly to the promises conveyed in the closing verses of Mark’s gospel—albeit more selectively.

For example, charismatic prosperity preacher Benny Hinn cites the passage in defense of his faith-healing ministry: “I knew the Lord had told me to pray for the sick as part of preaching the gospel, just as He told the disciples, in Mark 16:18: ‘They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.’” ^[1] Benny Hinn, The Anointing (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997) 49.

And in his book When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson—pastor of Bethel Redding, one of the most influential charismatic churches in the country—points to the end of Mark’s gospel as a promise of God’s ongoing miraculous work.

As our ministry teams travel around the world, we have come to expect certain things. Healing, deliverance, and conversions are the fruits of our labors. While healing is seldom the subject we teach on, it is one of the most common results. As we proclaim the message of the Kingdom of God, people get well. The Father seems to say, Amen! To His own message by confirming the word with power (see Mark 16:20). ^[2] Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth (Shippensburg, PA: Treasure House, 2003) 89.

We could go on with examples of how charismatics of various traditions lean heavily on the closing verses of Mark’s gospel, but you get the point. For many it’s a foundational passage—one that explicitly promises all believers the power to perform signs and wonders.

But is that really the point of the passage? And more importantly, do those verses even belong in your Bible to begin with? Even a simple reading of the text raises some significant questions about its Scriptural authenticity.

Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it. After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country. They went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either. Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed. [And they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his companions. And after that, Jesus Himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.] (Mark 16:9-20)

As you can see, there are actually two endings to Mark’s gospel contained in the above quote. Verses 9-20 are referred to as the longer ending, while the portion in brackets at the end of verse 20 is called the shorter ending—on its own it would appear immediately after verse 8. Both have appeared individually in a variety of translations—the NASB includes both.

But neither ending appears in the earliest and most reliable New Testament manuscripts. No ancient book has been more carefully preserved than the Bible—we have several thousand manuscripts, with some dating all the way back to mere decades after they were first written. And through the science of textual analysis, scholars have determined that the final verses of Mark were not in the original, inspired text.    

On top of that, as John MacArthur explains in his commentary on the passage, there are also several internal indications that Mark didn’t write either ending.

First, the transition between verse 8 and verse 9 is awkward and disjointed. The conjunction now (from the Greek word de) implies continuity with the preceding narrative, but the focus of verse 9 abruptly shifts to Mary Magdalene rather than continuing a discussion of the women referred to in verse 8. Moreover, it would be strange for Mark to wait until the end of his narrative to introduce Mary Magdalene, as if for the first time . . . when she was already mentioned three times in the prior context (Mark 15:40, 47, 16:1). A similar discontinuity regards Peter, who is singled out in verse 7 yet not mentioned again in verses 9-20. The “shorter ending” . . . attempts to rectify those incongruities by highlighting both Peter and the other women. . . . But this shorter ending has even weaker manuscript evidence to support it than the longer ending.

Second, the vocabulary, style, and structure of the longer ending is not consistent with the rest of Mark’s gospel. There are eighteen words in this section that are not used elsewhere in Mark. For example, the title “Lord Jesus” is used here (v. 19) but is never used anywhere else in Mark’s account.

Third, the inclusion of apostolic signs does not fit the way the other three gospels conclude their accounts of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Though many signs mentioned in this section parallel portions of the book of Acts (cf. Acts 2:4; 9:17; 10:46; 28:8), some are clearly without biblical support, such as being able to “pick up” venomous “serpents” (though perhaps loosely based on Paul’s experience in Acts 28:3-5) or “drink any deadly poison.” ^[3] John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Mark 9-16 (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2015) 411-412.

Summing up the case against the scriptural credentials of Mark 16:9-20, John MacArthur writes,

The evidence, both external and internal, conclusively demonstrates that verses 9-20 were not originally part of Mark’s inspired record. While they generally summarize truths taught elsewhere in the New Testament, they should always be evaluated in light of the rest of Scripture. No doctrines or practices should be established solely on them. The snake-handling preachers of the Appalachians provide a prime example of the errors that can arise from accepting these verses as authoritative.

Nonetheless, knowing that Mark 16:9-20 is not original should give believers more confidence in the accuracy of the New Testament, not less. As noted above, the science of textual analysis makes it possible for biblical scholars to identify the very few passages that were not part of the original. Such places are clearly marked in modern translations, making it easy for students of Scripture to identify them. Consequently, believers can approach the rest of the text with the settled assurance that the Bible they hold in their hands accurately reflects the original. ^[4] The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Mark 9-16, 412.

That conclusion then begs the question: Where did these verses come from?

Most likely, they were added in by a scribe who felt Mark’s original ending was missing something. However, it does not appear that he was so audacious as to concoct an ending from his own imagination. Instead, Mark 16:9-20 is a patchwork quilt of other biblical passages concerning the life of Christ after His resurrection, His commissioning of the apostles, and stories from their ministry in the founding of the church.

Time and space don’t permit me to break down the probable origin of each verse, but let me encourage you to listen to John MacArthur’s sermon on the passage, called “The Fitting End to Mark’s Gospel,” or consult his commentary on Mark 9-16 for more details on how this extrabiblical passage was likely assembled.

And what of Mark’s original ending? Why was it deemed so deficient in the first place? True, it is abrupt and to the point: “They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8). But as John MacArthur explains, that abrupt ending perfectly fits both Mark’s style and his purpose for writing at all.

Mark’s ending is abrupt but it is not incomplete. The tomb was empty; the angelic announcement explained that Jesus had risen; and multiple eyewitnesses confirmed those events. The purpose of Mark’s gospel was to demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1). Having amply made that point, no further proof was necessary.

Throughout his gospel, Mark consistently punctuated key events in the life of the Lord Jesus by emphasizing the wonder He evoked in the hearts and minds of others. Mark simply moves from one point of amazement about Christ to the next. So the narrative ends where it ought to end. It climaxes with amazement and bewilderment at the resurrection of the crucified Savior (cf. John 20:31). In so doing, it leaves the reader in a place of wonder, awe, and worship, centered on its glorious subject: the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ^[5] The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Mark 9-16, 417-418.

So while Mark 16:9-20 may be a significant proof text for many charismatics, their interpretation is invalidated when we understand that those verses never belonged in Scripture to begin with.

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The United States has tightened visa rules for Chinese journalists as the tit-for-tat war on the media between the two sides escalated.The rules, which will take effect on Monday, limit visas for Chinese passport holders to 90 days with the option for an extension, the US Department for Homeland Security said on Friday.Journalists with passports from Hong Kong or Macau will not be affected.“The department is issuing this rule to address the actions of the PRC [People’s Republic of China]…

WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, is systematically monitoring the content sent by international users to build up its censorship algorithms applied against accounts registered in China, a new study has found.Researchers at Citizen Lab, an academic research lab at the University of Toronto, determined that WeChat screens images and documents shared by accounts registered outside China after they are sent, then adds the digital signature – or “hash” – of any files deemed sensitive to a…

Ataro is also an assistant coach for multiple Kenyan champions Blazers.

Exam authorities will carry out citywide research to develop an alternative student grading system in the event university entrance tests are cancelled because of future pandemics, Hong Kong’s education minister told the Post on Thursday.In an exclusive interview, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung also said his bureau would review with schools how to better prepare for class suspensions, including teacher training and resources for non-traditional instruction methods.Hong Kong…

Hong Kong lawmakers on Friday rejected a proposal by four international schools seeking a total of HK$1.4 billion (US$180 million) in interest-free loans for campus development as they face financial pressure during the coronavirus pandemic.This came as Harrow International School Hong Kong announced this week it would offer a 20 per cent reduction of the summer term tuition fees to parents, following an earlier petition demanding a fee cut of up to 25 per cent.The proposal, which was tabled by…

Stella Paul is the recipient of the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, a multiple winner of the Asian Environmental Journalism Awards, the Lead Ambassador for World Pulse and a senior IPS correspondent.

The post Protect Journalists’ Rights so We can Stop the COVID-19 Disinfodemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

This year’s World Press Freedom Day on 3 May falls during COVID-19 lockdowns in many of our countries. Restriction on movement means journalists all over the world are facing obstacles in getting interviews and data, and verifying stories before publishing. In addition, the global pandemic has been used by many governments to control not just […]

The post Journalism is Not a Crime…and Fake News on Social Media is Not Journalism appeared first on Inter Press Service.