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Thursday, October 18, 2012
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Online Sleuthing Casts Doubt on ‘Gospel of Jesus’ Wife’
REUTERS/Andrew Burton
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, speaks at the closing forum of the Clinton Global Initiative 2012 (CGI) during the final day of the event in New York, September 25, 2012.
Chelsea Clinton steps up to fight diarrhea deaths in Nigeria
Reuters
CHICAGO - Chelsea Clinton is taking on the discomforting issue of diarrhea, throwing her family’s philanthropic heft behind a sweeping effort in Nigeria to prevent the deaths of 1 million mothers and children each year from preventable causes, including 100,000 deaths from diarrhea. The 32-year-old daughter of President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joined Nigerian officials, the prime minister of Norway and other leaders on Tuesday in promoting expanded access to zinc and oral rehydration solutions or ORS, a treatment that could prevent more than 90 percent of diarrhea-related deaths in the country. “It is unconscionable that in the 21st century, children still die of diarrhea,” Clinton told Reuters in an exclusive interview by phone from Abuja, Nigeria. The ORS and zinc work in Nigeria is in coordination with the Clinton Health Access Initiative or CHAI, on whose board Clinton serves. She has stepped up her
public role in the family’s global philanthropic efforts and in July took a six-day tour of Africa with her father, who founded the William J. Clinton Foundation in 2001. The goal of the initiative in Nigeria is to help drive down the cost of high-quality ORS and zinc treatments and increase awareness for them, said Clinton, currently a doctoral candidate in international relations at the University of Oxford. Currently, fewer than 2 percent of children in Nigeria have access to the World Health Organizationrecommended treatment. Increasing the number of children with access to the therapy to 80 percent by 2015 would help prevent an estimated 220,000 deaths in Nigeria.
“I would like to see us make real, measurable progress here in Nigeria and in the other countries where we are working on ORS zinc,” said Clinton, including Uganda and parts of India, as part of the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s new push to improve access to essential medicines for children. “For me, it’s not complicated. We know what works and we should be doing more of it. And when we don’t know what works, we should be innovating and spending time and energy on designing these solutions to solve problems that haven’t been solved yet,” said Clinton. “That is what I love about the work CHAI does and the work of the foundation more broadly,” she said.
A copied error from an online translation of the Gospel of Thomas may be the “smoking gun” that strongly suggests the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, a controversial papyrus fragment that supposedly refers to Jesus being married, is a forgery, scholars say. If the text is fake, it would represent an extraordinary tale of how an amateur with no knowledge of a long-dead language could fool some of the world’s leading experts by using a readily available Internet tool — and how scholars countered by rallying online to swiftly investigate the case together. The business card-size fragment of papyrus stirred up worldwide controversy with a line of text that reads “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’” Many skeptical scholars suggested the document was a forgery in the weeks following the announcement of the discovery by Harvard historian Karen King — and their early suspicions have evolved into solid theories and findings as they talked through Facebook posts, blogs and e-lists. One of the most compelling arguments for the fragment being a forgery has emerged from Andrew Bernhard, an Oxford University graduate and author of the book “Other Early Christian Gospels” (T & T Clark, 2006). He published an online paper last week pointing out a pattern of similarities between the
Bali Post
The smoking gun
Hurricane Rafael Spotted from Space Tropical Storm Rafael strengthened into Hurricane Rafael late last night (Oct. 15), and a NASA satellite caught sight of the swirling storm early this morning. Rafael first became a tropical storm on Oct. 12, just as its predecessor, Tropical Storm Patty, was waning. The storm strengthened as expected and was declared a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) as of 5:45 p.m. EDT, making it the ninth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. While it is the tail-end of hurricane season, which officially ends on Nov. 30, a peak in hurricane formation is seen in mid-October in historical trends. This secondary peak, which is smaller than the main peak in August and September, comes from a unique mix of still warm ocean waters and atmospheric conditions that can still spawn storms, according to the Capital Weather Gang, a weather-focused Washington Post blog. Hurricane Rafael has maximum
Public Order Officer probes a villa jutting to beach area
Gospel of Jesus’ Wife and the Coptic Gospel of Thomas — similarities that include grammatical errors and line breaks found only in the online word-by-word translation of the Gospel of Thomas. “It’s remarkable that a forger could have forged something like this using a simple tool on the Internet,” Bernhard said. “It’s equally stunning how quickly scholars could respond and analyze the text.”
All the grammatical anomalies in the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife suggest the writer was not a native speaker or even an academic expert in Coptic — the ancient, dead language of early Christians living in Egypt. Instead, Bernhard says that the pattern of errors and suspiciously similar line breaks suggests an amateur might have forged the “patchwork” text using individual words and phrases taken from Michael Grondin’s Interlinear Coptic-English Translation of the Gospel of Thomas. [Most European Languages Unlikely to Survive Online] “There’s this general pattern in that everywhere the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife could diverge from gospel of Thomas, it doesn’t, and in places where it does [diverge], it appears it’s following Mike’s Interlinear,” Bernhard told TechNewsDaily.
sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph), as of the most recent NHC update, making it a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength. NASA’s GOES-14 satellite spied the storm from its orbit and took an image at 7:45 a.m. EDT today (Oct. 16). The hurricane is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Bermuda and heading to the northnortheast. The storm is expected to pass to the east of the island later today; its center will be far enough away that Bermuda will likely only see the tropical stormforce winds at the edge of the storm, and a tropical storm warning is in effect for the island. The satellite image shows that the strongest thunderstorms within the hurricane are on its western side — the bright white clouds there are evidence of the strong convection (the overturning of air that drives the storms) taking place, according to a NASA statement.
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Thursday, October 18, 2012
AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO
An Indonesian armed police officer secures an area near the 2002 Bali bombing monument in Kuta, near Denpasar on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on October 11, 2012, as Bali prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the attack. Indonesian Police has appointed PT Sucofindo Persero to re-audit the security certification of 111 star hotels in Bali. Security system referring to the certification in 2004 will be adjusted to requirements of the international standards.
Security certification of star hotels in Bali re-audited
NEGARA - A number of villa developments at Perancak village, Jembrana subdistrict alleged to have not had a permit and violated the coastal borderline were probed by the Public Order Officer of Jembrana, Tuesday (Oct 16). The discipline operation was led in person by the Chief of Public Order Officer of Jembrana, I Putu Widarta. The operation targeted three villa buildings owned by PT Pasti Indah located on the beach. Based on the field observation, the Villa Pasti 33, 34 and 12 were seen under construction. The management could not be met. Some of the buildings looked to jut to the beach. From the observation to three locations, the officer had asked about the building permit. As the villa 33, design of the building did not look like a villa but resembled a tiered hotel having more than 20 rooms. Doubt of the officers was then answered by Headman of Perancak, I Ketut Suastika Yasa, who came to location. He said that the buildings of Villa Pasti 33 and 34 had owned a permit. Suastika claimed to have received the building permit and was issued about five months before. The workers were asked to install the notice board of building permit number and carried the document. As a matter of fact, in the area stood
new building that was just 40 percent completed. Indeed, the building completely jutted to the beach. In addition, the sewerage disposal was directly made to the beach. However, the Public Order Officers were reluctant to intervene because the permit had been issued. “Yes, if the permit has been issued is okay. We do not want to interfere with how the process to get permit,” explained Putu Widarta. Other than the two villas, namely the villa 33 and 34, the public order officers also asked about the building permit of Villa Pasti 12 that was admitted to have been under process. Meanwhile, the Head of Jembrana Licensing Office, I Komang Suparta, when contacted on Tuesday said that during his office he never issued a permit on behalf of Villa Pasti at Perancak. From the checking, it was only found a permit issued in 2012. The permit was signed by the previous official. While at the moment, there was an application of permit from Dangin Berawah hamlet, Perancak, with an area of 3,540 square meters. According to him, it was under process as the requirements were still incomplete. Whether the license would be issued or not, according to him, it would depend on the results of checking by the licensing team. (kmb26)
Bali Post
MANGUPURA - Indonesian Police has appointed PT Sucofindo Persero to re-audit the security certification of 111 star hotels in Bali. Security system referring to the certification in 2004 will be adjusted to requirements of the international standards. Chairman of the Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants Association (PHRI) of Bali, Tjok Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, said that currently 154 star hotels had been certified. However, a total of 111 certified star hotels should be re-audited by the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). “A total of 111 star hotels actually have performed certification of security system. Since the condition is now completely dynamic so that it is necessary to improve the audit that would be conducted first by the competent authority, namely PT Sucofindo,” said Chairman of the PHRI Bali, Tjok Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, Tuesday (Oct 16). He said the priority for the audit would be given to three to five star hotels. They were prioritized be-
cause those hotels got more contacts with foreign and domestic tourists. Such system improvement was expected to provide a comfort and security for tourists both domestic and foreign tourists while vacationing on the island. “System improvement should have been included in the investment budget by capital owners. Ideally, the newly established hotel or restaurant should obtain three permits at once, namely the operating and security permit,” he explained. Meanwhile, the Director of Operations II of PT Sucofindo, Ganis Ramadhani, judged that most hotels and restaurants in Bali had implemented the safety management system in accordance with
the appeal of the local PHRI. “The existing three to five star hotels have complied with the safety standards, especially in terms of equipment, but are inappropriate with international regulations. On that account, we will conduct an audit through coordination with the PHRI and Bali Police,” he said. He mentioned the implementation of security system in accordance with international standards aimed at providing convenience to guests or visitors to tourist accommodation. Therefore, it should be followed with socialization on the implementation of security system. “Do not let the improved security result in inconvenience to tourists due to the application of the system,” he said. (kmb27)
IBP/Olo
A number of villa developments at Perancak village, Jembrana subdistrict alleged to have not had a permit and violated the coastal borderline were probed by the Public Order Officer of Jembrana, Tuesday (Oct 16).