Jesus, the Alpha & the Omega
The governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar are to push ahead with the repatriation of thousands of Rohingya this week, despite objections by the UN, and against the wishes of the refugees, who spoke of being “terrified” at being sent back. Last week fear gripped the camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh at the news that, without
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Copenhagen’s sophisticated urban vibe, charming canals, and historic spaces combine to form one of Europe’s most enchanting destinations. Scandinavia’s unrivalled capital of cool has long welcomed international jet-setters seeking world-class design and architecture, and in recent years the city has firmly positioned itself atop the global gourmand’s bucket list. Copenhagen
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Credits: Associated Press, The British Wildlife Photography Awards, The European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, The Guardian, Reuters, The Times.
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Superbug infections resistant to multiple antibiotics kill around 33,000 people a year in Europe, health experts said on Monday, and the burden of these diseases is comparable to that of flu, tuberculosis and HIV combined. An analysis by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) found the impact
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Revelation 21: 1 -22:5. Our hearts are naturally more commonly fixated on our daily routine or struggles, but that ought not to stumble us in our spirituality. In our transient context, it becomes an opportunity to demonstrate that as entities saved by grace, despite possessing a deceitful heart (Jer 17:9-10;
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It was supposed to be the war to end all wars. After the armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (100 years ago Sunday on November 11, 1918), it would be known as the Great War. No one would have thought to call it
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If you are reading this article, you have probably lived through at least one global flu pandemic – one just as contagious as the deadly 1918 strain. There was the 1957 outbreak (the so-called ‘Asian flu’) and the ‘Hong Kong flu’ in 1968. Forty years later, in 2009, there was ‘swine flu.’ Each
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Atheris is a genus of venomous vipers known as bush vipers. They are found only in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding southern Africa) and many species have isolated and fragmented distributions due to their confinement to rain forests. In an example of convergent evolution, they show many similarities to the arboreal pit vipers of Asia and South America. Sixteen species are currently recognized. They are relatively small in size, with adults
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Octans is a faint constellation located in the deep southern sky. Its name is Latin for the eighth part of a circle, but it is named after the octant, a navigational instrument. The constellation was devised by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Octans is the 50th constellation in
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Scientists are investigating canines’ extraordinary sense of smell, hoping that it will prove a more reliable predictor of illnesses than conventional testing. Malaria Last week, researchers presented evidence that dogs could tell from sniffing someone’s socks whether they had malaria. After several months of training, a Labrador and a Labrador-retriever could tell
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China massively increased security spending in 2017 in the far-western region of Xinjiang, where hundreds of thousands of Muslims are alleged to have been detained, a new report says. Spending in areas “that explain nearly all security-related facility construction” rose by 213% between 2016 and 2017 said the US-based Jamestown
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A plan to turn a huge tract of the pristine Antarctic ocean into the world’s biggest sanctuary has been rejected, throwing the future of one of the Earth’s most important ecosystems into doubt. Environmental groups said Russia, China and Norway had played a part in blocking the proposal, with the other 22
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Facebook has admitted it did not do enough to prevent the incitement of violence and hate speech in Myanmar, after a report it commissioned concluded that it had become a platform for harmful and racially-inflammatory content. The report by San Francisco-based non-profit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) found that, in Myanmar, “Facebook
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Voyeurism is the achievement of sexual arousal by observing people who are naked, disrobing or engaging in sexual activity. When observation is of unsuspecting people, this sexual behaviour often leads to problems with the law and relationships. The voyeuristic disorder involves acting on voyeuristic urges or fantasies with a nonconsenting person or experiencing
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Fighting has intensified around the largest hospital operating in the port city of Hodeidah, preventing access to severely malnourished and vulnerable children, the UN’s children’s agency has warned. The escalation in the conflict follows the US calls for a ceasefire and suggestions that peace talks may be held in Sweden. On Thursday,
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Here, our top destinations worth zeroing in on in 2019, from an Argentinian wine region to—wait for it—Missouri. 1. Salta, Argentina The untrod northwest region of Argentina is the next big magnet for nature lovers: Condors fly above giant cactuses, snow-capped Andes mountains contrast with high desert, and ancient rock
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Credits: The Guardian, The New York Times, Readers’ Travel Photography Competition, Reuters.
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The Arctic consists of land, internal waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and high seas. All land, internal waters, territorial seas and EEZs in the Arctic are under the jurisdiction of one of the eight Arctic coastal states: Canada, Norway, Russia, Denmark (via Greenland), Iceland, Sweden, Finland and the United States. International law regulates this area as with other portions of the Earth. Under
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Ephesians 3: 14 – 21; 1 John 3: 1 – 3. Our view of life essentially determines our attitudes to it, and would invariably impact our interactions with everything and everyone around us. However, as believers, saved by grace, we have an absolute, unshakable Christian hope that transformed our outlook
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The fact invariably stated about Great Smoky is this: It is the nation’s busiest park, drawing more than nine million visitors a year, twice the number of any other national park. Most of the millions see the park from a mountain-skimming scenic highway that, on a typical weekend day during
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Air pollution is the “new tobacco,” the head of the World Health Organization has warned, saying the simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more. Over 90% of the world’s population suffers toxic air and research is increasingly revealing the profound impacts on the health
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There are two kinds of people in the world: those with internet access and those without. But the decades-long drive to convert the latter into the former is beginning to falter, the Guardian reveals today, prompting hard questions about whether connecting the world is even possible. The reality, however, is far
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Just five countries hold 70% of the world’s remaining untouched wilderness areas and urgent international action is needed to protect them, according to new research. Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have for the first time produced a global map that sets out
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Norma is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere between Ara and Lupus, one of twelve drawn up in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille. Its name is Latin for normal, referring to a right angle, and is variously considered to represent a rule, a carpenter’s square, a set square or a level. It remains one of the 88 modern constellations.
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Exciting new research from Northwestern Medicine has discovered that inside every cell within the human body is a toxic kill code designed to trigger self-destruction if it senses a cell is turning cancerous. Across two newly published studies, the scientists remarkably homed in on the exact nucleotide code underlying this
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Until recently, I knew cobalt only as a colour. Falling somewhere between the ocean and the sky, cobalt blue has been prized by artists from the Ming dynasty in China to the masters of French Impressionism. But there is another kind of cobalt, an industrial form that is not cherished
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Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation. The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and
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An obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is characterised by a pervasive preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and control (with no room for flexibility) that ultimately slows or interferes with completing a task. Diagnosis is by clinical criteria. Treatment is with psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and SSRIs. Because patients with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder need
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Bible Verse for Today
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. Helen Keller (1880 - 1968).
The Ainu, in the historical Japanese texts the Ezo, are an indigenous people of Japan (Hokkaido, and formerly northeastern Honshu) and Russia (Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and formerly the Kamchatka Peninsula). On June 6, 2008, the Japanese Diet passed a bipartisan, non-binding resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu people as indigenous to Japan, and urging an end to discrimination against the group. Recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture originated in a merger of the Okhotsk culture with the Satsumon, one of the ancient archaeological cultures that are considered to have derived from the Jōmon-period cultures of the Japanese archipelago. The Ainu economy was based on farming, as well as on hunting, fishing and gathering.
CDC Travellers’ Health Notices 
There are two sides to the human brain. Each side of the brain interacts with the opposite side of the body. The left side of the brain interacts with the right side of the body, and vice versa. The reason behind this way of interaction is still not understood.
Relief Web 
The Lagoon Nebula is Stars, Gas, and Dust.
Image Credit & Copyright: Nelson Ortega. The Lagoon Nebula, filled with hot gas and the home for many young stars, spans 100 light years across while lying about 5000 light years distant, toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). Many bright stars are visible from NGC 6530, an open cluster that formed in the nebula only several million years ago. The greater nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, is named "Lagoon" for the band of dust seen to the left of the open cluster's centre. Star formation continues in the Lagoon Nebula as witnessed by the many dark dust-laden globules that exist there.
NASA Mars Exploration Programme
Conservation International 
The national flag of Nepal is the world's only non-quadrilateral national flag. The flag is a simplified combination of two single pennons, known as a double pennon. Its crimson red is the colour of the rhododendron, Nepal's national flower, while the blue border is the colour of peace. The inclusion of the celestial bodies indicates Nepal's permanence and the hope that Nepal will enjoy the same longevity as the Sun and the Moon. Additionally, the stylized moon represents the calm demeanour and purity of spirit of the Nepali people, while the stylised sun represents their fierce resolve. The current flag was adopted on 16 December 1962, along with the formation of a new constitutional government.
The U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings
The UK Foreign Service Travel Advice 
The Last Judgment is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo, covering the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. There are over 300 figures, with nearly all the males and angels originally shown as nudes; many were later partly covered up by painted draperies. The work took over four years, between 1536 and 1541. Michelangelo began working on it twenty-five years after he finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and was nearly 67 at its completion. It was commissioned by Pope Clement VII but was completed under Pope Paul III.
Idiom of the Day
