Signs of Salome, apochryphal nurse to baby Jesus, unearthed in Israel
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2022
Fresh excavations of a cave reputed to be the burial place of Salome, apocryphal nurse to the newborn Jesus, have uncovered evidence that it was both an important Jewish tomb and a Christian pilgrimage site, archeologists say.
The Book of James, among early Christian writings not included in the Bible, describes Salome as doubting the account of the virgin birth. Stricken in the arm, she holds the baby, proclaims him “a great king … born unto Israel,” and is cured.
Work to prepare the 2,000-year-old cave for public access unearthed a 350 square-metre (3,767 square foot) forecourt whose stone slabs and mosaic floors are consistent with a family tomb for prominent Jews, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said.
Also found were inscriptions – some in Arabic – and decorated oil lamps consistent with the site having served Christian pilgrims, including through to the ninth century after the Muslim conquest of the region, the IAA said.
The site, about 35 km (22 miles) southwest of Jerusalem has been known for generations as the Cave of Salome.
Earlier excavations located Jewish relics “but the surprise was the adaptation of the cave into a Christian chapel,” the IAA said. “Judging by the crosses and the dozens of inscriptions engraved on the cave walls in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, the chapel was dedicated to the sacred Salome.”
South Korea mulls extra days off if Christmas, Buddha birthday fall on weekends
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2022
South Korea’s ruling party has proposed that the alternative holiday bill be applied to Christmas and Buddha’s birthday, allowing for substitute days off if the two holidays fall on weekends.
People Power Party floor leader Joo Ho-young made the formal proposal to the government on Tuesday, saying it was time to consider expanding the designation of alternative holidays in a bid to boost domestic consumption and people’s right to rest as well as requests from religious circles.
“Christmas falls on Sunday this year. Normally it’s a public holiday when [people] can take an extra day off. Unfortunately, they can’t do that this year,” Joo said.
The alternative holiday bill went into effect in July 2021, allowing substitute holidays for all national holidays that happen to fall on weekends. However, public holidays like Buddha’s birthday and Christmas were excluded.
“We have 15 [national and public] holidays a year but there are slight variations depending on whether the holidays coincide with Saturdays or Sundays,” Joo said. “There will be only 13 holidays next year because of overlapping weekends.”
Joo added that the introduction of the alternative holiday system has helped stimulate domestic demand in the logistics, travel and restaurant industries.
After two weeks of intense debate at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP15, delegates from around the world agreed on Monday to adopt a landmark plan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
In the last three years, even as the coronavirus strangled the economy and rendered tens of thousands jobless, more than 1 million Nepalis left the country to find work in faraway lands.
China expressed its hope on Monday for ties with Australia to return to the right track and develop in a sustainable manner, a day before Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong visits China.
It was, quite frankly, the most extraordinary final in the long history of the World Cup. A nail-biting, end-to-end game, full of goals, early leads and dramatic comebacks. A cliffhanger, really, in a tournament full of cliffhangers, as the staggering intensity with which it was played stretched absorbingly into extra time, and then some more, to be finally decided through penalty shootouts.
The story is told about a little boy who looked worried when he came home from school. When asked by his Dad why, he said: “We have a Christmas play tomorrow, and I am supposed to be Joseph, and I am not good at speaking.” His Dad said: “Don’t worry son. Joseph is the silent one. He has no speaking part.”
WITH the government left with little to offer except gimmicks, the economic situation is deteriorating by the day. According to a news report published in this paper’s Friday pages, large-scale manufacturing — a bellwether for economic activity — contracted by a staggering 7.75pc in October, registering a slowdown for the second straight month.
The Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) anticipates air passenger traffic in 2023 to grow between 40 % and 52 per cent year on year (y-o-y), translating to between 74.6 million and 80.8 million passengers.
Vietnam is joining the “Golden Triangle of Start-ups” in Southeast Asia with its strong, young domestic market, tremendous tech talent and continuous innovation which is expected to open up growth opportunities for the region in the near future.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on December 18 reaffirmed the five-per-cent 2022 real GDP (gross domestic product) growth forecast for Cambodia that it made in September, despite fresh rounds of downward pressure brought by undergoing geopolitical conflicts and Covid-19-related woes.
The top securities regulators in the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said on Monday that they have agreed in principle to expand the range of stocks eligible under the Stock Connect program between the two capital markets.
“Imin Jinyeon,” meaning a royal banquet held in the Imin year, or 1902, is known as the last royal banquet in the 500-year history of Joseon and the Korean Empire.
The year 1902 was a turbulent time for the Korean Empire.
King Gojong declared a change of name for the country from Joseon to Daehan Empire, or Korean Empire, in 1897, in what would turn out to be a futile effort to protect the country’s sovereignty against foreign powers.
Emperor Gojong oversaw partial modernization and westernization of the country but the Daehan Empire was weak among the world’s great powers.
Hoping to consolidate the imperial rule and dignity through a demonstration of the empire’s majesty — both internationally and domestically — the Crown Prince made repeated requests to host a royal banquet celebrating both the 40th anniversary of Emperor Gojong’s ascension to the throne and his 51st birthday.
“Imin Jinyeon,” meaning a royal banquet held in the Imin year, or 1902, is known as the last royal banquet in the 500-year history of Joseon and the Korean Empire.
Now, 120 years later, the banquet is being brought back to life on stage by the National Gugak Center.
“It was not easy, of course, but it wasn’t impossible either,” said Kim Young-woon, chief of the National Gugak Center, at a press conference held on Thursday, ahead of the five-day performance.
The performance is reenacted based on “dobyeong,” or paintings of folding screens, and “uigwe,” or a collection of royal protocols compiled during the Joseon era.
Kim said the documentation is so detailed that the names of musicians, dancers, and even flag bearers and how they were later rewarded were recorded.
“The royal banquet was the most refined artwork of the time for the emperor to enjoy,” said Kim. “It is now recreated on stage for citizens. I hope the value of the precious cultural heritage and the spirit inspire us.”
The performance is staged so that the audience will see the banquet from the perspective of the emperor’s throne.
The “Imin Jinyeon” was truly a feast of colours on an elaborately recreated stage. Traditional court music and dances were revived by the troupe from the NGC.
The members of the royal family — starting with the prince, and then the crown princess — offered drinks to the emperor — in this performance, to the audience.
Poetry recitations and court dances followed each offering of drink and delivered hopes for a reign of peace.
In the court dance “Hyangryeongmu,” dancers had bells sewn to the sleeve hems which tinkled to the rhythm of the music performed by the gukak troupe behind the beaded curtain. In “Seonyurak,” dancers gracefully gathered around a large boat while singing a song to float the boat.
Park Dong-woo, who directed the “Imin Jinyeon,” said the show took about one year to prepare.
“The emphasis was on reenacting the royal banquet rather than adding creative elements,” he said. “That we are performing the banquet 120 years later was also important. And because the 1902 banquet one was so impressive, the more we stuck to the original, the richer the performance would be.”
Number of flood victims soars as Malaysia’s East Coast states hit hard
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2022
As of 10pm on Monday, over 45,000 flood victims have been evacuated to flood relief centres in five states in the peninsula, with the East Coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu the hardest hit.
The number of evacuees rose slightly in Pahang, and decreased in Johor, while it remained unchanged in Perak from this evening.
In Terengganu, the number of flood victims rose sharply to 29,717 people from 8,214 families compared to 19,601 from 5,699 families in the evening.
There are currently 273 relief centres operating in all eight districts in the state.
Kemaman was the worst affected district involving 8,375 victims (2,109 families), followed by Hulu Terengganu (5,996 victims from 1,837 families); Besut (5,492 victims from 1,506 families); and Setiu (3,172 victims from 1,015 families).
Apart from that, Dungun recorded 1,963 victims (527 families); Kuala Nerus 575 victims (129 families); Kuala Terengganu 542 victims (129 families); and Marang 379 victims (81 families).
Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department fire safety department director Datuk Ahmad Izram Osman said his team was conducting aerial monitoring to get an accurate account of the flood situation in Terengganu and would do similar monitoring in Kelantan tomorrow.
Meanwhile, in Kelantan, according to the state’s official flood portal, the number of flood victims increased to 14,359 people from 3,942 families tonight, compared to 12,104 people from 3,295 families in the evening.
A total of 104 relief centres were opened involving nine districts, namely Kota Baru, Pasir Mas, Tumpat, Bachok, Tanah Merah, Pasir Puteh, Kuala Krai, Machang and Jeli.
The ‘PublicInfo Banjir’ portal reported that river water in nine areas had exceeded the danger level including Sungai Lebir in Kampung Tualang, Kuala Krai with a reading of 40.71m; Sungai Golok in Kampung Jenob, Tanah Merah (24.84m) and Sungai Golok in Rantau Panjang, Pasir Mas (10.78m).
In Pahang, the number of flood victims rose slightly to 865 victims from 218 families, compared to 647 victims from 159 families at 4pm.
Eight relief centres were opened in Kuantan to accommodate 803 individuals from 198 families, while another 62 flood victims from 20 families were evacuated to three relief centres in Raub.
The water level of Sungai Keratong in Rompin has been receding but was still recorded above the danger level tonight.
In Johor, the number of flood victims in the Segamat district reduced to 53 people as of 8pm, compared to 75 in the evening.
The affected locations in the district are Kampung Seberang Batu Badak, Kampung Batu 5 and Kampung Kuala Paya.
The victims have been placed at the Kampung Batu Badak Community Hall, Kuala Paya Community Hall and Kampung Tasek Community Hall.
In Perak, 54 people from 17 families remain in two relief centres, namely SM Abdul Rahman Talib Batu 4 and SK Sungai Tiang Darat.
Netherlands PM Rutte apologises for role of Dutch state in slavery
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2022
Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday apologised on behalf of the Dutch State for its historical role in slavery and for consequences that he acknowledged continuing into the present day.
“Today, I apologise,” Rutte said in a nationally televised speech at the Dutch National Archives.
“For centuries, the Dutch state and its representatives have enabled and stimulated slavery and have profited from it,” he added.
“It is true that nobody alive today bears any personal guilt for slavery…(however) the Dutch state bears responsibility for the immense suffering that has been done to those that were enslaved and their descendants.”
The apology comes amid a wider reconsideration of the country’s colonial past, including efforts to return looted art, and its current struggles with racism.
The prospect of an apology on a December afternoon in The Hague had been met with resistance from groups who say it should have come from King Willem-Alexander, in former colony Suriname, on July 1, 2023 – the 160th anniversary of Dutch abolition.
Rutte acknowledged that the runup to the announcement had been handled clumsily and said the Dutch government was sending representatives to Suriname, as well as Caribbean islands that remain part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with varying degrees of autonomy: Curacao, Sint Maarten, Aruba, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius.
Rutte was responding to a national advisory panel set up following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in the United States.
The panel said that Dutch participation in slavery had amounted to crimes against humanity and in 2021 recommended an apology and reparations. Rutte on Monday said his government embraced those conclusions, including that slavery had been a crime against humanity.
However, he ruled out reparations at a news conference last week, though the Dutch government is setting up a 200 million euro educational fund.
Dutch press agency ANP reported that in Curacao a Dutch government delegate said in a speech that Tula, a historical figure who led a slave revolt in 1795 and was executed, would have his reputation restored. The report said the speech was greeted with long and loud applause.
Historians estimate Dutch traders shipped more than half a million enslaved Africans to the Americas, mostly to Brazil and the Caribbean. Many or more Asians were enslaved in the East Indies, modern Indonesia.
Many Dutch people take pride in the country’s naval history and prowess as a trading nation. However, children are taught little of the role in the slave trade played by the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company, key sources of national wealth.
Despite the Dutch reputation for tolerance, racism is a significant problem.
Citizens of Antillean, Turkish and Moroccan ancestry report high rates of discrimination in their everyday lives and recent studies have shown they face significant disadvantages in the workplace and in the housing market.
Six neighbors die including suspect in Toronto condo building shooting
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2022
Six people, including a 73-year-old suspect, died and one person was wounded in a shooting at a residential building in the Canadian city of Vaughan on Sunday in an incident the city’s mayor described as horrifying and shocking.
Police were called about an “active male shooter who had shot several victims” at a condominium in Vaughan, less than 50 km (31 miles) north of downtown Toronto, at about 7:20 p.m. local time on Sunday (0020 GMT on Monday).
Police found and fired at the suspect in a hallway and he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes later, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) told reporters on Monday.
Authorities then recovered dead bodies from several floors as well as a semi-automatic handgun that is suspected to be the weapon used in the shooting, authorities said.
Vaughan Police Chief Jim MacSween said the suspect had been identified as Francesco Villi, a resident of the building. No information was shared about any potential motive.
The York Regional Police Department said it was working to confirm the identities of the victims and inform their families. Vaughan is located in Ontario’s York region and has a population of about 320,000.
The SIU, which investigates deaths involving police, said it was looking into the suspect’s death and that a post-mortem was scheduled for Tuesday.
Canada has much stricter gun laws than the United States, but Canadians are allowed to own firearms providing they have a license. Restricted or prohibited firearms, like handguns, must also be registered.
Elon Musk poll shows 57.5% want him to step down as Twitter chief
MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2022
Twitter users voted in a poll for Elon Musk to step down as chief executive of the social media platform, in a backlash against the billionaire less than two months after he took over.
Results on Monday showed about 57.5% of votes were for “Yes,” while 42.5% were against the idea of Musk stepping down as the head of Twitter, according to the poll the billionaire launched on Sunday (December 18) evening. Over 17.5 million people took part in the vote.
Musk said on Sunday he will abide by the results of the poll, but did not give details on when he would step down if results said he should.
The poll comes after Twitter’s Sunday policy update, which prohibited accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social media firms and content that contains links or usernames for rival platforms.
Wall Street’s main stock indexes were subdued at the open on Monday after two straight weeks of losses on recession worries, while Tesla shares rose after a poll showed Elon Musk should quit as Twitter’s CEO.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.99 points, or 0.00%, at the open to 32,921.45.
The S&P 500 opened higher by 1.43 points, or 0.04%, at 3,853.79, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 2.03 points, or 0.02%, to 10,707.44 at the opening bell.
Russia’s Putin arrives in Belarus for talks with Lukashenko
MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus on Monday along with his defence and foreign ministers, fanning fears in Kyiv that he intends to pressure his ex-Soviet ally to join a fresh ground offensive that would open a new front against Ukraine.
Putin, whose troops have been driven back in Ukraine’s north, northeast and south, is taking a more public role in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. He visited the operation’s headquarters on Friday to sound out military commanders.
His trip for talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was his first to Minsk since 2019 – before the Covid pandemic and a wave of pro-democracy protests in 2020 that Lukashenko crushed with strong support from the Kremlin.
Russian forces used Belarus as a launch pad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in February, and there have been Russian and Belarusian military activity there for months.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that Belarus was Russia’s “number one ally” but that suggestions Moscow aims to pressure Minsk into joining its “special military operation” were “stupid and unfounded fabrications.”
Ukrainian joint forces commander Serhiy Nayev had said he believed the talks would address “further aggression against Ukraine and the broader involvement of the Belarusian armed forces in the operation against Ukraine, in particular, in our opinion, also on the ground.”
Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhniy, told the Economist last week that Russia was preparing 200,000 fresh troops for a major offensive that could come from the east, south or even from Belarus as early as January, but more likely in spring.
Moscow and Minsk have set up a joint military unit in Belarus and held numerous exercises. Three Russian warplanes and an airborne early warning and control aircraft were deployed to Belarus last week.
But Lukashenko, a pariah in the West who relies heavily on Moscow for support, has repeatedly said Belarus will not enter the operation in Ukraine. Foreign diplomats say committing Belarusian troops would be deeply unpopular at home.
Facilitating a solid economic recovery with a focus on substantially expanding domestic demand and boosting market confidence will be key priorities for China next year, after a key meeting outlined major policy objectives and plans for the overall improvement of the world’s second-largest economy.
North Korea has conducted an “important final-stage” test at its rocket launching facility on putting a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit, with a plan to complete preparations for the project by April next year, according to its state media Monday.
A Japanese research team plans to make a new attempt at drilling through Antarctica’s ice sheet, in order to probe for changes in the global environment over the past 1 million years.
Personnel of the Western Command (Wescom) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who conducted a resupply mission and were bringing Christmas packages to troops assigned at the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal had another unpleasant encounter with the Chinese coast guard near the area at the West Philippine Sea.
State Administration Council (SAC) has issued a statement that infrastructures concerning electricity such as power stations, sub-power stations, offices and staff housing were attacked and destroyed 210 times.
Days before he hung up his spurs after six years as army chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa spoke at Martyrs’ Day. That speech is both interesting and important and has not been properly unpacked.
Days before he hung up his spurs after six years as army chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa spoke at Martyrs’ Day. That speech is both interesting and important and has not been properly unpacked.
More than 300,000 have gone overseas on employment through the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau so far this year. Labour and Foreign Employment Minister Manusha Nanayakkara said that it was the highest number of registered Sri Lankans to have gone overseas for employment in a year.
The government on Sunday signed a project development agreement with a Nepal-China joint venture power developer to construct a $322 million project under the build, own, operate, and transfer modality.
In recent years, investors have been increasingly prying at profit from streaming service businesses in Indonesia. It is not surprising, given the industry has been gaining momentum throughout the pandemic and is projected to claim robust growth, at least for the next five years.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on December 17 authorised two conglomerates to begin researching clean energy projects, as this ties in with Cambodia’s goals of energy security and carbon neutrality.
Vinamilk Laos – Jagro plans to export fresh milk to Vietnam in May next year after the company recently built a modern milking barn in Phaxay district, Xieng Khuang province.
OPSWAT, a US-based provider of critical infrastructure protection cybersecurity solutions, announced on December 16 the opening of its first critical infrastructure protection lab in Asia in its new office in HCM City.
About 58 % of Indians have reduced their ‘Make in China’ purchases due to the current geo-political situation while 26 % said they found Indian alternatives to be better in price and quality when it comes to fashion, apparel, vehicle accessories and gadgets categories, a new survey has shown.
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