Saudi King Abdullah dead – state TV

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud (Reuters/Brendan Smialowski)

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud (Reuters/Brendan Smialowski)

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died in hospital while undergoing treatment for pneumonia. An official statement has named Saudi Crown Prince Salman the new king.

"His Highness Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and all members of the family and the nation mourn the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who passed away at exactly 1 a.m. this morning," said the statement on Saudi Arabian state TV channel attributed to Salman.

Salman has immediately appointed his half-brother Muqrin as his crown prince and heir.

Prior to the confirmation, conflicting reports suggested that the Saudis had initially dismissed the news of the king's death on social media. However, Saudi television cut to Koranic verses early on Friday – a practice known to signify the death of a senior royal, Reuters reported.

King Abdullah had been in hospital for several weeks as he had been suffering from pneumonia and temporarily needed to breathe through a tube on account of his illness.

Abdullah was officially appointed king in 2006, but prior to that he had run the country for at least 10 years as de facto regent, after his predecessor, King Fahd, suffered a debilitating stroke.

The royal’s age is not officially known, However, it is believed that he was born in 1923, according to Reuters.
The new head of state of the number one oil exporter in the world is thought to be 79 years old. King Salman was appointed Crown Prince in 2012 and in the same year started serving as a defense minister. Before assuming these responsibilities, he had been governor of Riyadh province for five decades.
Abdullah was a staunch US ally, who supported Western fight against Al-Qaeda and tried to always keep rival Shiite Iran in check. Under his rule, Saudi Arabia strongly backed Syrian rebels trying to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The King was the first international head of state to congratulate the interim government of Egypt after the July 2013 military coup deposed Mohamed Morsi.

King Abdullah implemented some modest women reforms in the area of female rights and economic deregulation, but largely stayed away from any changes to the kingdom's political system.

King Salman is said to be part of the royal circle that will continue to pursue similar policies.
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ቀልድ! ይህ ቀልድ ፈገግ ካላደረገዎ ሀኪም ጋ ይሂዱ

A Man Wanted Divorce From His Wife. This Conversation With His Lawyer Is Priceless.

የተከለከለ እጽ ተሸክሞ ከሜክሲኮ አሜሪካ ሲበር የነበረው ሰው አልባ አወሮፓላን ተከሰከሰ

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police in a Mexican border city said Wednesday that a drone overloaded with illicit methamphetamine crashed into a supermarket parking lot.

Tijuana police spokesman Jorge Morrua said authorities were alerted after the drone fell Tuesday night near the San Ysidro crossing at Mexico's border with California.

Six packets of the drug, weighing more than six pounds, were taped to the six-propeller remote-controlled aircraft. Morrua said authorities are investigating where the flight originated and who was controlling it. He said it was not the first time they had seen drones used for smuggling drugs across the border.

Other innovative efforts have included catapults, ultralight aircraft and tunnels.

In April, authorities in South Carolina found a drone outside the fence of a prison that had been carrying cellphones, marijuana and tobacco.

ግብጽ የአባይን ጉዳይ ፖለቲካው አላዋጣ ሲላት እንደለመደችው በኦርቶዶክስ በኩል መጣች：： ድሮ ያታለለችን ይበቃል：：

Egypt uses church to bolster ties with Ethiopia
CAIRO — At a time when the Egyptian government officially acknowledged that obstacles re-emerged in the negotiations with Ethiopia over the Renaissance Dam — which is threatening the Egyptian share of the Nile's waters — Egypt is seeking to take advantage of the rapprochement between the Egyptian and Ethiopian Coptic churches. This was shown during the last visit of the Ethiopian patriarch to Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria at Christmas. Egypt is trying to benefit from these ties to improve bilateral ties, drawing on historical relations that have linked both churches since the 14th century until their separation in 1959.

This comes as part of Egypt’s penchant toward using all types of soft power on various levels in an attempt to regain its lost role in Africa and rectify the widespread perception on the popular level in all upstream countries that depicts Egypt as stealing Nile water. This inclination coincides with an expected visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Ethiopia to attend the African Summit at the end of January.

የካቶሊኩ ፖፕ የኢትዮጵያንና የኤርትራን ካቶሊክ ቤተክርስቲያን እርሰ ደብር ገነጠሉ (ለያዩ）

A new diocese for Ethiopia and a new Metropolitan for Eritrea

the Holy Father, Pope Francis has erected a new Diocese in Ethiopia which will be known as the Diocese of Bahir Dar – Dessie. In another development, Pope Francis has also erected the Metropolitan Church of Asmara in Eritrea.
The new diocese in Ethiopia has joined together the two districts of Bahir Dar and Dessie. The new diocese or eparchy will have as its new Bishop, Lisane-Christos Matheos. Until his appointment today, Bishop Matheos has been the Auxiliary Bishop of Addis Ababa.
The new Bishop of Bahir Dar – Dessie, Lisane-Christos Matheos was born in 1959 in Addis Ababa. He was ordained priest in 1988 and holds a degree in spirituality from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. The headquarters of the new diocese will be in Bahir Dar.
At the same time, Pope Francis has also erected the Metropolitan Church of Eritrea in Asmara. Although Eritrea as a nation got its independence in 1991 the Catholic Church of Ethiopia and Eritrea have always been regarded as one Episcopal conference. As of today, the two are now separate.
Pope Francis has thus appointed as first Metropolitan Archbishop of Asmara the current Bishop, (of Asmara) Menghesteab Tesfamariam.
On a political landscape, the two countries of Ethiopia and Eritrea have not yet resolved their differences and hostilities continue.

The Power of Tupac's song made Clippers' DeAndre to forgot the interview question

ዋናው የማርቆስ ወንጌል ተገኘ ተባለ

The 2014 Apologetics Canada Conference was held at Northview Church in Abbotsford, BC and Willingdon Church in Vancouver, BC Canada on March 7-8. T

The Background: In 2012 Daniel Wallace, a New Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary, mentioned in a public debate that researchers had found a fragment of the earliest copy of the Gospel of Mark. This weekend, another scholar, Craig Evans, a professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, reconfirmed the existence of the fragment.

This text was written on a sheet of papyrus that was later reused to create a mask that was worn by a mummy. Although the mummies of Egyptian pharaohs wore masks made of gold, notes LiveScience, ordinary people had to settle for masks made out of papyrus (or linen), paint, and glue. Given how expensive papyrus was, people often had to reuse sheets that already had writing on them.

Scientists have developed a technique that allows them to remove the text from the mask without harming the ink on the paper. The gospel fragment is one of hundreds of new texts. "We're recovering ancient documents from the first, second and third centuries. Not just Christian documents, not just biblical documents, but classical Greek texts, business papers, various mundane papers, personal letters," Evans told Live Science.

Evans also told Live Science that the text was dated through a combination of carbon-14 dating, studying the handwriting on the fragment and studying the other documents found along with the gospel. Because of a nondisclosure agreement, Evans said he can't say more about the text's date until the papyrus is published later this year.

Why It Matters: Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor have argued that the evidence suggests the exact date of Jesus crucifixion was April 3, AD 33. A fragment from before AD 80 would establish that the Gospel of Mark had not only been written within 50 years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but that it would have already begun to circulate widely.

“To have a first-century witness to the text of the New Testament is unprecedented,” says Denny Burk. “That a fragment of Mark was found in Egypt is even more astonishing. That would seem to require that the original was probably penned decades before.”

Justin Taylor recommends Christians take a “wait and see” approach. "It’s tempting to be either naïve (of course this is true!) or cynical (of course this isn’t true!)," says Taylor. "One of the unfortunate things about announcing a discovery apart from a published peer-reviewed process is that the church and the culture simply have to take the scholars’ word for it. I would prefer that these things be vetted before they are publicly discussed."

Last year at the 2014 Apologetics Canada Conference, Evans talked about the discovery of the fragment.