Ruben Enaje, 58, again portrayed Christ on Friday in the traditional religious rite in Cutud village, about 76 km (47 miles) from the capital Manila.

“In the past, I went home injured and limping, but this year I feel so great,” Enaje said after the ritual held under a sweltering sun.

He said he believed his strong Catholic faith helped him avoid pain.

“I feel like he is telling me ‘go ahead, keep it up’,” he said, referring to God.

Easter is a festival marking the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

About 80 percent of the 105 million people in the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, are Catholic.

Enaje said he felt strong enough to perform in two or three more crucifixions, until he turns 60.

Enaje was among three devotees nailed to wooden crosses in the village on Friday, including a woman taking part for the seventh time.

Actors wearing Roman soldier costumes attached the devotees to crosses by hammering two-inch nails soaked in alcohol through their hands and feet and hoisted them up in a field packed with domestic and foreign tourists.

The Catholic Church in the Philippines tolerates the ritual but says it does not support such gory displays of devotion, describing them as a “misinterpretation of faith”.

Many Catholics in the Philippines perform religious acts of penance during the Holy Week at Easter as a form of worship and supplication.

Some believe penance cleanses sins, cures illnesses and even leads to wishes coming true.

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Source: Reuters

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President Buhari recently received an award of leadership and anti-corruption from a group said to be associated with Martin Luther King.

The award was said to be part of the King’s family activities marking the Black History Month.

State House officials, including Bashir Ahmed, a media aide to the president, touted the award as given by the late civil rights activist’s nephew.

The nephew, identified as Isaac Newton-Farris also reportedly urged Nigerians to allow Mr Buhari continue as Nigerian president because of his tremendous achievement.

But following a deluge of requests from Nigerians on Wednesday, the King Centre, distanced itself from the award.

The award given to President Buhari of Nigeria was not given by The King Center, at the request of The King Center or by the children of #MLK and #CorettaScottKing. @MrFixNigeria

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Source: Premium Times

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Zhang’s personal assets will be confiscated, according to the Intermediate People’s Court of Linfen City in Shanxi.

The former official offered help in the approval of projects and the obtaining of coal resources from 1997 to 2013, when he served as the Zhongyang County chief and later the vice mayor of Luliang City. In exchange he received cash and property worth a total of 1.04 billion yuan, Xinhua reported

He couldn’t name the source of assets valuing 130 million yuan, blatantly ignored laws and was “extremely greedy.” His crimes caused “huge losses to the country and its people,” the court said, according to Xinhua.

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Source: SHINE

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Vinay Kumar, a scientist belonging to the Wildlife Conservation Society (India), filmed the 48-second video during a work trip to Nagarhole forest in Karnataka state in April 2016.

He told the BBC that he had not released the video until now because he did not “quite realise its importance”.

Scientists say they are still not clear why the elephant was blowing ashes.

“This is the first known video-documentation of a wild elephant exhibiting such behaviour, and this has scientists had experts puzzled,” a statement issued by Wildlife Conservation Society (India) said.

‘Ingesting charcoal’

Mr Kumar said he and his team were visiting the forest early in the morning to monitor camera traps set up to capture images of tigers. He spotted the female elephant barely 50m (164ft) away and began filming with his point-and-shoot camera.

The elephant “appears to ingest charcoal” left by a controlled fire on the ground and “blow out the ashes”, according to the statement.

“What we saw that day almost appeared as though the elephant was smoking – she would draw up a trunk full of ash close to her mouth and blow it out in a puff of smoke!” Mr Kumar said.

Elephant biologist Varun R Goswami, who has examined the video, believes that “most probably, the elephant was trying to ingest wood charcoal, as she appeared to be picking up something from the burnt forest floor, blowing away the ash that came along with it in her trunk, and consuming the rest”.

“Charcoal has well recognised toxin-binding properties, and although it may not have much nutritional content, wild animals may be attracted to it for this medicinal value,” he said.

“Charcoal can also serve as a laxative, thereby doubling its utility for animals that consume it after forest fires, lighting strikes, or controlled burns.”

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Source: BBC

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Sam Altman, 32, a tech entrepreneur, has paid to join a waiting list at Nectome — a start-up that promises to preserve your brain so it can – hopefully, one day – upload it into a computer to grant your consciousness eternal life.

And the method, the company can confidently assure, is “100% fatal”.

But Mr Altman, who co-created the Y Combinator program which funds start-up companies, told MIT Technology Review that he’s confident minds will be digitized in his lifetime.

“I assume my brain will be uploaded to the cloud,” he said.

And he is not alone. Twenty four other people have also paid to join a waiting list at Nectome.

The company essentially proposes to embalm your brain – while you are still alive – with the intention of uploading it to a computer if or when technology permits, so that you can live digitally forever.

Netcome’s chemical solution can preserve a body for hundreds or potentially thousands of years so one day scientists may scan your stored brain so it can be reborn as a computer simulation.

But because the process requires ‘fresh brains’ the embalming chemicals need to be pumped into the client while they are still alive – effectively killing them.

“The user experience will be identical to physician-assisted suicide,” Nectome’s co-founder Robert McIntyre, a computer scientist, said.

Nectome’s storage service is not for sale yet and there is still no evidence that memories remain, or can be extricated from dead tissue.

But the company already has a waiting list of future clients, ready to jump on the opportunity if or when the procedure becomes legal.

And it may be available sooner than you may think. Medically assisted suicide is legal in five US states and Nectome has already secured a large federal grant for its research.

It is collaborating with Edward Boyden, a top neuroscientist at MIT, and it has already preserved a pig’s brain so well that every synapse inside it could be seen with an electron microscope – a scientific breakthrough that won it an $80,000 prize.

Netcome said that the process would involve hooking up a living customer to a machine which would pump them full of Nectome’s embalming chemicals.

The company believes the process could particularly appeal to people with terminal illnesses.

Other US-based companies already offer cryogenic freezing, which preserve bodies after death in liquid nitrogen in the hope that future advances in medicine and technology will allow them to be reborn.

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Source: Mirro UK

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Government MP Tim Wilson and Ryan Bolger celebrated their “special day” on Sunday, the politician said online.

Australian MPs voted to legalise same-sex marriage in December.

Earlier that month, Mr Wilson had become the first MP to make a marriage proposal in the House of Representatives.

Mr Wilson and Mr Bolger, who have been together for more than a decade, were married in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens.

The MP’s tweet attracted messages of congratulations from parliamentarians and others on social media.

In his December speech, Mr Wilson was arguing for same-sex marriage when he turned to address Mr Bolger, who was sitting in the public gallery.

“In my first speech, I defined our bond by the ring that sits on both of our left hands. They [the rings] are the answer to the question we cannot ask,” an emotional Mr Wilson said.

“So there is only one thing left to do. Ryan Patrick Bolger, will you marry me?”

Mr Bolger replied with a loud “yes”, prompting cheers and applause.

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Source: BBC

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The woman, who has not been officially named, was found guilty of “encouraging moral corruption”, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said.

He added that 21 months of the woman’s sentence had been suspended and that she was in need of medical treatment.

It follows dozens of similar arrests of Iranian women in recent weeks.

Most of those detained for defying the country’s strict law on appearing in public in a headscarf have been released without charge.

The woman sentenced in the capital, Tehran, on Wednesday was jailed for three months without parole.

She is “in need of long-term medical treatment and has to be seen by a psychiatrist”, Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi said.

He criticised the suspension of the majority of her sentence and argued that she should serve the full term of her penalty.

In December, an Iranian woman who was detained after defiantly taking off her headscarf and holding it on a stick in Tehran became the face of protests in the country.

Images of her standing on a telecoms box in a busy street in the city were widely shared on social media. The woman was later freed.

The photograph of the woman was first widely used in connection to the White Wednesday campaign in which women in Iran wear white to protest against the country’s strict dress code.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, women have been forced to cover their hair according to Islamic law on modesty.

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Source: BBC

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“Watt.” “What?” “Watt!” A player has been sent off after a referee mistook his name for dissent.

Referee Dean Hulme asked Sanchez Watt, who was playing for Hemel Hempstead Town, for his name as he was about to be booked in a National League South game against East Thurrock United.

The 27-year-old repeatedly replied: “Watt” but Hulme believed he was saying “what?” and sent him off for dissent.

Hulme rescinded the card when it was explained Watt was not showing dissent.

“It was a human error,” Hemel Hempstead chairman Dave Boggins told BBC Sport.

“The referee was man enough to rectify it.

“I think everybody found it amusing afterwards – including the referee.

“He came into the boardroom after the game and explained how he had made the mistake.

“He was very apologetic and saw the funny side of it. He was a good ref on the night to be fair to him.”

The incident happened towards the end of Hemel Hempstead’s 2-0 win on Tuesday and Watt did not leave the field.

Watt played three games for Arsenal in the League Cup as an 18-year-old, scoring against West Brom in the third round at Emirates Stadium on 22 September 2009.

He has also played in the Championship for Leeds United and had spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Southend, Crawley and Colchester.

Watt is on loan at Hemel Hempstead from Isthmian League side Billericay Town.

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“We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” the letter says.

The group say they are offended that they would receive raises when nurses and patients are struggling.

“These increases are all the more shocking because our nurses, clerks and other professionals face very difficult working conditions, while our patients live with the lack of access to required services because of the drastic cuts in recent years and the centralization of power in the Ministry of Health,” reads the letter, which was published February 25.

“The only thing that seems to be immune to the cuts is our remuneration,” the letter says.

Canada has a public health system which provides “universal coverage for medically necessary health care services provided on the basis of need, rather than the ability to pay,” the government’s website says.

The 213 general practitioners, 184 specialists, 149 resident medical doctors and 162 medical students want the money used for their raises to be returned to the system instead.

“We believe that there is a way to redistribute the resources of the Quebec health system to promote the health of the population and meet the needs of patients without pushing workers to the end,” the letter says.

“We, Quebec doctors, are asking that the salary increases granted to physicians be canceled and that the resources of the system be better distributed for the good of the health care workers and to provide health services worthy to the people of Quebec.”

A physician in Canada is paid $260,924 ($339,000 Canadian) for clinical services by the government’s Ministry of Health per year on average, according to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information published in September 2017. On average, a family physician is paid $211,717 ($275,000 Canadian) for clinical services and a surgical specialist is paid $354,915 ($461,000 Canadian), according to the same report.

This is total gross pay, however, and does not take into account overhead each doctor pays to operate, as the Canadian Institute for Health Information is careful to point out to CNBC Make It.

In May 2016, one physician publicly broke down the cost of running his family practice, and though he brought in $231,033 ($300,000 Canadian), he was left with $136,906 ($177,876 Canadian) after subtracting his business expenses — but before taxes and employment benefits are taken out.

The cost of medical school in Canada is subsidized by provincial governments, according to The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada. The cost varies depending on whether a student is a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or foreign student and the particular school. For Canadian citizens or permanent residents, tuition for the first year of medical school ranges from $2567 ($3,334 Canadian) to $20,064 ($26,056 Canadian), according to The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada’s website.

The same group, the Médecins Québécois pour le Régime Public (MQRP), that published the aforementioned public letter, also published a letter on February 17 opposing $500 million worth of pay increases for specialist doctors. The group called the pay increase “indecent.”

And on February 1, the MQRP published a letter denouncing working conditions of nurses. “The nurses are exhausted by a heavy workload. They argue that the chronic lack of staff and the fatigue caused by repeated overtime, sometimes mandatory, for lack of replacement of the team, have an impact on the safety of patient care,” the letter says.

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One patient needed surgery for a blood clot on the brain, the other only non-invasive treatment for swelling.

But a horrifying mix-up of identification tags saw the wrong man operated on, reports say.

The doctors did not realise their mistake until “hours into the surgery, when they discovered there was no blood clot”, the Daily Nation reported.

The head of the Kenyatta National Hospital said the patient was “in recovery and progressing well” and an investigation is under way.

The board regulating medical practice says such a mix-up is a first in the country. It has demanded a report from the hospital and plans to hold a hearing.

Social media users have expressed shock that such an incident could have been allowed to happen.

It comes only six weeks after the health minister ordered an investigation into claims new mothers were sexually assaulted at the same hospital.

Doctors ‘overwhelmed’
Hospital CEO Lily Koros said the hospital “deeply regrets this event and has done all it can to ensure the safety and well-being of the patient in question.

“We are happy to inform the public that the patient is in recovery and progressing well,” Ms Koros added.

She said four staff – the neurosurgeon, ward nurse, theatre receiving nurse and anaesthetist – had been suspended.

“The management has suspended the admission rights of a neurosurgery registrar and issued him with a show-cause letter for apparently operating on the wrong patient,” Ms Koros said. A show-cause letter requires a staff member to account for his or her actions.

But the doctor’s colleagues have protested against the suspension, reports The Star, arguing the person who put on the identification tag is the one that should be punished.

Meanwhile, the doctors’ union defended staff, saying the hospital was “overwhelmed” by staff shortages and inadequate operating theatre space.

“You find one doctor could be doing 10 to 19 operations [in a day],” Ouma Oluga, chief executive officer of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union, told Reuters news agency.

The Nation reports that – “in a miracle of some sort” – the two patients are in good condition. It adds that the person who had the blood clot might not need to undergo surgery after all, as his condition has improved significantly.

Social media users were scathing about the apparent error.

Some called for the resignation of the hospital’s entire board of management in light of the other controversies at the institution.

As well as the allegations that new mothers were sexually assaulted in the hospital, a woman was able to kidnap a newborn baby there in February. The baby was recovered and returned to his parents a day later.

The flagship national hospital has also been plagued with reports of broken equipment, overcrowding, and long waiting times for treatment. Its management blames insufficient funding and says inadequate health provision more widely in Kenya has placed an unreasonable burden on the hospital.

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Source: BBC

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