World's Oldest Christian Bible Digitized

LONDON — The surviving pages of the world's oldest Christian Bible have been reunited — digitally.

The early work known as the Codex Sinaiticus has been housed in four separate locations across the world for more than 150 years.

But starting Monday, it became available for perusal on the Web at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org so scholars and other readers can get a closer look at what the British Library calls a "unique treasure."

"[The book] offers a window into the development of early Christianity and firsthand evidence of how the text of the Bible was transmitted from generation to generation," said Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library.

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of prepared animal skin, each of which measures 15 inches by 13.5 inches (380 millimeters by 345 millimeters). It is the oldest book that contains a complete New Testament and is only missing parts of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.

The 4th-century book, written in Greek, has been digitally reunited in a project involving groups from Britain, Germany, Russia and Egypt, which each possessed parts of the 1,600-year-old manuscript.

They worked together to publish new research into the history of the Codex and transcribed 650,000 words over a four-year period.

The Codex was both a key Christian text and "a landmark in the history of the book, as it is arguably the oldest large-bound book to have survived," McKendrick said.

Codex Sinaiticus, which loosely translated means "the book from Sinai," was discovered at the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai by German Bible scholar Constantine Tischendorf in the mid-19th century. Much of it eventually wound up in Russia — just how exactly the British Library won't say, citing lingering sensitivity over the circumstances surrounding its removal from the monastery.


The British Library bought 347 pages from Soviet authorities in 1933. Forty-three pages are at the University Library in Leipzig, Germany, and six fragments are at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. And in 1975, monks stumbled on 12 more pages and 40 fragments stashed in a hidden room at the monastery at Mount Sinai.

Juan Garces, the Codex Sinaiticus project manager, said putting the book online was a "definitely a historical moment."

"It's special because it's the oldest almost completely preserved bible," Garces said.

Garces said the only other Bible that rivals Codex Sinaiticus in age is the Codex Vaticanus, which was written around the same time but lacks parts of the New Testament.

"It's such an important book — that's why it should be accessible," Garces said. "If you would have liked to see it before you would have had to travel to four countries in two continents. If you want to see the manuscript right now all you have to do is go online and experience it for yourself."

On the Codex parchment leaves is written around half of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, the whole of the New Testament and two early Christian texts not found in modern Bibles. Most of the first part of the Bible manuscript — containing most of the so-called historical books, from Genesis to 1 Chronicles — is missing and presumed to be lost.

Garces said Codex Sinaiticus was handwritten by four scribes. Experts had previously believed there were only three, but researchers at the British Library looked at the script with high quality digital imaging that revealed the hand of a fourth penman.

"From Parchment to Pixel: The Virtual Reunification of the Codex Sinaiticus," an exhibit about the Bible's reunification process, opened at the British Library on Monday and runs until Sept. 7.

The digitized manuscript includes more than 800 pages and fragments, including the pages discovered in 1975 — published for the first time.

"There's a high demand," Garces said. "Our Web site has crashed because people want to look at it."

Taliban buying children for suicide attacks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A top Taliban leader in Pakistan is buying and selling children for suicide bombings, Pakistani and U.S. officials said.
Children are shown at a training camp in this video footage shot by the Taliban.

Children are shown at a training camp in this video footage shot by the Taliban.

Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has been increasingly using the children in attacks, the officials said. A video released by Pakistan's military shows the children training for the task.

In the video of a training camp, children can be seen killing and going through exercises.

Mehsud has been selling the children, once trained, to other Taliban officials for $6,000 to $12,000, Pakistani military officials said. Video Watch more about the child bombers »

Some of the children are as young as 11, the officials said.

"He has been been admitting he holds a training center for young boys, for preparing them for suicide bombing. So he is on record saying all this, accepting these crimes," said Major General Akhtar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistani army.
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The young suicide bombers may be able to reach targets unnoticed, the military said.

"If he is approaching on foot, there is a possibility he will bypass security," Abbas said.

"In certain areas, there is a possibility in the population centers everyone can not be checked physically, so he can create havoc there."

Pakistan has launched an offensive against the Taliban, started in the Swat region of the North West Frontier Province. The Taliban have countered with a spate of suicide bombings, including a July 2 attack in Rawalpindi, in which a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a Pakistani Defense Ministry bus. At least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded.

Pakistan's army said it is hunting Mehsud in the hopes that the supply of suicide bombers will dry up after the Taliban leader is captured.

Meanwhile, a suspected U.S. drone attack killed at least 12 people and wounded five others in northwest Pakistan Tuesday, Pakistani officials said.

The missile strikes in South Waziristan targeted a suspected Taliban hideout at a madrassa, or Muslim school, in Zangarah, according to intelligence officials.

The attack near the border with Afghanistan involved a pair of missiles shot from an unmanned drone, local resident Janbaz Mehsud told CNN. He said all the dead and wounded were Taliban.
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A local government official, who asked not to be named, said the madrassa was a training center for the Taliban and belongs to Baitullah Mehsud. That official put the death toll at 14, but said the number of dead could rise.

The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks. However, the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.

Ex-NFL star McNair's girlfriend bought gun

(CNN) -- The pistol found at the scene of the shooting that killed former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and his girlfriend was purchased by the woman two nights before, police said Monday.
Steve McNair, 36, spent 13 seasons in the NFL, the majority with the Tennessee Titans.

Steve McNair, 36, spent 13 seasons in the NFL, the majority with the Tennessee Titans.

McNair, 36, and Sahel Kazemi, 20, were found fatally shot in a condominium in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday afternoon. McNair was shot twice in the head and twice in the chest, and Kazemi was shot once in the head, authorities said.

Police found a semiautomatic pistol beneath Kazemi's body and determined that she bought it Thursday night, Nashville Metropolitan Police Department Spokesman Don Aaron said Monday. He said he didn't know whether it was a legal purchase but noted that Kazemi wouldn't meet the age requirement for a permit to carry a handgun, which is 21.

Officials are calling McNair's death a homicide but are awaiting results from ballistics and gunshot residue tests before classifying Kazemi's death.

The pistol was purchased Thursday evening, hours after Kazemi -- who was accompanied by McNair in a Cadillac Escalade he had purchased for her -- was pulled over in a traffic stop and charged with driving under the influence. McNair was allowed to leave the scene in a taxi after Kazemi was given a field sobriety test.

Kazemi told the officer that she was "high" from a "hookah situation," Aaron said. Video Watch Aaron talk about the crime and McNair's relationship with Kazemi »

McNair, a married father of four, and Kazemi were dating, police have said.

Police found their bodies in the condo -- leased to McNair and his friend Wayne Neeley -- about 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

The two had been dead for "a period of hours" before Neeley, who had to use a key to enter the building, discovered the clothed bodies Saturday afternoon, Aaron said. Neeley then called his friend Robert Gaddy, who arrived at the condo and called police.

Investigators are trying to pinpoint how much time elapsed between the bodies being discovered and the phone call to police.

"We believe it could have been 40 minutes or even longer," Aaron said, adding, "Suffice it to say we are concerned about the time that elapsed between the discovery of the bodies and the time the 911 call was made."

Asked whether the crime scene was "cleaned up" before police arrived, Aaron replied, "I would disagree that the crime scene was 'cleaned up.' "

Aaron said Kazemi's ex-boyfriend also was questioned as part of the investigation but was allowed to go home.

Witnesses told police that McNair had been at the Blue Moon Lagoon Bar and the Loser's Bar -- both Nashville establishments -- late Friday into early Saturday, Aaron said. Staff and management of both bars will be interviewed, he said.

McNair spent 13 seasons in the NFL, most with the Tennessee Titans. He was named the NFL's co-MVP in 2003 and spent his last two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, before announcing his retirement in April 2008.

The Titans reached the Super Bowl in 2000, losing to the St. Louis Rams.

Former Titans teammate Eddie George said Monday that he did not want to judge McNair for the extramarital affair.

"We all make mistakes we all wish we could go back on, but I'm not here to dwell on that," he said. "I'm here to celebrate the life of a dear friend and teammate."

Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who said he knew McNair for 15 years, said Monday that McNair would want people to remember him for his athleticism and what he did for the community.
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"My hope is that Steve will be remembered -- and also forgiven -- but remembered for what he did and what he meant to this organization," Fisher said.

McNair attended Alcorn State in Mississippi.

New York Congressman Blasts Jackson as 'Pervert, Low-Life'

A New York congressman says Michael Jackson was a "pervert" and calls on society to stop "glorifying" the late entertainer in a YouTube video.

Rep. Peter King said Jackson -- whom he called a "low-life" -- is being glorified in the days after his death while society ignores the efforts, of teachers, police officers, firefighters and veterans. In the two-minute video, King claims the "day in and day out" coverage of Jackson's death is "too politically correct."

"Let's knock out the psychobabble," King said in the video taped outside an American Legion Hall on New York's Long Island. "He was a pervert, a child molester; he was a pedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? I just think we're too politically correct."

King, a Republican who is among the possible contenders for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, said Jackson "may have been a good singer" and "did some dancing," but blasted the singer as someone who could not be trusted around children.

"There's nothing good to say about this guy," King continued. "But the bottom line is, would you let your child or grandchild be in the same room as Michael Jackson?"

Calls placed to King early Monday were not immediately returned.

In 2005, Jackson was acquitted of molesting a boy who spent time at his Neverland ranch and appeared with him in the 2003 British documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson." The entertainer had been accused of plying the boy with alcohol and groping him.

Earlier, in 1993, Jackson was accused of molesting a boy who often stayed at his home. The singer denied any wrongdoing, reached a settlement with the boy's family -- reported to be $20 million -- and criminal charges were never filed.

Stacy Brown, co-author of "Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask," said King's comments were "irresponsible and insensitive" despite the fact he too thought Jackson had molested children.

"I'm not surprised that someone would feel that way," Brown told FOXNews.com. "I'm surprised that you would get a public official to say that. Let's face it, I'm not one to believe that Michael was innocent of molesting children, but he was never convicted. If he was convicted of those crimes, then hey, I'd have to agree with him."

Brown said the molestation allegations against Jackson were "devastating," professionally and personally.

"In hindsight, it was the beginning of the end of his life because I don’t think he ever recovered," he said. "This was a guy who spent most of his life protecting his privacy and that was shattered, obliterated during the trial [in 2005]. He was undressed during that trial."

Jackson had partially "recovered" from allegations of molestation during the 1990s, Brown said, in part due to his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley and the birth of his children. Still, some previous fans of Jackson had grown tired of the controversy surrounding the singer.

"He lost a lot of his adult audience, people who grew weary of the weirdness," Brown said. "But he reached far and wide and was able to sell 750,000 tickets for this comeback tour. Americans particularly and the world in general loves a comeback story … There was no one else like Michael Jackson. He was Elvis, the Rolling Stones, Sinatra and the Bealtes all rolled into one.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FBI spokesman: We're not investigating Palin

(CNN) -- The FBI, in a rare response to rampant rumors on the Internet, said it is not investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on public corruption charges.
Alaska's Sarah Palin is stepping down as governor at the end of the month.

Alaska's Sarah Palin is stepping down as governor at the end of the month.

"Normally, we don't confirm or deny those kind of allegations out there. But, by not doing so, it just casts her in a very bad light," said FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, who confirmed for CNN the statement he made to the Anchorage Daily News. "There is just no truth to those rumors out there in the blogosphere."

Gonzalez told The Los Angeles Times that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry.

The speculation began almost immediately after Palin's unexpected announcement on Friday that she would step down as Alaska's chief executive with 18 months left in her term.

Palin, who was John McCain's surprise vice presidential candidate in the 2008 election, said she already knew she would not seek a second term and decided against being a lame duck governor for the next 18 months.

She also said too much time and taxpayer expense were going toward fighting ethics investigations, and that the mainstream media were continuing with unfair attacks on her and her family.

Some analysts think Palin will seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, and that her resignation is intended to free her to prepare.
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Immediate reaction to Palin's resignation among fellow conservatives was not positive.

Karl Rove, the "architect" of George W. Bush's successful presidential campaigns, said the resignation left many of Palin's fellow Republicans "a little perplexed."

"It's a risky strategy," Rove told "Fox News Sunday."

"Astounding," was the pronouncement by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and conservative columnist George Will said Palin was declaring herself a quitter.

"The one that rings most hollow is she doesn't want to put Alaska through the terror of [her] being a lame-duck governor," Will told the ABC program "This Week." "If she is just weary of it, one can understand that. Still, she made a contract with them [voters] to serve out her term. And she said, in her own words, she now is a quitter."

"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country," Palin said in a statement attributed to her on her Facebook page.

"And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it's right for all, including your family."

Drink Beer, Win a Trip to Space

he company behind the dark Irish beer Guinness will give loyal drinkers a taste of space along with their stout, but only if they win a new contest.

Guinness has reserved a seat aboard a suborbital Virgin Galactic spaceliner as one of three experience prizes in an online contest honoring the 250th birthday of the beer's brewery this year.

Founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic is a commercial space tourism company that plans to launch passengers on $200,000 trips to suborbital space using a fleet of SpaceShipTwo spacecraft.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Space Center.

The spaceliners are designed to be launched from the air by a massive WhiteKnightTwo mothership and send two pilots and six passengers on a weightless joyride.

Virgin Galactic currently plans to launch and land space tourist flights from a terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico — which began construction earlier this month — as well as from a spaceport in Kiruna, Sweden.

The first WhiteKnightTwo carrier ship "Eve" has been flying a series of test flights this year.

Guinness officials said their space trip contest runs through Sept. 24 and promised a thrilling ride for the winner.

The launch will catapult passengers beyond Earth's atmosphere at nearly 2,500 mph (4,023 km/ph) — three times the speed of sound — to a point about 68 miles (109 km) above the planet, Guinness officials said.

Once in space, passengers will have a view of the blackness of space and unbroken vistas of the Earth for 1,000 miles (1,609 km) in every direction before re-entering the atmosphere and gliding back to its home port, they added.

The beer company announced the new contest on Wednesday to commemorate founder Arthur Guinness's signing of the 9,000-year lease on the St. James's Gate brewery in Dublin, Ireland.

Some 250 events are planned in participating countries around the world. They are open to adults of legal drinking age in their respective countries.

"Since 1759, Arthur Guinness and the Guinness brand have been behind some remarkable and hugely momentous achievements," Guinness officials said in a statement. "To continue this legacy and as part of the 250 celebrations, Guinness is giving something back to Guinness supporters around the world by offering the chance to win one of these three remarkable Guinness experiences."

The two other prizes include an undersea trip to a Guinness bar 229 feet (70 meters) below the ocean's surface near the Lofoten Islands in Norway, as well as a private live studio performance by the band The Black Eye Peas.

Virgin Galactic's carrier ships and spacecraft are being built by the California-based company Scaled Composites.

The new vehicles build on the firm's SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnight vehicles that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004.

Obama Seeks New Start in U.S.-Russia Relations

MOSCOW - Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev end a seven-year hiatus in U.S.-Russian summitry on Monday, with both men declaring their determination to further cut nuclear arsenals and repair a badly damaged relationship.

Both sides appear to want to use progress on arms control as a pathway into possible agreement on other, far trickier issues -- like Iran and the tiny country of Georgia, a former Soviet republic.

Those difficulties and many others have soured a promising linkage in the first years after the Cold War and pushed ties between Moscow and Washington to depths not seen in more than two decades.

Obama arrives here Monday afternoon, the first stop on a weeklong trip that will also take him to Italy and Ghana.

"It's not, in our view, a zero-sum game, that if it's two points for Russia it's negative two for us, but there are ways that we can cooperate to advance our interests and, at the same time, do things with the Russians that are good for them, as well," Obama's top assistant on Russia, Michael McFaul, said in a pre-summit briefing.

He seemed to be of one mind with the Russian leader, Medvedev.

"Russia and America need new, common, mutually beneficial projects in business, science and culture," the Russian president said in his weekly Internet address. "I hope that this sincere desire to open a new chapter in Russian-American cooperation will be brought into fruition."

Two things appear certain to be on the agenda:

--The Russians have said they will agree to allow the United States to use their territory and air space to move munitions and arms to U.S. and NATO forces fighting Taliban Islamic extremists in Afghanistan. The Kremlin announced the deal three-days before the summit as a significant sweetener for Obama.

--A directive by both presidents for negotiators to work on a nuclear agreement that would further reduce warheads and replace the 1991 START I accord that expires Dec. 5. Both sides are agreed in principle to cut warheads from more than 2,000 each to as low as 1,500 apiece.

Those deals are likely to be announced at an Obama-Medvedev news conference.

Madoff Hires Consultant to Find Best Possible Jail

Bernard Madoff has hired a veteran prison consultant to help him to find the best possible jail in which to serve his 150-year sentence for Wall Street’s biggest fraud.

After his sentencing this week Madoff, now Prisoner No 1727-054, met Herb Hoelter, of the National Center for Institutions and Alternatives, whose previous clients include the jailed Sotheby’s chairman Alfred Taubman and the financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky.

The draconian maximum sentence imposed by the judge means that Madoff, 71, will be assigned to a tougher category of prison than most white-collar criminals.

Federal convicts are assigned to minimum, low, medium, high-security prison, or even the sole Supermax facility, by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons using a score-card known as Form BP-337 to calculate an inmate’s “Security Point Total”. A first-time non-violent white-collar criminal convicted in a U.S. federal court would normally qualify for incarceration at a minimum-security “prison camp” with easygoing rules and no perimeter fence. But the length of Madoff’s jail term means that he has no hope at all of going to one of them.

Russians create shrine to Michael Jackson

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- They headed to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow after news broke that Michael Jackson had died. And they're still coming.
Alexandra Belayeva, left, and Zhenya Iordanskaya visit the Michael Jackson memorial in Moscow.

Alexandra Belayeva, left, and Zhenya Iordanskaya visit the Michael Jackson memorial in Moscow.

Young Russian fans, some of whom don't even speak English, bring homemade signs, pictures and drawings of Jackson, Russian religious icons, candles, teddy bears -- all signs of how much they loved the singer.

"At first I couldn't believe it had happened," 23-year-old Zhenya Iordanskaya said. "I thought it was another rumor. My friend told me about it, and then I saw it on TV, on every channel. I was really in shock. And I still can't believe it."

Iordanskaya was standing in the rain Sunday with her friend Alexandra Belayeva, 20, looking at the shrine Jackson's fans have erected along the fence in front of the Embassy.

Iordanskaya says she was 8 when she first heard "Black or White."

"I didn't understand English, but the faces of all the different people really inspired me. And the fact that he dealt with all these issues, you really have to give him credit for that," Iordanskaya said.

Belayeva says she became a fan about three years ago.
Michael Jackson: The Memorial
Join CNN for all-day coverage Tuesday as the world celebrates the life of a worldwide pop icon, and don't miss our prime-time coverage starting at 8 p.m. ET.
see full schedule »

"The way he lived his creative live really inspired me," she said. "I really got into him as a person. Because you can really see the soul of a person in their creativity, can't you? It was such a shame that people put him down so much."

Belayeva says she's still in shock over Jackson's death at his California home on June 25. "When I heard he had died, I really couldn't believe it. He was so close to us. Not one of us, but so close. He was unbelievably kind.

"It's so sad to lose a person like him. It's also so sad that he was so alone at the end of his life. People didn't understand him. But at least they recognized his genius during his life. Sometimes that doesn't happen."
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Iordanskaya and Belayeva love to dance, and when they saw "Dangerous," they knew they had to try it out. "We studied his moves in that for days! We practiced. We really loved it!"

I ask the women to name their favorite Jackson songs. They roll their eyes. Where do you start? Iordanskaya starts with "Liberian Girl." "Also 'Earth Song.' "

"It's really powerful," she said, "the energy and the lyrics!"

On a rainy, cold day in Moscow, Iordanskaya and Belayeva say they still cry thinking that Jackson is no longer on Earth.

In the garden of flowers and mementos that sprouted almost overnight in front of the U.S. Embassy, next to eight flickering votive candles that make you feel as if you are in a Russian church, one fan has written a poem: "You're an angel flying into the distance, you're an angel, a carefree angel, flying into the distance."

Monorail crash at Disney World kills driver

(CNN) -- A monorail train at Walt Disney World crashed into the back of another train early Sunday, killing one driver, according to an amusement park spokesman and a witness interviewed by CNN.
A 2 a.m. ET monorail crash at Disney World killed one person, a park spokesperson said.

The crash occurred about 2 a.m. at one of the monorail stops at Disney World in Florida, said the witness, who requested anonymity.

"Today we mourn the loss of our fellow cast member," said a statement by Mike Griffin, Disney's vice president for public affairs. "Our hearts go out to his family and to those who have lost a friend and co-worker."

The statement said the monorail was shut down, "and we will continue to work closely will law enforcement to determine what happened and the appropriate next steps."

The witness said one monorail train rammed into the back of a stationary train. A photo of the crash provided by the witness showed the front car of a train badly damaged where it hit another train at a station.

According to the witness, a family of six in one train was freed from a damaged car. The witness said the family was shaken but uninjured

Steve "Air" McNair Dead

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Former star NFL quarterback Steve McNair was found shot to death in a Nashville condominium on Saturday, police said. A woman's body was also found at the scene.

McNair, who was 36, suffered several gunshot wounds, the Nashville Tennessean newspaper reported, citing police. A 20-year-old woman was found alongside him with a single gunshot wound to her head and a pistol near her body, it reported.

The newspaper described the deaths as an apparent murder-suicide.

Police were called to the scene in the early afternoon.

"The circumstances surrounding the shooting deaths remain under active investigation," Nashville told Reuters in a statement. Police department spokesman Don Aaron said no suspects had been taken into custody.

McNair, a hometown hero who did extensive charity work in Nashville, played 13 seasons on the NFL, mostly with the Tennessee Titans and its predecessor team, the Houston Oilers.

Drafted by the Oilers in 1995 out of Alcorn State College in Mississippi, McNair led the Titans to their only Super Bowl appearance -- after the 1999 season, losing to the St. Louis Rams. He was the NFL's co-MVP in 2003, and was selected for the Pro Bowl three times.

McNair ended his career with the Baltimore Ravens and retired after the 2007 season.

"We are saddened and shocked to hear the news of Steve McNair's passing today," Titans owner K. S. "Bud" Adams said in a statement on the team's website.

"He played with unquestioned heart and leadership and led us to places that we had never reached, including our only Super Bowl."

Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason, a former teammate, said: "Steve was such a happy person. I even called him 'Smile'. He was always smiling and was always willing to lend a hand to anyone who needed it. I've known him for 13 years, and he was the most selfless, happiest and friendliest person I have known."

McNair last month opened a restaurant in Nashville -- Gridiron9.

As word of McNair's death spread around the city, fans gathered at LP Field, the Titans' stadium, to leave cards, flowers and signs.

(Writing by Ros Krasny in Chicago; editing by Todd Eastham)

Harry Potter Star Recovering from Swine Flu

Not even the powers of the invisi-cloak could save Rupert Grint from catching the dreaded swine flu.

The Harry Potter star who plays Harry's best friend Ron Weasley in the film series is recovering from a mild case of the illness, according to BBC.

The wizard-in-training's publicist told the network that the actor has returned to work on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—the film based on the last book in JK Rowling's popular fantasy series.

Grint's doctor confirmed that the 20-year-old thesp was no longer contagious. The Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is back in session.