by Roueida Mabardi
MAALULA, Syria, Dec 28 (AFP)
The language of Christ lives on in the mountains of Syria, where it is the mother tongue of perhaps 10,000 people.
Once spoken throughout the Levant, the ancient Aramaic language survives in three villages, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Damascus.
The best known and largest is Maalula, whose use of the tongue draws worshippers, scholars and tourists alike.
Enthusiasts like 61-year-old former English teacher George Rizkallah are doing what they can to ensure the language survives into the next millennium.
He has set himself the task of preserving Aramaic to �save our cultural heritage,� although he finds it hard, given the lack of financial backing.
Nevertheless, he has persuaded young people of the village to sing Aramaic words he has written to popular tunes.
And in 1994, Good Friday mass was recited entirely in his Aramaic translation at the village�s Greek Orthodox convent of Saint Tecla, attracting a number of Western ambassadors, including the Apostolic nuncio from Damascus.
Specialists in Semitic languages visit Maalula to hear and study the language spoken by the villagers, young and old.
Rabih Sanjar, 28, says he spoke Aramaic before he spoke Arabic, and uses it with his fiancee Rima. He reckons 70 percent of the inhabitants use the language.
More than twice his age, Hneineh Jabra Zaarur, 70, insists Aramaic is �the main language� for most of her friends.
Her son, Milad Jabra, 32, works as an engineer in Damascus, but he feels strongly about the need to keep it alive. He is one of a group of young people, who, helped by Rizkallah, is trying to use the church to spread Aramaic in order to preserve the language of his ancestors, as he describes it.
But there are factors militating against its preservation: the Aramaic of Maalula is not written, and Rizkallah has given up his attempts to set it down.
And the nuns at the Convent of Saint Tecla, one of the main churches in the village, do not speak the language, since they come from elsewhere.
Its roots run deep. Many localities far beyond Maalula�s immediate area have Aramaic names. Bethlehem means House of Bread; Shtaura, a Lebanese village on the Syrian border, means Foot of the Mountain.
Maalula itself comes from the Aramaic for entrance. It takes its name from the legend of Saint Tecla, a young Christian woman who fled to the mountains to escape persecution in the year 67. The mountains opened up to allow her to enter.
The isolation that saved Tecla has until now saved Aramaic too. Maalula is no longer isolated; but as it becomes known to the outside world, there are more and more people who would be sorry to see Aramaic finally disappear.
Timur PANKOV
ALMATY, jan 7
(THE GLOBE)
Today, the 8th of January is the birthday of great singer, the undisputed king of rock and roll. This year he would be 64 years old. He rose from humble circumstances to launch the rock and roll revolution with his commanding voice and charismatic stage presence. Below is a brief biography of Elvis Presley, which was taken by THE GLOBE from the source of Internet.
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on January 8, 1935, and grew up surrounded by gospel music of the Pentecostal church. In 1948 the family moved to Memphis, where he was exposed to blues and jazz on Beale Street. After graduating from high school in 1953, an 18-year-old Presley visited the Memphis Recording Service - also the home of Sun Records - to record his voice. Owner/producer Sam Phillips was struck by the plaintive emotion in Presley�s vocals and subsequently teamed him with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black. In July 1954 the trio worked up �That�s All Right� and �Blue Moon of Kentucky� - blues and country songs, respectively - in a crackling, uptempo style that stands as the blueprint for rock and roll.
After five groundbreaking singles, Presley�s contract was sold to RCA Records and his career quickly took off. �I Forgot to Remember to Forget� - his last single for Sun and first for RCA - went to #1 on the country charts. �Heartbreak Hotel,� a haunting ballad, became his first across-the-board hit, holding down the top spot for eight weeks. Presley�s hip-shaking performances on a series of TV variety shows, including Ed Sullivan�s, generated hysteria and controversy. From blistering rockers to aching balladry, Presley captivated and liberated the teenage audience. His historic string of hits in 1956 and �57 included �Don�t Be Cruel,� �Hound Dog,� �Love Me Tender,� �All Shook Up� and �Jailhouse Rock.�
Presley�s career momentum was interrupted by a two-year Army stint in Germany, where he met his future wife, Priscilla. For much of the Sixties, he occupied himself with movie-making and soundtrack-recording. His albums of sacred songs, such as How Great Thou Art, stand out from this otherwise fallow period. Presley�s standing as a rock and roller was rekindled with an electrifying TV special, simply titled Elvis and broadcast on December 3, 1968. He followed this mid-career renaissance with some of the most mature and satisfying work of his career. Recording in Memphis, he cut such classic tracks as �In the Ghetto, �Suspicious Minds� and �Kentucky Rain� with the soulful, down-home musicians at American Studio.
If the Fifties were devoted to rock and roll and the Sixties to movies, the Seventies represent the performing chapter in Presley�s career. He toured constantly, performing to capacity crowds around the country until his death. Presley died of a heart attack at Graceland, his Memphis mansion, on August 16, 1977. He was 42 years old.
How big was Elvis? Statistically, he holds records for the most Top Forty hits (107), the most Top Ten hits (38), the most consecutive #1 hits (10) and the most weeks at #1 (80). As far as his stature as a cultural icon, which continues to grow even in death, writer Lester Bangs said it best: �I can guarantee you one thing - we will never again agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis.�
by Jack Taylor
SYDNEY, Jan 4 (AFP)
Australian tree frogs could hold the key to a new range of drugs to fight cancer and voracious bacteria like golden staph which closes hospital wards, a university research team has discovered.
The team, from the University of Adelaide, has established that the chemical arsenal that protected the frog through millions of years includes some of the most powerful hormones, neuropeptides, antibiotics and anti-virals yet found in nature.
Using world-class technology, the team, headed by chemistry professor John Bowie, has isolated more than 150 peptides � compounds of amino-acids � while investigating the skin secretions from about 20 of the 200 Australian native frogs.
The Magnificent Tree Frog, or Litoria splendida, produces a neuropeptide � or amino-acid compounds found in the frog�s nervous system � and analgesic 2,000 times more powerful than morphine which it uses as a hormone, analgesic and toxin to deter enemies that might want to eat it.
�The Magnificent Tree Frog is most impressive in that it has huge glands, called paratoid glands,� Bowie told the university�s Research Digest, seen here Monday.
�They contain about five or six major peptides which are all hugely active. When attacked or stressed they secrete the contents of the glands all over their skin, he said.
�One of these compounds is a very powerful antibacterial agent as well as an antiviral agent.
�It is very active against staphylococcus aureaus (golden staph) which is one of the most nasty pathogens � the one which quite often closes down wards in hospitals.�
Bowie said that preliminary tests conducted in Adelaide in conjunction with the National Cancer Institute in Washington has shown that this peptide is active against a number of human tumours.
Bowie is also collaborating closely with associate professor Mike Tyler on biological and zoological aspects of the research and with Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre clinical director, Doctor Ian Olver, to explore the possibilities of using the peptides as anti-cancer drugs.
To create an effective anti-cancer drug they must find a means of delivering the molecule specifically to the target side in the body to avoid harming normal cells.
The researchers say the compounds found in the frogs help explain the extraordinary survival of the frogs which evolved from fishes some 300 million years then withstood the kind of catastrophies or climatic changes which wiped out the dinosaurs.
But while science is only now discovering the potential of the compounds found in frogs, Tyler said frogs are for the first time in worldwide decline.
Their numbers are plummetting in 140 countries around the world for no simple reason, although water pollution is believed to be a likely cause.
�We are seeing a tragic decline of frog populations world wide and if we can�t stop it, humans will miss out on theis wonderful pharmaceutical factory,� said Tyler, who is the Australian representative of an international campaign to save the frog.
by Michael Field
AUCKLAND, Dec 8 (AFP)
Way down south in the latitudes fearfully known asthe �Furious Fifties,� New Zealand has some wild islands where there are morebirds than in all of Europe and which are now officially part of the world�srich heritage.
New Zealand�s five sub-Antarctic island groups were Sunday added to theUnited Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation�s (UNESCO)World Heritage list at its annual meeting in Kyoto, Japan.
Among them are the Antipodes Islands � so named because they are thefurthest pieces of land in the world from London. There are also the Auckland,Campbell, Snares and Bounty islands.
Few people ever visit because of their appalling weather and savage seas.
The Campbell Islands, 600 kilometres (372 miles) south of New Zealand, arethe only islands permanently occupied. Meteorologists and environmentalistshave a base in the aptly named Perseverance Harbour. The seasons all mergeinto one long, cold wind and the mean annual temperature is a chilly sixdegrees Centigrade (43 degrees Fahrenheit).
On the Auckland Islands it rains 300 days of the year, leading oneshipwreck survivor to complain it had �the most miserable climate on earth.�
In 1895 the government leased the island to a sheep farmer. He and hisbuildings have long gone, but around 1,100 wild, unshorn sheep remain.
Early this century the Earl of Ranfurly planted a sitka spruce on theisland. It is now a mere 7.5 metres (24 feet) high when, back home inCalifornia, it would normally be about 40 metres (132 feet) tall. It has thedistinction in the Guiness Book of Records of being the �loneliest tree onearth.�
Royal albatrosses, the world�s largest seabirds, make the islands theirhome � as do 126 other bird species including penguins, petrels, ducks andshags. They are also havens to the world�s rarest sea lion, the southern rightwhale and plants such as the unique daisy tree, tree ferns, buttercups andflowering megaherbs.
Last summer thousands of the Hooker�s, or New Zealand, sea lion (Phocarctoshookeri), the world�s rarest species, died when they were hit by a mysteryillness on Auckland Islands, 465 kilometres (288 miles) south of New Zealand.Scientists left for the islands last week to monitor the population.
Auckland Islands were the scene of a bitter debate with claims of�ecological fundamentalism� made when government cullers went in to wipe outAgente de Champagne rabbits and a herd of wild shorthorn cattle on the island.They had been introduced in 1850 in an abortive bid to settle the island andthe government, ahead of seeking UNESCO�s listing, decided introduced specieshad to be eliminated.
Both had been isolated for over a century and the cattle were the last wildherd in the world that had been untouched by the dairy/beef specialisation.They also had a habit of eating seaweed and surviving on marginal lands.
Eventually 50 rabbits were brought off alive, along with a cow named �Lady�and some semen from bulls. Lady proved difficult to breed from and in Augustit was announced scientists had cloned a calf called �Elsie� from the cow.
A great whale come-back is taking place at the Aucklands. The southernright whale was hunted to the edge of extinction but is now plentiful aroundthe islands.
THE GREAT DATES AND EVENTS OF XXth CENTURY
04/01/1953 - Tufted plastic carpeting was introduced by Barwick Mills. The new carpet was said to be moth proof and stain resistant. Tufted plastic carpeting. Now there�s progress ahead of its time...
04/01/1962 - New York City introduced a train that operated without conductors and motormen. They were operated by muggers and thugs...
05/01/1933 - What is now a symbol of the great American West, the Golden Gate Bridge, spanning the deep channel at the entrance to San Francisco Bay, with the Bay on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, went under construction this day. It would be called an engineering marvel when completed. And, for now, pedestrians can still walk its entire length. Few person-made things are as beautiful as the Golden Gate shrouded in deep fog, with its twin towers peering out of the fog bank. Quite a sight!
05/01/1944 - The London �Daily Mail� was the first transoceanic newspaper ever published. Paperboys and girls on the other side of the ocean sure have great throwing arms, don�t they?
05/10/1972 - NASA has announced its plans to make a space shuttle.
06/01/1942 - The first, commercial, around the world airline flight took place today. Pan American Airlines was the company credited with the historic feat.
07/01/1904 - The distress signal, �CQD�, was established this day. It didn�t last long. Two years later, �SOS� became the radio distress signal because it was more convenient - meaning quicker - to send by wireless radio.
07/01/1912 - Charles Addams was born (cartoonist; TV and films: The Addams Family)
07/01/1954 - The �Duoscopic� TV receiver was unveiled this day. The TV set allowed a person or group to watch two different shows at the same time. It was a primitive, picture-in-picture, split-screen that was tested in New York City and Chicago. It didn�t work very well. The set was a product of DuMont Laboratories; which owned the DuMont Television Network (for only a short while longer before it folded).
08/01/1901 - The first tournament sanctioned by the American Bowling Congress was held in Chicago, Illinois.
08/01/1958 - Bobby Fisher won the United States Chess Championship for the first time. Interesting note: Fisher was all of 14 years of age.
08/01/1935 - Elvis Presley was born.
09/01/1941 - The first demonstration of small screen, color television was given by the Columbia Broadcasting System. The TV failed miserably, since RCA had pretty much wrapped up the patent process on color TV at the time.
09/01/1986 - Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years. A nasty court battle didn�t go their way. The court claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents; which, we all know, is not very nice to do. Sixteen million camera owners were offered free stock, coupons or a replacement camera.
10/01/1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson shot the first photograph from an airplane whiles flying over San Diego, California. Unfortunately, he left the lens cap on and the picture didn�t turn out. (Wrong!)
10/01/1944 - Frank Sinatra Jr. (singer: It�s All Right; bandleader)