Written in 411 AD, the text was hidden for over 1,000 years in a vault used to store olive oil
By Martin Bailey
Fragments of the earliest dated Christian literary manuscript have been found at Deir al-Surian, an ancient monastery in the Egyptian desert. Dating from 411 AD, these were discovered under a collapsed floor of a ninth-century tower. The fragments are from the final page of a codex written in Syriac (an Eastern Aramaic language) which was acquired by the British Museum library in the 19th century.
Few manuscripts have had such an astonishing history. In 1847, British Museum librarian William Cureton said that “among all the curiosities of literature, I know of none more remarkable than the fate of this matchless volume”. We can now add a final chapter to the story.
The manuscript on Christian martyrs was written in Edessa (now Sanliurfa, Turkey), and at some point in the next five centuries it was taken eastwards. In 931, the abbot of Deir al-Surian travelled to Baghdad and brought it back to Egypt.
In 1086, a monk added a marginal note in the middle of the manuscript, expressing concern that the last page with its colophon (the scribe’s ...   more »

By Yoav Stern and Barak Ravid,
Israel has decided to send a letter of protest to the United Nations Security Council, after the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Monday that Israel was a "cancerous germ" that would soon be destroyed by the "hands of Hezbollah," Army Radio reported.
Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted by the Fars News Agency as saying: "In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous germ of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants."
The Foreign Ministry has instructed Israel's delegation to the UN to write a missive saying that the comments call for the destruction of Israel and represent severe anti-Semitism and racism, Army Radio reported.  
The letter is also expected to call on the UN to censure Iran over the comments.
Jafari made the comment in a letter to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, to offer condolences after the killing of senior guerrilla commander Imad Mughniyah in a car bomb last week in Damascus.
Iran does not recognize Israel's right to exist, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has often predicted the imminent demise of Israel.
Western analysts say the Revolutionary Guards, an ideological wing ...   more »

By DPA   
Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Israel  
Tehran on Monday said that even after 60 years, Israel still has neither legitimacy nor any role in the Middle East, ISNA news agency reported Monday.
"The West has tried to impose a fabricated regime on the Middle East but even after 60 years, the Zionist regime (Israel) has neither gained any legitimacy nor played any role in this region," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.
Calling United States policies in the Middle East a failure, Mottaki predicted the collapse of Israel.  
Mottaki was in Beirut last week to participate in the funeral procession for Imad Muganiyeh, a military leader of the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah who was killed in a bomb attack in Damascus last week.
Tehran, an avid supporter of Hezbollah, blamed Israel for Muganiyeh's assassination but said that such moves could not stop the struggle against Israeli "atrocities."
"The era of imposing policies on other states by military threats is over. The nations in the region will no longer surrender to any threats," Mottaki said.
Iran does not acknowledge Israel as a sovereign state and historic hostilities reached their peak following the 2005 election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who ...   more »

  The United States is floating an idea to temporarily deploy NATO troops in the West Bank after Israeli troops eventually withdraw, a newspaper said on Wednesday, quoting Israeli defence officials.
General James Jones, the US special Middle East envoy, is spearheading the idea, the Jerusalem Post reported.
It said Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had been briefed but had not finalised his position. Israel has traditionally been hostile to any suggestions of using foreign troops to help achieve peace in the region.
Under such a deal, third-party troops would be stationed in the West Bank to secure the area between the time of an Israeli withdrawal and when the Palestinian Authority is able to take over full security control.
"The deployment of such a force has come up in talks, and Jnes is known to be working on it," a senior defence official was quoted as saying. "At the moment, it's just an idea and yet to be accepted or adopted by Israel."
Asked about the report, US embassy spokesman Stewart Tuttle said only that "General Jones hasn't said anything in public about any discussions he may be having in private, and it is very early in the process." ...   more »

Negotiations focusing on a divided Jerusal must be halted, as such a move would only lead to a vacuum which would be filled by Hamas and Iran, opposition leader and Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu warned on Wednesday.
  Netanyahu says dividing Jerusalem would be a tremendous mistake
"I am not saying what to do, but what should definitely not be done is to retreat from Jerusalem, and to allow for another base of terror here, in the heart of the state," Netanyahu said during a speech at the Jerusalem Conference. "Let's be clear: Wherever we retreat, Hamas goes in. An agreement with weak Palestinian officials in the Palestinian Authority weakens them even more."
The Likud leader pointed to past Israeli withdrawals as examples of the danger posed by a divided Jerusalem.
"Two of our withdrawals brought Hizbullah and Hamas to positions of power - the withdrawal from Lebanon strengthened Hizbullah, and the withdrawal from Gaza strengthened Hamas," Netanyahu said.
"When there is an agreement with a Palestinian government which is this weak, it signals to Hamas and to Iran that Israel is leaving and Iran is able to fill the vacuum," he continued. "If we withdraw from Jerusalem, Hamas will ...   more »

By Stan Goodenough
Echoing the sentiments of his president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards General Mohammed Ali Jaafari last week described Israel as "cancerus bacterium" which would soon be destroyed by "the radiation of Hizb'allah's fighters."
Jaafari expressed this belief, shared by millions throughout the Muslim and Arab world, in a letter conveying condolences to the leader of the Iranian and Syrian-supported Hizb'allah organization on the death of top terrorist Imad Mugniyah.
Similar letters of commitment to the destruction of the "Zionist entity" flooded Hizb'allah's offices, sent by, among others, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Ahmadinejad himself.
Israel's Foreign Ministry responded to Jaafari's comments by lodging a letter of protest with the president of the United Nations Security Council.
"Jaafari's remarks express hope for the destruction of Israel. This is an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic and racist remark. We hope that the Security Council will address Israel's complaint and will publish a letter of condemnation as it has done twice in the past following statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Israel's destruction and Holocaust denial," the Ministry said.
In the words of a ministry spokesman, the comment was "shameful and unprecedented" and one UN member state ...   more »