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Category: News In English

Sednaya: The Syrian hell

By Oula Mahfouz and Youssef Kanjou Trigger warning: This text contains descriptions of physical and psychological violence. “If there had been no other reason for the revolution in Syria against the regime than Saydnaya Prison, it would have been enough,” said some Syrians when photos and videos from Saydnaya Prison were shown after the fall of Assad on December 8 this year. What is the history of this prison and why did Amnesty International call it a “human slaughterhouse”? Why did the people of Syria call it the “red prison” and how did the Assad regime spread information about torture… Read More

A Syrian find is the oldest alphabet in the world to date

By Youssef Kanjou Four incised clay tablets, each about four centimetres in size, could be the oldest alphabetic writing in the world to date. They are about 4400 years old and were discovered at Tell Um al-Marra, east of Aleppo, Syria. This makes them 500 years older than the oldest known evidence of an alphabet. Dr Glenn Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University, USA, presented these results at the American Archaeological Society (AAS) conference in November 2024. Linguistic signs were found on four small forms made of dried clay that contained a small hole that may have been used to attach… Read More

Learning German: Lobna has reached C1 level

She still remembers her first German word well. „That was ‘tschüss’,“ says Lobna Alhindi. One of the volunteers from the circle of friends in Poltringen said goodbye to her like that. „He explained to me that you don’t say ‘bye bye’ in Germany,“ recalls the Syrian-born woman. „And that many people in this country say ‘ade’.“ That was in December 2015. Today, Lobna, one of the editors at tuenews INTERNATIONAL, speaks fluent German. She completed her C1 language course this summer. This means that her language skills are so good that she can communicate effortlessly, could study or work in… Read More

The oldest stone tools in Europe discovered in Ukraine

By Yana Rudenko In the Ukrainian region of Zakarpattia, stone tools around 1.4 million years old have been found at the Palaeolithic site of Korolevo near the village of the same name. This means that humans of the species Homo erectus (upright man) apparently lived in Europe much earlier than previously assumed. Thanks to this discovery, the scientists were able to confirm the theory of the migration of various Homo erectus species that came to Europe from the east and spread westwards, probably along the Danube river valleys. This is the result of a study published in the scientific journal… Read More

Gravestones: a global tradition that originated in the Middle East

By Youssef Kanjou It is not known exactly when and why people first began to make what is now known as a gravestone: a piece of stone on which a person’s name and date of death are written. In any case, the first known inscriptions on gravestones were written in the Aramaic language of the Near East. This tradition subsequently spread to various cultures and religions. This still applies to modern graves all over the world. The Aramaic tombstones from the 7th century BC represent the oldest archaeological evidence of this tradition. They seem to have emerged from the development… Read More

Living national history – spectacular Ukrainian finds

David Firschau and Yana Rudenko The Great State Exhibition in Stuttgart “The Hidden Land“provides a fascinating insight into the history of Baden-Württemberg in the 1st millennium AD. Finds from the state and from western Ukraine show that migration was already an important topic at that time. The exhibition also deals with the topics of integration, communication, spirituality and power in stages of around 200 years each – elaborately staged. Integration and mutual respect Integration was already part of the reality of life at the beginning of the first millennium AD. Many Germanic tribes friendly to the Roman Empire settled in… Read More

About the oldest Christian churches in Syria

By Youssef Kanjou Today, Syria is a country with a Muslim majority; in pre-Islamic times, most of the region’s inhabitants were Christians. As a result, Syria is home to some of the oldest churches in the world. For example, the so-called “house church” was discovered, which dates back to 233 AD, while the oldest basilica church in Syria dates back to 372 AD. At the beginning of the spread of Christianity, the house church was a residential building that was converted into a church instead of erecting a separate building for Christian rituals. This happened in the town of Dura… Read More

Celts in the southwest

By Bernhard Kirschner 2600 years ago, the Celts ruled the southwest of Germany. One of their centers was the Heuneburg above the Danube near Sigmaringen. The Celts had trade links as far afield as the Mediterranean. Finds of gold jewelry and fine tableware in so-called burial mounds attest to their wealth and power. Their warriors even came as far as Syria. Celts without written evidence However, the early Celts themselves left no written evidence. They only appear occasionally in the writings of the Greeks and Romans. Scientists are therefore dependent on archaeological finds. They come across traces of the Celts… Read More

The journey of numbers: From the Babylonians to the present day

By Oula Mahfouz From math to commerce to science and technology, numbers are indispensable tools in our daily lives. But where do these numbers originate throughout time and across civilizations? The beginnings of numbers: Babylonians and Egyptians The invention of number systems is attributed to the Babylonians around 2700 years before Christ. They developed the oldest known number system, the sexagesimal system, which calculates with 60 numbers and is still used today to represent time, angles, geographical coordinates and much more. Around 300 years later, the Egyptians developed their own method of counting, which is similar to today’s system. In… Read More

Assisted dying: Strictly forbidden in Islam

By Oula Mahfouz Active assisted dying is prohibited in Germany. No one is allowed to administer a lethal drug to another person because they want to end their life. Islam forbids assisted dying in almost all cases. At the University Hospital in Tübingen, a Muslim counselling team can also provide advice on these issues. In Germany, however, there are cases of assisted dying that are permitted by law: passive assisted dying, i.e. the renunciation of life-prolonging measures such as artificial nutrition or artificial respiration. Indirect assisted dying is also permitted, i.e. measures to alleviate pain that may result in the… Read More

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