From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News Articles
Date: 6 Nov 1992 02:20:25 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Hey, Sumerians -- this brew's for you!
   Scientists say they've found the earliest known chemical
evidence that ancient people quaffed a few beers: pale,
yellow deposits on the inside of a jar more than 5,000 years
old.
   Tests suggested the deposits were calcium oxalate, a
substance that settles out when barley beer is stored or
fermented, the researchers said.
   The finding supports other evidence of beer at the same
time, around 3500 B.C. to 3100 B.C., at the same
archaeological site in western Iran and at several sites in
Iraq, study co-author Patrick McGovern said.
   McGovern is an archaeological chemist at the University
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He reports the work with
Rudolph Michel of the museum and Virginia Badler of the
University of Toronto in Thursday's issue of the journal
Nature.
   Badler had spotted unusual criss-crossing grooves on the
inside of a portion of the double-handled jar, which was
recovered at Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains. Sumerians
had lived at the site, and the early Sumerian symbol for
beer shows a jar with similar groove-like markings, McGovern
said.
   He said researchers had already found that barley was
common at the site, suggesting the Sumerians could have been
brewing beer long before Ed McMahon saddled his first
Clydesdale.
   The yellow deposits were found in the grooves, which may
have been put there to remove the bitter-tasting calcium
oxalate from beer, he said.
   The jar came from the same room at the site where
researchers had found evidence of wine in other vessels. The
room may have been a distribution center, from which the
beverages could be passed through two windows that faced
onto a courtyard, McGovern said.

   BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The EC executive Commission
recommended on Wednesday that the 12 European Community
states open formal talks with the government in Helsinki to
make Finland an EC member.
   Finland formally applied to join the EC on March 18.
   EC External Relations Commissioner Frans Andriessen said
Commission members believe that Finland is economically
ready for membership.
   He also said that the Commission welcomed Finland's
recent announcement to join the EC's drive for further
integration, such as common foreign and monetary policies as
outlined in the treaty of Maastricht.
   "In the view of the EC Commission structural economic
conditions for full participation (in the European
Community) are present in Finland," Andriessen told
reporters.
   Although some issues remained to be worked out in
membership negotiations, Andriessen said Finnish membership
in the EC posed no "insurmountable problems."
   Under EC guidelines "any European state may apply to
become a member" provided they are democracies whose market
economies can absorb, without much difficulty, all EC rules
and regulations adopted since its creation in 1957.
   More importantly, they must join the Treaty of Maastricht
on European Union which spells out the road to common
security, foreign and monetary policies in the second half
of the decade.
   Optimism has waned in recent months; Denmark rejected the
treaty in a referendum and now wants to stay out of common
currency and defense policies.
   The treaty of Maastricht can only take effect if all 12
EC members ratify the accord as adopted by the leaders of
the 12 EC states.
   To date, seven countries have formally applied to join
the Community.
   Finland, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland stand a good
chance to join quickly. The EC Commission has already
endorsed the Austrian and Swedish applications.
   But in 1989 it rejected Turkey's request for membership
saying the country was economically unsuited to join. Cyprus
and Malta applied for membership in July, 1990, but both are
small states. Also, Cyprus has been divided since the 1974
Turkish invasion that led to the creation of a Turkish
Cypriot state only Ankara recognizes.


BOSNIAN SERBS BLOCK U.N. TROOP DEPLOYMENT

    By Kurt Schork
    SARAJEVO, Nov 4, Reuter - Canadian peacekeepers in
Bosnia are being prevented from entering the city of Banja
Luka by the local Serbian military, and by the mayor who is
demanding a sizeable cash payment, U.N. officials say.
    "The mayor is demanding a quarter million dollars from
the Canadians as a security deposit against any damage their
troops might cause," a senior U.N. official in Zagreb told
Reuters.
    "Canadian reconnaissance forces have been prevented from
crossing the bridge into Banja Luka by Bosnian Serb forces
on several occasions," he added.
    The 900-man Canadian battalion is part of an expanding
United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia, whose
job is to ensure delivery of international relief supplies
to hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk from the
seven-month civil war there.
    Banja Luka is a key Serb stronghold in the north of
Bosnia and the main base for warplanes that have, at least
in theory, been put under international supervision under a
no-fly resolution passed by the U.N. Security Council three
weeks ago.
    Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic personally approved
the Canadian mission, whose responsibilities are restricted
to distributing aid. Unarmed U.N. monitors are due to arrive
this week to monitor the airfield.
    A recent internal U.N. memo said local Serb military
commanders were insisting on written orders as a condition
of permitting the Canadians to enter.
    There are still some Moslems living in Banja Luka, but
tension between them and the Serbs is running very high and
many have left in fear for their lives.
    The mainly Moslem Bosnian government has been fighting a
losing battle against rebel Serb forces throughout the
republic since April.
    The intensity of the conflict, poor communications,
rugged terrain and the independence of local commanders make
moving relief convoys through battle lines difficult and
dangerous.
    French, Canadian, British and Spanish battalions are
being deployed to provide armed escort for those U.N.
convoys.
    A 1,350 man French battalion arrived last week in the
Moslem-held northwestern town of Velika Kladusa.
    An advance contingent of 30 British soldiers arrived in
the central town of Vitez over the weekend and immediately
began assisting in relief efforts for tens of thousands of
civilians displaced when neighbouring Jajce fell to Serbian
forces.
    About 200 of the 700 Spanish troops due to be deployed
around Ploce, a Croatian port on the Adriatic coast, have
arrived in Split, about 125 kms (80 miles) to the north.
    Relief convoys to Sarajevo have been travelling from
Split via Mostar, a Croat-controlled city.
    Several of the convoys have come under mortar fire in
recent weeks and U.N. officials are anxious for the Spanish
troops to be deployed as soon as possible so they can start
their escort duties.