Christians mark the birth of Jesus Christ

Thousands of Christians in the Cape Coast municipality on Monday attended church service and conventions to mark the birth of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago.

Many of the churches were filled to capacity and extra seating places were created outside the church halls to accommodate the congregation.In a sermon at the St Francis de Sales Cathedral, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson said the celebration of Christmas should not be used for only merry making, but rather should be used as a period for reconciliation and for people to change their ways to ensure peace and development.

He said people normally 93harden their hearts=94 to the word of God because of the fear of change, stressing that the time had come for Christians to use the word Christ brought to live decent lives and eschew all social vices to enable them enter the kingdom of Heaven.

Cardinal Turkson urged all to use the celebration to share their love, experience, blessing and joy with their neighbours, just as Christ shared the word of God with the world."Christmas is a gift from God and people should endeavour to share this gift with others"At the Varrick Memorial AME Zion church in Cape Coast, reverend Joseph Hammond, assistant pastor of the church, said the birth of Christ was a proclamation of Jesus as the Saviour.

He charged Christians to have faith in Jesus, love one another and follow his footsteps.He advised Christians to eschew hatred, envy and black mailing to promote peaceful co-existence.Rev. Hammond said when this is done, God the father would continue to bless the citizens of the country and 93we may continue to know peace in the country to ensure rapid developments in all spheres of our lives and blessings in all our endeavours=94. 25 Dec 06
Source:GNA

Public Alert From The CPP Patriots

It has come to the attention of the CPP-Patriots, a group of Nkrumaists solely dedicated to the rebuilding of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) into a formidable force in Ghanaian politics, that certain individuals claiming to be members of the CPP are going around various constituencies and asking party officials to complete a form simply titled “Political Movement” and asking these officials to forward the forms to Accra for action.

This group, which we have reliably learned is financed by a foreign government that fears the reincarnation of the CPP, is seeking to destroy the CPP in order to create a new party to serve the selfish interests of its leader, a prominent CPP member of hybrid political affiliation.

They typically send their agents to constituencies where the Patriots are in the process of opening offices (or have opened offices), thus creating the impression that somehow we are affiliated with them. We are not.

Indeed, we repudiate their nefarious activities and condemn them in the strongest possible terms.We use this opportunity, therefore, to call on all members of the Nkrumaist family, especially the CPP, to be on the alert and stand fast in this period of rejuvenation, transition and hope, and fend off these and other subversive forces that seek to pursue their narrow political interests at the expense of the nationalist and Pan-Africanist agenda of the CPP.

We should never entertain such traitors.Forward Ever, Backward Never!Issued by the:The Patriots (cpppatriots@yahoo.com) AccraDecember 23, 2006
Source:The Patriots (cpppatriots@yahoo.com)

"Afii Aya ni eba nina wo"

In Ghana, Christmas season runs from December 20th to the first week in January. This coincides with the end of the cocoa harvest, the most prosperous time of the year, which contributes to the festive atmosphere.

Ghanaians who labor far from home, in the cities, on cocoa farms, and in the mines, return home for the holiday to spend it with family and friends. Houses, schools, and vehicles are decorated with paper ornaments and crepe paper. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, families and friends gather to feast on rice, chicken, goat, lamb and "fufu" (a cassava-plaintain paste)

On Christmas Eve there's often an outdoor procession, perhaps led by local musicians. On Christmas Eve and Day people go caroling house-to-house, singing traditional carols in one of Ghana's 66 local languages. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services feature carols and retellings of the Christmas story.

After church, children get small gifts from "Father Christmas", perhaps sweets, new clothes or a diary. People say Afishapa to one another, using an Akan (a major Ghanaian language) word that translates to "Merry Christmas & Happy New Year".
Father ChristmasThe children of Ghana might find it difficult to relate to the harsh cold of the North Pole, so their "Father Christmas" arrives instead from the tropics to play his part in the Christmas festivals.

His gifts are simple - good things to eat mostly - but his outfit is very elegant. Sandals peek out from under his bright red robe trimmed in golden fabric.
A traditional African patterned sash unites the colors of his outfit, and he wears a pale-colored cloak with a hood over his red cap.

While "Father Christmas" is a holdover from Ghana's colonial days, this was the first Black African country to gain its independence. Thus the people there have chosen the traditions they wish to keep from among the European customs, and expanded to encompass their own.

In Ghana the Christmas festival includes a special, religious service after which young people are given imported chocolates, and cookies and crackers prepared especially for this event. These are said to come from "Father Christmas". Christmas also coincides with harvest time for cocoa, which also is generally known as a time of abundance and good cheer.

Friends and relations travel to visit each other, celebrate the Christmas story, and share a wonderful feast.
Source:GHP

Genetics of eye colour unlocked

Scientists have made a breakthrough in their understanding of the genetics behind human eye colour.
They found that just a few "letters" out of the six billion that make up the genetic code are responsible for most of the variation in human eye colour.



The research, by a team of scientists from Queensland, Australia, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.



The findings are based on a genetic study of nearly 4,000 individuals.
One of the changes is like switching the light on and off, while the other is like changing the light bulb from brown to green Richard Sturm, University of QueenslandDifferences in eye colour are largely down to "single nucleotide polymorphisms" (SNPs - pronounced "snips"); variations in the sequence of letters that make up a single strand of human DNA.


SNPs represent a change of just one letter in the genetic sequence. These changes, or mutations, in our DNA can have important consequences for how the gene gets physically expressed.
All the SNPs are located near a gene called OCA2. This gene produces a protein that helps give hair, skin and eyes their colour. And mutations in OCA2 cause the most common type of albinism.

Brown and blue

The study, which focused on twins, their siblings and parents, shows - conclusively - that there is no "gene" for eye colour.
THE DNA MOLECULE




The double-stranded DNA molecule is held together by chemical components called bases
Adenine (A) bonds with thymine (T); cytosine(C) bonds with guanine (G)
Groupings of these "letters" form "code of life"; there are about 2.9 billion base-pairs in the human genome wound into 24 distinct bundles, or chromosomes


Written in the DNA are about 20-25,000 genes which human cells use as starting templates to make proteins; these sophisticated molecules build and maintain our bodiesEveryone has two copies of a SNP. So there are several possible combinations, some of which are more heavily associated with, for example, blue eyes, than with brown eyes.



In short, these combinations strongly influence the colour of a person's eyes, but they are not the final word.
Dr Richard Sturm and his colleagues found three SNPs near the start of the OCA2 gene that were linked to blue eye colour.



"The SNPs we've identified in themselves are not functionally causing the eye colour change, but they are linked very, very closely to something that is," Dr Sturm, from the University of Queensland, told BBC News.
"When OCA2 is knocked out, there is a loss of pigmentation. The position of these SNPs right at the start of the gene means it is possible we're looking at a change in the regulation of the gene in people with blue eye colour."
Functional change



So these SNPs, at the start of OCA2, probably regulate how much of the pigmentation protein is produced by the gene. People with brown eyes might have a lot of this protein, while people with blue eyes have less.
However, the single letter changes involved in green eyes may actually produce functional changes in the pigmentation protein.



The researchers found SNPs at another position in the OCA2 region - linked to green eyes - that resulted in changes to amino acids (the building blocks of a protein).
"To use an analogy, one of the changes is like switching the light on and off, while the other is like changing the light bulb from brown to green," said Dr Sturm.



Altogether, the single letter changes identified in the study accounted for 74% of total variation in eye colour, the researchers said. The study was a collaboration between researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the University of Queensland, both in Brisbane.
source bbc