D Friday, November 6, 2009 METRO Europe is too selfish to breed EUROPE is dying because the continents secular culture has made people too selfish to have children. Lord Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, said European societys focus on consumerism and instant gratification had left little room for the sacrifice involved in parenthood, describing it as one of the unsayable truths of our time. He said neo-Darwinian attacks on religion typified by Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion were leading to a population crisis in Europe. Babies learn to cry with an accent in the wombBy John von Radowitz ambassador for operation Smile Jackie Chan holds a six-month-old patient during his visit to Vietnam-Cuba hospital in hanoi. the actor was visiting the country for the 20th anniversary of operation Smile Vietnam Ill smIle for you BABIES start to pick up the national nuances of their mother tongue even before birth, a new study has shown. Scientists discovered newborn infants in France and Germany cry with French and German accents. The findings suggests unborn babies are influ- enced by the sound of their first language penetrat- ing the womb. Its already known that foetuses can memorise sounds from the outside world by the last trimester, or three months, of pregnancy. They are especially sensitive to the melodic char- acteristics of both music and human speech. Newborns prefer their mothers voice over others and react to its emotional content. But scientists previously thought language traits did not begin to have an influence until much later. Study leader Dr Kathleen Wermke, from the Uni- versity of Wurzburg in Germany, said: Not only are human neonates capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those mel- ody patterns that are typical for the ambient lan- guage they have heard during their foetal life... these data support the importance of human infants crying for seeding language development. Dr Wermkes team recorded and studied the cries of 60 healthy babies aged three to five days born into French and German-speaking families. Their analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the infants cry melodies that correspond- ed to their mother tongue. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html