TITBITS of good news are rare enough among the hard-pressed Christians of the Middle East, but today's tidings were certainly an occasion for quiet rejoicing. Following tense, secretive negotiations which could easily have failed at the last moment, 13 Syrian nuns and three other women have been set free after being held captive for several months by hard-line Islamist rebels. The nuns were guardians of an ancient Christian outpost in the town of Maaloula, north of Damascus, where a dialect of Aramaic (the tongue which Jesus spoke in everyday life) is still in use.
