Roundup

Alleged Nazi 'can be extradited' [video 1min]

An Australian court has ruled that an 86-year-old man can be extradited to Hungary for allegedly committing war crimes in Hungary during WWII. Charles Zentai is accused of beating to death a Jewish teenager in Budapest in 1944 when he was serving in the Hungarian army. He is one of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre's top targets. Mr Zentai, who emigrated to Australia in the 1950s, has denied the allegations against him. If he is sent

The C.V. Starr Center Fellowships at Washington College

The C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience invites applications for its fulltime residential fellowships, which support outstanding writing on American history and culture by both scholars and nonacademic authors. The Center’s Patrick Henry Fellowship includes a $45,000 stipend, health benefits, faculty privileges, a book allowance, and a nine-month residency (during the academic year 2009-10) in a restored circa-1735 house in historic Chestertown, Md.

Between the Wars [video 2min]

Alastair Sooke previews an exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival.

Gorbachev and Putin lead tributes to Solzhenitsyn [video 4min]

The former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and the former Russian president Vladimir Putin today led tributes to the Nobel-prize winning author and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn, whose books chronicled the horrors of the Soviet gulag system, died of heart failure last night, his son, Stepan, said. He was 89. Gorbachev, who dismantled the last of the gulags in the 80s, described the internationally renowned writer as a "man of unique destiny whos

7/7 memorial designs unveiled [video 2min]

A permanent memorial to the 52 victims killed in the 2005 terror attack will be erected in Hyde Park.

Ancient ship remains surfaced [audio 1min]

A Greek trading ship has been brought to the surface after lying off the Sicily coast for 2,500 years. The ancient vessel is the biggest of its kind discovered and the campaign to bring it to the surface began shortly after two scuba divers found it by chance in 1988. Archaeologists believe the ship sank in a storm some 800m off the coast while transporting goods from the Greek colony in Gela back to Greece in around 500 BC.

New Yorkers celebrate Central Park's 150th birthday [audio 2min]

Balloon rides over Central Park mark the anniversary of the landmark's design 150 years ago.

Barbie, Madonna turn 50 [audio 30min]

As Barbie and Madonna both turn 50, journalist Emily Maitlis asks which is the original Material Girl. She takes a look at the marketing, promotion and parallel development of two of the best-known brands of the last half-century.

African-American History-Civil Rights (U-Mass. Amherst)

The Department of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst seeks a scholar of African-American history specializing in civil rights, broadly defined, at the assistant professor level. The candidate must be prepared to teach courses on 20th century civil rights movements, including an existing course on the ”Black Freedom Struggle in the United States since 1945.”  Other duties will include the development of new undergraduate and graduate courses in the field and active involvement in

Hadrian: 'An almost God-like status' [video 6min]

Jon Dennis joins curator Thorsten Opper on a tour around the British Museum's Hadrian: Empire and Conflict exhibition.

Hadrian at the British Museum [video 2min]

Alastair Sooke visits the British Museum to take a look at a new exhibition revealing the life and loves of the famous Roman Emperor, Hadrian.

Roma struggle with regeneration reality [video 5min]

One of the oldest Roma settlements in Europe is to be given a massive facelift before Istanbul becomes capital of culture in 2010. Shehani Fernando travelled to Turkey to find out what the residents make of it.

Rediscovering treasures of Bamiyan [video 3min]

They towered over a rich valley in what is now central Afghanistan, where caravans of traders would stop and rest on the Silk Road as they transported goods between east and west. For centuries the two huge statues stood guard over Bamiyan. But in 2001, just months before they were forced from power, the Taleban dynamited what they considered un-Islamic representations of the human form. Today all that remains are the recesses where they stood, and the l

Anglo-Saxon attitudes [animation 7min]

A poll by The Economist and YouGov reveals that Britain holds views more left-wing than America's, by a surprising margin.

Bush's economic legacy [video 2min]

Bush came into office as America's first "MBA president, " determined to run the economy like a business. Some seven-and-a-half years later, with oil prices at record highs, the housing market imploding and a recession looming, there are questions about Bush's economic legacy.

Remembering the Srebrenica massacre 13 years on [audio 4min]

Bosnia marks the 13th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. More than 30,000 people gathered on Friday, July 11, to remember the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and attend a funeral for 308 recently identified victims. The massacre of at least 8,000 Muslim men and boys took place while the entire enclave was under the protection of the United Nations as a"UN safe zone" during the 1992-1995 Balkans conflict. Soon after troops led by Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic captured Srebrenica, Dutch UN troop

Sameh El-Shahat's take on the Bush presidency [video 5min]

So, the hot news now is Barack Obama. Obama this, Obama that... Naturally, it is very laudable that the United States may have chosen to look beyond the issue of race and opted for a person purely on the merit of his character. But what will they find? The usual hot air that Washington politicians seem to have made their own. Mr Obama is no different. We're just too politically correct to say that the only thing refreshing about him is his colour. So we say he's"bipar

John Bolton on Bush's Legacy [video 5min]

Interviewer Riz Khan speaks to John Bolton about the US elections, the legacy of the Bush administration, and more.

The untold story of the Berlin Airlift - 'America's finest hour' [video 56min]

In his book The Candy Bombers, Andrei Cherny recounts the Berlin Airlift, which began on June 24th 1948 when the Soviet Union decided to deny access to West Berlin and planned to starve the city unless the Americans left. Although outnumbered, the American and British forces responded by airlifting supplies to West Berlin until the blockade ended in May 1949 -- an incident that shaped the Cold War, says Cherny. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the political journal Democracy,

The forging of the American Navy from the Revolution to the War of 1812 [video 51min]

Author George Daughan discusses his book If by Sea, in which he contends that the creation of the American Navy met resistance by several of the Founding Fathers, who found it overly expensive and possessing the potential to attract American involvement in other countries' wars. He posits that these arguments ended when the Navy proved invaluable in the War of 1812. Daughn was the director of the MA program in international affairs at the Air Force Academy and has taught at the University