This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: NYT
March 14, 2008
In the capsule version of the Barack Obama story, his mother is simply the white woman from Kansas. The phrase comes coupled alliteratively to its counterpart, the black father from Kenya. On the campaign trail, he has called her his “single mom.” But neither description begins to capture the unconventional life of Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, the parent who most shaped Mr. Obama.
Kansas was merely a way station in her childhood, wheeling westward in the slipstream of her furniture-s
Source: Wired.com
March 14, 2008
The Air Force's new slogan, "Above All," sounds pretty cool -- until your translate it into German, that is. Then it gets downright creepy. Like, Hitler creepy.A few weeks back, the Air Force rolled out an $81 million marketing campaign, to convince average folks and lawmakers that it was still relevant in today's fights. At the center of the effort -- which including television commercial
Source: Independent (UK)
March 14, 2008
Britain's biggest teachers' union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.
Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union's annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a "propaganda" exercise and makes n
Source: Robert Fisk in the Independent
March 14, 2008
[A] month-long investigation by The Independent, culling four Arabic-language newspapers, official Iraqi statistics, two Beirut news agencies and Western reports, shows that an incredible 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq. This is a very conservative figure and – given the propensity of the authorities (and of journalists) to report only those suicide bombings that kill dozens of people – the true estimate may be double this number. On several days, six – even nine –
Source: http://www.mfa.gov.il
March 13, 2008
A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries BCE) was recently discovered in archaeological salvage excavations in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza.
In an excavation being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in partnership with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza a rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period was recently discovered. Also
Source: Tennessean
March 11, 2008
Archaeologists at The Hermitage can catalog nearly a million artifacts from the plantation's slaves after a $285,000 grant was awarded to the historic museum Monday.
The grant, one of 149 awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will allow archeologists to document and re-analyze some 800,000 slave artifacts that have been found on the property since excavations began in 1970.
Source: http://www.ctv.ca
March 13, 2008
Everyone is captivated by a spectacular fall from grace or the salaciousness of an affair, and the political arena has provided more than its fair share of that type of voyeurism.
Soon-to-be-former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who announced he will resign effective March 17 after being implicated in a prostitution scandal, is simply the latest.
Here is a round-up of some of the top scandals and controversies. First, the U.S.:
[HNN Editor: The story includes
Source: AP
March 13, 2008
Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.
Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.
The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of
Source: PRnewswire
March 12, 2008
At a news conference this morning, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) unveiled its annual report on the status of the nations historic battlegrounds. The report, entitled History Under Siege, identifies the most threatened Civil War sites in the United States.
According to CWPT President James Lighthizer, the report outlines steps that can be taken to rescue threatened Civil War sites.
Joining Lighthizer at the news conference announcing the report was country mus
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 13, 2008
Nearly half of the UK population does not know what the Magna Carta is, according to a YouGov poll.
The survey commissioned by the British Library found 45 per cent of the 2,000 people questioned had no knowledge of the English charter.
And only 32 per cent knew that it set written limits on the authority of the monarch.
Source: Evan Thomas in Newsweek
March 13, 2008
In Milwaukee, before the Wisconsin primary in mid-February, Michelle Obama made a remark that Republicans will use to hammer her husband should he win the Democratic nomination. "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback," she said. Almost immediately, Cindy McCain told reporters, "I have and always will be proud of my country." Both Michelle and her husband tried to explain that what she really mean
Source: Media Matters (Liberal media watchdog group)
March 13, 2008
Margaret Carlson falsely claimed of Sen. Hillary Clinton, "Everyone responsible for bringing peace to Northern Ireland is on the record saying her claim to involvement there is complete fiction." In fact, several figures involved in "bringing peace to Northern Ireland" -- including former Sen. George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland and former Social Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume -- have reportedly stated that Clinton played a role in the peace
Source: Leo Rechter at the website of TheCuttingEdge News.com
March 3, 2008
Editor’s note: This summary and analysis of the Bad Arolsen archive transfer controversy was written by Leo Rechter, elected president of the National Organization of Child Holocaust Survivors, following the January 17, 2008 ICRC-USHMM joint briefing about the Bad Arolsen files. This was the second such controversial closed-door on federal Museum property and was marked by the exclusion of mainstream press.
***
On January 17th, the National Organization of Child Holocaust Survivors t
Source: AP
March 12, 2008
France's last remaining veteran of World War I died Wednesday at age 110 after outliving 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in what they called "la Grande Guerre."
Lazare Ponticelli, who was born in Italy but chose to fight for France and was a French citizen for most of the past century, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicetre, the national veterans' office said.
"It is to him and his generation that we owe in large part the peaceful and pa
Source: AFP
March 12, 2008
Archaeologists have unearthed the skull of a young woman in northern Greece who is believed to have undergone head surgery in the third century, Greek news media reported Wednesday.
A Greek team discovered the skeleton at an ancient cemetery in Veria, with the skull including an injury that led them to conclude the surgery had been performed.
"We think that there was a complex surgical intervention that only an experienced doctor could have performed," said Io
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 12, 2008
They are unseen photographs of one of the most infamous men in history and a remarkable insight into the brutality of the Nazi regime in its final days.
But mystery surrounds how these black and white snaps of Adolf Hitler, taken by a German soldier standing just a few feet away, ended up at a stately home in Derby.The photos, which are to go on sale at auction next month, are thought to have been taken during the summer of 1944 in occupied Belgium.
In one of them, the
Source: Independent (UK)
March 12, 2008
A backpacker hostel in Alice Springs faces possible legal action after allegedly evicting a group of Aboriginal people because of their race.
The 16 women and children had travelled 120 miles from the desert community of Yuendumu. Six were to train as lifeguards for their town's new swimming pool but soon after arriving at the Haven Backpacker Resort they were all asked to leave because other guests were scared of them.
"The manager came out and told me that we wer
Source: Independent (UK)
March 12, 2008
Martina Navratilova has regained Czech nationality more than 30 years after fleeing a Communist regime she now compares favourably to that of her adopted country America under President George Bush.
The nine-time Wimbledon champion and one of the world's greatest ever tennis players, Ms Navratilova was born in Prague. She fled in 1975 at the height of the Cold War after being denied the right to compete in professional tennis in the US, where most major tournaments were then played
Source: NYT
March 9, 2008
THE differences in experiences for a group of Scarsdale eighth graders and the famed Little Rock Nine — the African-American teenagers who risked their safety desegregating Little Rock’s Central High School 50 years ago — are so vast that drawing comparisons would be futile.
Not only do the 13-year-olds in Kathleen Connon’s English classes at Scarsdale Middle School live in a largely protected and affluent community, but there is also one glaring difference: There isn’t a single bla
Source: NYT
March 12, 2008
MAYOR L. DOUGLAS WILDER used to beg his reluctant father, born in 1886, to tell him stories about how his parents fared during slavery.
After some urging, “my father used to talk about how his father and mother were separated,” Mr. Wilder said. According to the family’s oral history, Mr. Wilder’s grandfather walked 18 miles each way every weekend to see his wife and children in Ashland, Va. Because he never got a travel pass, the white overseer at his Richmond plantation threatened
