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: Bloomberg
November 29, 2007
Josef Stalin may have been cruel, but he was first and foremost a great leader.
That rewriting of the history of the ruthless Soviet dictator who killed millions of real and imagined enemies comes from a new manual for Russia's high-school teachers endorsed by President Vladimir Putin. The book exemplifies Russia's growing nostalgia for its bygone superpower days -- a sentiment Putin stokes at every turn in his quest for political hegemony. Russia feels t
Source: CBC
November 29, 2007
Members of all federal parties unanimously passed a motion Wednesday recognizing that Japan used women as sex slaves during the Second World War.The motion also encourages the Canadian government to press Tokyo to make a "formal and sincere apology" in its legislature to all victims, referred to as comfort women. The women were rounded up from Japan's occupied territories, including China, during the 1930s and '40s.
New Democrat MP Olivia C
Source: AP
November 29, 2007
After more than 60 years, Nazi documents stored in a vast warehouse in Germany were unsealed Wednesday, opening a rich resource for Holocaust historians and for survivors to delve into their own tormented past.The treasure of documents could open new avenues of study into the inner workings of Nazi persecution from the exploitation of slave labor to the conduct of medical experiments. The archive's managers planned a conference of scholars next year to map out its unex
Source: NYT
November 29, 2007
Immigration over the past seven years was the highest for any seven-year period in American history, bringing 10.3 million new immigrants, more than half of them without legal status, according to an analysis of census data released today by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
One in eight people living in the United States is an immigrant, the survey found, for a total of 37.9 million people — the highest level since the 1920s.
The survey was conducted by
Source: Daily Mail
November 28, 2007
In a politically correct age, they seem like outrageous anachronisms.
And there is no doubt these adverts - many taken from the first half of the last century - reveal just how much women used to be caricatured as downtrodden housewives or hair-brained office girls.
Now, a new book [actually: a reissue of an old book] - You Mean A Woman Can Open It?: The Woman's Place In The Classic Age Of Advertising - brings together images which would surely cause a howl of protest
Source: BBC
November 28, 2007
The chance to travel through millions of years of history, step into mines over 200 years old and use the world's first underground inclined lift - all possible if a Black Country site is lucky enough to receive a £50m lottery grant.
Mines at Wren's Nest National Nature Reserve in Dudley are part of the bid for the Black Country Urban Park - a project competing against three others for the Big Lottery's Living Landmark Award.
The mines, formerly quarried for their limes
Source: NYT
November 28, 2007
In July 1969, while the world was spellbound by the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, President Richard M. Nixon and his close advisers were quietly fretting about a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Their main worry was not a potential enemy of the United States, but one of America’s closest friends.
“The Israelis, who are one of the few peoples whose survival is genuinely threatened, are probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear wea
Source: AP
November 27, 2007
A thief broke into offices at a Berlin church during Sunday services and stole a valuable 300-year-old illuminated bible, police said.
In addition to the richly illustrated 1704 bible, the thief, or thieves, also made off with an undisclosed amount of money, police said Tuesday.
Priest Dieter Spanknebel wrote an appeal on Web site of the Neukoelln neighborhood's Martin Luther church, saying the bible would be difficult for a thief to sell.
Source: http://www.rte.ie
November 26, 2007
A letter from Michael Collins, written in 1917, in which he was critical of Eamonn De Valera, has sold for €260,000 tonight.
The letter went under the hammer at Whyte's auction house in Dublin, and was bought by a bidder from the south who wishes to remain anonymous.
The letter was written to the IRB member and 1916 Rising volunteer, Thomas Ashe, while he was on hunger strike and is said to be the first written indication of the political rivalry between Collins and De
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 28, 2007
Like the grimy, black dust that coats coal mines, grief and misery blanketed a West Virginia town and two Western Pennsylvania communities in December 1907.
That was the U.S. coal mining industry's darkest month because during those 31 days, five disasters extinguished the lives of more than 700 men. In Pennsylvania, two separate explosions, one at the Darr Mine in Westmoreland County and another at the Naomi Mine in Fayette County, killed 273 men.
But the deadliest coa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 28, 2007
The missing section of a 17th century cabinet worth £1 million has been found outside the toilets of a pizza restaurant in Yorkshire.
The cabinet will go on auction at Sotheby's next month
It had been feared that the stand used to hold the intricate piece of furniture featuring scenes of Rome had been lost forever.
But the carved wooden table which forms the bottom half of the cabinet was recently discovered in an Ask pizzeria, in York, by the Head of Sotheby’s M
Source: International Herald Tribune
November 27, 2007
Even though they achieved independence more than a century ago, the Spanish-speaking nations of Latin America often look to Spain as a reference point. Sometimes the mother country is a foil, sometimes a support, sometimes a mirror, for what unfolds on this side of the Atlantic.
In recent weeks, Spain clearly has been cast as both a punching bag for Latin America's leftists and a bastion of valor for its moderates, after a dissing match in which a king of Spain took offense at a Ve
Source: International Herald Tribune
November 27, 2007
A former curator for the J. Paul Getty Museum was acquitted Tuesday of conspiring to acquire an ancient funerary wreath that Greek officials say was illegally removed from Greece about 15 years ago, judicial officials said.
The former curator, Marion True, 59, was not present at the hearing. But the ruling, issued unanimously by the three-member criminal appeals court, followed a motion of dismissal that her lawyer, Yannis Yannides, submitted at the start of the trial last week, cit
Source: BBC
November 26, 2007
A "final effort" is under way in South America to track down and prosecute ex-Nazi war criminals before they die.
Operation Last Chance - a scheme devised by the Simon Wiesenthal Center - attempts to locate Nazis in hiding.
It takes the form of a media campaign and offers financial rewards for any information that results in conviction.
The four countries involved are Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil - where large numbers of Nazis are thought
Source: BBC
November 26, 2007
A chance conversation between a steward on the ss Great Britain and a visitor has brought to light documents linked to the ship's history.
The collection of photographs, letters and diary notes relate to successive generations of the Coles family.
John Coles, pictured as a baby in 1922 in one of the photographs, mentioned the collection on a visit to the ship which is in dry dock in Bristol.
The discovery is described by the trust curator as "unique and thri
Source: NYT
November 27, 2007
The German government invited architects yesterday to submit proposals for the task of reconstructing Berlin’s Stadtschloss, a Baroque royal palace torn down in 1950, Bloomberg News reported. The project is to include the partial re-creation of its facade and a towering cupola. A panel of specialists, including the architects David Chipperfield, Giorgio Grassi and Petra Kahlfeldt, is to judge entries in a competition lasting until November 2008, the German building minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee,
Source: NYT
November 27, 2007
What may be medicine’s most famous feud — and certainly one of its longest-lived — has apparently ended.
It involved two of the world’s greatest heart surgeons, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and Dr. Denton A. Cooley. As partners, they pioneered operations at Baylor Medical College and Methodist Hospital in Houston in the 1950s that have stood the test of time.
But for 40 years, until a surprise reconciliation a month ago, these men with Texas-size egos exchanged few words, eve
Source: NYT
November 28, 2007
The final five designs in the popular State Quarters series were announced yesterday by the United States Mint.
The new coins will be minted and issued in 10-week intervals throughout 2008 with designs honoring Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. These coins wrap up the series that began in 1999 with a quarter honoring Delaware. Surveys by the Mint have found that nearly half of all Americans collect the state quarters, either in casual accumulations or as a serious nu
Source: Reuters
November 27, 2007
Residents of an Orlando neighborhood of $500,000 homes are stepping gingerly these days since finding live World War II explosives next to a middle school, a day care center, homes and businesses.
"We are stressing what we call the three Rs," said Nancy Sticht, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which she said means to recognize, retreat and report suspected bombs. "They're old but being old doesn't make them any less dangerous. They can become more u
Source: Newsweek
December 3, 2007
On Sept. 16, 1992, the police in New York City held a rally that spun out of control. The cops wanted a new collective-bargaining agreement, and they were angry at Mayor David Dinkins for proposing a civilian review board and for refusing to issue patrolmen 9mm guns. More than a few of them tipsy or drunk, the cops jumped on cars near city hall and blocked traffic near the Brooklyn Bridge. According to some witnesses, they waved placards crudely mocking Mayor Dinkins, the first black mayor of Ne
