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: International Herald Tribune
February 12, 2007
SAMARRA, Iraq -- There is still no gold dome on the Mosque of the Golden Dome.
It has been a year, by the Muslim calendar, since an attack on one of the Shiites most sacred shrines here shattered this ancient mosque, ripping a hole to the heavens in its once glorious dome. Now, it is a hulking shell of its former self, gnarled and twisted metal snaking around the crumbling concrete structure. The blue and gold tiles that adorned the facade of the Al Askariya Shrine, covered with gra
Source: Independent
February 13, 2007
The grisly truth about the disappearance of a British woman believed to have been murdered on the orders of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, has been revealed for the first time in secret papers released by the government.
Dora Bloch, a 74-year-old grandmother, was a passenger on an Air France plane from Athens to Paris when it was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists and forced down at Entebbe airport, Uganda, in 1976.
During the hijack, Mrs Bloch was taken ill after choki
Source: AP
February 12, 2007
WASHINGTON -- To honor black history, President Bush on Monday didn't spend much time looking back. He focused instead on people contributing today _ those who are seizing opportunities gained at great price, the president said. "Their stories," Bush said, "speak a lot louder and a lot clearer than I could."
Like the breakthrough by Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy, who this month became the first black coaches to take their teams to the Super Bowl. Or the work of astr
Source: AP
February 12, 2007
ALBANY, Ga. -- Two civil rights groups plan to ask federal officials to investigate the 60-year-old unsolved killing of a World War II veteran who was shot after becoming the first registered black voter in a rural Georgia county.
Maceo Snipes, who served most of his two-year Army hitch in the Pacific, was shot in the back by four white men in 1946 -- a day after the 37-year-old voted for the first time, relatives say. He collapsed in the doorway of his farm house in Taylor County,
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
February 12, 2007
It's been nearly 80 years since Sam Spade wandered the streets of San Francisco in search of the Maltese Falcon. Now, the statue is missing again.
John Konstin, the owner of San Francisco's John's Grill on Ellis Street, said someone broke into a locked cabinet on the second floor of his establishment and took a signed reproduction of the Maltese Falcon -- one used for publicity stills for the movie -- along with several vintage and signed books by and about Maltese Falcon author Das
Source: NYT
February 12, 2007
If he testifies as expected, Dick Cheney would be the first sitting vice president, at least in modern times, to appear as a witness in a criminal trial. And if he testifies in court, he may also be the first to give live testimony in defense of a subordinate’s actions on his behalf, legal historians said.
Mr. Cheney’s testimony as a courtroom witness for his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., would break with one of the closest historical parallels, when former President Ro
Source: NYT
February 12, 2007
Survivors of the Holocaust and their relatives, who have been fighting to compel European insurance companies to pay death benefits for victims of the Nazis, are getting a break from a big Italian insurance company, lawyers for the insurer and policyholders said yesterday.
As part of a proposed class-action settlement, the company, Assicurazoni Generali, has agreed to give heirs of Holocaust victims another 18 months to uncover documentation on unpaid life insurance policies at long
Source: Baltimore Sun
February 12, 2007
Abraham Lincoln was born 198 years ago today, but his melancholy visage has perhaps never been as popular. He's the star of television commercials -- including one in which a beaver is his co-star -- and is the subject of at least eight recent books, with more on the way. A motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Liam Neeson is in the works.
Politicians, too, are getting in on the act. Officials ranging from Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who launched his presidential
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com
February 12, 2007
Subdivisions. Strip malls. Roadside motels.
The Baby Boomers of buildings have hit a milestone this decade: They're turning 50, the benchmark age for historic designation.
Mid-century modern architecture -- think Brady Bunch houses and drive-in restaurants -- is eligible to join the ranks of its architectural ancestors, such as Queen Anne, Art Deco and Classic Revival.
"We're the new kids on the block for historic preservation," said Virginia Cour
Source: http://www.cyprus-mail.com
February 11, 2007
A NEW history textbook for children in the last year of primary school has incurred the wrath of Cypriot politicians, who are demanding its immediate withdrawal because it allegedly distorts and over-simplifies the island’s history. The textbook, covering four centuries of Greek history in 150 pages, devotes three pages to Cyprus, which refer to the anti-colonial struggle, the coup, Turkish invasion and the continuing division. Cypriot politicians found plenty to complain about in these three pa
Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com
February 7, 2007
The good news for Chiang Kai-shek is that he may get to come inside after braving the elements for more than half a century. The bad news for him is that "inside" may be some dark and obscure corner of a warehouse.
The statues of Chiang that had been a ubiquitous feature of the nation's streets, parks and military bases have been subjected to increasingly diffident treatment since power transferred from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to the Democratic Progressive P
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
February 12, 2007
There is no place for polygamy in Mormon life -- not even on a Web site.
That's the message a Brigham Young University assistant dean got when administrators ordered him to take down a Web page from the university's server that discussed the history of polygamy and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Within a day, though, he had moved all the content to an independent Web site called Mormon-Polygamy.org, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Jim Engebretsen,
Source: Washington Post
February 11, 2007
JERUSALEM -- From the roof of his home just inside the Old City walls, Palestinian landlord Nasser Karain has a view of the valleys and plateaus where scriptures say Solomon built the first Temple, Jesus was betrayed and Muhammad rose to heaven.
A new landmark may soon rise next to his family compound.
The Israeli government is funding the first construction of a Jewish settlement in the Old City's Muslim Quarter since taking control of it nearly four decades ago. The
Source: Los Angeles Times
February 11, 2007
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -— The 1.6 million visitors a year to the USS Arizona Memorial are told by their guides about the legends surrounding the oil that still bubbles up from the sunken battleship.
One legend holds that the oil represents the tears of the 900-plus sailors and Marines entombed below decks since the Japanese attack of Dec. 7, 1941. Another says the oil will continue to surface until the last Arizona survivor dies.
But the fact is that 500,000 or more gallo
Source: AP
February 10, 2007
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -— When Lucy Allen sets out to tell her family's story, she first finds an empty room with plenty of open table space.
Others, she knows, illustrate their ancestral legends by passing around a single prized photograph or diagram of the family tree. But Allen arrives wheeling two big black suitcases, each stuffed with enough supporting evidence to do Perry Mason proud...
And years later, a long-forgotten document proved her suspicions right.
Source: AP
February 12, 2007
ROME -- Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel said in an interview published Monday that an attack on him earlier this month in San Francisco shows that Holocaust deniers are increasing worldwide and getting bolder by the day.
The Holocaust scholar was dragged from an elevator and roughed up during a peace conference at a San Francisco hotel on Feb. 1, according to police. The author was not injured.
"Until today they used words; now they have switched to violence," Wies
Source: AFP
February 12, 2007
JERUSALEM -- Israel has frozen contested building work near Jerusalem's most volatile holy site but pressed with archaeological excavations, triggering further Muslim outcry.
Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski decided to suspend the work to allow public discussion of Israel's plans to replace a damaged wooden bridge leading to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound with a stone ramp.
Protests by Palestinian worshippers descended into several days of violence in Jerusalem and parts of
Source: Telegraph (Calcutta, India)
February 12, 2007
CALCUTTA -- Raj Bhavan’s move to dig out pre and post Independence history may redefine happenings under British rule.
Birendra Singh, a history professor, has gifted Raj Bhavan [the former viceroys' mansion, built by the Marquis Wellesley in 1799-1803] a rare history book penned by Sundar Lal, 'Bharat Mein Angrezi Raj', which the British [suppressed] in 1938.
In response to an open invitation from the Raj Bhavan to gift manuscripts, documents, photographs and diaries r
Source: AP
February 12, 2007
LECOMPTON, Kan. -- A document that historians say helped usher in the Civil War was back in the room where it was drafted 150 years ago, on display at Constitution Hall over the weekend as part of "Bleeding Kansas '07" events.
The Lecompton Constitution, under which Kansas would have been admitted into the union as a slave state, has been preserved at the Kansas State Historical Society since Rutgers University donated it in 1957 to commemorate the document's 100th anniver
Source: AP
February 12, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Republican Mitt Romney's choice of a museum honoring auto pioneer Henry Ford as the site of his presidential announcement was strongly criticized Monday by Jewish Democrats, who noted Ford's history of anti-Semitism.
The former Massachusetts governor, who is scheduled to formally launch his presidential candidacy from the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit on Tuesday, was taken to task by The National Jewish Democratic Council...
"Romney has been traveling
