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 frontpage
January 24, 2007
E. Howard Hunt, a cold warrior for the Central Intelligence Agency who left the spy service in disillusionment, joined the Nixon White House as a secret agent and bungled the break-in at the Watergate that brought the president down in disgrace, died Tuesday in Miami. He was 88.
His death, at North Shore Medical Center, was caused by pneumonia, said his wife, Laura.
“This fellow Hunt,” President Richard M. Nixon muttered a few days after the June 1972 break-in, “he know
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 23, 2007
Pope John Paul II was on the brink of resigning in 2000 because of his poor health and considered changing Church law to allow popes to quit at 80, it emerged yesterday.
The revelations came in a new book by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope's personal secretary for nearly four decades.
In A Life with Karol, which will be published initially in Polish and Italian on January 29, Cardinal Dziwisz, a fellow Pole, reveals that John Paul II called a meeting of his closest
Source: Times Online (UK)
January 23, 2007
BERLIN -- A smiling couple arrived bearing a bouquet of roses on the doorstep of the chief executive of Dresdner Bank. As the banker, Jürgen Ponto, turned to call for a vase, he was shot five times through the flowers by a woman terrorist.
That was almost 30 years ago, and yesterday the woman, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, pleaded with German judges to be allowed out on parole.
Now Germany has to decide if it should make its peace with the terrorists of the 1970s. The Baader-Me
Source: AP
January 22, 2007
The United States has drafted a U.N. resolution condemning the denial of the Holocaust, a spokesman said Monday, a month after Iran provoked widespread anger by holding a conference casting doubt on the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II.
According to a copy of the draft made available to The Associated Press, the proposed resolution urges all member states to "reject any denial of the Holocaust," saying that "ignoring the historical fact of these terrible eve
Source: Reuters
January 23, 2007
- Britain has nominated the Antonine Wall in Scotland, the furthest northwest boundary of the Roman Empire, as a World Heritage Site, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said on Tuesday.
The 37-mile wall was built between 142 and 144 AD by Antoninus Pius who succeeded another famous wall-builder, Hadrian, as Emperor of Rome in 138 AD.
But his construction between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde -- the narrowest portion of lowland Scotland -- was less s
Source: WaPo
January 23, 2007
The Virginia lawmaker who caused an uproar last week by questioning the need for a state apology for slavery proposed a measure Monday that would commemorate the freeing of the last U.S. slaves in June 1865.
Del. Frank D. Hargrove Sr., a Republican from Hanover County near Richmond, said he has been deluged with at least 4,000 phone calls and e-mails at his home and office since he inflamed the House of Delegates by saying that blacks should "get over" slavery and that ap
Source: Guardian
January 23, 2007
The man known as the Unabomber, who waged a 17-year battle against what he considered the evils of new technology, is trying to stop the US government selling his writings on the internet to provide compensation to his victims.
Theodore Kaczynski is arguing through lawyers that more than 40,000 pages of documents should be returned to him. He objects to plans to sell the papers in sanitised form, with the names of victims removed, which he claims violates his First Amendment right
Source: NYT frontpage
January 23, 2007
At the northwest corner of Central Park, construction is under way on Frederick Douglass Circle, a $15.5 million project honoring the escaped slave who became a world-renowned orator and abolitionist.
Beneath an eight-foot-tall sculpture of Douglass, the plans call for a huge quilt in granite, an array of squares, a symbol in each, supposedly part of a secret code sewn into family quilts and used along the Underground Railroad to aid slaves. Two plaques would explain this.
Source: NY Review of Books
February 15, 2007
To the Editors:
We the undersigned Iranians,
Notwithstanding our diverse views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict;
Considering that the Nazis' coldly planned "Final Solution" and their ensuing campaign of genocide against Jews and other minorities during World War II constitute undeniable historical facts;
Deploring that the denial of these unspeakable crimes has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic Republic of Iran is using
Source: Guardian
January 22, 2007
Nearly half of Britons believe a Holocaust could erupt in the UK, according to a YouGov survey. The poll of 2,400 Britons, released to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, found that 41% of people thought another Holocaust was possible and 36% believed most people would do nothing to stop it. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust's chairman, Stephen Smith, described the findings as "alarming". The survey also found that 79% were unaware that black people were persecuted by th
Source: Guardian
January 22, 2007
A specialist team of former detectives has begun re-examining evidence from Northern Ireland's most controversial killings - those that allegedly involved the security forces.
The new unit within the police's Historical Enquiries Team (HET) will re-assess murders where there is suspicion of past collusion between soldiers, police officers and paramilitary gunmen.
Source: AP
January 16, 2007
Clarksville school officials say they have ordered teachers to end a role-playing exercise on slavery for elementary students after a teacher complained one student took her role as a slave master too seriously.
For four years, social studies teachers at Ringgold Elementary School have held an exercise that had fifth-graders play slaves and others play masters while learning about the Civil War.
Teachers divided their classes into slaves and masters on one day and then
Source: Times Online (UK)
January 22, 2007
Saddam Hussein’s followers are planning a museum at the former dictator’s grave, amid concern that a Baathist shrine and rumours of a posthumous autobiography will perpetuate a cult of martyr around him.
Saddam’s tribe say that exhibits will include photographs and the coat, white shirt and shoes he wore at his execution, with other documents and belongings returned to the family by the Iraqi Government.
But it is suggestions of a book, which publishers said last nigh
Source: BBC
January 21, 2007
ATHENS -- Followers of the 12 Greek Gods, who, according to mythology, ruled the Ancient World from Mount Olympus, have cast a thunderbolt at their Orthodox opponents.
After successfully staging a landmark ceremony at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, their leader pledged to fight for the right to conduct baptisms, marriages, and funerals according to the rites of the ancient religion.
"We are a legitimate religion. But the authorities don't let us do this,
Source: Reuters
January 21, 2007
Oil refineries and power stations pumping acid air pollutants along Mexico's Gulf coast threaten to erase carved stone murals at the pre-Aztec ruined city of El Tajin, a scientist said on Sunday.
Air pollution specialist Humberto Bravo said acid levels in the air around El Tajin, in oil producing Veracruz state, were among the highest in Mexico.
El Tajin's architecture is famous for intricate reliefs, many depicting an ancient Mesoamerican ball game sometimes compared t
Source: AFP at Yahoo News
January 14, 2007
he government launched a comprehensive study of 83 historic battlefields scattered across Ireland where Irish, British, French, Spanish and other European forces fought.
"The public has long been fascinated by tales of martial valour, dramatic success and ignominious defeat on the battlefield," Environment Minister Dick Roche said at the launch of a two-year study in 20 of Ireland's 26 counties.
"This major new initiative would research the key battlefiel
Source: Australian
January 19, 2007
FARMERS have sold hundreds of gold artefacts stolen from skeletal corpses unearthed at a newly-found ancient burial complex in Indonesia, media reported today.
Skeletons wearing chains of gold rings around their necks, heads, hands and feet were found in the tombs in a rice field at Kendal Jaya village, about 60km east of Jakarta, the Seputar Indonesia daily said.
They were buried with other accessories made of precious stones or gold as well as axes and other pottery article
Source: US News & World Report
January 21, 2007
One of the loveliest attractions in a city with a surfeit of them, the Pont Neuf in Paris is a delicate series of stone arches that spans the Seine. Though its name means "New Bridge," it is in fact the oldest in Paris, having opened the same year that English colonists landed in Jamestown, an ocean away. Bridging, as it does, the old and the new, the Pont Neuf is an apt metaphor for 1607—a year of extraordinary transition around the world.
In Europe, political changes wer
Source: LAT
January 21, 2007
As President Bush was preparing to announce plans to send more troops to Iraq earlier this month, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy chose to talk about another conflict.
"In Vietnam, the White House grew increasingly obsessed with victory, and increasingly divorced from the will of the people," the 74-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a speech to the National Press Club.
"We all know what happened, though," he continued.
"There was no mi
Source: LAT
January 21, 2007
The often-contentious relationship between historic preservationists and private homeowners has flared up here in recent weeks, as activists determined to save the city's distinct architecture face off against Hurricane Katrina victims who can't afford to repair architecturally significant homes — and need a place to live.
On one side are Laureen Lentz and Karen Gadbois, who say it is their "duty" to safeguard the architecture that distinguishes New Orleans: The eclectic
