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
January 7, 2007
THE Ceausescus of Romania were dragged to their executions on Christmas Day 1989 with Nicolae singing “The Internationale” and Elena alternately directing her captors to hell and snapping at them, “I was like a mother to you.”
Or so go accounts by some of the executioners. Videotape shown on Romanian television in the aftermath records scenes from a farcical tribunal but stops as the couple are led away after they’re condemned, picking up again only after the deed is done, the bulle
Source: Pascale Combelles Siege at the website of Foreign Policy in Focus
January 4, 2007
In the wake of last year's controversy over the publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decided to launch an international cartoon contest. The objective: invite people from all over the world to question the reality of the Holocaust. The contest drew participants from all over the world and yielded more than 200 Holocaust-related cartoons.
The first prize went to Moroccan cartoonist Abdellah Derkaoui. His caricature features an Israeli
Source: Reuters
January 4, 2007
An ancient Vishnu idol has been found during excavation in an old village in Russia’s Volga region, raising questions about the prevalent view on the origin of ancient Russia, the Reuters news agency reports.
The idol found in Staraya (old) Maina village dates back to VII-X century AD. Staraya Maina village in Ulyanovsk region was a highly populated city 1700 years ago, much older than Kiev, so far believed to be the mother of all Russian cities.
“We may consider it in
Source: Coventry Telegraph
January 5, 2007
CAMPAIGNERS against a planned £2 million bridge in Stratford say the money should be spent on the urgent restoration of the church where Shakespeare is buried.
An appeal to raise up to £3.25 million to repair the crumbling Holy Trinity Church has been launched by the Friends of Shakespeare Church.
Campaign group Stratford Voice say there is no need for the cycle bridge across the river Avon and say it will spoil the beauty spot.
They say the cash should ins
Source: Guardian
January 5, 2007
LIMA, Peru -- It was a cruel, bloody and terrifying era. Rebels slaughtered villagers in the mountains and hung dogs from power lines, their carcasses daubed with Maoist slogans. The state responded with a Machiavellian mix of assassination, bribery and intrigue which brought down the rebel leader but also triggered the fall of the president.
Some call that period in Peru's history a successful counter-insurgency. Others call it a cautionary tale about the cost to democracy of figh
Source: Guardian
January 5, 2007
MIAMI -- Hundreds of rural communities that were purged from Georgia's official state map have won back their identities after a "peasants' revolt".
Residents of hamlets and villages with names such as Hopeulikit, Po Biddy Crossroads, Roosterville and Bill Arp were outraged when the state's transport department announced it was "decluttering" its map for its next reprinting this summer.
But in a victory for community activism, transport officials ha
Source: Independent (UK)
January 5, 2007
He hardly seems the obvious candidate for Catholic approval, but the Irish author who was once a byword for decadent behaviour is quoted in a new book by a Roman priest as an example to 21st-century Christians.
Source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com
January 4, 2007
The Department of Interior has ruled that World War II-era burn pits at Hanford are eligible for listing on the National Register for Historic Places.
The ruling could lead to more careful excavation and study of the site by archaeologists as the pits are emptied as part of the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation.
The burn pits have the "potential to provide important information otherwise unrepresented about the people who lived and worked at the Hanford
Source: PR Newswire
January 5, 2007
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) has selected Fort Smith, Arkansas, as the host city for the Agency's new museum. Director John F. Clark made the announcement today after receiving recommendations from a 10-person museum committee that has been studying the issue for the past two years.
Fort Smith, located in the western part of the state, was chosen as the future home for the new museum over the other finalist city, Staunton, Virginia. "This was a tough decision, as w
Source: Jewish Exponent
January 4, 2007
Among the treasure trove of historical papers that adorns the walls of the Raab Collection's new [Philadelphia] Center City office are: a letter from King George IV to Czar Alexander I; another from General George Washington to one of his spies; and the executive order signed by President William McKinley appointing Jacob Trieber to the federal bench, the first Jew to achieve the position. And that's just the beginning.
The Raab Collection, which moved last month from Ardmore to Ce
Source: http://movies.monstersandcritics.com
January 4, 2007
The Berlin Film Festival unveiled Thursday the first entries competing at next month's Berlinale, with the batch of movies seeking to shed light on major historical events through personal and often deeply emotional stories.
One of the world's three top film festivals, Berlin festival organisers said this year's line-up of films will include entries from the US, South Korea and Germany and star a raft of big names in the movie business.
This includes America's George
Source: AP
January 4, 2007
In a quirk dating back to the origins of Congress, members-elect in the House will cast their vote for the new speaker before taking the oath of office.
The Constitution does not outline how the House should be organized other than to say it should choose its speaker and other officers, determine its rules and publish a journal of its business.
In the first Congress, Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was chosen the speaker on April 1, 1789, the first day a quorum wa
Source: Science and Development Network
January 4, 2007
Weak winter monsoon rains may have contributed to the decline of both China's Tang Dynasty and the Mayan civilisation in Mexico, suggests an article published in Nature.
Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com
January 4, 2007
The image is grainy, but it's clear: Saddam Hussein plummets through the trapdoor and dangles in death, his vacant eyes open and his snapped neck almost at a right angle to the line of his shoulders.
By now, the illicit video of Saddam's execution, reportedly recorded on a camera phone, has spread throughout the Internet and aired internationally, including on American television stations.
It alternately has caused outrage, celebration and offense, and led to the Iraq
Source: Independent (UK)
January 4, 2007
The Nazi past of Ireland's foremost educational publisher is to be highlighted in a television programme to be broadcast on the state system, RTE, this month. The programme details the record of Albert Folens, a Belgian who after fleeing to Ireland following the war built up a highly successful business producing school textbooks.
Folens, who died in 2003 at 86, had not denied working for the Germans but minimised his part in the war. But his involvement with both the Gestapo and W
Source: Independent (UK)
January 5, 2007
Spain's bishops are alarmed by ambitious plans to recreate the city of Cordoba - once the heart of the ancient Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus - as a pilgrimage site for Muslims throughout Europe.
Plans include the construction of a half-size replica of Cordoba's eighth century great mosque, according to the head of Cordoba's Muslim Association. Funds for the project are being sought from the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and Muslim organisations in Morocco and
Source: UPI
January 5, 2007
FBI files released this week show the late U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist was addicted to a sleeping drug during his early years on the Supreme Court.
When Rehnquist, then an associate justice, was hospitalized and taken off Placidyl, he suffered such severe withdrawal symptoms that he became delusional and thought the CIA was plotting against him, the Washington Post reported. Doctors then put him back on the drug and weaned him off it successfully by early 1982.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
January 5, 2007
The Federal Bureau of Investigation appears to have quietly given up pursuing the archives of Jack Anderson, the well-known Washington muckraker.
In a November 30 letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee -- a response to a series of questions that committee members issued after a hearing last May -- the Department of Justice said that "at this time the FBI is not seeking to reclaim any documents" from the archive, which is now held at George Washington University.
Source: LAT
January 3, 2007
Liberated from its shipping crates, the ancient statue drew a crowd of employees when it arrived in December 1987 at the J. Paul Getty Museum's antiquities conservation lab.
The 7 1/2 -foot figure had a placid marble face and delicately carved limestone gown. It was thought to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Some who came to see it believed that the sculpture would become the greatest piece in the museum's antiquities collection.
One man, however, saw troub
Source: AP
January 2, 2007
A portrait of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee not publicly seen since 1868 is being displayed as part of the Museum of the Confederacy's commemoration of the iconic Civil War leader's 200th birthday.
The gilt-framed oil painting, about 26 inches high and 21 inches wide, will be the showcase piece of the museum's exhibit marking Lee's birthday on Jan. 19. American artist Thomas B. Welch painted Lee during the general's lifetime, but museum officials said the portrait wasn't based on a
