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: Independent (UK)
October 21, 2006
A RUSTY old banger, the Fiat Premier Padmini, is the standard taxi of Bombay and one of the city’s enduring icons.
The ubiquitous black and yellow cabs crawl along congested streets, often overloaded with passengers hauling goods short distances at a starting fare of just 13 rupees (15p).
Despite offering a hot and dusty ride, often with a view of the road through gaping holes in the chassis, they are a step up from the crush of the bus or the train.
Now
Source: Independent (UK)
October 20, 2006
Many of the people of Aberfan still cannot bring themselves to speak of it.
Forty years on from the disaster some parents, now in their seventies, still secretly hope their children will come home from school.
Others tell of the grief and trauma visited on their tiny community by the huge slag heap which slid from a hill above Pantglas junior school, killing 116 children and 28 adults.
Only 25 children survived the catastrophe. Now in their forties and fif
Source: AP
October 20, 2006
YORKTOWN, Va. -- French and Americans marched together to mark their shared victory over the British 225 years ago, but France's defense minister told the crowd that the countries' bond must be one of mutual respect.
Friendship means "to talk to one another quite candidly" and to listen to one another with "no attempt to dominate," French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told the crowd that gathered Thursday to commemorate the Battle of Yorktown's 225th ann
Source: China.org
October 19, 2006
Archaeologists have discovered pottery bearing inscriptions dating back 4,500 years, which could prove to be China's earliest example of written language.
These pottery fragments, found in the ruins of an ancient city in Huaiyang County of Henan Province, are believed to be parts of a spinning wheel, according to a report released by the county government.
A photo, posted on the local government's website, showed a piece of black pottery bearing white strokes. The fragm
Source: D.D. Guttenplan, who is writing a biography of Stone, in a letter to the editor of the NYT Book Review
October 22, 2006
In his review of “ ‘All Governments Lie’: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone” (Oct. 1), Paul Berman suggests that Myra MacPherson “accidentally hanged” her man by repeating Oleg Kalugin’s remark that Stone was “willing to perform tasks” for the Soviets. As the first reporter to investigate Kalugin’s charges in the course of researching my own biography of Stone, to be finished later this year, perhaps I can supply some context:
Kalugin originally made reference to an
Source: NYT
October 21, 2006
GAMAL AL-BANNA is 85, and for much of his life he has been overshadowed by his famous brother, Sheik Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political party and antecedent of a host of militant Islamist organizations, from Al Qaeda to Hamas.
That seems to have suited him just fine, though. He liked to write, read and think. His sister left him a lot of money, and so for decades, that is exactly how he spent his days.His bedroom is at
Source: NYT
October 21, 2006
Sigmund Strochlitz, a Holocaust survivor who worked with his close friend Elie Wiesel to create the National Holocaust Memorial Museum and who led the way in starting the annual “day of remembrance” now observed in every state, died on Oct. 16 at his home in New London, Conn. He was 89.
The museum confirmed his death.
Mr. Strochlitz found success as a Ford dealer, but he could not and did not wish to forget his awful experience in Nazi camps. In an interview with The Ha
Source: NYT
October 19, 2006
Extensively documenting Brown University’s 18th-century ties to slavery, a university committee called Wednesday for the institution to make amends by building a memorial, creating a center for the study of slavery and injustice and increasing efforts to recruit minority students, particularly from Africa and the West Indies.
The Committee on Slavery and Justice, appointed three years ago by Brown’s president, Ruth J. Simmons, a great-granddaughter of slaves who is the first black p
Source: MSNBC
October 23, 2006
Great historical events can spring from small slights. Kaiser Wilhelm never forgave the French for not treating him to a parade in Paris. "The monarchs of Europe have paid no attention to what I have to say," the German emperor whined before setting the Continent aflame in 1914. By many accounts, North Korea's Kim Jong Il also suffers from a tender ego. For one thing the 5-foot-3 dictator is sensitive about his height (hence, one suspects, his bouffant hairstyle and elevator shoes). A
Source: WaPo
October 20, 2006
LA PLATA, Argentina -- Argentina is putting its past on trial this year, probing the memories and consciences of those who lived through its bloody "dirty war," which pitted a military government against thousands of dissidents in the 1970s and '80s.
The past -- or a frightening shadow of it -- has come back to life.
Long-standing legal protections that shielded former military personnel from prosecution were removed last year, allowing a series of trials rela
Source: AP
September 8, 2006
TREIGNY, France - Once upon a time, deep in the forests of Burgundy, a man was haunted by a vision. He dreamed of building a castle, with turrets, great walls and a moat. Some people wondered if he was mad.
This was, after all, 1996.
And yet Michel Guyot set out to build his castle the hard way - the medieval way. With only hammers and chisels to carve the stones. With only horses to cart the rock. Without power tools.
Ten years later, Guedelon
Source: Independent (UK)
October 20, 2006
For those with an interest in the history of multiculturalism, the name Norwell Roberts has an enduring resonance. He was, most people agree, the first black police officer in the UK after joining the Metropolitan Police in 1966.
But Mr Roberts, who had a 30-year career with the Met, rising to the rank of detective sergeant, and who also contributed to the seminal film about black Britain, The Windrush Years, found himself upstaged yesterday when it was revealed that the son of a C
Source: Iverness Courier
October 17, 2006
THE remains of a 2000-year-old city have been discovered under Inverness and it is being hailed as one of the most important recent discoveries in Scotland.
The find near Inverness Royal Academy was uncovered by a team who spent almost a year excavating the remains of seven large roundhouses and almost a dozen iron kilns.
Last year The Inverness Courier revealed the team from Headland Archaeology had uncovered the ancient city's "industrial estate" where iron
Source: aftenposten
October 20, 2006
The discovery was made during archaeological examinations of the Nordheim Farm, which is near the Hedrum Church in Larvik. The examinations were ordered in connection with the pending expansion of the cemetery around Hedrum Church, which is located a few hours' drive south of Oslo.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that archaeologists also found indications that another ship is buried in the same area.
Archaeologist Knut Paasche has been examining the area around No
Source: AP
October 19, 2006
More than a half century after he died in the flaming crash of a CIA-owned cargo plane and became one of the first two Americans to die in combat in Vietnam, a legendary soldier of fortune known as "Earthquake McGoon" is coming home.
The skeletal remains of James B. McGovern Jr., discovered in an unmarked grave in remote northern Laos in 2002, were positively identified on September 11 by laboratory experts at the U.S. military's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii
Source: AP
October 18, 2006
Americans must take a lesson from history and not believe the terrorist threat has been exaggerated or will go away, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.
He described a new, more ruthless and lethal terrorist enemy, "with no territory to defend, no treaties to honor, that measures progress in terms of decades, not days."
"With this sort of enemy, we cannot afford — and indeed could not survive — another holiday from history,"
Source: Independent (UK)
October 19, 2006
Eddie Thomas was just a few months old when the white people came and took him away. They took his brother and sister, too. The children's grandmother had been looking after them, following the death of their mother after Eddie's birth.
The three young Aborigines were taken from Cape Barren Island, off the north-east coast of Tasmania, and placed in state care in Launceston, on the Tasmanian mainland. Mr Thomas, now 70, was separated from his siblings and brought up in foster famil
Source: Times Online (UK)
October 19, 2006
PAINTING kept in a church attic and thought to be a copy of a masterpiece by Caravaggio is an unfinished work by the artist, according to Italian experts.
The Crowning with Thorns, now on display at the church of San Bartolomeo della Certosa in Genoa, has been restored by art experts who say they detect Caravaggio’s “unmistakable style” in the figure of Christ.
Source: BBC
October 19, 2006
The South African government is trying to solve one of the great mysteries of the apartheid era - the 1986 plane crash that killed President Samora Machel of Mozambique.
He died when his aircraft hit a mountainside in South Africa, close to the Mozambique border.
There has long been speculation that the crash was caused by sabotage, masterminded by the white apartheid state.
The South African authorities are currently conducting a new investigation into
Source: BBC
October 19, 2006
The project run by Cambridge University has digitised some 50,000 pages of text and 40,000 images of original publications - all of it searchable.
Surfers with MP3 players can even access downloadable audio files.
The resource is aimed at serious scholars, but can be used by anyone with an interest in Darwin and his theory on the evolution of life.
"The idea is to make these important works as accessible as possible; some people can only get at Da
