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: OpEdNews
Dec 4, 2009
RWANDAN genocide hero and inspiration behind the film Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, says the east African country has neither healed from the 1994 genocide nor learned any lessons from it, as he accused the Rwandan government of continuing human rights abuses through the alleged arbitrary arrest and transportation of Hutus to work illegally in mines in the Congo.
The former hotel manager, who risked his life and saved 1289 people from machete wielding militias and armed forces by
Source: NYT
Dec 4, 2009
ISTANBUL — More than eight decades ago, Ertugrul Osman, an heir to the Ottoman throne, was unceremoniously thrown out of Turkey with his family. He lived to be 97, spending most of his years in a modest Manhattan apartment above a bakery.
But in September, at his funeral in the garden of the majestic Sultanahmet Mosque here, thousands of mourners paid their respects, including government officials and celebrities. Some even kissed the hands of surviving dynasty members, who appeare
Source: NYT
Dec 4, 2009
NEW DELHI — The leader of a deadly insurgency fighting for an independent homeland in India’s northeastern state of Assam has been arrested, government officials said Friday.
Arabinda Rajkhowa, commander of the United Liberation Front of Assam, had been living in Bangladesh for the past decade, where he enjoyed a measure of protection from Bangladeshi authorities.
Mr. Rajkhowa, his deputy and several family members were handed over to Indian authorities by Bangladeshi o
Source: NYT
Dec 4, 2009
When calendrical milestones pass, however arbitrary they are, they induce reflection. We look back with a feeling of incredulity at all that happened in what feels like no time. We peer into the fearsome, onrushing future. We catalog and schematize and make lists.
List-making for the end of the first decade of the 2000s is in full swing. At least in the United States, which loves to order priorities, we are being told who were the most important celebrities, the crucial leaders, the
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Dec 4, 2009
Americans are turning their backs on the rest of the world, showing a tendency towards isolationism that has risen to the highest level in four decades, according to a poll published yesterday.
Almost half (49 per cent) said the U.S. should 'mind its own business' internationally and let other countries get along as best they can, the Pew Research Center found.
The results appear to conflict with President Obama's activist foreign policy, including a newly announced bu
Source: The Washington Times
Dec 4, 2009
Frustrated by the lack of action to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Democrats in Congress are calling for at least temporary immunity so gay service members can testify at the Capitol about their experiences.
Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, Florida Democrat, introduced a bill this week to grant immunity to troops who otherwise would run afoul of the policy, which bans gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. He and other advocates see it as at least a fi
Source: WSJ
Dec 4, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration, faced with mounting Congressional criticism, is trying to build support for its new Afghan strategy by explicitly linking the planned escalation to the Bush administration's 2007 Iraq surge.
The argument has been pressed most vocally by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who told skeptical lawmakers Thursday that the surge troops were able to leave Iraq just over a year after they had deployed there, a timeline roughly akin to the one the White H
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Dec 4, 2009
Duke University Press on Thursday released Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, a book by anthropologist S. Ann Dunham, the late mother of President Obama. The 300-page book, a condensed version of Dunham’s dissertation of the economics of the blacksmith trade on the island of Java in the 1970s and 80s, was unveiled at a press conference at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Ken Wissoker, editorial director of the Duke University Press, called t
Source: WSJ
Dec 4, 2009
A former Army major was sentenced to a 17 and a half year prison term on corruption charges in Wednesday in San Antonio, signaling the beginning of the end of a far-reaching Iraq War corruption probe.
As part of the probe, a growing cadre of career soldiers has confessed to siphoning millions of dollars from defense contracts in Iraq and Kuwait. The investigation into their spree already has led to the indictments of five U.S. military officers, with another dozen expected to follow
Source: CNN
Dec 4, 2009
James Gordon Meek was standing over the gravestone of a friend killed in Iraq when he noticed a familiar figure walking near him.
President Obama was walking through what's called "the saddest acre in America," Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The section is the burial ground for U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama hugged graveside visitors, shook hands and listened to mourners while a "bone-chilling drizzle" fel
Source: BBC
Dec 4, 2009
Radovan Karadzic has rejected a British lawyer imposed on him by The Hague-based Yugoslav war crimes tribunal on grounds of nationality.
The Bosnian Serb ex-leader asked for a lawyer sharing his own "heritage and language" to replace Richard Harvey.
Judges appointed Mr Harvey in November after Mr Karadzic - who insists on defending himself - boycotted proceedings and demanded more time.
The case is due to resume in March to give Mr Harvey time t
Source: BBC
Dec 4, 2009
The Iron Curtain that divided Europe for 46 years left an indelible imprint on the continent's wildlife.
The isolation of Eastern Europe meant that far fewer alien bird species colonised it, scientists have found.
Restrictions on the movement of people and trade into Eastern bloc countries prevented the birds entering.
While westerners imported exotic birds such as parrots and weavers, people in Eastern Europe introduced just a few game birds that were go
Source: BBC
Dec 4, 2009
Russian actor Vyacheslav Tikhonov, who immortalised a fictional wartime spy called Stirlitz in a 1973 Soviet TV series, has died in Moscow at 81.
Tikhonov, more familiar to Western audiences as Prince Andrei in an epic Soviet adaptation of War And Peace in the 1960s, had suffered a heart attack.
As Stirlitz, he was as familiar to Soviets as James Bond in the West.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 4, 2009
War veterans have vowed to identify a "cowardly Walter Mitty" who marched in a Remembrance Day parade wearing an ''impossible'' array of medals.
The man wore a beige SAS beret and 21 military medals and badges, including the Military Cross, as he walked alongside 600 genuine war heroes.
Thousands of well-wishers, including recently bereaved families of servicemen killed in Afghanistan, clapped and cheered as he marched past.
But organisers beca
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 4, 2009
Tony Blair's place in history will forever be coloured by the war in Iraq.
The Iraq war and its aftermath have seen the most contentious decisions taken by any British Government since 1945. Tony Blair stands accused of leading the country into war on a false prospectus, subordinating British interests to George W Bush and showing gross negligence in failing to plan for postwar Iraq.
The only other event that comes close to earning a prime minister such ignominy is th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 4, 2009
A copy of Edgar Allan Poe's first book fetched $662,500 at a Christie's auction in New York, smashing the previous record price for American literature.
The copy of "Tamerlane and Other Poems", published by Poe anonymously in 1827 when he was just 13, had been estimated to sell for between $500,000 and $700,000 (£ 302,000 to £442,000).
The previous record was $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago. No more than 40 or 50 copies were
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 4, 2009
A new world record for a Rembrandt is expected to be set next week, when this 1658 painting could sell for up to £25 million.
Portrait of a Man, painted by the Flemish Old Master during a period of personal crisis, went on display at Christie's on Friday ahead of next Tuesday's sale. It is the first time it has been exhibited since 1970.
The current record for a Rembrandt, for a picture of an old woman simply called Portrait of a Lady, is £19.8 million. It sold at Chr
Source: Fox News
Dec 4, 2009
A Medal of Honor recipient in a dispute over his right to fly the American flag in his yard will have another week before D-Day -- when he'll be forced to take down the Stars and Stripes or face legal action.
Ninety-year-old Col. Van T. Barfoot, a veteran of three wars, initially was given a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to dismantle his flagpole or face a legal battle over violating an order from his townhouse community association in Henrico County, Va
Barfoot, who fought in
Source: CNN
Dec 4, 2009
In a nondescript conference room tucked inside the library at the University of Delaware, a graduate student found a historian's equivalent to a needle in a haystack.
Amanda Daddona said she discovered a personal letter from Thomas Jefferson amid one of 200 boxes of legal documents, minutes from meetings and day-to-day correspondence of a prominent Delaware family.
Daddona found the letter last month in an unmarked folder among archives from the Rockwood Museum in Wilmi
Source: BBC News
Dec 4, 2009
Google has added Pompeii to its Street View application, allowing internet users to take a 360-degree virtual tour of the ancient Roman city.
Italy's culture ministry says it hopes the move will boost tourism to the site, state news agency Ansa reports.
Among the ruins visible on the search engine's free mapping service are the town's statues, temples and theatres.
The city was buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79 and was not discovered until
