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
Dec 2, 2009
BASRA, Iraq — Officially, Iraq is a colorblind society that in the tradition of Prophet Muhammad treats black people with equality and respect.
But on the packed dirt streets of Zubayr, Iraq’s scaled-down version of Harlem, African-Iraqis talk of discrimination so steeped in Iraqi culture that they are commonly referred to as “abd” — slave in Arabic — prohibited from interracial marriage and denied even menial jobs.
Historians say that most African-Iraqis arrived as sla
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Dec 2, 2009
A graduate student at Utah State University is a new kind of Civil War re-enactor. Instead of dressing up in period clothes, the student, Tom Caswell, uses Twitter to send short messages in the voice of Abraham Lincoln and other historical figures.
Mr. Caswell is one of the organizers of TwHistory, a Web site devoted to historical re-enactments via Twitter. For their first event, they staged the battle of Gettysburg in the voices of a handful of key characters, including Lincoln (wh
Source: NYT
Dec 2, 2009
WASHINGTON — When the Bush administration ran the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, career lawyers wanted to look into accusations that officials in one state had illegally intimidated blacks during a voter-fraud investigation.
But division supervisors refused to “approve further contact with state authorities on this matter,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office auditing the activities of the division from 2001 to 2007.
Congr
Source: The Jerusalem Post
Dec 2, 2009
Where is the intersection of the trial of alleged Nazi guard John Demjanjuk and the Islamic Republic of Iran?
The Demjanjuk trial is an example of Germany grappling with its historic responsibility to the victims of the Holocaust and to universal justice. Yet with regard to its more future-oriented responsibility to prevent Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons and its threats to obliterate Israel, critics say Germany is stumbling.
The cross-paths of Iran and Demjanjuk
Source: Azcentral
Dec 2, 2009
When Ira Hayes was alive, his image was captured in one of the most famous battle photographs ever taken - the World War II picture of U.S. Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima.
Now, more than a half-century later, it turns out that Hayes' image also was captured in death - secretly cast in plaster while he lay in a Phoenix mortuary awaiting burial.
The heroic and tragic story of Hayes, a Pima Indian from Bapchule, was depicted in books, Hollywood films and popular m
Source: Yahoo News
Dec 2, 2009
Two stolen ancient artifacts are being returned to Italy from New York City.
An Italian government representative is taking possession of them at a ceremony Wednesday. The artifacts are a Pompeii plaster wall painting and a Corinthian vase for mixing water and wine.
Source: The National Security Archive
Dec 2, 2009
The Guatemalan army, under the direction of military ruler Efraín Ríos Montt, carried out a deliberate counterinsurgency campaign in the summer of 1982 aimed a massacring thousands of indigenous peasants, according to a comprehensive set of internal records presented as evidence to the Spanish National Court and posted today by National Security Archive on its Web site. The files on “Operation Sofia” detail official responsibility for what the 1999 UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commissio
Source: WSJ
Dec 2, 2009
PUSEY, England—From a stately manor home in the Oxfordshire countryside, a descendent of John Cadbury, founder of the British chocolate maker that bears his name, is fighting to prevent the company's attempted takeover by Kraft Foods Inc. of the U.S.
Yet despite this country's well-known love of Cadbury PLC chocolate—sometimes called the taste of British childhood—Felicity Loudon's battle to preserve the company's independence is more of a Quixotic fight rather than a populist cause
Source: Rasmussen Reports
Dec 2, 2009
President Obama detailed his plan for winning – and ending – the war in Afghanistan in a long-awaited speech last night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of U.S. voters have been following recent news about Afghanistan, including 51% who say they’ve been following the news Very Closely...
... Before the president’s speech, voters were essentially evenly divided over whether the United States could still win the war in Afghanistan and whether all t
Source: Time
Dec 2, 2009
Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike? Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets? And what about Germany — a country where fear of atomkraft is so great that the last government opposed all civilian nuclear power? Germany's air force couldn't possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?
It is Europe's dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond thos
Source: The Times (UK)
Dec 2, 2009
A team of archaeologists began digging on the site of Shakespeare’s last home yesterday in a search for clues that might reveal more about his life.
They hope to discover remains of clothing, documents and even household waste. The dig is at New Place, where he lived from 1597 until his death in 1616.
Richard Kemp, of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said: “We are hoping to find organic debris that will teach us what the great man had for dinner. Our dream find would
Source: BBC
Dec 2, 2009
A hoard of silver coins hidden in a Northamptonshire field during the Wars of the Roses has fetched more than £29,000 at auction.
The 186 coins, found in Brackley in 2005, were sold at Morton and Eden by the metal detector enthusiast who found them and the owner of the field.
It is thought they were hidden in the summer of 1465 by someone who went into hiding during the dynastic civil war.
They were sold in separate lots for £29,900 at the auction house.
Source: BBC
Dec 2, 2009
Indonesia has banned the film Balibo, which depicts the deaths of six foreign journalists in East Timor, the head of the foreign correspondents club said.
The club cancelled a screening of the film on legal advice that they could face charges.
The journalists died as Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1975.
Jakarta maintains they were killed accidentally in cross-fire. But an Australian coroner found in 2007 that the journalists had been executed.
Source: BBC
Dec 2, 2009
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge war crimes court has named Andrew Cayley as its new international prosecutor.
The genocide tribunal appointed British-born Mr Cayley several months after the resignation of his Canadian predecessor, Robert Petit.
Mr Cayley recently defended the former Liberian President Charles Taylor at his war crimes trial.
Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni formally appointed Mr Cayley, according to a court statement.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 2, 2009
The trial of John Demjanjuk, the Nazi guard accused of involvement in the murder of 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor death camp, was adjourned yesterday because he was too ill to appear in court.
A doctor examining the 89-year-old said Demjanjuk had a fever which continued to rise despite medication and the judge decided it was not safe to transport him from hospital. to court.
Ralph Alt, presiding, said the trial would resume on 21 December.
Wednesday was to h
Source: CNN
Dec 2, 2009
A former commander of Soviet forces in Afghanistan has warned history is being repeated in the war-ravaged country as the United States and its allies become increasingly mired in an "unwinnable war."
Gen. Victor Yermakov commanded the Soviet Union's 40th army in Afghanistan from May 1982 to November 1983, one of six commanders to preside over the Soviet task force after its 1979 invasion.
The Kremlin's bloody nine-year campaign to support the Marxist governm
Source: CNN
Dec 2, 2009
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld criticized President Obama's assertion Tuesday that the Bush administration ignored requests for more troops to battle the Taliban, declaring the president's remark made during his address on Afghanistan a "bald misstatement."
Rumsfeld said Wednesday that during his time as Bush's Secretary of Defense, he was "not aware of a single request of that nature."
But Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Source: WSJ
Dec 2, 2009
HERSHEY, Pa.—The charitable trust that controls Hershey Co. nurtures some 1,800 disadvantaged children from preschool through high school and beyond here in Pennsylvania.
But amid rising costs to fulfill its mission, the trust is also taking on an unlikely role in a major international takeover battle: Though it could involve shouldering $10 billion more in debt, the trust's board has pushed Hershey to consider outbidding Kraft Foods Inc.'s $16.5 billion offer for British rival Cadb
Source: WSJ
Dec 2, 2009
SEOUL -- North Korea redenominated its currency for the first time in 50 years and limited how much old money could be traded for new, likely wiping out millions of residents' savings and much of the cash used in market activities frowned upon by its authoritarian government.
The action triggered chaos in the isolated country on Monday and Tuesday, according to news outlets in South Korea that specialize in obtaining information from the North. Millions of people rushed to banks and
Source: Pew Research Center Publications
Dec 1, 2009
More Americans continue to view the Republican Party as friendly toward religion (48%) than rate the Democratic Party that way (29%). President Barack Obama's administration, however, is seen as friendly toward religion by more people (37%) than is the Democratic Party as a whole. And all three get higher ratings for friendliness toward religion than the news media (14%), scientists (12%) or Hollywood (11%)...
... Views of the Democrats' friendliness toward religion have declined am
