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: CNN
Oct 18, 2009
One of President Obama's top advisers said Sunday the Bush administration failed to ask critical questions about the war in Afghanistan, leaving the Obama administration starting from scratch -- and leaving the war "adrift."
"The president is asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN's "State of the Union."
Source: Times (UK)
Oct 18, 2009
THE war in Afghanistan is “madcap” and “futile” and serves “no conceivable national interest”, says Sir Christopher Meyer, who as Britain’s ambassador to Washington had a ringside seat on the dispatch of troops there.
The fighting is “a waste of blood and treasure” because there is no coherent purpose behind it, he argues scornfully in a new book.
Meyer, who was Tony Blair’s man in America from 1997 to 2003, writes that: “After nearly eight years in Afghanistan . . .
Source: NYT
Oct 17, 2009
Somalia isn’t just a nagging geopolitical headache that won’t go away. It is also a cautionary tale. Few countries in modern history have been governmentless for so long, and as the United States has learned, it would be nice to think you could ignore this wild, thirsty, mostly nomadic nation 7,000 miles away. But you can’t
Al Qaeda is working feverishly to turn Somalia into a global jihad factory, according to recent intelligence assessments, and the way the United States chooses t
Source: NYT
Oct 17, 2009
WASHINGTON — From presidential confidants in the White House Situation Room to anchors on cable television to ruminators at the city’s think tanks, the view has settled in: Afghanistan is an ungovernable collection of tribes that has confounded every conqueror since Alexander the Great. Like a lot of received wisdom, it may well be correct.
But as President Obama debates whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan, and whether, more pointedly, he might be sending them down a
Source: NYT
Oct 17, 2009
The Obama administration, which would seem to have its hands full with a two-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan, opened up a third front last week, this time with Fox News.
Until this point, the conflict had been mostly a one-sided affair, with Fox News hosts promoting tax day “tea parties” that focused protest on the new president, and more recently bringing down the presidential adviser Van Jones through rugged coverage that caught the administration, and other news organizations
Source: The New Nixon
Oct 17, 2009
According to the Associated Press, tens of thousands are expected to visit the White House this weekend to tour the estate’s gardens and experience a rare glimpse of the “fragrant roses, blue salvias and towering, decades-old trees that beautify the president’s back yard.” The tour includes the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the Rose Garden, the South Lawn, and the Children’s Garden — where visitors can see the handprints and footprints of Presidential grandchildren from Lyndon Baines Johnson to Geo
Source: NYT
Oct 17, 2009
MOSCOW — Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party.
Or at least, the one that reigns next door.
Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed.
United Russia’s leaders even
Source: NYT
Oct 17, 2009
BANGKOK (Agence France-Presse) — About 17,000 people rallied in here on Saturday to demand that the Thai government move forward with a petition for a royal pardon for former Primer Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006.
Thai authorities deployed 2,000 police officers and invoked a harsh internal security law to ensure that the rally in front of the government offices did not turn violent.
The demonstrators, known as “red shirts,” want the government to sp
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 17, 2009
The question has split the world of broadcasting and divided opinion across the country: should the BBC have invited the far-right British National Party to take part in this week's edition of Question Time, its flagship panel programme?
Views are polarised. While supporters of the decision say that it is the price Britain pays for free speech, and that the BBC has a duty to reflect a broad range of opinion, opponents have condemned the Corporation for offering the party an opportu
Source: BBC
Oct 17, 2009
Yoon Sang-hyun, of the ruling Grand National Party, said inmates worked long hours in return for meagre food rations, reported Yonhap news agency.
Mr Yoon said he was basing his claims on a South Korean government report.
North Korea denies claims it abuses human rights. Earlier this year it amended its constitution to refer to its "respect" for human rights.
But human rights groups and North Korean refugees describe blatant, widespread and ong
Source: BBC
Oct 17, 2009
It comes in the wake of the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber.
Mr Salmond told the SNP conference it should be "proud" of Kenny MacAskill's decision to free terminally-ill Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi in August.
In his keynote speech, the SNP leader also set out his objective to boost the number of SNP MPs from seven to 20.
Source: The Star
Oct 16, 2009
For years, Fort York has been separated from the harbour it once protected and the city it defended, hemmed in by the Gardiner Expressway and a rail corridor.
But construction of a new pedestrian-cyclist bridge over the railway tracks, which begins next year as part of a $35 million revitalization of the national historic site, will once again connect the fort with city neighbourhoods to the north and waterfront trails to the south.
"One of our biggest challenges o
Source: Spiegel Online
Oct 16, 2009
US President Barack Obama has shelved his plans to attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will reportedly take his place at the Nov. 9 celebrations.
Germany is going to have to wait longer than expected for US President Barack Obama's first official visit. Citing government sources in Berlin, Reuters reported on Friday that Obama will not attend the anniversary festivities marking two decades since the fall
Source: Yahoo News
Oct 16, 2009
HONOLULU – Mike Weidenbach has walked across the historic teakwood decks and through the metal hallways of the USS Missouri countless times in the past decade. But he recently realized how massive the aging battleship is from a new perspective — underneath.
"I touched the bottom of the ship," gushed Weidenbach, curator of the iconic World War II vessel that now serves as a memorial and museum.
The "Mighty Mo" — the last battleship built by the United
Source: BBC
Oct 16, 2009
Meeting the ancestors took on a whole new meaning for a group of Northern Ireland filmmakers and scientists.
They found themselves travelling to Cairo as they searched for the story of a famous Belfast immigrant, Takabuti, the Ulster Museum mummy.
When the museum closed in 2006 for refurbishment, experts used the opportunity to find out more about her history. Takabuti was first brought to Belfast from Egypt by boat in 1834 by a wealthy
Source: Time
Oct 16, 2009
To understand the state of bullfighting in Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, you need look no further than Las Arenas. The striking, late-19th century arena with faux Moorish arches, located near Barcelona's central Plaza de Espa&ncirc;a, once pulled in thousands of bullfighting aficionados for the traditional — and gory — Sunday corrida (the Spanish word for "bullfight"). Today, it is being converted into a shopping mall.
After decades of both intense anti-bullf
Source: NYT
Oct 16, 2009
FOR nearly two decades, the Communist Party strove to wipe out the national memory of Zhao Ziyang, the reform-minded party secretary who opposed the use of force against pro-democracy protesters in 1989.
So when a former aide of Mr. Zhao’s, Du Daozheng, disclosed in May that he had helped secretly record Mr. Zhao’s memoir for posthumous publication, Mr. Du’s daughter refused to let him walk outside alone for fear of possible repercussions.
She need not have worried. On
Source: AlphaGalileo
Oct 16, 2009
Archaeologists surveying the world’s oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some 5,000 years ago — at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.
These remarkable findings have been made public by the Greek government after the start of a five year collaborative project involving the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry
Source: Yahoo News
Oct 16, 2009
ATLANTA – A key Southern Baptist official has apologized for comparing proposals to overhaul the nation's health care system with Nazism.
Richard Land is president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports he also apologized for bestowing a "Josef Mengele Award" on President Barack Obama's chief health care adviser.
Mengele was a Nazi doctor who conducted cruel experiments at the Auschwitz death c
Source: Fox News
Oct 16, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — When an earthquake collapsed two 50-foot sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during the 1989 World Series, the nightmares of hundreds of thousands of commuters who cross the Depression-era span each day were brought to life.
On this 20-year anniversary of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that killed 63 people, injured almost 3,800 and caused up to $10 billion damage, the bridge reconstruction has become the largest public works project in California history
