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: AP
Apr 23, 2009
Iraq's government has recorded 87,215 of its citizens killed since 2005 in violence ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings, according to government statistics obtained by The Associated Press that break open one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war.
Combined with tallies based on hospital sources and media reports since the beginning of the war and an in-depth review of available evidence by The Associated Press, the figures show that more than 110
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Apr 23, 2009
The University of North Dakota’s athletic teams will continue to be known as the “Fighting Sioux,” for the time being. Tuesday, during an election of tribal officials, members of the Spirit Lake Sioux tribe voted to approve the university’s current nickname. The state’s Board of Higher Education and the National Collegiate Athletic Association reached a settlement in 2007 that mandates that the university must receive the approval of the two major Sioux tribes – Spirit Lake and Standing Rock – b
Source: National Security Archive
Apr 23, 2009
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sought to lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba in December 1963, according to declassified records re-posted today by the National Security Archive. In a December 12, 1963, memorandum to Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Kennedy urged a quick decision "to withdraw the existing regulation prohibiting such trips."
Kennedy's memo, written less than a month after his brother's assassination in Dallas, argues that the travel ban imposed
Source: NYT
Apr 23, 2009
The Chinese government denounced Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan on Thursday for making an offering earlier this week to a war shrine in Tokyo that has been a source of continuing conflict between Chinese and Japanese leaders.
On Tuesday, Mr. Aso made an offering of a potted tree worth about $500 to commemorate a spring festival at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese soldiers who have died during wars in the last 150 years. The honored soldiers include 14 “Class A” war crim
Source: Politico.com
Apr 23, 2009
Here are seven things the White House wants reporters to write:
Obama is a promise-keeper.
The White House is pushing back against what it realizes is a dangerous perception that Obama may be trying to do too much, too fast — and cynically exploiting the economic crisis to push through unrelated agenda items. Aides are urging reporters to reread his campaign speeches, dating back to 2006, to see that Obama was upfront with voters on his big ambitions. They are basical
Source: Politico (Mike Allen)
Apr 23, 2009
Presidents typically have strong approval ratings after their opening months (see Bush, George W.). But a little digging in the files shows President Obama IS UNIQUE AMONG RECENT PRESIDENTS for trigging a soaring 'right track' number (people who tell pollsters they feel good about the direction of the country) and sinking 'wrong track' number. From January to April, 'right track' was up 23 points under Obama, 2 points under President George W. Bush, down 4 points under President Clinton and down
Source: CNN
Apr 23, 2009
The photograph is a jarring image that shows Nazi Party members, shovels in hand, digging up graves of American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II.
While the men dig up the site, U.S. soldiers investigating war crimes stand over them. Two crosses with helmets placed atop them -- the sign of a fallen soldier -- are visible. Two Germans are knee deep in mud. Another, with a handlebar mustache, has the look of a defeated man. The bodies of 22 American soldiers
Source: USA Today
Apr 23, 2009
Presidents have had mixed results in dealing with hostage situations and other potentially violent incidents abroad. For instance, President Jimmy Carter's failed mission to rescue U.S. hostages from Iran in 1980 badly damaged his reputation as an effective commander in chief and hurt America's image as a military power. President Bill Clinton's embarrassing withdrawal of a shipload of U.S. troops from the coast of Haiti in 1993 after the vessel was threatened by an armed mob gathered at the doc
Source: news.com.au ( Australia)
Apr 23, 2009
ARGENTINE police arrested 36 skinheads at an event celebrating the 120th anniversary of the birth of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The arrests came after a "prolonged and meticulous investigation'', said Daniel Perez, the second in command of the Federal Police unit in charge of investigating hate crimes.
Police broke into the Central Argentine Club, in the town of San Martin, in Buenos Aires province, while a recital was being held by the local chapter of the neo-Naz
Source: http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk
Apr 22, 2009
Mystery surrounds how an unexploded bomb was left secreted in a Cheddar Valley beauty spot for the best part of 70 years.
Bomb disposal experts had to carry out a controlled explosion after keen amateur archaeologists made the shocking discovery of the Second World War mortar bomb last Tuesday.
The group of four from Charterhouse Historic and Environmental Research Team (CHERT), led by archaeologist Steve Tofts, was carrying out surveying work near Cheddar Gorge.
Source: LiveScience
Apr 22, 2009
A skeleton cast of tiny and controversial Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the Hobbit, went on public display for the first time Tuesday at Stony Brook University on Long Island.
The specimen, discovered in 2003 in Indonesia, is hotly debated among scientists. Some claim it represents a new diminutive hominin species, while others argue it is simply a modern human dwarfed by some medical condition.
All agree the original Hobbit was extremely compact compared to us.
Source: ALI SOUFAN in an op ed in the NYT
Apr 22, 2009
One of the most striking parts of the memos is the false premises on which they are based. The first, dated August 2002, grants authorization to use harsh interrogation techniques on a high-ranking terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, on the grounds that previous methods hadn’t been working. The next three memos cite the successes of those methods as a justification for their continued use.
It is inaccurate, however, to say that Abu Zubaydah had been uncooperative. Along with another F.B.I. age
Source: AP
Apr 22, 2009
The global economy is expected to lurch into reverse this year for the first time since World War II with appalling consequences for nations large and small -- trillions of dollars in lost business, millions of people thrust into hunger and homelessness and crime on the rise.
And the pain won't stop this year, the International Monetary Fund declared Wednesday, for what it said was "by far the deepest global recession since the Great Depression." To cushion the blow and he
Source: Reuters
Apr 22, 2009
A Pulitzer Prize-winning book on a brutal aspect of U.S. history has reignited debate on the country's racial past just as the country's first black president is seen as evidence of racial progress.
"Slavery By Another Name" recounts the little-known story of how in the decades after President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves, hundreds of thousands of black Americans were re-enslaved as convict laborers.
Author Douglas Blackmon s
Source: BBC
Apr 22, 2009
Love letters between a prisoner of war who was held in Italy and Germany and his young wife in Norfolk have been found in a house in Suffolk.
The letters, written by Miriam King and her husband George, were found by Tony Roe who works at RAF Honington.
After the story was broadcast on BBC Look East, Mrs King, 94, was traced to Gorleston in Norfolk.
RAF Honington has now formally handed the 50 or so letters, which were found in an old chest of drawers, to
Source: BBC
Apr 22, 2009
A portrait of William Shakespeare thought to be the only picture made of him during his lifetime has been unveiled in Warwickshire.
The painting is on show at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, to celebrate the playwright's birthday on 23 April.
The trust said it was convinced the artwork, thought to date back to 1610, was an authentic portrait.
But some critics have gone on record to say the picture is not of Shakespeare.
Source: Salon
Apr 22, 2009
The Senate Armed Services Committee has just released an exhaustive review of torture under the Bush administration that, among other revelations, torpedoes the notion that the administration only chose torture as a last resort. Bush officials have long argued that they turned to coercive interrogations in 2002 only after captured al-Qaida suspects wouldn't talk, but the report shows the administration set the wheels in motion soon after 9/11. The Bush White House began planning for torture in
Source: AP
Apr 22, 2009
Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a roadmap for normalizing relations and reaching reconciliation, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, but it wasn't immediately clear how they would tackle their bitter dispute over Ottoman-era killings of ethnic Armenians.
Turkish officials would not discuss that issue and the ministry statement said only that the two countries had worked out a framework for reaching a solution that would satisfy both sides. There was no immediate comment
Source: http://www.astigan.com
Apr 22, 2009
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a 3,000 year-old fortified city and four ancient temples while working on an ancient military road known as “Way of Horus”. Archaeologists say the discoveries might rewrite the historical and military significance of the Sinai for the ancient Egyptians.
Digging near an old military road in the Sinai, Egyptian archaeologists have discovered an ancient fortified city dating back about 3,000 years. According to Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s top archaeolog
Source: Times (UK)
Apr 22, 2009
This battered bucket is expected to fetch up to £1,000 when it is sold at auction this month.
The leather container with a copper rim is one of HMS Victory’s fire buckets, used during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, in which Lord Nelson was mortally wounded.
