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: BBC
Feb 25, 2009
Herman Simm, a former head of security, pleaded guilty to treason on Wednesday.
The court where he was tried did not reveal which country he spied for, but investigators said Mr Simm passed nearly 3,000 documents to Russia.
They said he received 1.3m kroons (£73,000; $106,000) for the data. The Kremlin denied any involvement.
Nato made no comment, but the case, which is Estonia's biggest spy scandal since the Cold War, is seen as an embarrassment for the
Source: Reuters
Feb 25, 2009
The closure of Everest's northeast ridge came after China told tourist agencies in Tibet to cancel all tours until April and stopped issuing entrance permits for Tibet to foreigners.
Tensions in Tibet are running high ahead of the anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile on March 10. Many Tibetans have chosen not to celebrate Tibetan New Year, or Losar, today (weds) to silently protest Chinese rule.
China's move to close off Tibet will ensure a news black-out i
Source: The Daily Beast
Feb 25, 2009
Has former president Bush already grown restless? Starting next month, he will begin an international speaking tour, making ten speeches over the next year across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. The tour is expected to gross him hundreds of thousands of dollars, a modest sum compared to the almost $10 million figure that former president Clinton made in 2006 alone. The tour is aimed at rehabilitating his image, though he seems to not have learned why it was so damaged in the first place: The
Source: American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara)
Feb 25, 2009
After 37 days in office, Obama’s administration continues to be the leader in use of unilateral powers of the presidency (30 actions vs. an average of 14.5 for the comparison group). Obama’s “going public” strategy has also been distinctive. Obama has been among the slowest of our group of “change presidents” to use his “bully pulpit” to address the nation as a whole about his priorities. ...
However, Obama has been very active in participating in public events at which he makes “re
Source: WaPo
Feb 25, 2009
Barack Obama climbed Capitol Hill last night and staked his presidency on bringing the nation out of its economic crisis.
Not since Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first fireside chat, eight days into his presidency, have Americans been more hungry -- and more desperate -- for economic leadership. And not since FDR has there been an economic agenda as bold or ambitious, or as likely to reshape American capitalism.
Just a month in office, Obama has already pushed throu
Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
Feb 25, 2009
The Leoff-Vinot collection, made up of more than 8,100 pre-Columbian pieces bought on the black market, was presented here Tuesday by its new owner, Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH.
Considered to be the most important antiquities collection in Mexico in private hands due to the number and age of the pieces, some of them more than 3,000 years old, the items will be catalogued and researched in the archaeological zone of Xochicalco, located in the central
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 25, 2009
The former Liberian President Charles Taylor may walk free because the global financial crisis has cut donations to the court trying him for war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone, its chief prosecutor has said.
The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, which is pursuing those held most responsible for atrocities during the country's 1991-2002 civil war, faces a budget shortfall of more than $5 million from May, officials said.
Taylor, a warlord in a ci
Source: BBC
Feb 25, 2009
Amnesty International has called on the Guatemalan authorities to do more to provide justice for thousands of victims of the country's civil war.
More than 200,000 people - most of them civilians - were killed or disappeared between 1960 and 1996.
The group said that tens of thousands of cases have yet to be heard by the commission established to probe cases.
Amnesty called on the Guatemalan government to approve a law for a National Search Commission fo
Source: Independent (UK)
Feb 25, 2009
Details of cabinet discussions held in the run-up to the Iraq war are to be kept secret after the Government decided to take the unprecedented step of vetoing their publication.
Campaigners had demanded to see the minutes of two meetings, on 13 and 17 March 2003, amid allegations that the Cabinet failed to discuss properly or challenge the decision to invade Iraq. The legality of the war was also discussed at the meetings.
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas,
Source: BBC
Feb 25, 2009
Richard Williamson, who lived in Buenos Aires, was asked to leave after he refused to retract his denial of the existence of Nazi gas chambers.
The row hugely embarrassed the Vatican which had only recently lifted an excommunication order on the bishop.
After his arrival he was taken straight to a waiting car by police officers.
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2009
Three British divers have admitted illegally removing artefacts from an Atlantic Ocean shipwreck in 2002.
Peter Devlin, Steve Russ and Malcolm Cubin, all from Cornwall, admitted the charges at a court in Santiago, Spain.
The commercial divers were accused of stealing gold and diamonds and of destroying Spain's cultural heritage.
They each received two six-month prison sentences, suspended for two years, and fined a total of 5,000 euros (£4,600) after adm
Source: Jack Cafferty at CNN
Feb 24, 2009
People are losing faith in their ability to realize the American dream. While AIG pays out $165 million in bonuses to people who arguably contributed to the need for the federal government to hand them $170 billion of our money, and while politicians lie about who crafted the language that allowed this kind of stuff to happen (Are you listening Chris Dodd?), the average American is seeing his future disintegrate in front of his eyes.
Here are some numbers that suggest we are losing
Source: AP
Feb 24, 2009
The U.S. government said Tuesday it is asking German officials for travel documents needed to deport accused World War II Nazi guard John Demjanjuk, who is charged in Europe with 29,000 counts of accessory to murder. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided an e-mail to The Associated Press showing that it has contacted the German government in its effort to deport Demjanjuk, once accused but ultimately cleared of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka concentration camp in occupied Poland
Source: AP
Feb 24, 2009
Researchers may have discovered a mass grave for nearly five dozen 19th century Irish immigrants who died of cholera weeks after coming to Pennsylvania to build a railroad.
Historians at Immaculata University have known for years about the 57 immigrants who died in August 1832, but could not find the actual grave. Human bones discovered last week near the suburban Philadelphia university may at last reveal their final resting place -- and possibly allow researchers to identify the r
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
British veterans of the Second World War prison camp that featured in the film The Great Escape made an emotional return to the site of the getaway tunnel on the 65th anniversary of the breakout immortalised in the Hollywood film.
At a memorial at the mouth of Tunnel Harry, carved from the sandy soil under Stalag Luft III under the noses of the German guards, the men who helped those who fled only to be shot dead by the Gestapo toasted their absent comrades.
They bowe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
A Bronze Age sauna and one of the oldest prehistoric roundhouses in the UK have been unearthed on a site earmarked for a park and ride scheme in Somerset.
Archaeologists have uncovered 3,000 years of history at the site near the junction of the A358 and the M5 at Cambria Farm, in Taunton, Somerset.
The Iron Age roundhouse with a diameter of 56ft (17m) is one of the largest prehistoric roundhouses ever found in Britain.
It is thought to date from around 700
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2009
Three British divers accused of stealing treasure from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean in 2002, are due to appear in court in Spain.
Peter Devlin, Steve Russ and Malcolm Cubin - all from Cornwall - are charged with taking gold and diamonds, and with destroying Spain's cultural heritage.
They have denied the charges, which carry a jail term of up to six years.
The team was recovering tin ingots from the wreck of a Dutch vessel, but was accused of strayi
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2009
A court in the Netherlands has found a Rwandan Hutu, Joseph Mpambara, guilty of torture during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 but not of war crimes.
He was given 20 years in prison for, the judges said, robbing "two women and at least four children of their most valuable possession: their lives".
He had ordered them pulled out of an ambulance, and were hacked to death.
But he was acquitted of the murder of Tutsis sheltering at a church, due to in
Source: Time Magazine
Feb 24, 2009
Viewers at home may wonder why, when the camera pans to the audience, most of the members of Congress, cabinet, Supreme Court and Joint Chiefs have their heads down. The answer is simple: they're reading along in prettily bound commemorative copies of Obama's speech. Why, you may ask, would the the audience be given copies of the speech beforehand in this manner? After all, it potentially breeds a colder crowd (though Obama clearly isn't suffering from this problem tonight) and doesn't make for
Source: Guardian (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
The women of the world have even more reason to be proud of what they have accomplished during the entire month of March as the country celebrates National Women’s History Month.
Thanks to women in New York City factories who held a protest over their working conditions in 1857, there is an entire month dedicated to women everywhere. Although it started out as just a day, National Women’s History Month was lengthened to a week and now it is expanded into an entire month.
