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: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 19, 2008
Gladiators are to return to Rome 2,000 years after they clashed on the
blood-soaked sands of the Colosseum.
Umberto Broccoli, the archaeologist in charge of the Colosseum, said that
he is planning to bring the gladiatorial clashes of ancient Rome to the
modern Italian capital as part of a"serious project" to revive interest
in its monuments and museums.
Whereas the gladiators who entertained ancient Roman crowds in the huge
amphitheatre often battled to the death, today's figh
Source: International Herald Tribune
Dec 19, 2008
Christian Klar, one of the last members of the terrorist far-left Red Army
Faction to remain in prison, was released Friday after serving 26 years of
a life sentence, according to the Justice Ministry in the German state of
Baden-Württemberg.
The Red Army Faction, which was also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang,
carried out a series of assassinations of leading German figures during
the late 1970s and early 1980s, killing 34 people. It disbanded in 1998,
several years after renounci
Source: BBC
Dec 19, 2008
Pakistan is to issue a commemorative coin to mark the first anniversary of
the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
The State Bank of Pakistan will issue about 300,000 special 10-rupee (16
US cents) coins.
The coin will read in Urdu,"Daughter of the East, Benazir Bhutto".
Source: BBC
Dec 19, 2008
Work has begun in the German capital, Berlin, on a memorial to the
hundreds of thousands of Roma, or Gypsies, killed by the Nazis in World
War II.
It will feature a square well brimming with water and bearing an
inscription of a poem about the Holocaust.
The leader of Germany's Roma community, Romani Rose, praised the
government for"recognising its historical responsibility" to those
persecuted.
Source: BBC
Dec 19, 2008
Argentine judicial authorities have suspended a decision by a court on
Thursday to release one of the most notorious figures of the Dirty War.
The criminal appeals court ordered the release of Alfredo Astiz and 13
others after finding he had been held for more than two years without a
conviction.
The former Naval captain, known as the"Blond Angel of Death", is accused
of the disappearance of dozens of people.
Source: Times (UK)
Dec 19, 2008
Lockerbie knows that it will never be allowed to forget the night of December 21, 1988. Like Aberfan, Omagh, Dunblane - the little places struck by disasters – its name is for ever linked to one terrible moment. In Lockerbie’s case it was 7.03pm, when Pan Am Flight 103 dropped from the sky.
You cannot walk the streets today without the reminders: Sherwood Crescent, where the wing and fuel tank ploughed into the houses and evaporated them, leaving a massive crater, reeking of aviati
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 19, 2008
In response to growing pressure from the opposition, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare confirmed that documents presented by shadow vice-defence Minister Yukihisa Fujita in parliament were authentic.
The papers, compiled in 1946 by Aso Mining, show that 101 British prisoners, 197 Australians and two Dutch were put to work digging coal for Japan's war effort in 1945. An estimated 10,000 Korean slave labourers were also put to work in the company's mines during the war. Aso M
Source: NYT
Dec 19, 2008
W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday. He was 95 and lived in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Related Links
HNN Hot Topics: Deep Throat and Watergate
Source: Washington Post
Dec 19, 2008
W. Mark Felt Sr., the associate director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal who, better known as "Deep Throat," became the most famous anonymous source in American history, died yesterday. He was 95.
Felt died at 12:45 p.m. at a hospice near his home in Santa Rosa, Calif. where he had been living since August...
As the second-highest official in the FBI under longtime director J. Edgar Hoover and interim director L. Patrick Gray, Felt detested the Nixon a
Source: Deutsche Welle
Dec 18, 2008
A symbolic spot was chosen to sign the deal: the European House at the Brandenburg Gate. Until the end of 1989, the Berlin Wall stood just a few meters away.
For Marianne Birthler, the head of the Federal Commission for the Records of the State Security Service of the former East Germany, it was the fulfillment of a long-held dream: to deal with Cold War secret police issues on an international basis.
Systematic cooperation
There has been contact between t
Source: AP
Dec 18, 2008
A new law encourages schools to focus world history courses on at least one of 10 advanced African kingdoms, not just the primitive Africans often highlighted in history books.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the bill into law Thursday. Sponsor and Republican state Rep. Mike Nofs of Battle Creek says it will make up for Africa's "vibrant culture and complex civilizations" being ignored for too long.
The bill received unanimous support in both the House and Senat
Source: NYT
Dec 18, 2008
President Bush shared some bittersweet reflections on Thursday as he looked back fondly on his White House days but regretted his inability to win passage of immigration legislation and to change the tone of debate in the capital.
“Reflections by a guy who’s headed out of town,” Mr. Bush called his musings in a question-and-answer session at the American Enterprise Institute. “An old sage at 62 ... headed to retirement.”
The president, who has described himself as unco
Source: NYT
Dec 18, 2008
“Tonight, I propose a new tax cut for homeownership that says to every middle-income working family in this country, if you sell your home, you will not have to pay a capital gains tax on it ever — not ever.”--— President Bill Clinton, at the 1996 Democratic National Convention
Ryan J. Wampler had never made much money selling his own homes.
Starting in 1999, however, he began to do very well. Three times in eight years, Mr. Wampler — himself a home builder and develope
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 18, 2008
[The Archbishop of Canterbury] spoke candidly this week about disestablishment of the Church, for the first time in years, and in so doing reignited the debate about what place it should have in a society in which followers of other faiths and none are more numerous and prominent than ever before. The Church of England, as the established church of the country, is recognised as the official religion by law and the Government, and its Supreme Governor is the monarch.
Dr Williams sai
Source: http://www.brooklynpaper.com
Dec 18, 2008
The promise of construction of the Brooklyn Bridge Park development along
the DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights waterfront may be a symbol of a glorious
future for the borough — but it has also revealed a scintillating symbol
of Brooklyn’s glorious past.
Workers who have begun prepping Pier 1 to become a large sweeping front
lawn for the hotel, condo and open-space development have unearthed a
19th-century flour mill that operated when a thriving, independent
Brooklyn was the region’s brea
Source: Slate
Dec 18, 2008
Introspection has never been President Bush's strong suit. "I really do not feel comfortable in the role of analyzing myself," he told Robert Draper in 2007. "I'll try. But I don't spend a lot of time."
As his second term wanes, however, Bush is getting in touch with his inner president. At an event Thursday hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, Bush promised to "share some thoughts about the presidency—you could call it 'reflections by a guy who's he
Source: Guardian
Dec 18, 2008
On a tree-lined street in a quiet suburb of north-east Santiago, the two-storey house looks like any middle-class family home. Yet 2244 O'Brien Street is one of the Chilean capital's most controversial addresses: the former home of one of South America's most notorious dictators, General Augusto Pinochet.
Today, two years after the death of the notorious dictator, the house is opening as a visitor attraction.
Displays include an extensive collection of model soldiers, a
Source: Reuters
Dec 18, 2008
LONDON -– Oliver Twist wouldn't have needed any more gruel in real life, scientists said Thursday.
The picture painted by Charles Dickens of starvation rations in an 1830s workhouse north of London is wide of mark, according to an analysis of menus and other historical evidence.
Dickens' eponymous hero famously asked for more of the "thin gruel" doled out three times daily in the grim institution for the poor where he grew up.
In fact, contemporar
Source: BBC
Dec 18, 2008
An Argentine court has ordered the release from prison of 14 men accused
of committing human right abuses during the country's years of military
rule.
The men worked at the Naval Mechanics School, known as Esma, the largest
clandestine detention centre in Buenos Aires during the"Dirty War".
The men should be freed because they have been in prison for more than two
years without trial, the court said.
Source: NPR
Dec 18, 2008
The Justice Department on Tuesday donated thousands of documents to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The papers — totaling more than 50,000 pages — chronicle trials of Nazis found living in the United States over the past three decades.
These are the ultimate cold cases, says Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which hunts down and tries former Nazis hiding in the United States.
"If on
