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: Radio Free Europe
Dec 18, 2008
SAMARRA, Iraq -- In this ancient city along the Tigris River, a new Al-Askari Mosque -- a revered Shi'ite shrine and ground zero in the sectarian battles that roiled Iraq -- is slowly rising from the rubble of war.
Al-Qaeda gunmen who once roamed the city at will to enforce their draconian strictures and terrify the population have been driven out to desert hideouts by U.S. and Iraqi security forces, and the main focus now is transitioning to stability -- and that includes rebuildin
Source: BBC
Dec 18, 2008
Immunity allegedly offered to suspected war criminal Radovan Karadzic is
not valid and will not prevent his trial, the UN war crimes court has
ruled.
The ex-Bosnian Serb leader faces 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against
humanity and genocide.
His claim that he was offered immunity by US peace envoy Richard Holbrooke
in 1996 in exchange for giving up his leadership is denied by Mr
Holbrooke.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 18, 2008
Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei told the UN Security Council that China
is"seriously considering" sending ships to join the UN's anti-piracy
mission off the coast of Somalia. His statement came after the Security
Council on Tuesday authorised UN member states to act against the pirates
on land as well as sea.
Forty ships have been hijacked this year by pirates operating from bases
along the Somali coast. On Tuesday, a Chinese fishing vessel was boarded
by pirates but escaped being
Source: International Herald Tribune
Dec 18, 2008
New legislation backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would allow
Russian authorities to label any government critic a traitor.
The bill, which is expected to pass in Parliament, would expand the
definition of treason to include damaging Russia's constitutional order,
sovereignty or territorial integrity.
That, critics said, would essentially let the authorities interpret any
act against the state as treason, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in
prison.
Source: NYT
Dec 18, 2008
A senior Rwandan military officer charged with being one of the masterminds of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which bands of Hutus massacred hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, was convicted on Thursday by a United Nations court in Tanzania of genocide and sentenced to life in prison.
Source: CNN
Dec 18, 2008
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the liberation of Afghanistan and
Iraq's first elections are among her proudest accomplishments during her
tenure.
Rice, who sat down with CNN's Zain Verjee in a wide-ranging exit
interview, also said her historic trip to Libya in September to meet with
leader Moammar Gadhafi was one of the high points of her service.
'"The thing I never expected was to actually be in Libya face-to-face with
Colonel Gadhafi," Rice said."That probably st
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 18, 2008
A suspected war criminal may be brought to justice over the 1945 massacre
of more than 60 Jews in Austria because of detective work by a university
student.
State police in North Rhine-Westphalia are evaluating documents seized
from the residence of the man - identified only as Adolf S. - as part of
their investigation into his involvement in the massacre in the village of
Deutsch Schuetzen, southeast of Vienna.
The raid came after an Austrian university student researching Na
Source: BBC
Dec 18, 2008
Thirty years ago, China's leader Deng Xiaoping launched a series of
sweeping economic reforms. The BBC's Michael Bristow looks at how these
momentous changes have affected ordinary people.
For those who value fine dining, the Yuebin Restaurant, tucked away in a
Beijing back alley, might not be their first choice.
With its whitewashed walls and plain furniture, it is not much to look at.
The food, too, is simple Beijing home-style cooking.
But the restaurant is more impor
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 18, 2008
A crane hoisted the bronze statue, depicting the military ruler astride a horse and waving a baton in his right hand, from its concrete base thereby eliminating a public symbol of decades of right wing dictatorship.
The statue, which stands at over 20 feet tall, will be stored in a warehouse until it can be displayed in a museum on the history of Spain that is planned for the coastal city.
During his 36 year dictatorship many such statues were erected in town squares ac
Source: History Today
Dec 18, 2008
Three ancient statues engraved with a little understood sub-Saharan language have recently been unearthed at the archaeological site of el-Hassa, approximately 120 miles north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. For the past six years, since the beginning of the conflict in Darfur in February 2003, Sudan has tended to feature in the news primarily as an area of war and atrocities. The recent discoveries provide, however, an insight into the richness of the country’s past and cultural history.
Source: Times (UK)
Dec 18, 2008
Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an ancient city that they hope might finally answer questions about the fate of the Moche culture — best known for the ceremonial sex acts and ritualistic human sacrifices depicted on its pottery.
The unearthed city is some 5km (three miles) long and has revealed what appears to be a gathering place for human sacrifices, a heap of human bones at the bottom of a cliff, ceramics, items of clothing and the well-preserved remains of a young w
Source: International Herald Tribune
Dec 18, 2008
U.N. court has convicted the organizer of the 1994 Rwandan genocide that claimed more than 500,000 lives and sentenced him to life in prison.
The court said that Theoneste Bagosora distributed weapons and directed Hutu soldiers and the notorious Interahamwe militia to kill Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Judge Erik Moses said Thursday that Bagosora was guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The massacres took place in 1994 after the Rwandan president's plane was my
Source: Times (of London)
Dec 18, 2008
Cigarette clamped between thumb and finger, a louche Barack Obama leans back with smouldering eyes and draws smoke deep into his lungs.
When he agreed to model for an aspiring photographer’s portfolio, the prospect of this image reemerging 28 years later as he prepared to enter the White House probably never crossed his mind.
Back then he was a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles struggling with his racial identity and, by his own admission, experimenting with
Source: AP
Dec 18, 2008
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA's soon-to-be-retired space shuttles are up for grabs.
The space agency said Wednesday it's looking for ideas on where and how best to display its space shuttles once they stop flying in a few years. It's put out a call to schools, science museums and "other appropriate organizations" that might be interested in showcasing one of the three remaining shuttles [Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour].
Beware: NASA estimates it will cost abo
Source: US News and World Report
Dec 17, 2008
Many presidents found that their predecessors could be less than gracious during the ceremonies.
Source: AP
Dec 17, 2008
Carlisle, Pa. -- President George W. Bush, ever focused on his legacy, said Wednesday "there can be no debate" about his record of preventing another terrorist attack. Evoking harrowing memories of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush said virtually no one could have predicted back then that the country would not be hit again for the rest of his presidency.
"It's not a matter of luck," Bush said, defending his security policies.
Addressing a supportive military audi
Source: MSNBC
Dec 17, 2008
Inscribed limestone block suggests boy pharaoh was the child of Akhenaten
An inscribed limestone block might have solved one of history's greatest
mysteries — who fathered the boy pharaoh King Tut.
"We can now say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten," Zahi Hawass,
chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.
The finding offers evidence against another leading theory that King Tut
was sired by the minor king Smenkhkare.
Source: MSNBC
Dec 17, 2008
Police seize 2,600-year-old artifacts after man tries to sell them.
A farmer working his land south of Rome dug up hundreds of artifacts from
a 2,600-year-old sanctuary, but ran afoul of police when he tried to sell
the ancient hoard, officials said Wednesday.
After spotting fragments of pottery in soil dug up by the farmer,
authorities searched his home last month and seized more than 500
artifacts, including perfume vials, cups and miniature vases used as
votive objects.
Source: LAT
Dec 17, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama may well be one of the 79 million members of the baby boom generation. But he's a late-wave boomer, a child of the 1970s -- as are half of the two dozen people he's selected thus far to help him lead the country.
Many of those Obama is bringing to Washington -- including his Education secretary, Homeland Security chief, Treasury secretary, United Nations ambassador and Energy czar -- came of age in the era of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 17, 2008
German officials are investigating an apparent rise in Right-wing
extremists using car number plates as a platform to advertise their
neo-Nazi political views.
Authorities in the north-eastern state of Brandenburg have given warning
of a rise in extremists using letter and number combinations on number
plates to identify themselves to the public.
Right-wing sympathisers recognise HJ as Hitler youth, NS as National
Socialism, and KZ as concentration camp, Brandenburg authoritie
