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
Dec 4, 2007
Zimbabwe's president has a simple answer to why his country's rich farmland is wasting away as inflation soars: colonialism.
While critics in and outside his country blame Robert Mugabe's land seizures and draconian rule for Zimbabwe's crisis, Mugabe told attendees at a recent state dinner that Britain, the former colonial master, was crippling his country.
Applause was loud and long.
European and African leaders want to look ahead to better trade deals, me
Source: http://www.independent.ie
Dec 4, 2007
A vivid portrait of life in early 20th Century Ireland emerged yesterday as public access was granted for the first time to digitised records of the 1911 Census.
Using the National Archives website, those living here and the Irish Diaspora, estimated at 70 million people spread across the globe, can search for their ancestors by name.
The first phase of a project to digitise both the 1901 and 1911 census provides access to the records for Dublin 1911, fully indexed by n
Source: Reuters
Dec 4, 2007
An ancient Roman wood and ivory throne has been unearthed at a dig in Herculaneum, Italian archaeologists said on Tuesday, hailing it as the most significant piece of wooden furniture ever discovered there.
The throne was found during an excavation in the Villa of the Papyri, the private house formerly belonging to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, built on the slope of Mount Vesuvius.
The name of the villa derives from the impressive lib
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 4, 2007
Sumptuous pearls which graced the neck of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, will go on sale in London next week with an estimate of £400,000.
The 21 jewels were smuggled out of France during the French Revolution by the Countess of Sutherland, wife of the British ambassador and an ally of the extravagant queen.
Source: National Security Archive Press Release (Click here to read the Harpers article.)
Dec 4, 2007
Harpers Magazine carries a feature article this month by the National Security Archive's Kate Doyle on what has been described by the New York Times as “the biggest trove of files found in the history of Latin America.” Titled “The Atrocity Files: Deciphering the Archives of Guatemala's Dirty War,” the 7,000-word article describes the massive effort underway to rescue the recently discovered records of the brutal former Guatemalan National Police – estimates are that the collection may reach 50
Source: Brian M. Sobel in the WSJ
Dec 4, 2007
[Mr. Sobel is a frequent contributor to magazines and newspapers and an on-air political and military analyst for several radio and TV stations.]
On Dec. 7, 1941, just after 8 a.m., a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb penetrated the decks of the USS Arizona, striking the forward magazine. The resulting explosion was volcanic as nearly a million pounds of gunpowder erupted into a fireball of death and destruction. The Arizona would sink in nine minutes, taking to the harbor floor 1,177
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Dec 4, 2007
Houghton Mifflin said Monday that the publishing company had agreed to sell its college textbook division to Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning) for $750 million in cash. Houghton said the deal would allow it to focus on its elementary and secondary school market, following on its $4 billion purchase this summer of Harcourt Education.
Source: http://www.bnd.com
Dec 3, 2007
Baron Manfred von Richthofen buzzed above the muddy World War I battlefields in his red Fokker tri-plane, downing a record 80 Allied aircraft on his way to becoming the war's top fighter ace and earning the famed "Red Baron" nom de guerre.
But von Richthofen, who was shot down and killed just before his 26th birthday in 1918, has been a legend in limbo since Poland's borders moved west after World War II and swallowed the baron's hometown of Schweidnitz -- today called Swi
Source: http://kob.com/article
Dec 3, 2007
Human remains are getting in the way of a plan to expand an Albuquerque elementary school.
Alameda Elementary is supposed to get an upgraded drainage system, and a new playground, track, and soccer field.
But archeologists have found an 800-year-old Indian burial ground under the school, putting a stop to the school's plans.
Now archaeologists must dig up the remains and artifacts before the school can start the renovation process.
Source: LiveScience
Dec 3, 2007
Chemical residues found in soil from Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula indicate that ancient Mayans traded food in marketplaces, a practice long considered unlikely by archaeologists.
From examining the sites of ancient Mayan cities, archaeologists have long recognized that the cities were home to more people than the local agricultural capacities could have supported, said Shepherd University archaeologist Bruce Dahlin, who led the new study of the Yucatan soil.
So for years,
Source: Guardian
Dec 3, 2007
A once top-secret manuscript that is widely recognised as a milestone in the development of modern rockets is to go under the hammer in New York today.
Wernher von Braun, the Nazi physicist-turned-leading figure in US space exploration, created the 166-page document for his PhD dissertation in April 1934. It contains the scientist's handwritten annotations as well as his charts and graphs.
Von Braun was awarded a doctorate in physics on the basis of the dissertation, bu
Source: AFP
Dec 3, 2007
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France began a three-day visit to Algeria on Monday, denouncing colonialism as “profoundly unjust” but stopping short of apologizing for the atrocities France was accused of committing there.
“Yes, the colonial system was profoundly unjust, contrary to the three founding words of our Republic: freedom, equality, brotherhood,” Mr. Sarkozy said.
But he steered clear of bending to Algerian demands to say he was sorry for atrocities that French
Source: Reuters
Dec 3, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507 Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers.
Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovere
Source: NYT
Dec 3, 2007
Shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Kim Man-sik, a military police sergeant, received an urgent radio message from the South Korean Army’s Counterintelligence Corps: Go to local police stations, take custody of scores of Communist suspects held there and execute them.
Mr. Kim complied. What he did and saw in those days is etched permanently in his mind.
“They were all tied together with military communications wire,” said Mr. Kim, now 81. “So when
Source: Australian
Dec 3, 2007
INCOMING education minister Julia Gillard yesterday backed the traditional interpretation of the nation's history, saying she believed Australia was "settled", rather than "invaded".
In a sign that she will adopt an orthodox approach to overseeing Labor's education policies, including the creation of a national schools curriculum, Ms Gillard supported students being exposed to different interpretations of Australian history and reaching their own conclusions.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 3, 2007
The national anthem is not inclusive and should perhaps be changed, Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general now leading a citizenship review for Gordon Brown, has suggested.
He said that there were problems with some of the later verses of the anthem, which refer to "rebellious Scots" being crushed.
Lord Goldsmith said: "Part of it is not actually that inclusive, but that's if you go on to the later verses.
"Some people have suggeste
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 3, 2007
India is to have its first museum celebrating the writer Rudyard Kipling, after decades in which the country he loved consigned him to obscurity as a prophet of British imperialism.
A dilapidated bungalow in the grounds of an art school in Bombay, where Kipling was born and lived until he was nearly six, is being restored to house a hoped-for collection of associated memorabilia. The move may be the first sign of his rehabilitation by a people who inspired some his most memorable po
Source: Newsweek
Dec 3, 2007
On Sept. 16, 1992, the police in New York City held a rally that spun out of control. The cops wanted a new collective-bargaining agreement, and they were angry at Mayor David Dinkins for proposing a civilian review board and for refusing to issue patrolmen 9mm guns. More than a few of them tipsy or drunk, the cops jumped on cars near city hall and blocked traffic near the Brooklyn Bridge. According to some witnesses, they waved placards crudely mocking Mayor Dinkins, the first black mayor of Ne
Source: Clarion-Ledger
Dec 2, 2007
Billy Wayne Posey has admitted he was with the Klansmen who chased, kidnapped, shot and buried three civil rights workers in Neshoba County in the summer of 1964.
But the state can't use his confession and never charged him in the killings.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of his statement and nearly 40,000 pages of mostly sealed federal and state documents.
These documents include the entire FBI file in the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, An
Source: NYT
Dec 2, 2007
At 91, [George M. Houser is] one of only two people alive who participated in the first freedom ride through the segregated South that preceded the famous one of 1961 by 14 years.
And at a time when religion in American politics almost invariably means the religious right, he’s a vibrant reminder that faith cuts through politics from more than one direction, with more than one message.
Mr. Houser, a Methodist minister, isn’t forgotten. He’s often cited in civil rights
