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: Kyodo News
Mar 8, 2007
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may order a reinvestigation into the wartime sex slaves -- a move that could lead to a revision of Tokyo's 1993 statement admitting the military's involvement in running frontline brothels across Asia for Imperial Japanese Army soldiers during the 1930s and 1940s, government and ruling bloc sources said Wednesday.
Abe, who last week unleashed a storm of criticism by claiming there is no evidence that the wartime army "coerced" women in Japanese-oc
Source: International Herald Tribune
Mar 7, 2007
HARGEYSA, Somalia -- When the sun rises over the craggy hills of Hargeysa, it sheds light on a different kind of Somalia.
Ice cream trucks hit the streets. Money changers, unarmed and unguarded, push cash through the market in wheelbarrows. Politicians from three distinct parties get ready for another day of debate, which recently included animated discussion on registering nomadic voters.
It is all part of a Somali puzzle: how one area of the country, the northwest, al
Source: USA Today
Mar 7, 2007
HONOLULU, Hawaii —- A violent road-rage altercation between Native Hawaiians and a white couple near Pearl Harbor two weeks ago is provoking questions about whether Hawaii's harmonious "aloha spirit" is real or just a greeting for tourists.
The Feb. 19 attack, in which a Hawaiian father and son were arrested and charged with beating a soldier and his wife unconscious, was unusual here for its brutality. It sparked a public debate over race relations that is filling blogs a
Source: Mark Brown in the Chicago Sun-Times
Mar 7, 2007
When I was a kid, I thought that anything that happened before I was born was ancient history. It didn't matter if it was five years before I was born or 500 years. The year 1955 was the cutoff point. Events before then might be interesting but couldn't possibly have any real-world connection to my life, or so I thought.
As I get older, my time perspective keeps changing. Despite the passage of all those additional years, I now feel closer than ever to the events of World War II --
Source: AP
Mar 7, 2007
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- A prominent Turkish politician was convicted Friday of breaching Swiss anti-racism laws by saying that the early 20th-century killing of Armenians could not be described as genocide. The Turkish foreign ministry reacted swiftly to the decision, saying in a statement that it was saddened by the Swiss court's ruling to punish Dogu Perincek, leader of the Turkish Workers' Party, and to ignore "his freedom of expression."
Perincek was ordered to pay a
Source: AP
Mar 7, 2007
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- J.P."The Big Bopper" Richardson suffered massive fractures and likely died immediately in the 1959 plane crash that also killed early rock 'n' rollers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, a forensic anthropologist said Tuesday after exhuming the body.
The performer's son, Jay Richardson, hired Dr. Bill Bass, a well-known forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, to look at the remains in Beaumont, Texas.
There have been rumors a gun might have been fired
Source: International Herald Tribune
Mar 7, 2007
PARIS -- A court in Turkey on Wednesday ordered blockage of all access to YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site, over a video deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
The ban followed a week of what the media in Turkey dubbed a "virtual war" of videos between Greeks and Turks on YouTube and came as governments around the world —- including France — grappled with the freewheeling content now readily posted on the Internet.
Source: AP
Mar 7, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust," and made it past inspectors and into circulation, the U.S. Mint said Wednesday.
The properly struck dollar coins, bearing the likeness of George Washington, are inscribed along the edge with "In God We Trust," "E Pluribus Unum" and the year and mint mark. They went into circulation Feb. 15.
Source: AP
Mar 7, 2007
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The director of a long-secret archive of Nazi records said Wednesday that preparations for allowing scholars access are moving faster than expected and the entire collection will be ready for research within a year.
But unless the 11 governing nations overcome legal hurdles, it could take years before the documents are actually released.
The United States is leading a campaign to hasten ratification of an agreement reached last year to unlock t
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Mar 7, 2007
BERKELEY -- A UC Berkeley biology student was arrested today on suspicion of stealing the first Nobel Prize the university ever received from the Lawrence Hall of Science, campus police said.
Ian Michael Sanchez, 22, a senior who worked at the hands-on science museum, was taken into custody today and booked on suspicion of felony grand theft for allegedly stealing the 23-karat gold medal worth $4,200, UC Berkeley police said.
The prize, awarded to the late physicist Ern
Source: Live Science
Mar 7, 2007
A ship that was deliberately sunk might have blocked Napoleon from entering a Middle Eastern port on his quest to conquer the British Empire in Egypt and India, and sent the future emperor retreating back to France.
A new study of the ship's excavated cargo will help marine archaeologists analyze the role of sunken ship and reconstruct the 61-day battle between the British and Napoleon's army at the entry to the Israeli city Akko, known then as Acre, more than 200 years ago.
Source: AP
Mar 7, 2007
LONDON (-- Legislators took an unprecedented step Wednesday toward ending an age-old tradition of allowing Britain's non-elected elite to hold political power, backing proposals for an entirely elected House of Lords.
House of Commons lawmakers voted 337-224 in favor of developing laws to elect all members of Parliament's upper chamber -- potentially one of the most significant constitutional changes in British history.
The move, which requires new legislation, would br
Source: NYT
Mar 7, 2007
It’s all part of a Somali puzzle: how one area of the country, the northwest, also known as Somaliland, can seem so peaceful and functional — so normal, in fact — while the rest continues to be such a violent, chaotic mess.
This tale of two Somalias is especially striking now, as thousands of African Union peacekeepers prepare to rescue Mogadishu, the nation’s bloodstained capital, from itself. The internationally backed transitional government that seized Mogadishu in late December
Source: Zee News (India)
Mar 7, 2007
BEIJING -- China and Japan, holding divergent views about history, will jointly study the subject in an attempt to improve ties strained over the past, especially Japanese occupation of China during World War II.
China hopes the first-ever joint effort between the two countries on history can proceed well, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
China and Japan have each appointed a 10-member team to conduct the research.
"I hope the expert
Source: New York Times
Mar 7, 2007
ALLENSWORTH, Calif. —- It is an unlikely place for a utopia: this cracked-earth landscape of two-lane roads in the Central Valley, so remote that the lilting staccato of freight trains can be heard from miles away.
Yet it was here, nearly a century ago, that Allen Allensworth, an escaped slave from Kentucky who became the nation’s highest-ranking black Army officer at the time, forged an idealistic community dedicated to Booker T. Washington’s principles of self-help and self-determ
Source: UPI
Mar 7, 2007
PERUGIA, Italy -- An Italian expedition plans to retrace the route that Marco Polo took to China, using the same type of horses on the Silk Road.
"We'll face the same kind of challenges our illustrious predecessor did, traveling over extremely varied terrain: plains, valleys, high mountain tracks and deserts," Piero Lapiana, the expedition's leader, told the Italian news agency ANSA.
Veterinarians from Perugia University will be in the group to study how the h
Source: Yonhap News (Seoul, South Korea)
Mar 7, 2007
SEOUL -- South Korea plans to introduce history textbooks that include chapters rebutting historical claims by its neighboring countries, officials said Tuesday.
The Education Ministry officials said they will adopt textbooks that refute such historical assertions as Japan's denial of wartime sex slavery and China's claim over South Korea's ancient kingdoms.
Japan has been slammed for refusing to apologize for its exploitation of about 200,000 "comfort women"
Source: VNA (Vietnam News Agency)
Mar 7, 2007
International organisations have provided US $2.3 million and 400 cubic metres of iron wood for repairs and restoration of the historical relics in the former imperial city of Hue since its system of temples and palaces were recognised as World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO in 1993...
Under a project to preserve and promote the value of Hue’s historical relics during the 1996-2010 period, more than VND 266 billion (roughly US $16.62 million) has been spent on restoring the monumen
Source: AP
Mar 7, 2007
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- The U.S. heirs to a major collection of art looted by the Nazis and finally returned after years of legal wrangling have sold four paintings back to the Dutch government for $4 million and donated a fifth work.
Marei von Saher, heir to the "Goudstikker Collection," said that she wanted to show her gratitude in particular to a professor who headed an independent Dutch commission on Nazi-era claims.
Rudi Ekkart's recommendation led to t
Source: BBC News
Mar 7, 2007
The phrase "stone age" has been labelled offensive by anthropologists who say it should not be used to describe living peoples.
In particular, the Association of Social Anthropologists highlights the way the term has been used to describe tribal and indigenous people.
It also says that "primitive" or "savage" are no longer acceptable terms for such groups of people...
"All anthropologists would agree that the negative use
