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: Frog In A Well: Japan (blog)
Feb 4, 2007
The 11th edition of the Asian History Carnival has been published. This edition covers almost two months of blogging about Asian history, from the Near East to Japan.
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com
Feb 3, 2007
The Canadian publisher of an acclaimed bestseller on the U.S. invasion of Iraq has halted shipments of the book after an Atlanta newspaper said its text contains numerous passages that should have been attributed to one of its writers.
Toronto author and Harper's magazine contributor Paul William Roberts has admitted that his 2004 book, A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq, contains "elements [that] . . . closely resemble or are indistinguishable fro
Source: Financial Express (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Feb 3, 2007
TAIPEI -- Beijing has accused Taiwan of seeking to sever the priceless Chinese cultural treasures held in the National Palace Museum in Taipei from their national roots.
China's state media has denounced as "exceedingly dangerous" a planned revision of the charter of the museum, which is home to the most precious artefacts from Beijing's fabled imperial Forbidden City, accusing Taiwan of pursuing a policy of "de-Sinification"...
The Chinese complaint
Source: Times (of London)
Feb 3, 2007
Birmingham’s most senior Muslim leader yesterday compared the political situation in Britain to that of Nazi Germany.
Mohammad Naseem, chairman of the Birmingham Central Mosque, said that Muslims were being labelled as a threat like the Jews were under Hitler.
Speaking outside the mosque before Friday prayers, Dr Naseem said that Britain was turning into a police state, and accused the Government of “picking on” the Muslim community to pursue a political goal. “The Ge
Source: AP
Feb 3, 2007
More than five years after the fall of the Taliban regime, the plundering of Afghanistan's archaeological sites and museums not only continues but has evolved into a sophisticated trade that could be financing the country's warlords and insurgents, experts say.
The International Council of Museums, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of the world's natural and cultural heritage, on Friday published a "red list" of Afghan antiquities at risk, urging colle
Source: NYT
Feb 3, 2007
THERE are not many places where a man convicted in the bombing of a commercial airliner that killed 73 people can be found roaming the streets. This city, home to Freddy Lugo, is one of them.
Mr. Lugo, like an uneasy memory from the cold war, is tucked away here, obscure to most of his countrymen but not completely forgotten. He was one of two men sentenced to 20 years in prison for placing explosives on a DC-8 jetliner flown by Cubana Airlines in 1976.
The plane blew u
Source: NYT
Feb 3, 2007
The book is called “Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust,” and perhaps the most telling thing about it is that it is very slim.
Richard C. Holbrooke, former ambassador to the United Nations, made that point during a ceremony, held Jan. 24 at Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s East Side, to mark the book’s publication.
During the years of Nazi persecution and then mass murder of Jews, Mr. Holbrooke noted, Europe’s embassies and consulates were filled with thousands of offici
Source: Washington Post
Feb 3, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. -- The House of Delegates unanimously approved a resolution Friday expressing "profound regret" for Virginia's role in the slave trade, a significant act of contrition by a body that used to start the day with a salute that symbolized the state's Confederate heritage.
The resolution, one of several that lawmakers are considering as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of the founding of Jamestown, is one of the biggest steps any state has taken in offeri
Source: Washington Post
Feb 3, 2007
STAUNTON, Va. -- While U.S. troops were fighting in World War I in the summer of 1918, President Woodrow Wilson underwent treatment for a breathing problem in a hushed episode that foreshadowed worse health troubles to come.
The White House doctor, Cary T. Grayson, later recounted the incident to his wife in one of a slew of newly public documents that show how far Wilson's innermost circle went to conceal his frail condition amid major world events.
" The patient
Source: New York Times
Feb 3, 2007
In November O. J. Simpson sat for what would have been one of the most unusual interviews in television history —- a hypothetical recounting of how, if he had been the killer, he might have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman more than a decade ago.
The interview, taped in Miami to publicize a book, “If I Did It,” was never broadcast, as public outrage exploded over the idea that Mr. Simpson might profit from the murders that many people beli
Source: New York Times
Feb 3, 2007
ATLANTA -— For every infamous killing that tore at the South in the 1950s and ’60s, there were many more that were barely noted, much less investigated.
Virtually all such cases gained momentum only when the victims of the past found voices in the present, like those that helped arrest a 71-year-old man last month in connection with the Klan killings of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964. Rather than police officials, it has often been journalists and filmmakers who have com
Source: Guardian
Feb 3, 2007
In the lexicon of political insults it will take some beating. Already known for his somewhat colourful use of language Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has probably written himself into the history books for a new sidewipe at his US counterpart George Bush.
In the latest salvo in the war of words between the two countries Mr Chávez described Mr Bush as "evil," a "criminal" but then added that he was "more dangerous than a monkey with a razor blade"...H
Source: Telegraph
Feb 3, 2007
Proposals to give teachers more freedom over the topics they cover in the first years of secondary education have been overruled by the Government.
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, yesterday released a list of extra topics that he wants to see taught...He has told the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) that it must put more emphasis on teaching:
• Global warming
• The British slave trade and the anti-slavery campaign
• Britishness
•
Source: Times (of London)
Feb 3, 2007
In the three decades since Brian Peters died during Indonesia’s secret invasion of East Timor, his sister Maureen Tolfree has been told countless versions of who killed him and how.
There was the story put out by the Indonesians in 1975: that he and four fellow journalists died accidentally, caught up in shooting between rival groups of East Timorese. There was the testimony of several witnesses: that Brian and his colleagues were murdered by Indonesian commandos. And then there was
Source: AP
Feb 3, 2007
Four of the senators who will vote next week on putting more troops in Iraq bear the scars of another war in another time, in a place called Vietnam. Three will vote against sending more troops. One will vote the other way.
John McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot, was captured by the Vietnamese, tortured and imprisoned for more than five years. Knowing what it's like to have fought before and lost, he's with President Bush on sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq.
Chuck H
Source: Ars Technica
Feb 2, 2007
The dream refuses to die. After The Pirate Bay failed in its quest to buy Sealand, some supporters of the idea believed that the idea of a libertarian paradise was too precious to drop, and they entertained hopes of hoisting the"live free or die" flag over another island, possibly Ile de Caille, a small and uninhabited island off the South American coast.
Thus began the Free Nation Foundation, a group that hopes to form its own country governed by a"philosophy of freedom" where"people could a
Source: CNN
Feb 2, 2007
Nearly 150 years ago it was no more than a concept by a visionary scientist, but researchers have now created a minuscule motor that could lead to the creation of microscopic nanomachines.
Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell first imagined an atom-size device dubbed Maxwell's Demon in 1867. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have made it a reality.
"We have a new motor mechanism for a nanomachine," said David Leigh, a professor of chemistry at the Un
Source: WaPo
Feb 2, 2007
Fascinated by cultures as old as their own, Mexicans are pouring into museum exhibitions in wonder at ancient Middle Eastern artifacts never before seen in the Western Hemisphere.
Nearly 14,000 people visited the "Persia, Fragments of Paradise" display from Iran in Mexico City's Anthropological Museum on a recent Sunday, the highest single-day attendance in years.
That followed a blockbuster show of Egyptian archeological artifacts here last year that was one
Source: Independent Online (Capetown)
Feb 2, 2007
The South African National Museum of Military History is making a civil claim against the South African National Defence Force over a raid on the museum in 2005.
Museum director Major John Keene confirmed on Thursday that there was a claim underway, but would not divulge for how much or any other details.
"I don't think this matter is appropriate for public consumption," he said.
According to a report in Beeld, the claim could cost the defence for
Source: India-Asian News Service
Feb 2, 2007
NEW DELHI --Delhi High Court Friday dismissed a renewed plea by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to be allowed to set questions on certain objectionable sections in school history text books that describe some late freedom fighters as 'militants' and make derogatory references to some communities and historical incidents.
The plea by NCERT, the apex government body to advise on academic matters related to school education and the official publisher o
