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: Reuters
Jan 19, 2007
A high-profile Turkish-Armenian editor, who had been convicted of insulting Turkey's identity, was shot dead in Istanbul on Friday in an attack bound to raise political tensions in an election year.
Hrant Dink, a frequent target of nationalist anger for his comments on the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One, was shot in the head as he left his weekly newspaper Agos around 1300 GMT in the center of the city.
"A bullet has been fired at
Source: WaPo
Jan 19, 2007
Today, the United Daughters of the Confederacy plan to fly a Confederate flag on Washington Street in Alexandria, on the statue of a rebel soldier who faces South. The Virginia Sons of Confederate Veterans will gather for dinner in Richmond to honor the man they hail as "one of the greatest Americans."
It's the 200th birthday of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who is revered by some and reviled by others. Commemorations and protests are planned across Virginia and o
Source: WSJ
Jan 19, 2007
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice often calls herself "a student of history." And increasingly, she is using history -- or her chosen slice of it -- both to explain and justify the Bush administration's Middle East policy.
When Ms. Rice talks about the challenges the U.S. faces across the Mideast, she points, somewhat surprisingly, to Europe after World War II and to the West's decades-long face-off against the Soviet Union, which happens to be her area of expertis
Source: Kyodo.com
Jan 19, 2007
The Tokyo High Court on Friday rejected an appeal by families seeking
not-guilty verdicts for five deceased men who were convicted of promoting
communism during World War II in the"Yokohama Incident," the worst case of
wartime suppression of free speech in Japan in which over 60 journalists and
magazine editors were arrested.
The court upheld a lower court ruling terminating a retrial for the five --
Toru Kimura, Eizaburo Kobayashi, Hiroshi Yoshida, Kenjiro Takagi and Toshio
Hiradat
Source: BBC
Jan 19, 2007
Most experts agree that it is Lisa Gherardini - the wife of a wealthy merchant in Florence. But Giuseppe Pallanti now says records from the time show that she died aged 63 in July 1542 and was buried in a now dilapidated convent in Florence. The historian says she had seen out the last years of her life there.
After poring through thousands of official records from the time, Mr Pallanti believes Lisa Gherardini was widowed and ill when she died.
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jan 19, 2007
To its long list of ambitious goals as EU president, Germany recently added a controversial one that is set to spark debate across Europe about whether governments can uphold freedom of expression on one hand and outlaw certain viewpoints at the same time. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said she would like to see Holocaust denial -- already a crime in some European countries -- become punishable by up to three years in prison in all 27 of the bloc's mem
Source: AP
Jan 18, 2007
President Jacques Chirac honored nearly 2,800 French people who rescued Jews from the Nazis, in a ceremony at the Pantheon in central Paris on Thursday.
Chirac paid tribute to members of a group, known as the "Righteous of France," who risked their own lives to help Jews escape the death camps. Twelve years ago Chirac became France's first president to recognize the French government's role in the mass deportation of Jews during the Holocaust.
"Thousand
Source: BBC
Jan 18, 2007
Scientists who recreated"Spanish flu" - the 1918 virus which killed up to 50m people - have witnessed its remarkable killing power first hand.
The lungs of infected monkeys were destroyed in just days as their immune systems went into overdrive after a Canadian laboratory rebuilt the virus.
The reason for the lethal nature of the 1918 flu was never fully understood.
But the experts behind this test say they have found a human gene which may help explain its unusual virulence.
Source: http://www.washingtonian.com
Jan 18, 2007
At Nathans Restaurant in Georgetown, Bob Woodward sat beneath David Hume Kennerly’s iconic photo of former American presidents. George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon smiled and waved above Woodward’s combed silver mane. But as Woodward’s light-sensitive tinted glasses gradually lost their opacity, the cheerful Presidents looked more and more like a row of sitting ducks.
"I'm scared of you," joked Nathans owner, former journalist Caro
Source: Reuters
Jan 18, 2007
JOHANNESBURG -- Medals chronicling Saddam Hussein's "glorious victories" have turned up at a museum in a leafy Johannesburg suburb, drawing curious viewers just two weeks after the former dictator's controversial hanging.
Badges and photographs of Saddam once displayed across the country he ruled with an iron fist made their way to the museum through a former South African army officer who showed up in Iraq after the 2003 war.
It is not clear how Colonel Willi
Source: Yahoo
Jan 18, 2007
Jordan's ancient city Petra was officially declared a candidate Tuesday in the contest to name the new seven wonders of the world at a ceremony amid its rose-colored stone buildings.
Contest founder Bernard Weber presented Jordan's Queen Rania with Petra's official candidacy at the event that included a presentation on the way the city's first inhabitants lived.
The New 7 Wonders of the World contest was launched in 2001 by Weber's Geneva-based NewOpenWorld Foundation,
Source: Reuters
Jan 18, 2007
BEIJING (Reuters) - About 1,100 cultural relics were unearthed at Beijing Olympic venue construction sites last year, state media reported on Thursday.
The relics were discovered at 10 different venues and included about 700 tombs dating from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Xinhua news agency said, citing Shu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics.
Source: AP
Jan 18, 2007
A group of Methodist ministers from across the nation launched an online petition drive Thursday urging Southern Methodist University to stop trying to land George W. Bush's presidential library.
The petition, on a newly created Web site,http://www.protectsmu.org, says that "as United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate."
Source: Independent (UK)
Jan 18, 2007
The year was 1814 and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had not only confirmed his reputation as a literary genius but also as a chaotic figurehead of the Romantic movement who disappeared on opium-fuelled sojourns across the Somerset valleys for days.
So it may have come as little surprise to his publishers, who had paid Coleridge an advance of £100 that year to translate Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's seminal poem, Faust, from its original German into English, when nothing was produced by th
Source: Times Online (UK)
Jan 18, 2007
Members of the public unearthed 57,566 ancient objects last year, according to the British Museum — an increase of 45 per cent on 2005. The items included a spectacular Viking hoard of 20 silver bracelets.
Two reports published yesterday show how finds by people walking, gardening, farming or actively searching for treasure provide a wealth of information about our past.
David Lammy, the Culture Minister, described metal detector users as “the unsung heroes of the UK’
Source: http://www.newsobserver.com
Jan 18, 2007
Outgoing Speaker Jim Black said late Wednesday that he will keep secret all work so far on a history of the House that he ordered written.
Taxpayers have spent about $75,000 during the past two years on the research and other work for what was supposed to be an extensive account of the state House, as well as a separate study of its speakers since 1963.
The work was to be completed Dec. 31. His office had released nothing from or about the history since the new year be
Source: BBC
Jan 18, 2007
A Starbucks coffee shop in Beijing's Forbidden City palace could close following a massive online protest over its presence on the historic site.
A palace spokesman was quoted by state media as saying they were considering whether Starbucks would remain after a major renovation of the site. A China state TV personality has led an online campaign to have the US coffee giant's outlet removed from the site.
Rui Chenggang said its presence "trampled over
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jan 18, 2007
Charles I may not have been a brilliant king but he has come to us as a devoted husband, a connoisseur of art who cleaned up the drunkenness and profanity tolerated by his father. He didn't lose his head over women.
Drunkenness and profanity returned with a vengeance with his son Charles II, who spent more time with Nell Gwyn and a series of mistresses than his royal spouse.So when Sarah Poynting, of Keele University, announced she had cracked two letters writte
Source: KTVB Idaho
Jan 18, 2007
Leaders of four Idaho American Indian tribes today viewed Depression-era murals depicting an Indian lynching that are hung in the stairwell of the old courthouse destined to house the state Legislature in 2008 and 2009.Shoshone-Bannock, Shoshone-Paiute, Nez Perce and Coeur d'Alene representatives spent 25 minutes inside the vacant Ada County Courthouse.
There are 26 murals in all, including two depicting a buckskin-clad Indian as he's apprehended by two white me
Source: DPA German Press Agency
Jan 18, 2007
Estonia is deliberately ignoring "groundless accusations" from Russia in an increasingly heated row over the fate of a WWII memorial, the Estonian prime minister said on Thursday. "Until 1997-1998 Estonia reacted to accusations, but it didn't do us any good ... After that we started to deliberately ignore accusations," Andrus Ansip told reporters.His comments follow a blast of criticism from Russia over recent legislation passed in Estonia. Last week Esto
