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
Dec 19, 2006
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is to have a
street, square or public space named after him in the district where he
lived during his 1973-1990 rule.
The local council of Las Condes in the Chilean capital Santiago approved a
proposal from the district's right-wing mayor Francisco de la Maza by a
6-2 vote, a council source told Reuters on Tuesday.
The council will now decide where to honor the dictator, who died on
December 10 aged 91.
Source: Times Online (UK)
Dec 19, 2006
Sixty-one years ago a U-boat slipped out of the Baltic port of Kiel, sent by Hitler on a secret voyage to Japan in a mission to avert Germany’s looming defeat.
U864 never reached her destination. She was sunk by the British in the only known case of one submarine destroying another while both were submerged. It is a remarkable tale of wartime derring-do — but one with a sting in the tail.
The wreck now lies, in two pieces, 152 metres (500ft) beneath North Sea waters o
Source: Times Online (UK)
Dec 19, 2006
The discovery of a Japanese submarine that wreaked havoc with the wartime Australian psyche has divided opinion.
For 64 years the remains of two young Japanese sailors have lain in their undiscovered steel coffin — a midget submarine — not far off Sydney’s crowded northern beaches.
The amateur divers who found the M24 have opened up a debate about what should be done with the remains of Sub-Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban and his navigator, Petty Officer Mamoru Ashibe. Even
Source: Guardian
Dec 19, 2006
It is the portrait that everyone knew existed but few have been fortunate enough to see in the two centuries or so since it was painted.
Yesterday that painting of a cherubic-looking six-year-old member of the Spanish royal family, the Infante Don Luis Maria, was displayed to the world for the first time since Francisco de Goya put paintbrush to canvas in 1783.
But just as intriguing as the painting is the subject himself - an apparently studious little boy who would g
Source: NYT
Dec 19, 2006
The story might sound like grist for a Dan Brown novel or a Steven Spielberg treatment. But the efforts of Allied officers and soldiers like Mr. Taper to save and repatriate stolen treasures during and after the war is a chapter of World War II history still not particularly well known. Even during the war their work — when compared with saving lives and preserving ways of life — was sometimes discounted. Some members of the military referred to these soldiers as “Venus fixers,” a term with more
Source: NYT
Dec 19, 2006
The Romanian president, Traian Basescu, on Monday formally condemned the Communist dictatorship that ruled his country for more than four decades, the first time a Romanian head of state had officially denounced the Soviet-era system.
“The regime exterminated people by assassination and deportation of hundreds of thousands of people,” Mr. Basescu told Parliament. He based his assessment on a 660-page report compiled by a presidential commission charged with analyzing the country’s C
Source: NYT
Dec 19, 2006
Perhaps no corner of the White House has starred in more movies and television shows than the Situation Room, the presidential decision center under the West Wing that Hollywood imagines as a high-tech beehive of activity, where presidents command covert operations around the world.
n reality, it was something of a low-tech dungeon.
Until it closed for its biggest overhaul since John F. Kennedy settled into its wood-paneled conference room, most of the room’s monitors u
Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle
Dec 18, 2006
Atlanta's proposed civil rights museum should showcase battles for equality across the globe and be built adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park on land donated by The Coca-Cola Co., according to an advisory panel convened by Mayor Shirley Franklin.
A museum that embraces all human rights issues, not merely the historic efforts of black leaders in Atlanta and the South, is something no other city has attempted, said Central Atlanta Progress president A.J. Robinson, who led the panel.
Source: http://www.payvand.com
Dec 18, 2006
A prehistoric site, almost twice bigger than the Burnt City, has been discovered near the city of Bam, most probably belonging to 5000-6000 years ago. The blade of a bronze axe and statuette of a cow made of burnt brick are among the discoveries in the area.
Source: http://www.clarionledger.com
Dec 18, 2006
The first round of grants in the federally funded Hurricane Relief Grant Program for Historic Preservation awarded more than $6.4 million to 57 applicants.
The grants, administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, will be used to repair and restore historically significant publicly and privately owned structures that were hurricane damaged.
The largest is $1 million for the Old Hattiesburg High School. Among other significant awards was $400,000 fo
Source: International Herald Tribune
Dec 18, 2006
Japanese and Chinese experts will meet in Beijing next week to discuss how to bring their historical understandings more in line, officials said Monday.
Experts from both sides will have their first meeting Dec. 26-27 in Beijing, the Japanese government announced. Each side will have 10 experts on the panel.
The meeting is part of an effort to resolve conflicts between the two nations over the interpretation of Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China before an
Source: AFP at Yahoo News
Dec 18, 2006
Around 2.7 million visitors -- more than a million more than expected -- attended events and exhibitions in the Netherlands in 2006 marking the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt.
"On the cultural level, the Netherlands finds itself in the spotlight this year in a positive way," said Jan Michiel Hessels, head of the "Rembrandt 400" group, the Dutch ANP news agency reported Monday.
Exhibits featuring the work of the 17th century painter attra
Source: Persian Journal
Dec 18, 2006
The curator of the National Museum of Iran (NMI) said in a news conference that the distortion of the name of the Persian Gulf in the Louvre's catalogue is the result of the Arab financial influence in Europe. "The distortion of the Persian Gulf's name in the Louvre's catalogue is not something new. It has occurred due to the Arabs' economic influence over the museum during the 1990s," said Mohammad-Reza Kargar reported by CHN.
Kargar noted that French archeologists becam
Source: BBC
Dec 18, 2006
A print of the only photograph of Mozart's widow, Constanze Weber, has been found in Germany.
The photograph was taken in 1840 in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. She died two years later.
The local authorities say detailed examination has proved the authenticity of the image, which is a copy of the original daguerreotype.
Source: BBC
Dec 18, 2006
One of Japan's most senior politicians has said the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 was impermissible from a humanitarian point of view.
Shoichi Nakagawa, the policy chief of the governing party, said that the use of atomic weapons was a crime.
Mr Nakagawa has attracted controversy recently, calling for a debate on whether Japan should have nuclear arms. He raised the possibility that North Koreans might try to attack Japan with their own nuclear weapons.
Source: Media Matters
Dec 18, 2006
On the December 17 broadcast of NBC's Meet the Press, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) claimed that, in 1999, the Internal Revenue Service "said there was nothing wrong" with funding a college course he had taught with tax-deductible donations, for which Gingrich was investigated by the House ethics committee, fined $300,000, and formally reprimanded by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Russert failed to challenge Gingrich's claim. In fact, even though the IR
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Dec 18, 2006
Southern Methodist University has long been considered the front-runner in the competition to be the site of President Bush’s presidential library. Laura Bush is an alumna and trustee. Dick Cheney was a trustee before being elected vice president. And the university’s main challenge — a lack of space — may have been fixed this month when SMU won a court fight over its right to demolish a condo complex the university had purchased, in part to have land for the Bush project.
But now,
Source: Seattle P-I
Dec 18, 2006
In a recent hand-scribbled note, President Bush insisted he is not giving much thought to life after the White House.
"Thanks for 'Second Acts' and your very kind letter," he said in a letter to Mark Updegrove, author of a new book about post-presidential life. "I'm not quite ready to take the stage for the 2nd act. After a two-year sprint, then I'll take the lessons of your book to heart."
Bush may not be thinking about the next act, but planners ar
Source: WaPo
Dec 18, 2006
GLASGOW, Scotland -- At 2:42 p.m. on Oct. 11, Dean Collins heard a thunderous explosion as he worked at his computer in his 30th-floor apartment in Manhattan.
Collins looked out his window and saw a small plane crashing into a building right in front of him -- the accident that killed New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor. Instinctively, he recalled, he pulled his Fuji digital camera from a drawer and started shooting, thinking to himself, "This is going
Source: Newsweek
Dec 18, 2006
Sometime around the beginning of the Common Era, a nice Jewish girl comes to her fiancé with a problem. She is pregnant; he is not the father. The groom-to-be is understandably enraged. In his world, almost nothing brings more shame on a man and his family than a broken promise of virginity. Her explanation, that the baby was conceived by God, must have sounded implausible, desperate, even insane. On reflection, though, the man, who is profoundly decent—"righteous," as the story goes—d
