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 11, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Hundreds of supporters of Gen.
Augusto Pinochet, many in tears, filed Monday past the brown wooden coffin
for the ex-dictator, who was denied a state funeral normally granted to
former presidents.
While Pinochet's relatives mourned his death Sunday from heart failure at
age 91, his many opponents celebrated with champagne and lamented that he
escaped justice for the torture and killings that marked his 17 years in
power after a bloody 1973 coup.
Police surrou
Source: AP
Dec 11, 2006
The J. Paul Getty Museum announced
Monday that it would return to Greece an ancient gold wreath and a marble
bust that Greece claims were illegally spirited out of the country.
At a news conference with the Greek culture minister, museum director
Michael Brand said they had"reached an agreement in principle on the
return of two objects."
Source: AP
Dec 11, 2006
Iran on Monday opened a Holocaust
conference that it said would examine whether the genocide took place,
claiming the meeting was an opportunity for discussion in an atmosphere
free of Western taboos.
The conference,"Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision," was initiated by
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a"myth"
and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. Even before it opened, the
gathering was condemned by Germany, the United States and Israel.
Source: Breitbart
Dec 11, 2006
The sarcophagus containing the remains of Saint Paul will in
future be displayed for followers to visit in Rome at the
Christian apostle's tomb, the Vatican said.
The Vatican's archaeological services made an opening under the main altar
of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, to allow visitors to see
the sarcophagus of the saint buried there, said Giorgio Filippi, head of
the Epigraphical department of the Vatican Museums, in a news conference.
The authenticity of the tomb
Source: Breitbart
Dec 11, 2006
An oil painting by Sir Winston Churchill, Britain's prime minister
during World War II, sold at auction for nearly three times its
estimate, Sotheby's said."View of Tinherir", painted in 1951 during one of his frequent trips to
Morocco after the conflict, made 612,000 pounds (1.2 million dollars)
including premium, from an estimate of just 250,000 pounds.
The price tag is a record for a work by Churchill, who was a keen artist.
He gave it to United States General George Marsha
Source: Reuters
Dec 11, 2006
NICOSIA (Reuters) - The skeleton lying on the white sheet, identified only
by a serial number on the wall above, is a stark reminder of years of
conflict in divided Cyprus and the legacy of bitterness that remains.
Nobody knows who this man was: all they know is that he wore dark gray
trousers, a pale shirt, probably lace-up shoes and pale brown socks, which
remained surprisingly intact during years buried in the damp earth.
It's not much to go on.
"How many men were wearing
Source: Toronto Star
Dec 11, 2006
... For many analysts, analogies with the Vietnam War are useful; for others, they are anathema.
Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow in defence policy at the Council on Foreign Relations concedes there are similarities. But he cautions against taking them too far. Vietnam was "a people's war," he notes, a class-based insurgency against a ruling regime. Iraq, by comparison, is a "communal civil war," a battle in which sectarian factions are fighting for survival.
Source: Radio Free Europe
Dec 11, 2006
Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki addressed the participants, saying that Iran intends neither to confirm nor deny the Holocaust. Drawing an implicit comparison with Western countries in which denying the Holocaust is a crime, Mottaki said the gathering provides a platform for open discussion of the topic and questioned a Europe "which claims to be free."Iranian officials' assault on one of the most thoroughly documented campaigns of mass murder in histor
Source: http://www.columbiatribune.com
Dec 10, 2006
LIVE OAK, Fla. ... It is here, just where the water puddles and the sky opens, that Willie James Howard, perhaps the one black boy in town whom everybody believed had a shot at something good, was taken. Just 15, he was dragged from his home at gunpoint, hogtied and forced into the river on Jan. 2, 1944, by three white men for the cultural offense of having a crush on one of their daughters.
He was never seen alive again. But was he never forgotten in the black community, his death
Source: NYT
Dec 10, 2006
IF there is a sacred text in the American legal canon, it is the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. [HNN Editor: Actually, Brown has many critics. See RELATED LINKS below.] It is the court’s one undisputed triumph, and no Supreme Court nominee who expressed doubt about the decision would ever be confirmed. Who can argue, after all, with the wisdom of putting an end to state-sanctioned racial segregation in the public schools?
But, as an extraordinary two-hour Supr
Source: Newport News Daily Press
Dec 10, 2006
JAMES CITY, Va. - The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's part in the history of Carter's Grove plantation is coming to an end. CW officials said that they're planning to sell the centuries-old plantation that the foundation has owned since 1969.
They said the 400-acre property's view of the James River, its archaeological sites and other treasures would remain protected in any sale. Restrictions will prohibit residential and commercial development, the foundation said.
Source: NYT
Dec 10, 2006
A surprisingly recent instance of human evolution has been detected among the peoples of East Africa. It is the ability to digest milk in adulthood, conferred by genetic changes that occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago, a team of geneticists has found.
The finding is a striking example of a cultural practice — the raising of dairy cattle — feeding back into the human genome. It also seems to be one of the first instances of convergent human evolution to be documented at the gene
Source: AFP
Dec 10, 2006
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who died at a Santiago hospital, was a long-time protege of the United States who backed him in 1973 when he overthrew the Socialist government of Salvador Allende.
Later, he fell out of favor as human rights abuses under his watch got out of hand, including the 1976 assassination in Washington of a former Chilean ambassador, and in 2004 US lawmakers helped build a case of fraud against him.
General Pinochet rose to fame on September
Source: Ohio.com
Dec 10, 2006
Fort Ancient remains a mystery.
The extensive earthen mounds and walls in southwest Ohio are unlikely a fortress, although they might have been used for social gatherings and religious ceremonies and astronomical viewings.
The site, atop a wooded bluff 235 feet above the Little Miami River in Warren County, was built 2,000 years ago by ancient Indians that archaeologists call Hopewells.
The intricate mounds stretch nearly 3 ½ miles and enclose about 100 acr
Source: LAT
Dec 10, 2006
POCATELLO, IDAHO — At a glance, professor D. Jeffrey Meldrum would seem to be a star on the Idaho State University campus here.
A popular instructor, Meldrum has written or edited five books, written dozens of articles in academic journals, and ranged across the American West and Canada for his field research. Famed primatologist Jane Goodall wrote a blurb for his latest book, which she said "brings a much-needed level of scientific analysis" to a raging debate.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 10, 2006
When Polish secret police tried to recruit Karol Malcuzynski, a BBC researcher, as a spy in 1979, he flatly rejected them after just 20 minutes' conversation.
Three decades on, however, it has taken him nearly a year of legal battling to clear his name, after he was retrospectively branded a "communist secret agent" by Poland's Right-wing government.
In a move that nearly wrecked his reputation as a respected journalist, Mr Malcuzynski received a letter from P
Source: NYT
Dec 10, 2006
The National Geographic Society’s multimillion-dollar research project to collect DNA from indigenous groups around the world in the hopes of reconstructing humanity’s ancient migrations has come to a standstill on its home turf in North America.
Billed as the “moon shot of anthropology,” the Genographic Project intends to collect 100,000 indigenous DNA samples. But for four months, the project has been on hold here as it scrambles to address questions raised by a group that oversee
Source: Observer (UK)
Dec 10, 2006
The Tories are to launch the biggest crusade for personal morality since John Major's ill-fated 'back to basics' campaign, demanding the right for citizens to tackle teenage yobs physically and calling for a reduction in family breakdowns.
Dominic Grieve, the shadow Attorney General, told The Observer that people who slapped others or scuffled with youths while trying to stop crimes being committed should not be prosecuted. His words mark a clear break with David Cameron's 'hug a h
Source: NYT
Dec 10, 2006
Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, the brutal dictator who repressed and reshaped Chile for nearly two decades and became a notorious symbol of human rights abuse and corruption, died today at the Military Hospital of Santiago. He was 91.
Gen. Augusto Pinochet in 1975, during his rule.
Dr. Juan Ignacio Vergara, head of the medical team that had been treating him, said his condition degenerated sharply a week after he underwent an angioplasty after an acute heart attack.
Source: Newsweek
Dec 9, 2006
Shopping for nativity scenes? At Macy’s you have two options to choose from: "The Vatican Edition" and "The Byzantine Edition." The first comes with a set of white figurines, including a red-headed Mary, a brown-haired Joseph and a blue-eyed baby Jesus. In the second, all three are black, as are the shepherd and three wise men. Both cost $10, and more than likely, both are historically inaccurate.
While we can never be exactly sure of what Jesus, Mary and Joseph
