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
Nov 10, 2006
Suspected Neo-Nazis scattered candles and tore up floral wreaths placed at a memorial stone on the 68th anniversary of Kristallnacht, police said Friday. The vandalism came Thursday at a memorial to Kristallnacht, or Night of the Broken Glass -- a prelude to the Holocaust that saw thousands of Jewish homes, synagogues and businesses destroyed in 1938. Police in Frankfurt an der Oder said the group tore up wreaths on a stone marking the site where the synagogue stood before it was burn
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 10, 2006
Markus Wolf, who died yesterday aged 83, was the highly successful East German Cold War spymaster who placed agents alongside two West German Chancellors.
Markus Wolf
Wolf was the head of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklarung, the East German foreign intelligence service, from 1952 until 1986, making a speciality of sending so-called "Romeo" spies into West Germany to seduce female government employees. The hallmark of Wolf's operations was
Source: NYT
Nov 10, 2006
The accusations lodged against Robert M. Gates the last time he came before the Senate for confirmation, in 1991, sound eerily contemporary in the wake of the debate over skewed prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Mr. Gates, in the words of one Central Intelligence Agency subordinate, Jennifer L. Glaudemans, “politicized intelligence analysis,” insisting on slanted reports that became the basis for “momentous foreign policy decisions.”
The Senate will have to decide whether su
Source: NYT
Nov 10, 2006
The Army-issued memorial flag, tucked away in storage for decades at the Queens College library, was a tantalizing clue. But it needed some decoding.
On the flag were two stars and two numbers: a gold star followed by “58” and just below that a black star with “1235”.
Joel Allen, a history professor at the college who had been on a quest to track down the names of students who died during World War II, knew that the flag represented the number of Queens College students
Source: Media Matters
Nov 9, 2006
In her syndicated column, Ann Coulter claimed that the Democratic Party made "pathetic gains" in the November 7 midterm elections. In fact, the Democrats' gains in the House are just slightly under the average for the party out of power in the White House in the sixth-year midterm elections over the past century, and the Democrats' Senate gains are above the average. Moreover, the 2006 elections were the first sixth-year midterms since 1918 in which control of both houses of Congress s
Source: NYT
Nov 9, 2006
Scientists have found new genetic evidence that they say may answer the longstanding question of whether modern humans and Neanderthals interbred when they co-existed thousands of years ago. The answer is: probably yes, though not often.
In research being published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists reported that matings between Neanderthals and modern humans presumably accounted for the presence of a variant of the gene that regu
Source: Reuters
Nov 9, 2006
Christie's fall sale of Impressionist and modern art lived up to its billing as the biggest auction in history, led by a group of four Nazi-looted Klimts restored to their rightful heirs that raked in nearly $200 million.
The Klimts included a portrait that fetched the third-highest auction price ever, while new records were also set for Gauguin, Schiele and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at the $491,472,000 sale.
In the end, however, the night belonged to Klimt, and to Maria Al
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Nov 9, 2006
Whitman College called off classes Thursday for a day of diversity programs after photographs appeared online of some students wearing blackface at a party, as part of an attempt to dress like participants in the “Survivor” reality television show in which team members were divided by race, the Associated Press reported. At Texas A&M University, officials are denouncing an online video by three students in which one student, in blackface, plays the role of a “slave” who is whipped and sodomi
Source: AP
Nov 8, 2006
The Dutch government plans to give a citation to troops who served as peacekeepers in Srebrenica but failed to stop the massacre of Bosnian Muslims 11 years ago in what was supposed to be a U.N.-protected safe haven.
The plan to award a unique insignia for duty at Srebrenica outraged survivors and victims' families Wednesday, who called it an insult to those who died.
The award was meant to heal a painful wound in the military, which felt unfairly blamed for the massa
Source: Sweden's News in English
Nov 8, 2006
Archaeologists excavating ancient graves in western Sweden have found shards from ceramic vessels made in the Roman Empire, in a find that could challenge assumptions about contacts between people in Sweden and the Romans.
Source: Independent (UK)
Nov 8, 2006
From archaeological ruins in Scotland to 13th century mosques in the Sahara, the effects of climate change could destroy some of the world's most important natural and cultural heritage sites, a report has revealed.
Heritage sites that have existed for thousands of years "may, by virtue of climate change, very well not be available to future generations," said Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Seaside cities that have lasted f
Source: AP
Nov 8, 2006
Part of a speech by World War II Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels was played over the public address system before a high school soccer game, prompting an apology by the home team's principal.
Forestview High School principal Robert Carpenter said neither he nor his team's coach knew about the speech before the 90-second excerpt was played during pre-game training Saturday, according to a letter he sent Monday to visiting Charlotte Catholic High School.
Carpente
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 8, 2006
The colonel who commanded one of the Army's most famous feats of arms was a real-life Manchurian Candidate, brainwashed by communists to return home and create confusion in Britain.
Lt Col James Power "Fred" Carne, the commander of the 1st Bn Gloucestershire Regt (the Glorious Glosters) at the battle of Imjin, Korea, in April 1951, fell into Chinese captivity after his 700-man battalion's astonishing resistance against an estimated 11,000 attackers was finally overcome.
Source: Bruce Craig in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
Nov 8, 2006
[T]here are some casualties of the elections including several long-term friends of the history and archive communities who went down to defeat. Most notable is Jim Leach (R-ID) who was a prime mover and supporter of the House Humanities Caucus. Leach is also one of the few strong and vocal Republican voices for the humanities and also a staunch advocate for funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) which the White House Office of Management and Budget has b
Source: NYT
Nov 8, 2006
federal judge refused yesterday to bar Christie’s in New York from auctioning a painting by Picasso that a German banker’s heir says was sold under duress in Nazi Germany.
Source: AP
Nov 7, 2006
Britain's lawmakers Tuesday granted posthumous pardons for soldiers executed during World War I, ending years of campaigning by the families of men condemned to death for cowardice.
Around 300 soldiers, who were executed during the 1914-1918 conflict for failing to return to the front lines, were included in the pardon. The government has said it is continuing research to identify other soldiers who were brought before firing squads after only summary trials.
The deci
Source: AP
Nov 7, 2006
LYON, France -- A French far-right leader and member of the European Parliament went on trial Tuesday over remarks in which he questioned the existence of Nazi gas chambers.
Bruno Gollnisch, the No. 2 in France's National Front party, is accused of "disputing a crime against humanity" in the trial in Lyon in southeast France.
A verdict is expected Wednesday. He faces up to one year in prison if convicted.
Source: Reuters
Nov 7, 2006
One of the most poignant events of World War One, described by a soldier in a letter home to his "dear mater," is to be auctioned Tuesday.
The rare letter, which gives an account of the Christmas Day truce in 1914, is one of the few uncensored accounts of life in the trenches.
Nothing is known about the writer and whether he survived the horrors that were to come. Only referring to himself as "Boy," he epitomizes the spirit of the Unknown Soldier.
Source: AP
Nov 7, 2006
AIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- From ancient ruins in Thailand to a 12th-century settlement off Africa's eastern coast, prized sites around the world have withstood centuries of wars, looting and natural disasters. But experts say they might not survive a more recent menace: a swiftly warming planet.
"Our world is changing, there is no going back," Tom Downing of the Stockholm Environment Institute said Tuesday at the U.N. climate conference, where he released a report on threats to
Source: NYT
Nov 7, 2006
When the Fire Department ordered trash removed from the balcony of a little-used auditorium at the Educational Alliance, one of New York’s oldest Jewish settlement houses, part of the agency’s heritage was almost tossed out. There, jumbled in a paper bag, were documents from the early 1900s about a forgotten youth theater program that cast immigrant “hooligans” in classic dramas to help them become good Americans.
Samuel L. Clemens (that is, Mark Twain) was its board president, and
