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: Press Release
Dec 15, 2010
NOMINATE AN ELEMENTARY TEACHER $10,000 NATIONAL HISTORY TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARDNomination deadline: February 1, 2011
National winner receives: $10,000
State winners each receive: $1,000 Do you know an outstanding K-6 teacher passionate about American history? All Social Studies and elementary educators who teach American History are welcome.The National History Teacher of the Year Award
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 15, 2010
Senior Kenyan politicians have been accused of leading violence that left 1,200 people dead and more than half a million displaced following elections almost three years ago.
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday accused six men including the deputy prime minister and the head of the civil service of crimes against humanity.
The Hague-based court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, disclosed the names after presenting 158 pages of evidence to judges and as
Source: WaPo
Dec 15, 2010
NEW YORK - The Catholic League's William Donohue, the man who scared the Smithsonian into pulling a David Wojnarowicz video from a highly acclaimed exhibition of gay and lesbian portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery, takes a pragmatic view of the culture wars.
"You have to know when to step on the gas and when to step on the brakes," Donohue said Wednesday afternoon from his 34th-floor office in midtown Manhattan. Which is one reason that he was going a for a beer
Source: NYT
Dec 15, 2010
On the brink of extinction last spring, the nonprofit organization charged with restoring Ellis Island will benefit from a $100,000 gift from American Express, the credit card company is to announce on Thursday.
“It’s an enormous boost,” said Judith R. McAlpin, the president of the organization, Save Ellis Island. “American Express has long been associated with the very best in historic preservation. It’s like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.”...
Source: Sofia echo (Bulgaria)
Dec 15, 2010
The oldest temple of the Sun has been discovered in northwest Bulgaria, near the town of Vratsa, aged at more then 8000 years, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on December 15 2010.
The Bulgarian 'Stonehenge' is hence about 3000 years older than its illustrious English counterpart. But unlike its more renowned English cousin, the Bulgarian sun temple was not on the surface, rather it was dug out from under tons of earth and is shaped in the form of a horse shoe, the r
Source: Jerusalem Post
Dec 15, 2010
A newly released report by the US National Archives details the close collaborative relationship between Nazi leaders and the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, indicating that Nazi authorities planned to use Husseini as their leader after their conquest of Palestine.
Husseini was paid handsomely by the Nazis for his efforts, recruited Muslims for the SS and was promised that he would be made Palestine’s leader after its Jewish population of 350,000 had been murdered.
Source: MSN
Dec 15, 2010
Archaeologists in Oman have unearthed evidence of a human settlement dating back to the Iron Age during excavation there, a news report has said.
The settlement was unearthed during excavation in the Sohar Port area of the country at as many as 57 burial sites, Biubwa Ali Al Sabri, Director of Excavation and Archaeological Studies at the Ministry of Heritage and Culture said.
The excavation work was conducted by five specialists from the national team of the Ministry of
Source: BBC
Dec 15, 2010
Christmas truces between opposing soldiers continued throughout WWI rather than being a one-off, a historian has claimed.
A seasonal ceasefire, exchange of gifts and carol singing famously took place on the battlefields in 1914.
Dr Thomas Weber, of the University of Aberdeen, says cease-fires continued to take place in 1915 and 1916.
However, the academic believes this was played down when it came to official war records....
Source: BBC
Dec 15, 2010
Cuban leader Fidel Castro came close to death in 2006, according to the latest secret US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks.
Mr Castro almost died after suffering a perforated intestine during an internal flight, unnamed sources told US diplomats in Havana.
The illness led Mr Castro to hand power to his brother Raul, although he has since returned to public life.
The 84-year-old's health is considered a state secret in Cuba.
The Wikileaks
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 15, 2010
Bulgaria said on Wednesday it may recall many of its top diplomats in capitals across the world following embarrassing revelations that they were spies during the communist era.
Bulgaria started opening up the archives of its notorious Darzhavna Sigurnost secret police in 1997, already unearthing skeletons in the cupboards of thousands of people, including politicians such as the country's current president Georgy Parvanov.
But the publication this week of the names of
Source: AP
Dec 15, 2010
Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is celebrating his 103rd birthday with the launch of a museum
dedicated to his career.
The Oscar Niemeyer Foundation outside Rio de Janeiro will house exhibits about the legendary architect's 70 years of work.
Niemeyer is responsible for more than 600 modernist projects around the world. They include the sweeping concrete structures that house Brazil's government in the capital, Brasilia, and U.N. headquarters in New York....
Source: NJ.com
Dec 15, 2010
PRINCETON BOROUGH -- Sociologist Suzanne Keller, the first woman to earn a tenured faculty position at Princeton University, died of a stroke Dec. 9 in Miami. She was 83.
Keller, who conducted pioneering research on community in America and on elite life, was the author of several books, including two published 40 years apart that are considered ground-breaking works in her field.
Her examination of the elite power structure in America, "Beyond the Ruling Class: St
Source: NYT
Dec 15, 2010
NEW YORK — You couldn’t help but feel this week that a certain generation was passing, perhaps the last of the great liberal interventionists who felt that America needed to lead the world in the progress of freedom.
I’m speaking first and foremost of the death on Monday of Richard C. Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and a man who deserved the phrase the president used to describe him: a “towering figure.”...
Mr. Ho
Source: National Parks Traveler
Dec 15, 2010
The National Park System has grown by one with the formal establishment of the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site in Hope, Arkansas.
"We are very proud to include this important historical birthplace home within the National Park System and to interpret the story of President William Jefferson Clinton's early, small-town life for the American public,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday in announcing the site's addition to the par
Source: BBC News
Dec 15, 2010
A terror suspect living in Manchester was part of an al-Qaeda plot to launch co-ordinated international bombings, US Justice Department lawyers have said.
The lawyers are seeking to extradite Abid Naseer to the US to stand trial over alleged plots to plant bombs in Manchester, New York and Norway.
Mr Naseer carried out reconnaisance and bought material for bombs, David Perry QC told Westminster Magistrates' Court.
The 24-year-old, who came from Pakistan on
Source: NYT
Dec 15, 2010
“We are against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program,” said one prominent critic of the new health care law. It is socialized medicine, he argued. If it stands, he said, “one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”
The health care law in question was Medicare, and the critic was Ronald Reagan. He made the leap from ac
Source: BBC
Dec 14, 2010
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya says the Islamist movement is committed to Palestinian national reconciliation in order to fight the Israeli occupation.
He was addressing tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Gaza City to mark the group's 23rd anniversary.
Palestinians are divided between Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and Fatah which controls the West Bank.
The rift dates back to 2007 when they fought each other in Gaza's streets. Mediation efforts h
Source: BBC
Dec 14, 2010
A Roman statue buried for centuries has been unearthed after a massive storm battered Israel's coast, officials say.
The white marble statue of a woman was found after a cliff collapsed in the city of Ashkelon.
The statue - which lacks a head and arms - dates back about 1,800-2,000 years, officials at the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) believe.
However, the storm also caused some damage to the Roman-era port of Caesarea.
Israel's official
Source: BBC
Dec 14, 2010
Scientists say they have identified an embalmed head as belonging to King Henri IV of France, who was assassinated in 1610 at the age of 57.
The head was lost after revolutionaries ransacked the royal chapel at Saint Denis, near Paris, in 1793.
A head, presumed to be that of Henri IV, has passed between private collectors since then.
A team of scientists used the latest forensic techniques to identify features seen in portraits of the king....
Source: Fox News
Dec 14, 2010
PARIS – Civilians detained by the Kosovo Liberation Army were allegedly shot to death in northern Albania so their kidneys could be extracted and sold on the black market after the war in Kosovo ended in 1999, according to a report prepared for Europe's premier human rights watchdog.
The report by Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty — more than two years in the making — also suggested Kosovo's U.S.-backed prime minister was once the "boss" of a criminal underworld b
