Breaking News
Follow Breaking News updates on RSS and Twitter
This page features brief excerpts of news 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.
Highlights
Breaking News
This page features brief excerpts of news 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. Because most of our readers read the NYT we usually do not include the paper's stories in HIGHLIGHTS.
Name of source: Time
SOURCE: Time (9-11-09)
Like any pair of good TV news hosts, Neth Pheaktra and Ung Chan Sophea deftly play off each other, finishing each other's thoughts and building on each other's ideas. But unlike the playful banter of most local news shows, neither host ever cracks a joke, or even smiles. Instead, the two veteran Cambodian journalists look directly into the camera and talk to viewers every Monday at 1 p.m. about torture, murder and the law.
Neth Pheaktra and Ung Chan Sophea's 24-minute weekly show summarizing and analyzing the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as 'Duch,' the chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 interrogation facility also known as Tuol Sleng, has become a sleeper hit in Cambodia. With one in five Cambodians watching the show every week, Duch on Trial has become the main way many young Cambodians, who were not taught about the Khmer Rouge in school, learn about the historic Khmer Rouge tribunal unfolding in Phnom Penh — and, in a lot of cases, hear about this dark chapter of their country's history for the first time...
... Not surprisingly, testimonies at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have been grim since the trial started in February of this year. Duch, a mathematics teacher before joining the Khmer Rouge, admitted that his guards smashed babies against trees. One guard on the stand outlined the process of live blood-letting, and a rare survivor described the pain of having his toenails ripped out.
Despite the gruesome tales, Duch on Trial has attracted up to three million viewers a week in recent months — a whopping 20% of the country's population. The success of the show, which premiered in April, rests on its ability to decode the trial's complex proceedings to a mass audience — no small task in this largely rural, poorly educated country where only about 30% of students who enter school graduate from grade 9. The ECCC was established as a hybrid court after years of negotiation between the U.N. and the Cambodian government, and the result is a complex hodgepodge of international and domestic law...
Neth Pheaktra and Ung Chan Sophea's 24-minute weekly show summarizing and analyzing the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as 'Duch,' the chief of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 interrogation facility also known as Tuol Sleng, has become a sleeper hit in Cambodia. With one in five Cambodians watching the show every week, Duch on Trial has become the main way many young Cambodians, who were not taught about the Khmer Rouge in school, learn about the historic Khmer Rouge tribunal unfolding in Phnom Penh — and, in a lot of cases, hear about this dark chapter of their country's history for the first time...
... Not surprisingly, testimonies at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) have been grim since the trial started in February of this year. Duch, a mathematics teacher before joining the Khmer Rouge, admitted that his guards smashed babies against trees. One guard on the stand outlined the process of live blood-letting, and a rare survivor described the pain of having his toenails ripped out.
Despite the gruesome tales, Duch on Trial has attracted up to three million viewers a week in recent months — a whopping 20% of the country's population. The success of the show, which premiered in April, rests on its ability to decode the trial's complex proceedings to a mass audience — no small task in this largely rural, poorly educated country where only about 30% of students who enter school graduate from grade 9. The ECCC was established as a hybrid court after years of negotiation between the U.N. and the Cambodian government, and the result is a complex hodgepodge of international and domestic law...
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 19:15
Comments
Name of source: NYT (Digest)
SOURCE: NYT (Digest) (9-12-09)
NEW ORLEANS — The Orleans Parish district attorney said Friday that he was conducting an “evaluation” of the events surrounding patient deaths at Memorial Medical Center here in the days after Hurricane Katrina, though he said he had not formally reopened an investigation.
The evaluation was prompted by an Aug. 30 article in The New York Times Magazine, in a collaboration with ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative organization. The article raised questions about the deaths of at least 17 patients, who appeared to have been injected with high doses of sedatives after a long-delayed rescue effort was under way...
... Nina Killeen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the evaluation had so far consisted of an interview with the Orleans Parish coroner, Frank Minyard, who testified in the 2007 grand jury investigation and was quoted in the article as saying that he considered four of the patient deaths to be homicides.
The evaluation was prompted by an Aug. 30 article in The New York Times Magazine, in a collaboration with ProPublica, an independent nonprofit investigative organization. The article raised questions about the deaths of at least 17 patients, who appeared to have been injected with high doses of sedatives after a long-delayed rescue effort was under way...
... Nina Killeen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the evaluation had so far consisted of an interview with the Orleans Parish coroner, Frank Minyard, who testified in the 2007 grand jury investigation and was quoted in the article as saying that he considered four of the patient deaths to be homicides.
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 18:59
Name of source: The National Security Archive
SOURCE: The National Security Archive (9-11-09)
1995 Contractor Study Finds that U.S. Analysts Exaggerated Soviet Aggressiveness and Understated Moscow's Fears of a U.S. First Strike
During a 1972 command post exercise, leaders of the Kremlin listened to a briefing on the results of a hypothetical war with the United States. A U.S. attack would kill 80 million Soviet citizens and destroy 85 percent of the country's industrial capacity. According to the recollections of a Soviet general who was present, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev"trembled" when he was asked to push a button, asking Soviet defense minister Grechko"this is definitely an exercise?" This story appears in a recently released two-volume study on Soviet Intentions, 1965-1985, prepared in 1995 by the Pentagon contractor BDM Corporation, and published today for the first time by the National Security Archive. Based on an extraordinarily revealing series of interviews with former senior Soviet defense officials--"unhappy Cold Warriors"--during the final days of the Soviet Union, the BDM study puts Soviet nuclear policy in a fresh light by highlighting Soviet leaders' recognition of the catastrophe of nuclear conflict, even while they supported preparations for fighting an unsurvivable war.
BDM's unique interview evidence with former Soviet military officers, military analysts, and industrial specialists, reproduced in volume 2 of the study, covers a wide range of strategic issues, including force levels and postures, targeting and war planning, weapons effects, and the role of defense industries. Using this new evidence, the BDM staffers compared it with mainly official and semi-official U.S. interpretations designed to explain Soviet strategic policy and decision-making during the Cold War. While the BDM analysts found that some interpretations of Soviet policy were consistent with the interview evidence (e.g., the Soviet interest in avoiding nuclear war and Moscow's quest for superiority), they identified what they believed to be important failures of analysis, including:
During a 1972 command post exercise, leaders of the Kremlin listened to a briefing on the results of a hypothetical war with the United States. A U.S. attack would kill 80 million Soviet citizens and destroy 85 percent of the country's industrial capacity. According to the recollections of a Soviet general who was present, General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev"trembled" when he was asked to push a button, asking Soviet defense minister Grechko"this is definitely an exercise?" This story appears in a recently released two-volume study on Soviet Intentions, 1965-1985, prepared in 1995 by the Pentagon contractor BDM Corporation, and published today for the first time by the National Security Archive. Based on an extraordinarily revealing series of interviews with former senior Soviet defense officials--"unhappy Cold Warriors"--during the final days of the Soviet Union, the BDM study puts Soviet nuclear policy in a fresh light by highlighting Soviet leaders' recognition of the catastrophe of nuclear conflict, even while they supported preparations for fighting an unsurvivable war.
BDM's unique interview evidence with former Soviet military officers, military analysts, and industrial specialists, reproduced in volume 2 of the study, covers a wide range of strategic issues, including force levels and postures, targeting and war planning, weapons effects, and the role of defense industries. Using this new evidence, the BDM staffers compared it with mainly official and semi-official U.S. interpretations designed to explain Soviet strategic policy and decision-making during the Cold War. While the BDM analysts found that some interpretations of Soviet policy were consistent with the interview evidence (e.g., the Soviet interest in avoiding nuclear war and Moscow's quest for superiority), they identified what they believed to be important failures of analysis, including:
"[Erring] on the side of overestimating Soviet aggressiveness" and underestimated"the extent to which the Soviet leadership was deterred from using nuclear weapons." [I: iv, 35]. Recent evidence from oral history sources supports this finding. The Soviet leadership of the 1960s and 19702 suffered from a strategic inferiority complex that supports its drive for parity with (or even superiority over) the United States. All of the strategic models developed by Soviet military experts had a defensive character and assumed a first strike by NATO (See Document 3 at pages 26-27, Oral History Roundtable, Stockholm, p. 61)
"Seriously misjudg[ing] Soviet military intentions, which had the potential [to] mislead…U.S. decision makers in the event of an extreme crisis." For example, the authors observed that the Soviet leadership did not rule out a preemptive strike option, even though U.S. officials came to downplay the"probability" of Soviet preemption. This misperception left open the possibility of U.S. action during a crisis that could invite a Soviet preemptive response and a nuclear catastrophe. [I: iv, 35, 68, 70-71]
"Serious[ly] misunderstanding … the Soviet decision-making process" by underestimating the"decisive influence exercised by the defense industry." That the defense industrial complex, not the Soviet high command, played a key role in driving the quantitative arms buildup"led U.S. analysts to … exaggerate the aggressive intentions of the Soviets." [I:7]
Some of these criticisms may generate controversy among Cold War historians. The sponsor of the study, Andrew Marshall, former director of the Office of Net Evaluation at the Defense Department, was not entirely persuaded by the statements about the role of the defense industrialists in determining strategic force levels (see Document 1 below). In any event, the numerous fascinating disclosures in the interviews--the most significant of which the BDM analysts highlighted in Volume I--provide a rare glimpse behind the veil of Soviet secrecy. For example:
The Soviets strove for nuclear superiority, especially in terms of numbers of ICBMs, because they believed that the United States was seeking to maintain the lead and that a failure to overtake Washington would"result in a serious negative gap in capabilities." [I: 2-13, II: 33 (Danilevich)] The asymmetry between the U.S. and Soviet strategic triad was a special source of concern to the Soviets. They understood the U.S. insistence on crisis stability but they felt they had to keep developing the heavy land-based ICBMs that Washington considered destabilizing because they were cheaper to make and because the Soviet Union's geography did not allow for easy deployment of submarines. (See Document 3 at page 34)
Even when Moscow had more ICBMs than Washington, the Soviets did not feel secure because"they perceive[d] U.S. intentions to be aggressive and did not believe the superpower nuclear balance to be stable." For example,"virtually all interview subjects stressed that they perceived the U.S. to be preparing for a first strike." From satellite photography, the Soviets observed that U.S. missile silos were"relatively poorly protected by overhed cover and grouped rather close to each other and to the cluster's launch control center." The vulnerability of U.S. ICBM deployments convinced the high command that the ICBM"fields were first-strike weapons." [I: 1-2, 31; II: 100 (Kataev), 151 (Tsygichko)]...
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 18:43
Name of source: Yahoo News
SOURCE: Yahoo News (9-10-09)
It's a photo that many credit with helping to end the Vietnam War: A 9-year-old girl, naked and in obvious pain, runs through a street after suffering napalm burns over much of her body.
What the iconic photo -- snapped in 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut -- doesn't show is the girl's struggle to survive and thrive in the aftermath of that day.
Now 46 years old, Kim Phuc Phan Thai (Kim Phuc to most) spoke recently at a conference of burn survivors and burn care specialists in New York City on the physical and psychological struggle that she went through over the ensuing decades...
What the iconic photo -- snapped in 1972 by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut -- doesn't show is the girl's struggle to survive and thrive in the aftermath of that day.
Now 46 years old, Kim Phuc Phan Thai (Kim Phuc to most) spoke recently at a conference of burn survivors and burn care specialists in New York City on the physical and psychological struggle that she went through over the ensuing decades...
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 12:19
SOURCE: Yahoo News (9-10-09)
MILAN – The entirety of Leonardo da Vinci's 1,119-page Atlantic Codex is going on public display for the first time, in a series of 24 exhibits spanning six years.
The first exhibit of 45 drawings, "Fortresses, Bastions and Cannons," opened Thursday at the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, which also holds Leonardo's "The Last Supper," and at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which has preserved the Codex since 1637.
The Atlantic Codex is "an extraordinary encyclopedia" of technical knowledge from the Renaissance, representing not only Leonardo's own creations but technology as it existed, according to Pietro Marani, a Leonardo expert.
The first exhibit of 45 drawings, "Fortresses, Bastions and Cannons," opened Thursday at the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, which also holds Leonardo's "The Last Supper," and at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which has preserved the Codex since 1637.
The Atlantic Codex is "an extraordinary encyclopedia" of technical knowledge from the Renaissance, representing not only Leonardo's own creations but technology as it existed, according to Pietro Marani, a Leonardo expert.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:22
SOURCE: Yahoo News (9-9-09)
PANO LEFKARA, Cyprus (Reuters Life!) – An ancient Cypriot craft reputed to feature in Leonardo da Vinci's painting of "The Last Supper" is getting a new lease of life.
Lefkaritiko lacemaking, an intricate form of needlework passed down from generation to generation is expected to be declared a heritage item by UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for the protection and promotion of culture.
"This particular lacemaking is passed on from mother to daughter, and the young girls start to learn from six, seven years old, even before they go to school. It's unique," says Andreas Soseilos, Mayor of Pano Lefkara, a hamlet nestled in mountains some 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Nicosia, Cyprus's capital.
Following a 500-year-old tradition, women of this 1,100 strong community still sit in doorways shaded with lush bougainvillea along narrow streets, nimbly working pieces of beige Irish linen with deft strokes of a needle and single thread.
Lefkaritiko lacemaking, an intricate form of needlework passed down from generation to generation is expected to be declared a heritage item by UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for the protection and promotion of culture.
"This particular lacemaking is passed on from mother to daughter, and the young girls start to learn from six, seven years old, even before they go to school. It's unique," says Andreas Soseilos, Mayor of Pano Lefkara, a hamlet nestled in mountains some 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Nicosia, Cyprus's capital.
Following a 500-year-old tradition, women of this 1,100 strong community still sit in doorways shaded with lush bougainvillea along narrow streets, nimbly working pieces of beige Irish linen with deft strokes of a needle and single thread.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:47
SOURCE: Yahoo News (9-6-09)
ATHENS, Greece – Greece's Culture Ministry says a column capital has been stolen from the archaeological site of Ancient Olympia, one of the country's most important.
The ministry says the capital, part of a 6th century Byzantine church on the grounds of the guarded site, was found to be missing...
The ministry says the capital, part of a 6th century Byzantine church on the grounds of the guarded site, was found to be missing...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:08
Name of source: Google News
SOURCE: Google News (9-9-09)
NEW YORK — A day before the eighth anniversary of 9/11, officials are launching a Web site asking people worldwide to contribute new images of the terrorist attack.
The photographs, audio and video will appear online as part of the project, called "Make History."
One submitted video is from the evening of Sept. 11, showing the chaotic streets around the trade center. Another clip — of a plane piercing one of the towers — was shot from a Brooklyn street, through a chain-link fence.
The photographs, audio and video will appear online as part of the project, called "Make History."
One submitted video is from the evening of Sept. 11, showing the chaotic streets around the trade center. Another clip — of a plane piercing one of the towers — was shot from a Brooklyn street, through a chain-link fence.
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 11:59
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (9-10-09)
The nation’s top copyright official made a blistering attack Thursday on a controversial legal settlement that would let Google create a huge online library and bookstore.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Marybeth Peters, the United States register of copyrights, said the settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers amounted to an end-run around copyright law that would wrest control of books from authors and other right holders.
Ms. Peters, the first government official to address the settlement in detail, said it would allow Google to profit from the work of others without prior consent and that it could put “diplomatic stress” on the United States because it affected foreign authors whose rights are protected by international treaties.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Marybeth Peters, the United States register of copyrights, said the settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers amounted to an end-run around copyright law that would wrest control of books from authors and other right holders.
Ms. Peters, the first government official to address the settlement in detail, said it would allow Google to profit from the work of others without prior consent and that it could put “diplomatic stress” on the United States because it affected foreign authors whose rights are protected by international treaties.
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 11:59
SOURCE: NYT (9-9-09)
MOSCOW (AP) — The book that made the word gulag a synonym for the horrors of Soviet oppression will be taught in Russian high schools, education officials said Wednesday, a generation after the Soviet Union banned it as destructive to the Communist cause and exiled its author.
Excerpts from the book, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago,” which was published in 1973, will now be required reading for students, the Russian Education Ministry said.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin is pushing to restore pride in the Soviet past, so the decision could be a reflection of the Russian establishment’s struggle to reconcile that pride with the freedoms that Russians now take for granted, nearly 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to democracy and the free market.
The government has tried in recent years to control how history is taught, removing textbooks that deviate from the changing official view. In 2003, the authorities banned a history text that was critical of Stalin, the dictator most readily identified with the horrors of the Soviet gulag.
“The Gulag Archipelago” initially circulated underground and soon reached the West in translation. The three-volume book gave the outside world a detailed account of the systematic imprisonment and murder of millions of Russians in the nationwide “archipelago” of prisons and labor camps devised by Lenin and expanded by Stalin...
Excerpts from the book, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago,” which was published in 1973, will now be required reading for students, the Russian Education Ministry said.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin is pushing to restore pride in the Soviet past, so the decision could be a reflection of the Russian establishment’s struggle to reconcile that pride with the freedoms that Russians now take for granted, nearly 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition to democracy and the free market.
The government has tried in recent years to control how history is taught, removing textbooks that deviate from the changing official view. In 2003, the authorities banned a history text that was critical of Stalin, the dictator most readily identified with the horrors of the Soviet gulag.
“The Gulag Archipelago” initially circulated underground and soon reached the West in translation. The three-volume book gave the outside world a detailed account of the systematic imprisonment and murder of millions of Russians in the nationwide “archipelago” of prisons and labor camps devised by Lenin and expanded by Stalin...
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 01:32
SOURCE: NYT (9-9-09)
President Obama’s health care speech tonight is officially an address to a joint session of Congress. Such addresses are somewhat out of the ordinary but not all that rare.
Certain events take place routinely during a joint session — counting electoral votes, for example, or delivering a State of the Union message. (When a president is first inaugurated, he usually gives just an address at a joint session.)...
... Most people today have been reminded that President Bill Clinton also used a joint session to address health care, in September 1993. (So, obviously, they don’t always have the desired effect.)...
...Among the most dramatic in modern history was on Nov. 27, 1963, when President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
... Betty Koed, associate historian of the Senate, said that Wilson was the one who revived the tradition of joint sessions after Thomas Jefferson had dispensed with them.
“Jefferson hated public speaking and he thought delivering an address in person was monarchical,” she said. So he delivered his addresses to Congress in writing, and most presidents followed suit until Wilson came along.
“Wilson was great for meeting in person with people,” she said. “And he used these addresses as a means to gain popular support for his wartime policies and also to bend arms in Congress.”
Certain events take place routinely during a joint session — counting electoral votes, for example, or delivering a State of the Union message. (When a president is first inaugurated, he usually gives just an address at a joint session.)...
... Most people today have been reminded that President Bill Clinton also used a joint session to address health care, in September 1993. (So, obviously, they don’t always have the desired effect.)...
...Among the most dramatic in modern history was on Nov. 27, 1963, when President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
... Betty Koed, associate historian of the Senate, said that Wilson was the one who revived the tradition of joint sessions after Thomas Jefferson had dispensed with them.
“Jefferson hated public speaking and he thought delivering an address in person was monarchical,” she said. So he delivered his addresses to Congress in writing, and most presidents followed suit until Wilson came along.
“Wilson was great for meeting in person with people,” she said. “And he used these addresses as a means to gain popular support for his wartime policies and also to bend arms in Congress.”
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:28
Name of source: Times (UK)
SOURCE: Times (UK) (9-12-09)
Special forces have been training Libyan soldiers under a Government deal with Colonel Gaddafi, despite his regime having funded many of the IRA’s worst attacks.
SAS soldiers said there was a “weary rolling of the eyes” when they learnt that they would be passing on some of their skills to members of the Libyan infantry.
In the 1980s and 1990s Libya supplied the IRA with Semtex used in at least ten attacks, including the bombings of Harrods in 1983 and Warrington and the City of London ten years later. It was also used by the Real IRA at Omagh in 1998.
Libya also supplied machine guns and anti-aircraft missiles fired at British troops in Northern Ireland.
SAS soldiers said there was a “weary rolling of the eyes” when they learnt that they would be passing on some of their skills to members of the Libyan infantry.
In the 1980s and 1990s Libya supplied the IRA with Semtex used in at least ten attacks, including the bombings of Harrods in 1983 and Warrington and the City of London ten years later. It was also used by the Real IRA at Omagh in 1998.
Libya also supplied machine guns and anti-aircraft missiles fired at British troops in Northern Ireland.
Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 11:40
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (9-11-09)
Gordon Brown has said he is sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code-breaker Alan Turing was treated for being gay.
A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer.
In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself.
The campaign was the idea of computer scientist John Graham-Cumming.
A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer.
In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself.
The campaign was the idea of computer scientist John Graham-Cumming.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 23:59
SOURCE: BBC (9-11-09)
Taiwan's former President Chen Shui-bian has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of corruption by a court in Taipei.
Mr Chen was charged with embezzlement, taking bribes and money laundering, involving a total of $15m (£9m) while in office from 2000-2008.
Mr Chen had denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated.
His wife, Wu Shu-chen, already jailed for perjury in the case, was also sentenced to life for corruption.
Mr Chen was charged with embezzlement, taking bribes and money laundering, involving a total of $15m (£9m) while in office from 2000-2008.
Mr Chen had denied the charges, saying they were politically motivated.
His wife, Wu Shu-chen, already jailed for perjury in the case, was also sentenced to life for corruption.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 22:11
SOURCE: BBC (9-11-09)
An Edinburgh engineer worshipped as a hero in Japan is finally being honoured in his home city of Edinburgh.
William K Burton is feted in Japan for his work designing the country's first skyscraper and clean water systems for its cities in the 1800s.
His work helped Japan beat disease and become an industrialised nation.
A bench is to be unveiled on Saturday at Edinburgh Napier University's Craig House garden, which used to be his family home.
William K Burton is feted in Japan for his work designing the country's first skyscraper and clean water systems for its cities in the 1800s.
His work helped Japan beat disease and become an industrialised nation.
A bench is to be unveiled on Saturday at Edinburgh Napier University's Craig House garden, which used to be his family home.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 13:12
SOURCE: BBC (9-10-09)
US President Barack Obama has voiced his disappointment directly to UK PM Gordon Brown over the release of the Lockerbie bomber, the White House says.
It says Mr Obama made his remarks in a telephone call to Mr Brown.
Mr Brown had made it clear the decision had been a matter for the Scottish government, the spokesman added.
It says Mr Obama made his remarks in a telephone call to Mr Brown.
Mr Brown had made it clear the decision had been a matter for the Scottish government, the spokesman added.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 12:49
SOURCE: BBC (9-10-09)
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he is gathering information about possible war crimes in Afghanistan.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo says that he will be examining claims relating to both Nato soldiers and Taliban insurgents.
He said the court had received allegations from many sources, relating to attacks and collateral damage.
But the court will only become involved if Kabul or the UN Security Council ask it to look into allegations.
Afghanistan signed the treaty that established the Hague-based court.
Any war crime committed on its territory by either Afghan nationals or foreign forces can be investigated by the court.
The ICC began operating in 2002 and is the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.
Under the treaty, the court can step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo says that he will be examining claims relating to both Nato soldiers and Taliban insurgents.
He said the court had received allegations from many sources, relating to attacks and collateral damage.
But the court will only become involved if Kabul or the UN Security Council ask it to look into allegations.
Afghanistan signed the treaty that established the Hague-based court.
Any war crime committed on its territory by either Afghan nationals or foreign forces can be investigated by the court.
The ICC began operating in 2002 and is the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.
Under the treaty, the court can step in only when countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves for genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:13
SOURCE: BBC (9-6-09)
About 10,000 people lined the streets of Edinburgh on Sunday to see an ancient riding tradition revived after a 63-year absence.
The Riding of the Marches, which dates back to the 16th Century in the city, was last held in 1946, when there was a one-off event to mark the end of WWII.
The event saw 250 horses and riders make a seven-hour journey from the Braid Hills to the Royal Mile.
Lothian and Borders Police pipe band played at the finale.
Representatives from the 28 Scottish towns which continue to celebrate a summer riding festival also joined the finale in the heart of the city's Old Town.
The Riding of the Marches, which dates back to the 16th Century in the city, was last held in 1946, when there was a one-off event to mark the end of WWII.
The event saw 250 horses and riders make a seven-hour journey from the Braid Hills to the Royal Mile.
Lothian and Borders Police pipe band played at the finale.
Representatives from the 28 Scottish towns which continue to celebrate a summer riding festival also joined the finale in the heart of the city's Old Town.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:07
Name of source: The Times (UK)
SOURCE: The Times (UK) (9-11-09)
Former Chancellor’s memoirs offer an unsparing account of a Prime Minister revealing her prejudices about an old enemy.
“But can we trust them?” Margaret Thatcher’s doubts about a new, merged Germany surfaced again and again during the months that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The dramatic event, followed by a ten-point unification plan put forward by Helmut Kohl, the West German Chancellor, challenged her political instincts and stirred the buried prejudices about Germans that she shared with much of Britain.
“But can we trust them?” Margaret Thatcher’s doubts about a new, merged Germany surfaced again and again during the months that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The dramatic event, followed by a ten-point unification plan put forward by Helmut Kohl, the West German Chancellor, challenged her political instincts and stirred the buried prejudices about Germans that she shared with much of Britain.
Nine days after the crumbling of the Wall, she met Mr Kohl in Paris and expressed her reservations in very firm terms. In his memoirs, the Chancellor recalled: “I told her that not even Margaret Thatcher could stop the people from deciding its own fate. She was beside herself with rage and said, ‘That’s how you see it! That’s how you see it!’. ” According to Mr Kohl, she stamped her feet in frustration.
Mr Kohl came to see himself as one of history’s winners — and the winner of his duel with Mrs Thatcher, an elemental row about the future shape of Europe. “The Prime Minister’s biggest problem was her miscalculation of the attitudes towards German reunification held by Gorbachev, Mitterrand and President Bush,” said Mr Kohl, who airbrushes most of Mitterrand’s hostility to unity out of his memoirs.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 23:58
Name of source: Sacramento Business Journal
SOURCE: Sacramento Business Journal (9-10-09)
The California State Legislature on Thursday unanimously approved legislation to officially recognize the accomplishments of Filipino Americans. Senate Concurrent Resolution 48, authored by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), declares October as Filipino American History Month.
The earliest documented proof of Filipino presence in the continental United States was the date of Oct. 18, 1587, when the first “Luzones Indios” set foot in Morro Bay...
The earliest documented proof of Filipino presence in the continental United States was the date of Oct. 18, 1587, when the first “Luzones Indios” set foot in Morro Bay...
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 23:58
Name of source: Rasmussen Reports
SOURCE: Rasmussen Reports (9-11-09)
"Progressive” is becoming more of a dirty word, but all political labels – except “being like Ronald Reagan” - are falling into disfavor with many U.S. voters, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
“Liberal” is still the worst and remains the only political description that is viewed more negatively than positively. Being like Reagan is still the most positive thing you can say about a candidate.
“Liberal” is still the worst and remains the only political description that is viewed more negatively than positively. Being like Reagan is still the most positive thing you can say about a candidate.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 23:57
Name of source: USA Today
SOURCE: USA Today (9-10-09)
NEW YORK — E-book fans will have to wait for a download of Sen. Ted Kennedy's memoir.
True Compass, one of the year's most anticipated books, is scheduled to come out next week. But publisher Twelve has decided to hold off "indefinitely" on a digital edition. The head of Twelve, Jonathan Karp, said Thursday that the delay was a "business decision."
Publishers have been debating whether to release e-books at the same time as hardcovers because of concern that the digital market might cut into sales for the more expensive paper editions.
True Compass, one of the year's most anticipated books, is scheduled to come out next week. But publisher Twelve has decided to hold off "indefinitely" on a digital edition. The head of Twelve, Jonathan Karp, said Thursday that the delay was a "business decision."
Publishers have been debating whether to release e-books at the same time as hardcovers because of concern that the digital market might cut into sales for the more expensive paper editions.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 23:37
Name of source: NPR
SOURCE: NPR (9-11-09)
Many of the troops at this sprawling U.S. air base were in their mid-teens when they watched the planes hit the World Trade Center's twin towers on television and vowed to join the military.
Eight years later, many of those who enlisted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are now part of a massive military effort in Afghanistan that some are saying has no clear exit.
Remembrances of the attacks started at dawn Friday, with more than 1,000 service members donning shorts and sneakers to run exactly 9.11 kilometers (about 5.5 miles) to commemorate the day and remember troops who have died in the fighting since...
... At 5:16 p.m., the exact time in Afghanistan when the first of the two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City, a ceremony began at Bagram with an officer reading a minute-by-minute timeline of events on that day. The base's U.S. flag fluttered at half-staff as more than 200 soldiers stood for the singing of "America the Beautiful" and the national anthem just ahead of sunset.
Navy Petty Officer 1 Casey Morgan told the crowd that she wasn't patriotic until the planes struck. Soon after, she looked at her job at a Waffle House and decided she wasn't doing enough for her country or herself, and joined up.
"My country was at war and I was serving waffles to stranded travelers," said the 25-year-old from Quantico, Virginia.
Ceremonies also were held at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and at other U.S. military bases in Afghanistan...
Eight years later, many of those who enlisted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are now part of a massive military effort in Afghanistan that some are saying has no clear exit.
Remembrances of the attacks started at dawn Friday, with more than 1,000 service members donning shorts and sneakers to run exactly 9.11 kilometers (about 5.5 miles) to commemorate the day and remember troops who have died in the fighting since...
... At 5:16 p.m., the exact time in Afghanistan when the first of the two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City, a ceremony began at Bagram with an officer reading a minute-by-minute timeline of events on that day. The base's U.S. flag fluttered at half-staff as more than 200 soldiers stood for the singing of "America the Beautiful" and the national anthem just ahead of sunset.
Navy Petty Officer 1 Casey Morgan told the crowd that she wasn't patriotic until the planes struck. Soon after, she looked at her job at a Waffle House and decided she wasn't doing enough for her country or herself, and joined up.
"My country was at war and I was serving waffles to stranded travelers," said the 25-year-old from Quantico, Virginia.
Ceremonies also were held at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and at other U.S. military bases in Afghanistan...
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 23:19
Name of source: The Guardian
SOURCE: The Guardian (9-10-09)
A reclining man with a bushy beard and big nose is the latest to join a haul of stone figurines unearthed at the ancient site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. The sculpture, which measures around six inches high, was uncovered at the neolithic site last week.
Çatalhöyük was the final resting place of some of the world's first farmers. Other figurines representing farmyard animals and people in sitting and standing positions have already been excavated at the site, which dates back to the dawn of farming some 9,000 years ago.
Archaeologists working on the site have discovered primitive houses with rooms decorated with vulture skulls, wild boar tusks and teeth from weasels and foxes. Some of the buildings are believed to have humans buried beneath them.
Çatalhöyük was the final resting place of some of the world's first farmers. Other figurines representing farmyard animals and people in sitting and standing positions have already been excavated at the site, which dates back to the dawn of farming some 9,000 years ago.
Archaeologists working on the site have discovered primitive houses with rooms decorated with vulture skulls, wild boar tusks and teeth from weasels and foxes. Some of the buildings are believed to have humans buried beneath them.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 22:20
Name of source: MSNBC
SOURCE: MSNBC (9-10-09)
A U.S. Navy patrol boat sunk during WWII has been found and photographed 20 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C.
The wreck of the YP-389, a converted fishing trawler, rests in about 300 feet of water in a region known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," where several U.S. and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Six sailors died when the YP-389 was attacked by a German submarine June 19, 1942. There were 18 survivors.
The research mission was led by NOAA.
The wreck of the YP-389, a converted fishing trawler, rests in about 300 feet of water in a region known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," where several U.S. and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Six sailors died when the YP-389 was attacked by a German submarine June 19, 1942. There were 18 survivors.
The research mission was led by NOAA.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 22:18
Name of source: Trail Blazers
SOURCE: Trail Blazers (9-10-09)
The so-called curriculum experts appointed by the State Board of Education have submitted their latest suggestions to proposed social studies standards that will be used in Texas schools. In preparation for what is expected to be a heated public hearing before the state board next week, the six experts offered their opinions on standards that were drafted by writing teams of teachers and academics for history, government and other subjects.
Most of the debate will be over U.S. history, and three experts appointed by social conservatives on the board indicated that some revisions still need to be made before the board approves the curriculum standards early next year. For example, evangelical minister Peter Marshall recommended that if high school students are going to learn about "conservative organizations and individuals," the list should include talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the National Rifle Association.
Marshall and another of the social conservative experts, David Barton of Aledo-based WallBuilders, raised eyebrows in July when they suggested that civil rights activist Cesar Chavez was not an important enough figure to be singled out in high school history books. In his latest review document, Marshall said he can now accept Chavez' inclusion in the standards since several other prominent individuals were added in the most recent version. The standards will dictate what is taught in social studies classes in elementary and secondary schools, and also provide the basis for textbooks and tests.
Most of the debate will be over U.S. history, and three experts appointed by social conservatives on the board indicated that some revisions still need to be made before the board approves the curriculum standards early next year. For example, evangelical minister Peter Marshall recommended that if high school students are going to learn about "conservative organizations and individuals," the list should include talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the National Rifle Association.
Marshall and another of the social conservative experts, David Barton of Aledo-based WallBuilders, raised eyebrows in July when they suggested that civil rights activist Cesar Chavez was not an important enough figure to be singled out in high school history books. In his latest review document, Marshall said he can now accept Chavez' inclusion in the standards since several other prominent individuals were added in the most recent version. The standards will dictate what is taught in social studies classes in elementary and secondary schools, and also provide the basis for textbooks and tests.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 21:45
Name of source: Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast
SOURCE: Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast (9-11-09)
Since Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina bellowed at President Barack Obama, “You lie!” during the president’s nationally televised speech on health care, the fourth-term backbencher has emerged as a hero for the conservative grassroots. One of the most enthusiastic endorsements of Wilson’s histrionics came from the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), a group that Wilson has belonged to according to his own biographical materials.
“Mr. Wilson, never apologize for allowing your love of truth to overrun your desire to be polite,” the SCV Tea Party declared on its website. “It is the liar who must apologize, not the one who identifies the liar!”
Who are the SCV? A once-proud organization of Confederate history buffs and Civil War re-enactors that traditionally spent its money to restore battlefields and Confederate cemeteries. By 2006, however, the SCV had been substantially taken over by an organized cadre of white supremacists (read here for more background) who sought to turn the nation’s oldest Southern historical society into what the veteran white supremacy activist Kirk Lyons called “a modern, 21st century Christian war machine capable of uniting the Confederate community and leading it to ultimate victory,” had seized much of the SCV’s leadership positions, the Southern Poverty Law Center released an extensive list of SCV officials who belonged to “hate groups.”
Lyons, a key member of this new leadership, had harbored dreams of creating a seemingly benign front group for a more sophisticated version of the Ku Klux Klan. “I have great respect for the Klan historically, but, sadly the Klan today is ineffective and sometimes even destructive,” Lyons told a German neo-Nazi magazine in 1992. “It would be good if the Klan followed the advice of former Klansman Robert Miles: 'Become invisible. Hang the robes and hoods in the cupboard and become an underground organization.'” With the SCV, Lyons discovered he didn’t have to go underground after all.
“Mr. Wilson, never apologize for allowing your love of truth to overrun your desire to be polite,” the SCV Tea Party declared on its website. “It is the liar who must apologize, not the one who identifies the liar!”
Who are the SCV? A once-proud organization of Confederate history buffs and Civil War re-enactors that traditionally spent its money to restore battlefields and Confederate cemeteries. By 2006, however, the SCV had been substantially taken over by an organized cadre of white supremacists (read here for more background) who sought to turn the nation’s oldest Southern historical society into what the veteran white supremacy activist Kirk Lyons called “a modern, 21st century Christian war machine capable of uniting the Confederate community and leading it to ultimate victory,” had seized much of the SCV’s leadership positions, the Southern Poverty Law Center released an extensive list of SCV officials who belonged to “hate groups.”
Lyons, a key member of this new leadership, had harbored dreams of creating a seemingly benign front group for a more sophisticated version of the Ku Klux Klan. “I have great respect for the Klan historically, but, sadly the Klan today is ineffective and sometimes even destructive,” Lyons told a German neo-Nazi magazine in 1992. “It would be good if the Klan followed the advice of former Klansman Robert Miles: 'Become invisible. Hang the robes and hoods in the cupboard and become an underground organization.'” With the SCV, Lyons discovered he didn’t have to go underground after all.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 13:54
Name of source: The Washington Times
SOURCE: The Washington Times (9-11-09)
Kennedy, Roosevelt, Lincoln -- President Obama matched them all.
At least that was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's take on the president's health care speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.
"Last night, President Obama delivered what I believe to be one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the Congress of the United States," Mrs. Pelosi told reporters Thursday at the opening of her weekly Capitol Hill news conference.
Historians will wait for the outcome of those fights and whether Mr. Obama wins before deciding whether his oratory was truly "great," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.
At least that was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's take on the president's health care speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.
"Last night, President Obama delivered what I believe to be one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the Congress of the United States," Mrs. Pelosi told reporters Thursday at the opening of her weekly Capitol Hill news conference.
Historians will wait for the outcome of those fights and whether Mr. Obama wins before deciding whether his oratory was truly "great," said Rick Shenkman, a presidential historian at George Mason University.
Beyond the presidents, the list of world leaders who have delivered notable speeches to joint sessions of Congress is long, and includes South African President Nelson Mandela, who in 1994 challenged Americans to make sure the "new world order" went beyond just rich countries, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who after the Sept. 11 attacks told lawmakers in a 2003 address that "destiny put you in this place in history in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do."
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 13:03
Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (9-11-09)
Charlie Sheen has prompted outrage in America by claiming that the government was behind the September 11 terror attacks.
He appealed to President Barack Obama to reopen an investigation into the attacks.
Sheen, who is the highest-paid actor on American televison, claimed that "the official 9/11 story is a fraud" and said the commission set up to investigate the attacks was a whitewash.
He said the attacks served "as the pretext for the systematic dismantling of our Constitution and Bill of Rights" and claimed the administration of former president George Bush was behind them.
He appealed to President Barack Obama to reopen an investigation into the attacks.
Sheen, who is the highest-paid actor on American televison, claimed that "the official 9/11 story is a fraud" and said the commission set up to investigate the attacks was a whitewash.
He said the attacks served "as the pretext for the systematic dismantling of our Constitution and Bill of Rights" and claimed the administration of former president George Bush was behind them.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 12:58
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (9-11-09)
Galloping purple horses and a giant cosmonaut go on show in Versailles as contemporary art once again storms the royal palace despite complaints that Louis XIV would be turning in his grave.
Works by the French artist Xavier Veilhan will be on show from Sunday inside the Sun King's palace but also in its royal gardens and courtyards until mid-December.
In the first courtyard, visitors come face-to-face with the 50-foot long futuristic coach and horses, said to be a reference to the departure of the royal family on October 6, 1789, when the mob brought the king, the queen and their children to Paris".
Works by the French artist Xavier Veilhan will be on show from Sunday inside the Sun King's palace but also in its royal gardens and courtyards until mid-December.
In the first courtyard, visitors come face-to-face with the 50-foot long futuristic coach and horses, said to be a reference to the departure of the royal family on October 6, 1789, when the mob brought the king, the queen and their children to Paris".
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 12:55
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (9-11-09)
President Obama spoke at the Pentagon on Friday to those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001, telling them no words would heal their pain yet calling for a renewed resolve against the ones who attacked the country eight years ago.
Obama laid a wreath of white flowers at the Pentagon, where 184 people lost their lives when a hijacked jet smashed into the military icon outside the nation's capital.
Earlier in the day, the president and first lady Michelle Obama held a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the eighth anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that killed 2,752 people.
Obama laid a wreath of white flowers at the Pentagon, where 184 people lost their lives when a hijacked jet smashed into the military icon outside the nation's capital.
Earlier in the day, the president and first lady Michelle Obama held a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the eighth anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that killed 2,752 people.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 12:40
SOURCE: CNN (9-9-09)
Harvard University, one of America's premiere academic institutions, is coming under fire for running an advertisement in its campus newspaper questioning the reality of the Holocaust.
Recently named for the second straight year as the No. 1 school in U.S. News & World Report rankings of American colleges, Harvard is known for its rigorous scholarly standards and prestigious reputation.
On Tuesday, however, The Harvard Crimson, in what it said was an error, ran the Holocaust-questioning advertisement, which had been rejected by the paper over the summer.
In response to the commotion created by the ad, Crimson President Maxwell L. Child released a statement Wednesday citing three weeks of summer vacation between the submission of the advertisement and the publication of the paper as the explanation for why the ad "fell through the cracks."
Recently named for the second straight year as the No. 1 school in U.S. News & World Report rankings of American colleges, Harvard is known for its rigorous scholarly standards and prestigious reputation.
On Tuesday, however, The Harvard Crimson, in what it said was an error, ran the Holocaust-questioning advertisement, which had been rejected by the paper over the summer.
In response to the commotion created by the ad, Crimson President Maxwell L. Child released a statement Wednesday citing three weeks of summer vacation between the submission of the advertisement and the publication of the paper as the explanation for why the ad "fell through the cracks."
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:11
Name of source: National Post
SOURCE: National Post (9-10-09)
BAGHDAD -- Iraq appealed to other nations on Thursday to help save its archaeological treasures from ruin, saying ancient Babylonian and Assyrian artifacts and priceless medieval Islamic monuments were at risk without more funds.
Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or ‘land between two rivers' because of its Tigris and Euphrates, is regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilisation....
... High on the list is the national museum in Baghdad, once a trove of ancient artefacts which was plundered after the 2003 invasion while U.S. troops stood by.
Around 6,000 items out of the approximately 15,000 which were stolen when order collapsed after the fall of Saddam Hussein were back on display in February.
Officials from Greece, Egypt and Italy, each of which have much experience managing their own antiquities, attended a meeting in Baghdad to launch Iraq's appeal for help.
There has already been some international assistance. Italy rehabilitated two museum exhibition halls from the Assyrian and Islamic periods.
The United States has donated cash to the museum and to help restore Babylon, which was looted, rebuilt by Saddam in a cavalier fashion and used as military base since 2003.
Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or ‘land between two rivers' because of its Tigris and Euphrates, is regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilisation....
... High on the list is the national museum in Baghdad, once a trove of ancient artefacts which was plundered after the 2003 invasion while U.S. troops stood by.
Around 6,000 items out of the approximately 15,000 which were stolen when order collapsed after the fall of Saddam Hussein were back on display in February.
Officials from Greece, Egypt and Italy, each of which have much experience managing their own antiquities, attended a meeting in Baghdad to launch Iraq's appeal for help.
There has already been some international assistance. Italy rehabilitated two museum exhibition halls from the Assyrian and Islamic periods.
The United States has donated cash to the museum and to help restore Babylon, which was looted, rebuilt by Saddam in a cavalier fashion and used as military base since 2003.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 11:57
Name of source: The American Task Force on Palestine
SOURCE: The American Task Force on Palestine (9-10-09)
RAMALLAH, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Foreign Minister of Spain Miguel Angel Moratinos said Wednesday that his country supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian statehood on the borders of 1967.
Moratinos made the statement in a joint news conference held in Ramallah with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, adding that Spain and the European Union "will keep exerting every possible effort to achieve the Palestinian goals."
"We can not wait for another 18 years after the Madrid peace conference. We should see a Palestinian statehood established on the borders of 1967," Moratinos told reporters.
Madrid hosted the first international peace conference in 1991,attended by Israel, the Palestinians, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. After the conference, Israel and the Palestinians held peace talks and signed Oslo peace accords in 1993.
Moratinos made the statement in a joint news conference held in Ramallah with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, adding that Spain and the European Union "will keep exerting every possible effort to achieve the Palestinian goals."
"We can not wait for another 18 years after the Madrid peace conference. We should see a Palestinian statehood established on the borders of 1967," Moratinos told reporters.
Madrid hosted the first international peace conference in 1991,attended by Israel, the Palestinians, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. After the conference, Israel and the Palestinians held peace talks and signed Oslo peace accords in 1993.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 00:52
Name of source: The Times Online (UK)
SOURCE: The Times Online (UK) (9-10-09)
President Mitterrand of France warned Margaret Thatcher privately that a reunited Germany might “make even more ground than Hitler had” only a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, newly declassified documents reveal.
In papers due to be published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office tomorrow, after a year of deliberation by Whitehall officials, the scale of Anglo-French fears on German reunification is laid bare.
At a lunch at the Élysée Palace on January 20, 1990, Charles, now Lord, Powell, the then foreign affairs adviser to Mrs Thatcher reports in a memo that Mr Mitterrand talked about how reunification would cause the re-emergence of the “bad” Germans who dominated Europe.
According to the memo, Mr Mitterrand said at one point that if Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of West Germany at the time, were to get his way, a unified Germany could win more ground than Hitler ever did and that Europe would have to bear the consequences.
Mr Mitterrand warned Mrs Thatcher that if Germany were to expand territorially, Europe would be back to where it had been one year before the First World War.
In papers due to be published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office tomorrow, after a year of deliberation by Whitehall officials, the scale of Anglo-French fears on German reunification is laid bare.
At a lunch at the Élysée Palace on January 20, 1990, Charles, now Lord, Powell, the then foreign affairs adviser to Mrs Thatcher reports in a memo that Mr Mitterrand talked about how reunification would cause the re-emergence of the “bad” Germans who dominated Europe.
According to the memo, Mr Mitterrand said at one point that if Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of West Germany at the time, were to get his way, a unified Germany could win more ground than Hitler ever did and that Europe would have to bear the consequences.
Mr Mitterrand warned Mrs Thatcher that if Germany were to expand territorially, Europe would be back to where it had been one year before the First World War.
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 00:28
Name of source: ABC News
SOURCE: ABC News (9-10-09)
On the eve of the eight year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, an FBI informant who infiltrated alleged terrorist cells in the U.S. tells ABC News the FBI missed a chance to stop the al Qaeda plot because they focused more on undercover stings than on the man who would later become known as 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta.
In an exclusive interview ... on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early 2001, when he was sent by the FBI to infiltrate a small mosque outside Miami. Atta was there with Adnan Shukrujuman, an al Qaeda fugitive who now has a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.
"There was something wrong with these guys," Assaad, a 36-year-old Catholic native of Lebanon who pretended to be an Islamic extremist, says.
The FBI initially declined to comment but released a statement following the ABC News report, saying: "The 9/11 investigation, the most extensive ever conducted by the FBI, has been reviewed in its totality by the 9/11 Commission, Congress and others. The claims made in the news report and the factual conclusions contained in the story are not supported by the evidence."
In an exclusive interview ... on ABC World News with Charles Gibson and Nightline, former undercover operative Elie Assaad says he spotted and became suspicious of Atta in early 2001, when he was sent by the FBI to infiltrate a small mosque outside Miami. Atta was there with Adnan Shukrujuman, an al Qaeda fugitive who now has a $5 million U.S. reward on his head.
"There was something wrong with these guys," Assaad, a 36-year-old Catholic native of Lebanon who pretended to be an Islamic extremist, says.
The FBI initially declined to comment but released a statement following the ABC News report, saying: "The 9/11 investigation, the most extensive ever conducted by the FBI, has been reviewed in its totality by the 9/11 Commission, Congress and others. The claims made in the news report and the factual conclusions contained in the story are not supported by the evidence."
Friday, September 11, 2009 - 00:25
SOURCE: ABC News (9-8-09)
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A very special discovery here in the Houston area has piqued the interest of archaeologists. A flood control project has uncovered evidence of an ancient culture.
Harris County Flood Control is not revealing where the find was made because they want to preserve the discovery as much as possible. In the opinion of archaeologists, it may prove to be valuable for the history of a people and an area.
Cypress Creek is one of many bayous that cut through Harris County. Surrounded now by roads, shopping centers and homes, it is an ancient waterway. If you peel back the layers of the sand and soil, you can peer back in time one thousand years and more.
"This is a Gary point which is a common projectile point found in this area," said archaeologist Roger Moore.
These are some of the artifacts revealed when a sandy cliff began to crumble on Cypress Creek. Harris County Flood Control had to clear the waterway, but before that happened, an archaeological survey had to be done.
"Sure enough it's a very rare thing to find in excavation, but we did find a site of significance," said Heather Saucier of Harris Co. Flood Control.
In 500 A.D., perhaps even earlier, this was an Indian encampment here. Bits of pottery reveal it was made from the sand and soil of Cypress Creek, the dart tips were used to hunt the game that roamed here.
Harris County Flood Control is not revealing where the find was made because they want to preserve the discovery as much as possible. In the opinion of archaeologists, it may prove to be valuable for the history of a people and an area.
Cypress Creek is one of many bayous that cut through Harris County. Surrounded now by roads, shopping centers and homes, it is an ancient waterway. If you peel back the layers of the sand and soil, you can peer back in time one thousand years and more.
"This is a Gary point which is a common projectile point found in this area," said archaeologist Roger Moore.
These are some of the artifacts revealed when a sandy cliff began to crumble on Cypress Creek. Harris County Flood Control had to clear the waterway, but before that happened, an archaeological survey had to be done.
"Sure enough it's a very rare thing to find in excavation, but we did find a site of significance," said Heather Saucier of Harris Co. Flood Control.
In 500 A.D., perhaps even earlier, this was an Indian encampment here. Bits of pottery reveal it was made from the sand and soil of Cypress Creek, the dart tips were used to hunt the game that roamed here.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:10
Name of source: BBC History Magazine
SOURCE: BBC History Magazine (9-9-09)
In 218 BC Hannibal left the Spanish city of Cartagena with one hundred thousand soldiers and nearly forty elephants. We've just left the same city on three bicycles followed by our BBC television crew. Our aim is to follow Hannibal's path along the coast of Spain, through France, over the Alps, down the length of Italy and back to his home city of Carthage, now a suburb of the city of Tunes, capital of Tunisia.
In the Second Punic War against Rome, after Carthage's defeat in the First, Hannibal's aim was to teach the Romans a lesson and restore Carthage's pride and power. Our aim isn't so grand, but there are some similarties between our adventures. Hannibal travelled with his two younger brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago. We are also three brothers, but rather than generals, we're an archaeologist, a computer programmer and a BBC correspondent.
Our send off in hot Spanish sunshine was probably similar to Hannibal's. This month, the city of Cartagena celebrates its annual Festival of Romans and Carthaginians. The whole city is in party mode and several thousand people dress up like their ancient forebears and stage mock battles, parades through through the main streets and theatrical events. About twenty members of the Carthaginian Association, were on hand in full battle dress, to scream and shout as we rode out of the city on this, the first leg of our five thousand kilometre journey.
In the Second Punic War against Rome, after Carthage's defeat in the First, Hannibal's aim was to teach the Romans a lesson and restore Carthage's pride and power. Our aim isn't so grand, but there are some similarties between our adventures. Hannibal travelled with his two younger brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago. We are also three brothers, but rather than generals, we're an archaeologist, a computer programmer and a BBC correspondent.
Our send off in hot Spanish sunshine was probably similar to Hannibal's. This month, the city of Cartagena celebrates its annual Festival of Romans and Carthaginians. The whole city is in party mode and several thousand people dress up like their ancient forebears and stage mock battles, parades through through the main streets and theatrical events. About twenty members of the Carthaginian Association, were on hand in full battle dress, to scream and shout as we rode out of the city on this, the first leg of our five thousand kilometre journey.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:15
Name of source: National Geographic News
SOURCE: National Geographic News (9-9-09)
It didn't look like much at first, just a broken, mud-caked stone mug.
But when archaeologists in Jerusalem cleaned the 2,000-year-old vessel, they discovered ten lines of mysterious script.
"These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households" of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina.
"But this is the first time an inscription has been found on a stone vessel" of this type.
Deciphering the writing could provide a window into daily life or religious ritual in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus Christ (interactive time line of early Christianity).
Working on historic Mount Zion—site of King David's tomb and the Last Supper—the archaeologists found the cup near a ritual pool this summer. The dig site is in what had been an elite residential area near the palace of King Herod the Great, who ruled Israel shortly before the birth of Jesus.
But when archaeologists in Jerusalem cleaned the 2,000-year-old vessel, they discovered ten lines of mysterious script.
"These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households" of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina.
"But this is the first time an inscription has been found on a stone vessel" of this type.
Deciphering the writing could provide a window into daily life or religious ritual in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus Christ (interactive time line of early Christianity).
Working on historic Mount Zion—site of King David's tomb and the Last Supper—the archaeologists found the cup near a ritual pool this summer. The dig site is in what had been an elite residential area near the palace of King Herod the Great, who ruled Israel shortly before the birth of Jesus.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 23:14
Name of source: Politico
SOURCE: Politico (9-10-09)
The similarities are striking: Sixteen years ago, another Democratic president stood in the same spot in the same month and addressed the nation on the same topic. Behind Bill Clinton sat a Democratic Speaker of the House and his vice president. It was the same Wednesday night with Barack Obama.
And a POLITICO analysis of the transcript of both speeches shows a striking similarity in the words used by both presidents.
Both presidents argued that the cost of doing nothing is higher than the cost of reform. Both made the point that people who like their health care can keep it under the new proposal. And both accused the other side of using “scare tactics.”
Both cited previous chief executives: Clinton mentioned Richard Nixon’s health care efforts, and Obama reached further back in history, name-checking Theodore Roosevelt.
And a POLITICO analysis of the transcript of both speeches shows a striking similarity in the words used by both presidents.
Both presidents argued that the cost of doing nothing is higher than the cost of reform. Both made the point that people who like their health care can keep it under the new proposal. And both accused the other side of using “scare tactics.”
Both cited previous chief executives: Clinton mentioned Richard Nixon’s health care efforts, and Obama reached further back in history, name-checking Theodore Roosevelt.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 22:25
Name of source: Deutsche Welle
SOURCE: Deutsche Welle (9-8-09)
The monument, which bears the inscription "Our Bundeswehr's Dead - For Peace, Justice and Freedom," is located near the headquarters of the defense ministry in Berlin. Some critics have said it should be located closer to Germany's parliament building - in a different part of the city - as the German army is officially the parliament's army.
"The soldiers would have picked out another place for their monument. They would have wanted it to be in a more prominent place, such as near the Reichstag building," said Reinhold Robbe, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces.
"In the end, only the parliament decides when and where soldiers are going to be sent to serve."
The German army, or Bundeswehr, was founded in 1955, and to date, around 3,100 service members have died while in active duty.
"The soldiers would have picked out another place for their monument. They would have wanted it to be in a more prominent place, such as near the Reichstag building," said Reinhold Robbe, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces.
"In the end, only the parliament decides when and where soldiers are going to be sent to serve."
The German army, or Bundeswehr, was founded in 1955, and to date, around 3,100 service members have died while in active duty.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 17:24
Name of source: Inside Higher Ed
SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed (9-9-09)
The University of Wyoming is facing protests over its decision to name a center for international students after Dick Cheney, the former vice president, who donated $3.2 million that was used for the program, the Associated Press reported. Those circulated petitions and planning a protest for Thursday, when Cheney will be on campus, say that the university's reputation will be hurt by the association with Cheney, given his role in promoting the invasion of Iraq and support for interrogation techniques that many view as torture.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 13:17
Name of source: The Morning Journal
SOURCE: The Morning Journal (8-17-09)
SOUTH AMHERST — "Let this man enter with this note. April 14, 1865. A. Lincoln."
The short sentence is written on a small envelope, tattered and discolored with age. But it has been a ticket to a big adventure for Bruce Steiner, who stumbled upon the lost fragment of history at the bottom of a box of assorted papers he purchased at Jamie's Flea Market in October 2006.
"I said it can't be real," Steiner recalled when he first laid eyes on the signature, dated the fateful day a bullet from John Wilkes Booth's Derringer ended Lincoln's life. Steiner, 56, a self-proclaimed Civil War buff, antique collector and amateur historian, said the note elicited skepticism from others as well...
...Why did the 16th president sign this envelope on his last day, perhaps only hours before donning his stovepipe hat and climbing into a carriage for his ride to Ford's Theatre?
"That's the $64,000 question," Lupton said. "I've talked to a few people who think it might have had something to do with getting into the White House. Lincoln had an open-door policy of letting people in to ask him questions."...
The short sentence is written on a small envelope, tattered and discolored with age. But it has been a ticket to a big adventure for Bruce Steiner, who stumbled upon the lost fragment of history at the bottom of a box of assorted papers he purchased at Jamie's Flea Market in October 2006.
"I said it can't be real," Steiner recalled when he first laid eyes on the signature, dated the fateful day a bullet from John Wilkes Booth's Derringer ended Lincoln's life. Steiner, 56, a self-proclaimed Civil War buff, antique collector and amateur historian, said the note elicited skepticism from others as well...
...Why did the 16th president sign this envelope on his last day, perhaps only hours before donning his stovepipe hat and climbing into a carriage for his ride to Ford's Theatre?
"That's the $64,000 question," Lupton said. "I've talked to a few people who think it might have had something to do with getting into the White House. Lincoln had an open-door policy of letting people in to ask him questions."...
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 00:37
Name of source: Discovery Channel
SOURCE: Discovery Channel (9-8-09)
A colossal statue of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun, light, music and poetry, has emerged from white calcified cliffs in southwestern Turkey, Italian archaeologists announced.
Colossal statues were very popular in antiquity, as evidenced by the lost giant statues of the Colossus of Rhodes and the Colossus of Nero. Most of them vanished long ago — their material re-used in other building projects.
"This colossal statue of Apollo is really a unique finding. Such statues are extremely rare in Asia Minor. Only a dozen still survive," team leader Francesco D'Andria, director of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Monuments and Sites at Italy's National Research Council in Lecce, told Discovery News.
Split in two huge marble fragments, divided along the bust and the lower part of the sculpture, the 1st century A.D. statue was unearthed at the World Heritage Site of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale.
Colossal statues were very popular in antiquity, as evidenced by the lost giant statues of the Colossus of Rhodes and the Colossus of Nero. Most of them vanished long ago — their material re-used in other building projects.
"This colossal statue of Apollo is really a unique finding. Such statues are extremely rare in Asia Minor. Only a dozen still survive," team leader Francesco D'Andria, director of the Institute of Archaeological Heritage, Monuments and Sites at Italy's National Research Council in Lecce, told Discovery News.
Split in two huge marble fragments, divided along the bust and the lower part of the sculpture, the 1st century A.D. statue was unearthed at the World Heritage Site of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 00:37
Name of source: National Post (Canada)
SOURCE: National Post (Canada) (9-6-09)
Newfoundland and Labrador's top archeologist has revealed plans to search for the remains of a 510-year-old church on the western shore of Conception Bay -- a project aimed at adding to a string of recent discoveries about explorer John Cabot's history-making voyages to Canada in the late 15th century.
If the purported church is found near the town of Carbonear -- the site targeted by Memorial University's Peter Pope in what he calls a "longshot" dig proposed for next summer -- the discovery of North America's earliest Christian settlement would join the 1,000-year-old Viking site at Newfoundland's L'Anse-aux-Meadows, Jacques Cartier's recently unearthed 1541 fort near Quebec City and Virginia's Jamestown ruins among the continent's most important archeological sites.
A search for traces left by one of Cabot's expeditions would have seemed laughable just a few years ago.
But the recent emergence of new evidence about his voyages -- including potentially "revolutionary" findings by the late British historian Alwyn Ruddock -- has renewed interest in England's earliest New World ventures during the reign of King Henry VII.
If the purported church is found near the town of Carbonear -- the site targeted by Memorial University's Peter Pope in what he calls a "longshot" dig proposed for next summer -- the discovery of North America's earliest Christian settlement would join the 1,000-year-old Viking site at Newfoundland's L'Anse-aux-Meadows, Jacques Cartier's recently unearthed 1541 fort near Quebec City and Virginia's Jamestown ruins among the continent's most important archeological sites.
A search for traces left by one of Cabot's expeditions would have seemed laughable just a few years ago.
But the recent emergence of new evidence about his voyages -- including potentially "revolutionary" findings by the late British historian Alwyn Ruddock -- has renewed interest in England's earliest New World ventures during the reign of King Henry VII.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 00:36
Name of source: The Daily Mail UK
SOURCE: The Daily Mail UK (9-9-09)
A massive haul of more than 10,000 Roman coins has been unearthed by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast - on his first ever treasure hunt.
The silver and bronze 'nummi' coins, dating from between 240AD and 320AD, were discovered in a farmer's field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, last month.
Finder Nick Davies, 30, was on his first treasure hunt when he discovered the coins, mostly crammed inside a buried 70lb clay pot.
Experts say the coins have spent an estimated 1,700 years underground.
The stunning collection of coins, most of which were found inside the broken brown pot, was uncovered by Nick during a search of land in the Shrewsbury area - just a month after he took up the hobby of metal detecting.
His amazing find is one of the largest collections of Roman coins ever discovered in Shropshire.
And the haul could be put on display at Shrewsbury's new £10million heritage centre, it was revealed today.
It is also the biggest collection of Roman coins to be found in Britain this year.
The silver and bronze 'nummi' coins, dating from between 240AD and 320AD, were discovered in a farmer's field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, last month.
Finder Nick Davies, 30, was on his first treasure hunt when he discovered the coins, mostly crammed inside a buried 70lb clay pot.
Experts say the coins have spent an estimated 1,700 years underground.
The stunning collection of coins, most of which were found inside the broken brown pot, was uncovered by Nick during a search of land in the Shrewsbury area - just a month after he took up the hobby of metal detecting.
His amazing find is one of the largest collections of Roman coins ever discovered in Shropshire.
And the haul could be put on display at Shrewsbury's new £10million heritage centre, it was revealed today.
It is also the biggest collection of Roman coins to be found in Britain this year.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 23:18
Name of source: Nhan Dan
SOURCE: Nhan Dan (9-8-09)
Vestiges of an ancient village dating back around 2,700 years, have been discovered in Van Ninh district, central coast Khanh Hoa province.
After one-month excavation in an area of 500 sq.m, archaeologists have found hundreds of objects which are believed to belong to the Sa Huynh Culture...
After one-month excavation in an area of 500 sq.m, archaeologists have found hundreds of objects which are believed to belong to the Sa Huynh Culture...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:52
Name of source: lep.co.uk
SOURCE: lep.co.uk (9-9-09)
A collection of ancient documents dating back centuries is being made available by a Lancashire law firm for the first time.
Staff at Napthens, in Winckley Square, Preston, have found documents relating to poor houses established in 1665 while a property deed dating from the 1550s has also been uncovered...
... The poor houses had been established in 1665 by John Osbaldeston, of London, who left £500 in his Will to be invested to help the poor in Leyland. The homes were built in the Cow Lane area of the town, and moved in 1870 to Fox Lane, where they are still occupied.
The find comes after rural business solicitor Andrew Holden uncovered another property deed dating from the 1550s when he was dealing with the sale of some land in Catforth, near Lancaster.
The firm's rural business department head Geoff Tomlinson says they are the oldest documents he has seen in his 30-year career.
Ancient deeds, once recorded with the Land Registry, are no longer needed in their original format, and are often destroyed.
But solicitors at the business say that they "recognise their historic value" and are regularly handing the documents over to the county records office on permanent loan to be catalogued and stored properly.
Staff at Napthens, in Winckley Square, Preston, have found documents relating to poor houses established in 1665 while a property deed dating from the 1550s has also been uncovered...
... The poor houses had been established in 1665 by John Osbaldeston, of London, who left £500 in his Will to be invested to help the poor in Leyland. The homes were built in the Cow Lane area of the town, and moved in 1870 to Fox Lane, where they are still occupied.
The find comes after rural business solicitor Andrew Holden uncovered another property deed dating from the 1550s when he was dealing with the sale of some land in Catforth, near Lancaster.
The firm's rural business department head Geoff Tomlinson says they are the oldest documents he has seen in his 30-year career.
Ancient deeds, once recorded with the Land Registry, are no longer needed in their original format, and are often destroyed.
But solicitors at the business say that they "recognise their historic value" and are regularly handing the documents over to the county records office on permanent loan to be catalogued and stored properly.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:50
Name of source: The Local
SOURCE: The Local (9-9-09)
Germany has inaugurated a new memorial to some 3,100 German soldiers killed in service since 1955, breaking with usual reticence over military pride amid a heated debate about the country's role in Afghanistan.
"We are aware that in the past the death of soldiers has often been used for propaganda, especially in Germany," said President Horst Köhler, alluding to the Nazi past, during a ceremony in Berlin on Tuesday evening.
The monument located in the center of the German defence ministry, near the place where the head of a failed plot against Hitler was executed in 1944, is not there to glorify any war, Köhler said."It is a place for mourning," he said.
The inscription on the monument reads:"In memory of the dead of the Bundeswehr (armed forces). For peace, justice and freedom."
It is the first memorial dedicated to German soldiers and civilian workers killed during combat, attacks or military accidents and exercises, since the founding of the Bundeswehr in 1955...
"We are aware that in the past the death of soldiers has often been used for propaganda, especially in Germany," said President Horst Köhler, alluding to the Nazi past, during a ceremony in Berlin on Tuesday evening.
The monument located in the center of the German defence ministry, near the place where the head of a failed plot against Hitler was executed in 1944, is not there to glorify any war, Köhler said."It is a place for mourning," he said.
The inscription on the monument reads:"In memory of the dead of the Bundeswehr (armed forces). For peace, justice and freedom."
It is the first memorial dedicated to German soldiers and civilian workers killed during combat, attacks or military accidents and exercises, since the founding of the Bundeswehr in 1955...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:19
Name of source: NewKerala.com
SOURCE: NewKerala.com (9-9-09)
London: A new study has indicated that ancient Egyptian temples were aligned so precisely with astronomical events that people could set their political, economic and religious calendars by them.
According to a report in New Scientist, the study was of 650 temples, some dating back to 3000 BC.
For example, New Year coincided with the moment that the winter-solstice sun hit the central sanctuary of the Karnak temple in present-day Luxor, according to archaeological astronomer Juan Belmonte of the Canaries Astrophysical Institute in Tenerife, Spain.
Hieroglyphs on temple walls have hinted at the use of astronomy in temple architecture, including depictions of the “stretching of the cord” ceremony in which the pharaoh marked out the alignment for the temple with string...
According to a report in New Scientist, the study was of 650 temples, some dating back to 3000 BC.
For example, New Year coincided with the moment that the winter-solstice sun hit the central sanctuary of the Karnak temple in present-day Luxor, according to archaeological astronomer Juan Belmonte of the Canaries Astrophysical Institute in Tenerife, Spain.
Hieroglyphs on temple walls have hinted at the use of astronomy in temple architecture, including depictions of the “stretching of the cord” ceremony in which the pharaoh marked out the alignment for the temple with string...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 21:14
