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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: Fox News
SOURCE: Fox News (1-28-11)
A key member of a Miami-based marijuana-smuggling ring was reportedly arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on Thursday, more than 31 years after skipping out of a federal trial.
Mark Steven Phillips, 62, was arrested in his apartment at Century Village, a seniors community where he had been living in recent months, the Miami Herald reports.
Along with 13 others, Phillips was charged in May 1979 in what was then the country's largest marijuana importation prosecution in history. The ring, known as the "Black Tuna Gang," derived its name from the radio moniker for the group's Colombian source for marijuana.
Phillips, who faces sentencing for a racketeering conviction and adjudication of fugitive charges, told U.S. Magistrate Edwin Torres that he has no property, $600 in a bank account and receives $667 in monthly Social Security benefits.
"I'm retired," Phillips told Torres, according to the Miami Herald. "Your honor, I would like to say something. I have no valid passport. Nothing but a bicycle, but I'm not going anywhere."
Authorities estimate that the ring smuggled 500 tons of marijuana into the U.S. in the mid-'70s....
Mark Steven Phillips, 62, was arrested in his apartment at Century Village, a seniors community where he had been living in recent months, the Miami Herald reports.
Along with 13 others, Phillips was charged in May 1979 in what was then the country's largest marijuana importation prosecution in history. The ring, known as the "Black Tuna Gang," derived its name from the radio moniker for the group's Colombian source for marijuana.
Phillips, who faces sentencing for a racketeering conviction and adjudication of fugitive charges, told U.S. Magistrate Edwin Torres that he has no property, $600 in a bank account and receives $667 in monthly Social Security benefits.
"I'm retired," Phillips told Torres, according to the Miami Herald. "Your honor, I would like to say something. I have no valid passport. Nothing but a bicycle, but I'm not going anywhere."
Authorities estimate that the ring smuggled 500 tons of marijuana into the U.S. in the mid-'70s....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 10:08
Comments
SOURCE: Fox News (1-28-11)
It's been 25 years since teacher Christa McAuliffe died aboard the Challenger space shuttle, and people in her hometown of Concord, New Hampshire, still don't like to talk about it.
"It hurts every time the anniversary comes around. Especially for those that knew her," said New Hampshire Executive Council member Daniel St. Hilaire, 43. "My son is 18 and a freshman in college, and I've never sat down with him to talk about it."
A long-time resident of Concord, St. Hilaire went to Concord High School, where McAuliffe taught Social Studies and was an adviser for the Youth in Government club, which he was a member of. He remembers her as a passionate teacher, who stressed real world, hands-on experience both in school and out. "She was a different kind of teacher -- she didn't just lecture in classroom," he said. "She firmly believed that kids would learn better by experience and she lived her life that way."
A whole generation has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts died on Jan. 28, 1986, and still her legacy lives on in this small city about an hour north of Boston. She was passionately loved by students and residents, and her death affects those who remember her. Some people still tear up at the mention of McAuliffe's name....
"It hurts every time the anniversary comes around. Especially for those that knew her," said New Hampshire Executive Council member Daniel St. Hilaire, 43. "My son is 18 and a freshman in college, and I've never sat down with him to talk about it."
A long-time resident of Concord, St. Hilaire went to Concord High School, where McAuliffe taught Social Studies and was an adviser for the Youth in Government club, which he was a member of. He remembers her as a passionate teacher, who stressed real world, hands-on experience both in school and out. "She was a different kind of teacher -- she didn't just lecture in classroom," he said. "She firmly believed that kids would learn better by experience and she lived her life that way."
A whole generation has grown up since McAuliffe and six other astronauts died on Jan. 28, 1986, and still her legacy lives on in this small city about an hour north of Boston. She was passionately loved by students and residents, and her death affects those who remember her. Some people still tear up at the mention of McAuliffe's name....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 10:03
SOURCE: Fox News (1-27-11)
Holocaust survivors often refer to the "banality of evil" when describing how remarkably ordinary even the highest-ranking Nazis seemed after their capture for aiding the mass murder of more than 6 million Jews during World War II.
At a gathering for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps, Rafi Eitan looks like any other aging great-uncle: hearing aids, thick glasses, and a gray sweater under his blazer. His demeanor and appearance is much more fitting an aging insurance salesman than James Bond. The casual observer would give him the highest compliment for an intelligence field operative: There is simply no way he could be a spy.
Eitan led the Israeli Mossad team that captured Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust, on a street in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial in 1960.
Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal received a postcard from a friend who said he saw Eichmann on the street, and slowly Israel's intelligence services began closing in on him.
For months, surveillance teams trailed Eichmann, trying to match pictures of him to those from his days in the SS.
Finally, they sent word back to Tel Aviv that they thought they had their man....
At a gathering for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps, Rafi Eitan looks like any other aging great-uncle: hearing aids, thick glasses, and a gray sweater under his blazer. His demeanor and appearance is much more fitting an aging insurance salesman than James Bond. The casual observer would give him the highest compliment for an intelligence field operative: There is simply no way he could be a spy.
Eitan led the Israeli Mossad team that captured Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi architect of the Holocaust, on a street in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial in 1960.
Famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal received a postcard from a friend who said he saw Eichmann on the street, and slowly Israel's intelligence services began closing in on him.
For months, surveillance teams trailed Eichmann, trying to match pictures of him to those from his days in the SS.
Finally, they sent word back to Tel Aviv that they thought they had their man....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:25
SOURCE: Fox News (1-27-11)
Usually famous Hollywood stars and athletes get piles upon piles of fan mail, but a former Hitler bodyguard?
Rochus Misch, the 93-year-old former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler, says he can no longer respond to the deluge of fan mail he receives from around the world, according to Reuters.
Misch previously would send fans autographed copies of wartime photos of him in his SS uniform....
Rochus Misch, the 93-year-old former bodyguard of Adolf Hitler, says he can no longer respond to the deluge of fan mail he receives from around the world, according to Reuters.
Misch previously would send fans autographed copies of wartime photos of him in his SS uniform....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:23
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (1-27-11)
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s first officially sanctioned commemoration of the Holocaust was held in a synagogue here on Thursday, reflecting government efforts to assuage the Jewish minority in the face of increasingly strained ties with Israel. But the event was overshadowed by the scheduled premiere on Friday of the latest installment in a series of popular Turkish-made adventure films that depict Israelis as evil.
“Gathering in love, brotherhood and humanity should be our common language to ensure that we must never experience this crime against humanity, this attack against humanity ever again,” Huseyin Avni Mutlu the Istanbul governor, said after lighting a candle in commemoration of the Holocaust’s victims with Ishak Haleva, Turkey’s chief rabbi, at the Neve Shalom synagogue.
The synagogue, one of many around the world commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, carries particular symbolism here because it was the target of a local radical Islamist network loyal to Al Qaeda in simultaneous attacks around the city in 2003....
“Gathering in love, brotherhood and humanity should be our common language to ensure that we must never experience this crime against humanity, this attack against humanity ever again,” Huseyin Avni Mutlu the Istanbul governor, said after lighting a candle in commemoration of the Holocaust’s victims with Ishak Haleva, Turkey’s chief rabbi, at the Neve Shalom synagogue.
The synagogue, one of many around the world commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, carries particular symbolism here because it was the target of a local radical Islamist network loyal to Al Qaeda in simultaneous attacks around the city in 2003....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 10:07
SOURCE: NYT (1-27-11)
SANTIAGO, Chile — A Chilean judge has opened the first official investigation into the death of former President Salvador Allende, the democratically elected Socialist who died during the 1973 military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Mr. Allende, 65, was found dead by the military forces that stormed the presidential palace after hours of a gun battle and bombings. At the time, an autopsy suggested that Mr. Allende had killed himself. But many of his supporters have contended for decades that he might have been killed by troops or snipers.
The inquiry is part of new investigations into 726 human rights-related crimes in which the victims or their relatives never filed suit. Judge Sergio Muñoz, who is in charge of coordinating all human rights inquiries, had asked a prosecutor to determine the number of cases in which no investigations had been undertaken and to file legal complaints on behalf of the suspected victims. That included the case of Mr. Allende’s death....
Mr. Allende, 65, was found dead by the military forces that stormed the presidential palace after hours of a gun battle and bombings. At the time, an autopsy suggested that Mr. Allende had killed himself. But many of his supporters have contended for decades that he might have been killed by troops or snipers.
The inquiry is part of new investigations into 726 human rights-related crimes in which the victims or their relatives never filed suit. Judge Sergio Muñoz, who is in charge of coordinating all human rights inquiries, had asked a prosecutor to determine the number of cases in which no investigations had been undertaken and to file legal complaints on behalf of the suspected victims. That included the case of Mr. Allende’s death....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 10:06
SOURCE: NYT (1-28-11)
A cache of stone tools found on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula has reopened the critical question of when and how modern humans escaped from their ancestral homeland in eastern Africa.
The present view, based on both archaeological and genetic evidence, holds that modern humans, although they first emerged in Africa some 200,000 years ago, were hemmed in by deserts and other human species like Neanderthals and did not escape to the rest of the world until some 50,000 years ago.
An archaeological team led by Hans-Peter Uerpmann of the University of Tübingen in Germany now reports the discovery of stone tools 127,000 years old from a site called Jebel Faya in what is now the United Arab Emirates, just south of the entrance to the Persian Gulf. If the new tools were made by modern humans, as the researchers assert, then modern humans got out of Africa much earlier than believed....
The present view, based on both archaeological and genetic evidence, holds that modern humans, although they first emerged in Africa some 200,000 years ago, were hemmed in by deserts and other human species like Neanderthals and did not escape to the rest of the world until some 50,000 years ago.
An archaeological team led by Hans-Peter Uerpmann of the University of Tübingen in Germany now reports the discovery of stone tools 127,000 years old from a site called Jebel Faya in what is now the United Arab Emirates, just south of the entrance to the Persian Gulf. If the new tools were made by modern humans, as the researchers assert, then modern humans got out of Africa much earlier than believed....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 10:05
SOURCE: NYT (1-27-11)
CARPINTERIA, Calif. — The last time Barnaby Conrad saw Sinclair Lewis, three years after he served as Lewis’s personal secretary, they were at a bar in Paris and, by Mr. Conrad’s account, Lewis was thoroughly drunk. But not so drunk that he couldn’t chastise his former secretary for failing to execute a book idea that Lewis had handed him one morning at breakfast: a novel based on the conceit that John Wilkes Booth had escaped capture after assassinating Lincoln and had embarked on a secret life in the American frontier.
“You are never going to be a writer unless you write that book,” declared Lewis, the Nobel Prize-winning author of “Elmer Gantry” and “Babbitt,” as Mr. Conrad recounted the moment recently. Talk about pressure. “It was always on my mind,” he said.
That was 1950, shortly before Lewis’s death. And now, 60 years later — this must set a record for late authors — Mr. Conrad has published “The Second Life of John Wilkes Booth.” The novel follows the arc of the story Lewis sketched out: from Booth’s escape from the barn where history has him cornered and killed by Union soldiers, to a frontier town where, after being goaded into playing Lincoln at a county pageant, he was assassinated by a drunken fellow Lincoln hater.
The conversation in the bar was no idle talk. Lewis and Mr. Conrad had signed a contract dated Aug. 7, 1947, stipulating that upon publication Lewis would collect 30 percent of the earnings.
It seems safe to say that Lewis’s warning was not borne out. “The Second Life” is Mr. Conrad’s 35th book, part of a variegated career of writing, painting, sculpture and bullfighting. (That ended at 36 when he was gored in Spain and almost died.) And, not incidentally, Mr. Conrad spent 10 years as the proprietor of one of the great celebrity hangouts in San Francisco — El Matador, named after his 1952 book, “Matador,” his single best seller....
“You are never going to be a writer unless you write that book,” declared Lewis, the Nobel Prize-winning author of “Elmer Gantry” and “Babbitt,” as Mr. Conrad recounted the moment recently. Talk about pressure. “It was always on my mind,” he said.
That was 1950, shortly before Lewis’s death. And now, 60 years later — this must set a record for late authors — Mr. Conrad has published “The Second Life of John Wilkes Booth.” The novel follows the arc of the story Lewis sketched out: from Booth’s escape from the barn where history has him cornered and killed by Union soldiers, to a frontier town where, after being goaded into playing Lincoln at a county pageant, he was assassinated by a drunken fellow Lincoln hater.
The conversation in the bar was no idle talk. Lewis and Mr. Conrad had signed a contract dated Aug. 7, 1947, stipulating that upon publication Lewis would collect 30 percent of the earnings.
It seems safe to say that Lewis’s warning was not borne out. “The Second Life” is Mr. Conrad’s 35th book, part of a variegated career of writing, painting, sculpture and bullfighting. (That ended at 36 when he was gored in Spain and almost died.) And, not incidentally, Mr. Conrad spent 10 years as the proprietor of one of the great celebrity hangouts in San Francisco — El Matador, named after his 1952 book, “Matador,” his single best seller....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 10:17
SOURCE: NYT (1-25-11)
PARIS — The head of France’s national railway company, known as the S.N.C.F., on Tuesday made the company’s first formal public apology directly to Holocaust victims. The regrets came just a few months after American lawmakers, survivors and their descendants moved to block the company from winning contracts in the United States if it did not acknowledge its role in the shipping of thousands of Jews to Nazi death camps and make amends.
“In the name of the S.N.C.F., I bow down before the victims, the survivors, the children of those deported, and before the suffering that still lives,” said Guillaume Pepy, the company’s chairman, during a ceremony at a railway station in Bobigny, a Paris suburb. The company is handing the station to local authorities to create a memorial to the 20,000 Jews shipped from there to Nazi camps, mostly in 1943 and ’44....
“In the name of the S.N.C.F., I bow down before the victims, the survivors, the children of those deported, and before the suffering that still lives,” said Guillaume Pepy, the company’s chairman, during a ceremony at a railway station in Bobigny, a Paris suburb. The company is handing the station to local authorities to create a memorial to the 20,000 Jews shipped from there to Nazi camps, mostly in 1943 and ’44....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 09:21
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (1-27-11)
The Manhattan district attorney announced Thursday new indictments against Rodney Alcala, the so-called "Dating Game Killer," in connection with the deaths of two women in New York during the 1970s.
Alcala, 67, is currently on death row in California for killing four women and a 12-year-old girl there. He was convicted of those crimes in February 2010 and sentenced the following month.
The California murders took place between November 1977 and June 1979 and covered a wide swath of suburban Los Angeles, from Burbank to El Segundo.
"Cold cases are not forgotten cases -- our prosecutors, investigators, and partners in the NYPD do not give up," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. "These cases were built one brick at a time, as each new lead brought us closer to where we are today."
Alcala is charged with murder in the deaths of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover in New York....
Alcala, 67, is currently on death row in California for killing four women and a 12-year-old girl there. He was convicted of those crimes in February 2010 and sentenced the following month.
The California murders took place between November 1977 and June 1979 and covered a wide swath of suburban Los Angeles, from Burbank to El Segundo.
"Cold cases are not forgotten cases -- our prosecutors, investigators, and partners in the NYPD do not give up," said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. "These cases were built one brick at a time, as each new lead brought us closer to where we are today."
Alcala is charged with murder in the deaths of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover in New York....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 10:01
SOURCE: CNN (1-27-11)
A Pennsylvania high school says some students are separated by race, gender and language for a few minutes each day in an effort to boost academic scores, raising controversy over the historically contentious issue of segregation in schools.
The initiative is a pilot program intended to capitalize on "enriching students' experiences through mentoring" and is derived from school research "that shows grouping black students by gender with a strong role model can help boost their academic achievement and self esteem," according to a statement from McCaskey East High School in Lancaster.
"Educators immediately noticed strong bonds being formed between all students and mentor teachers," the statement said.
The junior class at McCaskey East is voluntarily segregated by the students, who organize themselves "by gender, race and/or language," said school spokeswoman Kelly Burkholder.
But some school experts say the experiment is misguided....
The initiative is a pilot program intended to capitalize on "enriching students' experiences through mentoring" and is derived from school research "that shows grouping black students by gender with a strong role model can help boost their academic achievement and self esteem," according to a statement from McCaskey East High School in Lancaster.
"Educators immediately noticed strong bonds being formed between all students and mentor teachers," the statement said.
The junior class at McCaskey East is voluntarily segregated by the students, who organize themselves "by gender, race and/or language," said school spokeswoman Kelly Burkholder.
But some school experts say the experiment is misguided....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 09:50
SOURCE: CNN (1-27-11)
Hidden in a basement in central Tel Aviv, amidst the smell of sawdust and varnish, is a musical workshop whose owner and son have spent the last 15 years tracking down violins played by Jewish Holocaust victims and bringing the instruments back to life.
"The Germans confiscated from the Jewish people every violin, viola, cello they could and we are talking about thousands, gone with the wind," said Amnon Weinstein, working amongst the dozens of violins and bows hanging from the walls and ceilings of his unique workspace.
Weinstein is a luthier -- an artisan and craftsman of string instruments -- a relic of a bygone era, whose moustache and spectacles do little to hide his eccentric streak. He says almost all of the survivors who played in the concentration camps owed their lives to their instruments....
"The Germans confiscated from the Jewish people every violin, viola, cello they could and we are talking about thousands, gone with the wind," said Amnon Weinstein, working amongst the dozens of violins and bows hanging from the walls and ceilings of his unique workspace.
Weinstein is a luthier -- an artisan and craftsman of string instruments -- a relic of a bygone era, whose moustache and spectacles do little to hide his eccentric streak. He says almost all of the survivors who played in the concentration camps owed their lives to their instruments....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 12:36
SOURCE: CNN (1-26-11)
Nestled in the mountain foothills of a remote province in central Vietnam, one of the country's most important archaeological discoveries in a century has recently come to light.
After five years of exploration and excavation, a team of archaeologists has uncovered a 127-kilometer (79-mile) wall -- which locals have called "Vietnam's Great Wall."
The wall is built of alternating sections of stone and earth, with some sections reaching a height of up to four meters.
In 2005, Dr. Andrew Hardy, associate professor and head of the Hanoi branch of École Française d'Extrême-Orient (French School of Asian Studies), found an odd reference to a "Long Wall of Quang Ngai" in an 1885 document compiled by the Nguyen Dynasty court entitled, "Descriptive Geography of the Emperor Dong Khanh."
It sparked his imagination and a major exploration and excavation project for a team led by Hardy and Dr. Nguyen Tien Dong, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences). The wall was discovered after some five years of work.
It stretches from northern Quang Ngai Province south into the province of Binh Dinh and is arguably the greatest engineering feat of the Nguyen Dynasty....
After five years of exploration and excavation, a team of archaeologists has uncovered a 127-kilometer (79-mile) wall -- which locals have called "Vietnam's Great Wall."
The wall is built of alternating sections of stone and earth, with some sections reaching a height of up to four meters.
In 2005, Dr. Andrew Hardy, associate professor and head of the Hanoi branch of École Française d'Extrême-Orient (French School of Asian Studies), found an odd reference to a "Long Wall of Quang Ngai" in an 1885 document compiled by the Nguyen Dynasty court entitled, "Descriptive Geography of the Emperor Dong Khanh."
It sparked his imagination and a major exploration and excavation project for a team led by Hardy and Dr. Nguyen Tien Dong, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences). The wall was discovered after some five years of work.
It stretches from northern Quang Ngai Province south into the province of Binh Dinh and is arguably the greatest engineering feat of the Nguyen Dynasty....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 22:02
Name of source: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News (1-28-11)
A 450-year-old Madonna and Child work by Titian has sold for $16.9m (£10.7m) in New York, setting a new auction record for the Renaissance master.
A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria was sold at Sotheby's to a European telephone bidder.
It beat the previous Titian auction record of £7.5m ($11.9m) paid at Christie's in London in December 1991.
That was the price achieved for the artist's Venus and Adonis painting.
A spokeswoman for Sotheby's said A Sacra Conversazione was "one of only a handful of multi-figured compositions by Titian that remain in private hands".
It was also, she added, "the most important to appear at auction in decades".
Sotheby's said the oil on canvas work - painted around 1560 - had changed hands only six times during its life....
A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria was sold at Sotheby's to a European telephone bidder.
It beat the previous Titian auction record of £7.5m ($11.9m) paid at Christie's in London in December 1991.
That was the price achieved for the artist's Venus and Adonis painting.
A spokeswoman for Sotheby's said A Sacra Conversazione was "one of only a handful of multi-figured compositions by Titian that remain in private hands".
It was also, she added, "the most important to appear at auction in decades".
Sotheby's said the oil on canvas work - painted around 1560 - had changed hands only six times during its life....
Friday, January 28, 2011 - 09:40
SOURCE: BBC News (1-26-11)
A Canadian singer has become the first person in the world to graduate with a Masters degree in The Beatles.
Former Miss Canada finalist Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy signed up for the course at Liverpool Hope University when it launched in March 2009.
The 53-year-old, who has recorded three albums, was the first to graduate of the 12 full-time students who joined the Master of Arts course.
She said: "I am so proud of my achievement."
"The course was challenging, enjoyable and it provided a great insight into the impact The Beatles had and still have to this day across all aspects of life," she added.
"The faculty and students at Liverpool Hope University were crucial in providing an unforgettable experience and their support was invaluable."
As well as examining the studio sound and composition of The Beatles' back catalogue, the course looks at how the city of Liverpool helped to shape their music....
Former Miss Canada finalist Mary-Lu Zahalan-Kennedy signed up for the course at Liverpool Hope University when it launched in March 2009.
The 53-year-old, who has recorded three albums, was the first to graduate of the 12 full-time students who joined the Master of Arts course.
She said: "I am so proud of my achievement."
"The course was challenging, enjoyable and it provided a great insight into the impact The Beatles had and still have to this day across all aspects of life," she added.
"The faculty and students at Liverpool Hope University were crucial in providing an unforgettable experience and their support was invaluable."
As well as examining the studio sound and composition of The Beatles' back catalogue, the course looks at how the city of Liverpool helped to shape their music....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 12:33
SOURCE: BBC News (1-27-11)
The first Roma guest of honour at Germany's official Holocaust remembrance day ceremony has said his people face new threats.
Zoni Weisz told German MPs that Roma in western Europe again faced discrimination and were living "in inhumane conditions in ghettos".
The Dutch-born speaker is the sole survivor of a family killed in 1944.
He was speaking on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops in 1945.
The majority of Holocaust victims were Jewish but historians estimate between 220,000 and 500,000 Roma also died.
West Germany did not formally acknowledge this different genocide until 1982, the BBC's Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.
'Still shut out'
Addressing the German parliament, the Bundestag, Mr Weisz singled out France and Italy as countries where Roma faced new "discrimination and exclusion".
"We are Europeans, let me remind you, and must have the same rights as any other resident, with the same opportunities available to every European," he said....
Zoni Weisz told German MPs that Roma in western Europe again faced discrimination and were living "in inhumane conditions in ghettos".
The Dutch-born speaker is the sole survivor of a family killed in 1944.
He was speaking on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops in 1945.
The majority of Holocaust victims were Jewish but historians estimate between 220,000 and 500,000 Roma also died.
West Germany did not formally acknowledge this different genocide until 1982, the BBC's Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.
'Still shut out'
Addressing the German parliament, the Bundestag, Mr Weisz singled out France and Italy as countries where Roma faced new "discrimination and exclusion".
"We are Europeans, let me remind you, and must have the same rights as any other resident, with the same opportunities available to every European," he said....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 12:14
SOURCE: BBC News (1-27-11)
It was an audacious double-cross that fooled the Nazis and shortened World War II. Now a document, here published for the first time, reveals the crucial role played by Britain's code-breaking experts in the 1944 invasion of France.
All the ingredients of a gripping spy thriller are there - intrigue, espionage, lies and black propaganda.
An elaborate British wartime plot succeeded in convincing Hitler that the Allies were about to stage the bulk of the D-Day landings in Pas de Calais rather than on the Normandy coast - a diversion that proved crucial in guaranteeing the invasion's success.
An intercepted memo - which has only now come to light - picked up by British agents and decoded by experts at Bletchley Park - the decryption centre depicted in the film Enigma - revealed that German intelligence had fallen for the ruse....
All the ingredients of a gripping spy thriller are there - intrigue, espionage, lies and black propaganda.
An elaborate British wartime plot succeeded in convincing Hitler that the Allies were about to stage the bulk of the D-Day landings in Pas de Calais rather than on the Normandy coast - a diversion that proved crucial in guaranteeing the invasion's success.
An intercepted memo - which has only now come to light - picked up by British agents and decoded by experts at Bletchley Park - the decryption centre depicted in the film Enigma - revealed that German intelligence had fallen for the ruse....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 12:11
SOURCE: BBC News (1-26-11)
There is now even more evidence that life on Earth may have been seeded by material from asteroids or comets.
Prior research has shown how amino acids - the building blocks of life - could form elsewhere in the cosmos.
These molecules can form in two versions, but life on Earth exclusively uses just one of them.
Now an Astrophysical Journal Letters paper shows how conditions around a far-flung star could favour the formation of one type over another.
Amino acids are corkscrew-shaped molecules that can form twisted to the left or right, and chemistry does not inherently favour one corkscrew direction over another. But without exception, life on Earth makes use of the left-handed version.
A famous experiment in 1952 showed how a spark across a soup of simple chemicals representing the primordial Earth could form amino acids - but like many that followed, it formed equal numbers of left- and right-handed types....
Prior research has shown how amino acids - the building blocks of life - could form elsewhere in the cosmos.
These molecules can form in two versions, but life on Earth exclusively uses just one of them.
Now an Astrophysical Journal Letters paper shows how conditions around a far-flung star could favour the formation of one type over another.
Amino acids are corkscrew-shaped molecules that can form twisted to the left or right, and chemistry does not inherently favour one corkscrew direction over another. But without exception, life on Earth makes use of the left-handed version.
A famous experiment in 1952 showed how a spark across a soup of simple chemicals representing the primordial Earth could form amino acids - but like many that followed, it formed equal numbers of left- and right-handed types....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 10:43
Name of source: Voice of America
SOURCE: Voice of America (1-26-11)
Israeli archeologists have discovered ancient artifacts in a cave outside of Tel Aviv that could shed new light on the theory of human origins. Tel Aviv University archeologist Ran Barkai says what his team has excavated at Qesem Cave show a much more advanced people than the accepted image of our Stone Age ancestors in the Middle Paleolithic period.
These early hominids hunted for food, cooked meat over fires and crafted a sophisticated array of flint tools.
"We know that they had a set of different knives, almost like a modern butcher, that they used in the cave in order to cut the meat and eat it. And, we even have what we call Paleolithic cutlery. We have very small knives that we suggest were used while eating," Barkai says, adding that the tools are all remarkably well preserved. "They look like new, like they were made yesterday."...
These early hominids hunted for food, cooked meat over fires and crafted a sophisticated array of flint tools.
"We know that they had a set of different knives, almost like a modern butcher, that they used in the cave in order to cut the meat and eat it. And, we even have what we call Paleolithic cutlery. We have very small knives that we suggest were used while eating," Barkai says, adding that the tools are all remarkably well preserved. "They look like new, like they were made yesterday."...
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:49
Name of source: Yahoo News
SOURCE: Yahoo News (1-26-11)
BOISE, Idaho – Republican lawmakers in nearly a dozen states are reaching into the dusty annals of American history to fight President Obama's health care overhaul.
They are introducing measures that hinge on "nullification," Thomas Jefferson's late 18th-century doctrine that purported to give states the ultimate say in constitutional matters.
GOP lawmakers introduced such a measure Wednesday in the Idaho House, and Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming are also talking about the idea.
The efforts are completely unconstitutional in the eyes of most legal scholars because the U.S. Constitution deems federal laws "the supreme law of the land." The Idaho attorney general has weighed in as well, branding nullification unconstitutional....
They are introducing measures that hinge on "nullification," Thomas Jefferson's late 18th-century doctrine that purported to give states the ultimate say in constitutional matters.
GOP lawmakers introduced such a measure Wednesday in the Idaho House, and Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming are also talking about the idea.
The efforts are completely unconstitutional in the eyes of most legal scholars because the U.S. Constitution deems federal laws "the supreme law of the land." The Idaho attorney general has weighed in as well, branding nullification unconstitutional....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:28
SOURCE: Yahoo News (1-26-11)
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI says public officials today would do well to model themselves on Joan of Arc, the French saint who was tried for heresy and burned at the stake for her convictions.
Benedict highlighted the life of the 15th century mystic in his Wednesday audience, which over the past several months he has used to highlight important women in the church's history....
Benedict highlighted the life of the 15th century mystic in his Wednesday audience, which over the past several months he has used to highlight important women in the church's history....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:27
Name of source:
The Chickahominy are still vibrant as a community on land between the Chickahominy and James River in Charles City County, Virginia, near where their ancestors lived.
The tribe has over 800 members, making it the second largest of Virginia’s Indian tribes. Hundreds of its members live within a few miles of each other -- the tribe owns about 110 acres subdivided into family lots.
At the center of tribal life are the Chickahominy Tribal Center and Samaria Baptist Church, formerly the Samaria Indian Church, once a school for Indian children....
The tribe has over 800 members, making it the second largest of Virginia’s Indian tribes. Hundreds of its members live within a few miles of each other -- the tribe owns about 110 acres subdivided into family lots.
At the center of tribal life are the Chickahominy Tribal Center and Samaria Baptist Church, formerly the Samaria Indian Church, once a school for Indian children....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:22
Name of source: Haaretz
SOURCE: Haaretz (1-25-11)
The Israel Antiquities Authority has completed an archaeological dig of a tunnel that will enable visitors to cross under the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, not far from the Temple Mount.
The tunnel, which was uncovered during excavations conducted over the past few months, was formerly used for drainage and dates back to the Second Temple. It links the City of David in Silwan with the Archaeological Park & Davidson Center, which is located near the Western Wall.
The tunnel, which was uncovered during excavations conducted over the past few months, was formerly used for drainage and dates back to the Second Temple. It links the City of David in Silwan with the Archaeological Park & Davidson Center, which is located near the Western Wall.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:21
Name of source: Jerusalem Post
SOURCE: Jerusalem Post (1-26-11)
BRUSSELS – The European Parliament on Tuesday honored the 6 million Jews martyred on European soil by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II, in a ceremony ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which takes place on Thursday.
Representatives from around the continent and the Jewish world, including Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder and European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor, attended the event held at the EU legislative body located in the city.
Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, a survivor of Buchenwald, spoke on the sideline of the event to The Jerusalem Post about the significance of holding the ceremony at the seat of the EU....
Representatives from around the continent and the Jewish world, including Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein, World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder and European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor, attended the event held at the EU legislative body located in the city.
Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, a survivor of Buchenwald, spoke on the sideline of the event to The Jerusalem Post about the significance of holding the ceremony at the seat of the EU....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:16
SOURCE: Jerusalem Post (1-25-11)
Yad Vashem, Israel's central Holocaust memorial and documentation center, launched on Sunday a new YouTube channel in Farsi in what officials said was a bid to counter Holocaust denial in Iran, which has become bon ton under the country's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The channel, mainly featuring video clips of survivors' testimonials with Farsi subtitles, will join Yad Vashem's channels in English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. The museum website already has a page in Farsi, the language spoken by 60% of all Iranians, which provides basic information on the Holocaust and the activities of Yad Vashem.
"I turn to the Persian people," Yaakov (Jackie) Handeli, a Holocaust survivor from Thessalonica told journalists at Yad Vashem. "Let them see me and invite me to Iran. I am the sole member left of my entire family, and only because I was born Jewish, nothing else."
Ahmadinejad has at various times both denied the Holocaust and acknowledged it, albeit only to attack it as a pretext for the existence of Israel. Ahmadinejad's virulent rhetoric on the Holocaust is often tied to his calls to eradicate "the Zionist regime," both seen as preparing the ideological ground for attacking the Jewish state....
The channel, mainly featuring video clips of survivors' testimonials with Farsi subtitles, will join Yad Vashem's channels in English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. The museum website already has a page in Farsi, the language spoken by 60% of all Iranians, which provides basic information on the Holocaust and the activities of Yad Vashem.
"I turn to the Persian people," Yaakov (Jackie) Handeli, a Holocaust survivor from Thessalonica told journalists at Yad Vashem. "Let them see me and invite me to Iran. I am the sole member left of my entire family, and only because I was born Jewish, nothing else."
Ahmadinejad has at various times both denied the Holocaust and acknowledged it, albeit only to attack it as a pretext for the existence of Israel. Ahmadinejad's virulent rhetoric on the Holocaust is often tied to his calls to eradicate "the Zionist regime," both seen as preparing the ideological ground for attacking the Jewish state....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 16:15
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (1-27-11)
...The ancient gods and fantastical creatures going on show in Berlin this week have made an unlikely comeback from near-destruction.
Unearthed in present-day Syria a century ago, the 3,000-year-old basalt statues and stone reliefs in the exhibition, "The Tell Halaf Adventure," shattered into thousands of pieces when their Berlin home was destroyed by bombing in 1943.
The rubble was rescued, then slumbered in the vaults of the capital's Pergamon Museum, then in East Berlin, for decades before a painstaking restoration project started in 2001....
Unearthed in present-day Syria a century ago, the 3,000-year-old basalt statues and stone reliefs in the exhibition, "The Tell Halaf Adventure," shattered into thousands of pieces when their Berlin home was destroyed by bombing in 1943.
The rubble was rescued, then slumbered in the vaults of the capital's Pergamon Museum, then in East Berlin, for decades before a painstaking restoration project started in 2001....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:59
Name of source: The Boston Globe
SOURCE: The Boston Globe (1-27-11)
For years it has been buried, swallowed up by layers of earth, muck, and water, a once-prominent landmark concealed by time.
And the late-1700s wharf might have remained that way — embedded for the ages — had it not been for a recent accidental find.
Last June, as workers excavated portions of Newburyport’s Water Street for the city’s new waste-water operations building, they unearthed large, centuries-old slabs of granite. Based on maps and archaeological research, the giant rectangles of rock were identified as the capping stones of a 19th-century wharf built onto an earlier Revolutionary War wharf owned by Captain William Coombs.
And, as the city’s infrastructure project has continued for the past several months, archeologists have periodically been on-site to document additional finds from the 1700s and 1800s, including more capstones, cribbing supports, and, this month, timbers from an adjacent wharf.
Although many of the structural artifacts are too damaged or contaminated to save, local officials and historians call the find an extraordinary one, providing a conduit between modern times and the country’s beginnings....
And the late-1700s wharf might have remained that way — embedded for the ages — had it not been for a recent accidental find.
Last June, as workers excavated portions of Newburyport’s Water Street for the city’s new waste-water operations building, they unearthed large, centuries-old slabs of granite. Based on maps and archaeological research, the giant rectangles of rock were identified as the capping stones of a 19th-century wharf built onto an earlier Revolutionary War wharf owned by Captain William Coombs.
And, as the city’s infrastructure project has continued for the past several months, archeologists have periodically been on-site to document additional finds from the 1700s and 1800s, including more capstones, cribbing supports, and, this month, timbers from an adjacent wharf.
Although many of the structural artifacts are too damaged or contaminated to save, local officials and historians call the find an extraordinary one, providing a conduit between modern times and the country’s beginnings....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:56
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (1-27-11)
JD Salinger was a fan of tennis player Tim Henman and enjoyed eating burgers, previously unseen letters written by the Catcher in the Rye author show.
Despite his reputation as a literary recluse, the collection - on display at University of East Anglia - shows he also enjoyed trips to Niagara Falls.
It consists of 50 letters and four postcards written to the late Donald Hartog, from London, from 1986 to 2002.
They are being displayed to mark the first anniversary of Salinger's death....
Despite his reputation as a literary recluse, the collection - on display at University of East Anglia - shows he also enjoyed trips to Niagara Falls.
It consists of 50 letters and four postcards written to the late Donald Hartog, from London, from 1986 to 2002.
They are being displayed to mark the first anniversary of Salinger's death....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:51
SOURCE: BBC (1-27-11)
Modern humans may have emerged from Africa up to 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, a study suggests.
Researchers have uncovered stone tools in the Arabian peninsula that they say were made by modern humans about 125,000 years ago.
The tools were unearthed at the site of Jebel Faya in the United Arab Emirates, a team reports in the journal Science.
The results are controversial: genetic data strongly points to an exodus from Africa 60,000-70,000 years ago....
Researchers have uncovered stone tools in the Arabian peninsula that they say were made by modern humans about 125,000 years ago.
The tools were unearthed at the site of Jebel Faya in the United Arab Emirates, a team reports in the journal Science.
The results are controversial: genetic data strongly points to an exodus from Africa 60,000-70,000 years ago....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:46
SOURCE: BBC (1-26-11)
Two councillors have said they will not sign a memorial book dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust.
Kassem Al-Khatib, a Palestinian, and Gavin Webb will not add their signatures to the Stoke-on-Trent City Council book for different reasons.
The book was opened a year ago and is part of events in the city to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Mr Al-Khatib said if a Palestinian genocide memorial was erected nearby, he would happily sign the book....
Kassem Al-Khatib, a Palestinian, and Gavin Webb will not add their signatures to the Stoke-on-Trent City Council book for different reasons.
The book was opened a year ago and is part of events in the city to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Mr Al-Khatib said if a Palestinian genocide memorial was erected nearby, he would happily sign the book....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 21:47
Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-27-11)
Europe's Roma will be represented for the first time at Germany's official Holocaust memorial ceremony, almost seven decades after up to half a million members of the community were exterminated in Nazi death camps.
Dutch born Zoni Weisz, a Roma Holocaust survivor, will address Germany's Bundestag on Thursday, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. Germany marks the day with official memorial ceremonies for Holocaust victims. Berlin will also name a street and a gymnasium after Roma murdered by the Nazis.
The Bundestag said Mr Weisz was "surprised and honoured" to have been chosen to speak on the "forgotten Holocaust" – the extermination, historians have estimated, of between 220,000 and 500,000 of the around one million Roma in Europe.
The Nazis murdered six million Jews across Europe during World War II.
The Roma and related Sinti, like the Jews deemed racially inferior by the Nazis, were also systematically persecuted, confined to ghettos and special camps, deported and killed....
Dutch born Zoni Weisz, a Roma Holocaust survivor, will address Germany's Bundestag on Thursday, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. Germany marks the day with official memorial ceremonies for Holocaust victims. Berlin will also name a street and a gymnasium after Roma murdered by the Nazis.
The Bundestag said Mr Weisz was "surprised and honoured" to have been chosen to speak on the "forgotten Holocaust" – the extermination, historians have estimated, of between 220,000 and 500,000 of the around one million Roma in Europe.
The Nazis murdered six million Jews across Europe during World War II.
The Roma and related Sinti, like the Jews deemed racially inferior by the Nazis, were also systematically persecuted, confined to ghettos and special camps, deported and killed....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:42
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-27-11)
Google has partnered with Israel’s Yad Vashem museum, to help digitise the largest collection of Holocaust photos and documents in the world, to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The search giant is working with the Jerusalem-based archive to properly index and store in Google’s cloud 130,000 photographs, some of which are currently available on Yad Vashem’s website, but until now have been difficult to locate and discover online.
Google is also applying the same indexing and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to lots of documents, ranging from visas to survivor testimonials, in order to help people locate more easily online.
The project, which is not a financial agreement, was announced yesterday, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is a global day of remembrance for the six million Jewish Holocaust victims....
The search giant is working with the Jerusalem-based archive to properly index and store in Google’s cloud 130,000 photographs, some of which are currently available on Yad Vashem’s website, but until now have been difficult to locate and discover online.
Google is also applying the same indexing and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to lots of documents, ranging from visas to survivor testimonials, in order to help people locate more easily online.
The project, which is not a financial agreement, was announced yesterday, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is a global day of remembrance for the six million Jewish Holocaust victims....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:38
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-27-11)
Former South African President Nelson Mandela was hospitalised overnight for routine medical tests, reigniting fears over the health of the frail 92-year-old anti-apartheid campaigner.
Mandela was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital on Wednesday for what his foundation described as routine tests but Talk Radio 702 reported that Mandela had been seen by a specialist pulmonologist, who treats respiratory systems.
Several of Mandela's family members, including his wife Graca Machel, visited the hospital after his admission, witnesses said.
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma is being kept informed of developments and Mandela was being described as "comfortable."
South Africa's ruling African National Congress appealed for calm on Thursday after the hospitalisation sparked a media frenzy and much speculation over Mandela's health in local newspapers....
Mandela was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital on Wednesday for what his foundation described as routine tests but Talk Radio 702 reported that Mandela had been seen by a specialist pulmonologist, who treats respiratory systems.
Several of Mandela's family members, including his wife Graca Machel, visited the hospital after his admission, witnesses said.
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma is being kept informed of developments and Mandela was being described as "comfortable."
South Africa's ruling African National Congress appealed for calm on Thursday after the hospitalisation sparked a media frenzy and much speculation over Mandela's health in local newspapers....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:35
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-27-11)
British troops in Iraq were denied resources because Tony Blair’s cabinet could not accept that the country was at war, the former head of the Armed Forces has said.
Admiral Lord Boyce suggested that ministers were unhappy about the decision to topple Saddam Hussein and as a result were unable to take on the responsibility for funding the conflict properly.
Giving evidence before the Iraq Inquiry, Lord Boyce singled out Gordon Brown, the then-chancellor, for criticism, saying that the Treasury became an “impediment” to the mission.
As a whole, he said, the Labour government was without any cohesion in the way it approached the 2003 invasion...
Admiral Lord Boyce suggested that ministers were unhappy about the decision to topple Saddam Hussein and as a result were unable to take on the responsibility for funding the conflict properly.
Giving evidence before the Iraq Inquiry, Lord Boyce singled out Gordon Brown, the then-chancellor, for criticism, saying that the Treasury became an “impediment” to the mission.
As a whole, he said, the Labour government was without any cohesion in the way it approached the 2003 invasion...
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:32
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-27-11)
Apple has removed a Nazi Party anthem from the German version of its iTunes online music store, a spokesman for the US firm has said.
The marching song "Horst Wessel Lied," named after a young party activist killed in 1930, was the unofficial anthem of the Nazis.
The availability of Nazi anthems on iTunes and internet retalier Amazon was first reported by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung daily on Wednesday.
Apple's iTunes store also sold songs and albums of neo-Nazi bands banned by the government, the newspaper reported....
The marching song "Horst Wessel Lied," named after a young party activist killed in 1930, was the unofficial anthem of the Nazis.
The availability of Nazi anthems on iTunes and internet retalier Amazon was first reported by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung daily on Wednesday.
Apple's iTunes store also sold songs and albums of neo-Nazi bands banned by the government, the newspaper reported....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 15:29
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-26-11)
Nelson Mandela, South Africa's former president, was admitted to hospital on Wednesday but aides moved quickly to scupper fears about his health, saying he was undergoing "routine" tests.
The confirmation by the Nelson Mandela Foundation of the 92-year-old's admission to the private Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg came after his grandchildren were spotted visiting the facility.
Mr Mandela's wife Graca Machel, and his personal assistant Zelda La Grange were also seen visiting the hospital. A foundation spokesman said that the former statesman was simply having a check-up after a holiday in Cape Town.
A hospital spokesman declined to comment on what health tests Mr Mandela was undergoing or whether he would be kept in overnight. Local reports suggested he had arrived at the hospital by ambulance and walked inside....
The confirmation by the Nelson Mandela Foundation of the 92-year-old's admission to the private Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg came after his grandchildren were spotted visiting the facility.
Mr Mandela's wife Graca Machel, and his personal assistant Zelda La Grange were also seen visiting the hospital. A foundation spokesman said that the former statesman was simply having a check-up after a holiday in Cape Town.
A hospital spokesman declined to comment on what health tests Mr Mandela was undergoing or whether he would be kept in overnight. Local reports suggested he had arrived at the hospital by ambulance and walked inside....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 21:39
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-26-11)
Tony Blair came across as paternalistic and biased towards Israel in his role as the Middle East Quartet's special envoy, Palestinian officials claimed.
The former British prime minister was frequently scorned for his efforts to develop the economy of the West Bank, according to confidential memos obtained by Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based television network.
Mr Blair was seen as focusing too much on winning small concessions from Israel for minor development projects, while proving reluctant or impotent when it came to persuading Israel to ease bigger restrictions imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank.
In one memo reviewing his proposals, Mr Blair is accused of showing bias to the Israeli security forces and of advocating "an apartheid-like approach to dealing with the occupied West Bank"....
The former British prime minister was frequently scorned for his efforts to develop the economy of the West Bank, according to confidential memos obtained by Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based television network.
Mr Blair was seen as focusing too much on winning small concessions from Israel for minor development projects, while proving reluctant or impotent when it came to persuading Israel to ease bigger restrictions imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank.
In one memo reviewing his proposals, Mr Blair is accused of showing bias to the Israeli security forces and of advocating "an apartheid-like approach to dealing with the occupied West Bank"....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 21:38
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-25-11)
Museum openings, a big dig and a new film make this an ideal time to visit Hadrian's bequest to Britain, says Sophie Campbell.
Mist, dripping trees, stones black with wet. Thank Jupiter I’m not in a tunic; this is the sort of damp that rusts your armour and dribbles down your greaves into your socks.
Yes, the Romans wore socks. I don’t know why I find that so hilarious, but I do. They wore socks and hobnail boots in the winter and you could hear a legion coming for miles, entrenching tools and cooking pots clanking from wood frames carried over one shoulder.
We will see this for ourselves on March 18, when the film of Rosemary Sutcliff’s much-loved children’s novel The Eagle of the Ninth opens. It’s the story of a young centurion, Marcus Aquila, who sets off to Hadrian’s Wall with his British slave (played by Jamie Bell) in AD140. He plans to restore the honour – and recover the eagle standard – of the Ninth Legion, commanded by his father, which disappeared without trace in Scotland 20 years before....
Mist, dripping trees, stones black with wet. Thank Jupiter I’m not in a tunic; this is the sort of damp that rusts your armour and dribbles down your greaves into your socks.
Yes, the Romans wore socks. I don’t know why I find that so hilarious, but I do. They wore socks and hobnail boots in the winter and you could hear a legion coming for miles, entrenching tools and cooking pots clanking from wood frames carried over one shoulder.
We will see this for ourselves on March 18, when the film of Rosemary Sutcliff’s much-loved children’s novel The Eagle of the Ninth opens. It’s the story of a young centurion, Marcus Aquila, who sets off to Hadrian’s Wall with his British slave (played by Jamie Bell) in AD140. He plans to restore the honour – and recover the eagle standard – of the Ninth Legion, commanded by his father, which disappeared without trace in Scotland 20 years before....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 11:18
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-25-11)
British intelligence advised the Palestinian Authority to crush Hamas and other violent groups in the West Bank by detaining some of their leading figures, leaked documents have shown.
In an effort to restore peace during the Second Palestinian Intifada against Israel, MI6 drew up a strategy in 2004 to help Yasser Arafat's security forces neutralise "rejectionists" opposed to a Middle East peace deal.
Two strategy papers recommended "the detention of key middle-ranking officers" from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al Aqsa Brigades, groups that had mounted a campaign of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel.
"We could also explore the temporary internment of leading Hamas and PIJ figures, making sure they are well treated," the author of one of the documents writes.
Both papers were included in a batch of 1,600 secret Palestinian files leaked to the Al Jazeera television station, the latest tranche of which were released last night.
At the time the MI6 papers were written, the United States had stopped funding the Palestinian security forces in protest at Arafat's failure to stop the violence....
In an effort to restore peace during the Second Palestinian Intifada against Israel, MI6 drew up a strategy in 2004 to help Yasser Arafat's security forces neutralise "rejectionists" opposed to a Middle East peace deal.
Two strategy papers recommended "the detention of key middle-ranking officers" from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al Aqsa Brigades, groups that had mounted a campaign of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel.
"We could also explore the temporary internment of leading Hamas and PIJ figures, making sure they are well treated," the author of one of the documents writes.
Both papers were included in a batch of 1,600 secret Palestinian files leaked to the Al Jazeera television station, the latest tranche of which were released last night.
At the time the MI6 papers were written, the United States had stopped funding the Palestinian security forces in protest at Arafat's failure to stop the violence....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 11:13
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-25-11)
Germany's central Nazi war crimes body said on Tuesday it had launched an inquiry after an envelope with photos of killings in the Soviet Union in World War II was handed in anonymously.
"In total there are 50 photos, some of which show very drastic deaths, such as hangings, as well as corpses on the ground and bodies piled into German army trucks," spokesman Andreas Brendel said.
"There are German army soldiers in some of the photos but it is unclear if they are also the perpetrators of these killings."
He said that it was also unclear whether the victims were Jews or other local civilians or Soviet prisoners of war. The photos were taken in the summer or autumn of 1941 after Germany invaded Russia in Operation Barbarossa.
"This is the first time that an investigation of this kind has been launched," said Mr Brendel, head of the central Nazi war crimes body and a public prosecutor in the western city of Dortmund....
"In total there are 50 photos, some of which show very drastic deaths, such as hangings, as well as corpses on the ground and bodies piled into German army trucks," spokesman Andreas Brendel said.
"There are German army soldiers in some of the photos but it is unclear if they are also the perpetrators of these killings."
He said that it was also unclear whether the victims were Jews or other local civilians or Soviet prisoners of war. The photos were taken in the summer or autumn of 1941 after Germany invaded Russia in Operation Barbarossa.
"This is the first time that an investigation of this kind has been launched," said Mr Brendel, head of the central Nazi war crimes body and a public prosecutor in the western city of Dortmund....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 11:05
Name of source: HNN Staff
SOURCE: HNN Staff (1-26-11)
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has courted controversy after giving a speech to an Iowa tax reform group in which she implied that the founding fathers ended the institution of slavery.
BACHMANN: We know that was slavery that was still tolerated when the nation began. We know that was an evil and it was a scourge and a blot and a stain upon our history.
But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States. And I think it is high time that we recognize the contribution of our forbearers, who worked tirelessly, men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country.
Of the four founding fathers who became president, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe owned slaves. Only John Adams, the only New Englander to occupy the White House until 1825, did not own slaves. His son, John Quincy Adams, was a staunch abolitionist but not considered by historians to be a founding father. He died in 1848, well before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery in 1865.
Bachmann’s comments immediately drew fire from pundits. CNN’s Anderson Cooper, normally reserved in his comments, said her statement either showed “she has a shaky grasp on our history” or amounted to a “deliberate rewriting.”
The congresswoman also drew fire for her comment that for early settlers and immigrants, “the color of their skin [didn’t matter], it didn’t matter their language, it didn’t matter their economic status…. Once you got here, we were all the same.” “That is pretty remarkable,” wrote a correspondent for The Root. “Race, culture and class didn't matter when our country was founded. Uh huh.”
One of Bachmann’s few defenders is Dan Riehl at Big Journalism. “John Adams put the Republic above what was then an impossible issue to resolve. It is inaccurate to suggest,” he wrote, “that [John Adams] was a proponent of slavery with no role in its ultimately being eliminated in the U.S.”
Ms. Bachmann, a darling of the Tea Party movement, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012. She recently gave the Tea Party Express’s rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 13:05
Name of source: National Parks Traveler
SOURCE: National Parks Traveler (1-27-11)
Artifacts associated with famous people and events are important visual connections to the past, and one of them—the coat Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford's Theatre on the night of his assassination—is returning to the Theatre for public display. Where has it been?
The answer is found in one of the dilemmas facing curators and managers responsible for historical objects: What's more important, maximum protection for artifacts or public access?
In the case of the Lincoln overcoat, it's spent the past several months in conservation storage, where better controls of factors such as temperature, humidity and light can help lengthen the life of such objects. A replica of the Brooks Brothers coat has been on display at Ford's Theatre since June 2010.
Abraham Lincoln’s wool overcoat, worn to the Theatre the night of his assassination, will return to its display in the Ford's Theatre Atlantic Lobby on February 9, 2011—just in time for the annual commemoration of Lincoln's birthday on February 12....
The answer is found in one of the dilemmas facing curators and managers responsible for historical objects: What's more important, maximum protection for artifacts or public access?
In the case of the Lincoln overcoat, it's spent the past several months in conservation storage, where better controls of factors such as temperature, humidity and light can help lengthen the life of such objects. A replica of the Brooks Brothers coat has been on display at Ford's Theatre since June 2010.
Abraham Lincoln’s wool overcoat, worn to the Theatre the night of his assassination, will return to its display in the Ford's Theatre Atlantic Lobby on February 9, 2011—just in time for the annual commemoration of Lincoln's birthday on February 12....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 12:45
SOURCE: National Parks Traveler (1-26-11)
In a development that apparently ends a long dispute over whether a key vestige of the Wilderness Battlefield near Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park would be paved over, Walmart officials have abandoned their plans for a supercenter on the parcel.
The corporate giant's decision was announced by the Civil War Trust, which long has fought Walmart's plans, and came as a trial was to begin in Virginia's Orange County Circuit Court into the legality of a special use permit given to Walmart for the project.
It was back in August 2009 that Orange County officials cleared the way for the 140,000-square-foot store on a 53-to-55-acre tract of land just north of the Wilderness Corner intersection in Orange, Virginia.
According to the National Park Service, the Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5-6, 1864, with troops under both Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee engaged. "It was the beginning of the Overland Campaign, the bloodiest campaign in American history and the turning point in the war in the Eastern Theatre," notes the agency.
“We are pleased with Walmart’s decision to abandon plans to build a supercenter on the Wilderness battlefield,” James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Trust, said in a release this morning. “We have long believed that Walmart would ultimately recognize that it is in the best interests of all concerned to move their intended store away from the battlefield. We applaud Walmart officials for putting the interests of historic preservation first. Sam Walton would be proud of this decision.”...
The corporate giant's decision was announced by the Civil War Trust, which long has fought Walmart's plans, and came as a trial was to begin in Virginia's Orange County Circuit Court into the legality of a special use permit given to Walmart for the project.
It was back in August 2009 that Orange County officials cleared the way for the 140,000-square-foot store on a 53-to-55-acre tract of land just north of the Wilderness Corner intersection in Orange, Virginia.
According to the National Park Service, the Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5-6, 1864, with troops under both Union General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee engaged. "It was the beginning of the Overland Campaign, the bloodiest campaign in American history and the turning point in the war in the Eastern Theatre," notes the agency.
“We are pleased with Walmart’s decision to abandon plans to build a supercenter on the Wilderness battlefield,” James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Trust, said in a release this morning. “We have long believed that Walmart would ultimately recognize that it is in the best interests of all concerned to move their intended store away from the battlefield. We applaud Walmart officials for putting the interests of historic preservation first. Sam Walton would be proud of this decision.”...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 15:58
Name of source: WaPo
SOURCE: WaPo (1-26-11)
A coalition of rabbis wants Fox News chief Roger Ailes and conservative host Glenn Beck to cut out all their talk about Nazis and the Holocaust, and it's making its views known in an unusual place.
The rabbis have called on Fox News's owner, Rupert Murdoch, to sanction his two famous employees via a full-page ad in Thursday's editions of the Wall Street Journal - one of many other media properties controlled by Murdoch's News Corp.
The ad is signed by the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as Orthodox rabbis.
"We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News," says the ad, signed by hundreds of rabbis and placed by the Jewish Funds for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group. Earlier this month, the group organized a letter-writing campaign asking Murdoch to remove Beck from the air....
The rabbis have called on Fox News's owner, Rupert Murdoch, to sanction his two famous employees via a full-page ad in Thursday's editions of the Wall Street Journal - one of many other media properties controlled by Murdoch's News Corp.
The ad is signed by the heads of the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements as well as Orthodox rabbis.
"We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News," says the ad, signed by hundreds of rabbis and placed by the Jewish Funds for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group. Earlier this month, the group organized a letter-writing campaign asking Murdoch to remove Beck from the air....
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 10:09
Name of source: LA Times
SOURCE: LA Times (1-26-11)
The first lady's pink suit and pillbox hat are a symbol of JFK's assassination and became treasured by a nation. The suit is stored away for safekeeping, but the hat is nowhere to be found.
An expanded collection of Kennedy treasures and trivia was unveiled this month on exhibit and online to coincide with the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration; it includes the fabric of his top hat (beaver fur) down to his shoe size (10C).
But missing and hardly mentioned are what could be the two most famous remnants of Kennedy's last day. The pink suit, blood-stained and perfectly preserved in a vault in Maryland, is banned from public display for 100 years. The pillbox hat — removed at Parkland Hospital while Mrs. Kennedy waited for doctors to confirm what she already knew — is lost, last known to be in the hands of her personal secretary, who won't discuss its whereabouts.
Does it matter? Should it? It's said that history takes a generation to decant, and great chapters are defined by the trappings of everyday life: a stovepipe hat, a pair of polio braces. Mrs. Kennedy could not have imagined the outfit she put on that morning would come to epitomize the essence of Camelot and the death of it....
An expanded collection of Kennedy treasures and trivia was unveiled this month on exhibit and online to coincide with the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration; it includes the fabric of his top hat (beaver fur) down to his shoe size (10C).
But missing and hardly mentioned are what could be the two most famous remnants of Kennedy's last day. The pink suit, blood-stained and perfectly preserved in a vault in Maryland, is banned from public display for 100 years. The pillbox hat — removed at Parkland Hospital while Mrs. Kennedy waited for doctors to confirm what she already knew — is lost, last known to be in the hands of her personal secretary, who won't discuss its whereabouts.
Does it matter? Should it? It's said that history takes a generation to decant, and great chapters are defined by the trappings of everyday life: a stovepipe hat, a pair of polio braces. Mrs. Kennedy could not have imagined the outfit she put on that morning would come to epitomize the essence of Camelot and the death of it....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 21:57
Name of source: AFP
SOURCE: AFP (1-25-11)
Israeli archaeologists have finished work on a tunnel which starts at a site near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound inside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, officials said on Tuesday.
The controversial 600-metre (-yard) tunnel, originally built as a drainage channel during the Second Temple period, starts at an archaeological site just south of the area known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, which houses the third holiest site in Islam.
"After works which lasted seven years, the last part of the tunnel, which is 600 metres (yards) long and was used for draining rainwater during the Second Temple period, has been cleared," an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) spokesman said.
He told AFP the project was "purely archaeological" and that the tunnel "does not go under the Temple Mount" -- the Jewish term for the site which formerly housed the Second Temple but is now the site of the mosque plaza.
The tunnel leads to the City of David, an archaeological site run by ideological Jewish settlers located in the volatile neighbourhood of Silwan which lies just outside Dung Gate, immediately south of the Old City walls.
The project, started in 2004, has sparked controversy due to its proximity to the mosque compound and its funding from Elad, a hardline settler group which seeks to expand Jewish presence in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem....
The controversial 600-metre (-yard) tunnel, originally built as a drainage channel during the Second Temple period, starts at an archaeological site just south of the area known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, which houses the third holiest site in Islam.
"After works which lasted seven years, the last part of the tunnel, which is 600 metres (yards) long and was used for draining rainwater during the Second Temple period, has been cleared," an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) spokesman said.
He told AFP the project was "purely archaeological" and that the tunnel "does not go under the Temple Mount" -- the Jewish term for the site which formerly housed the Second Temple but is now the site of the mosque plaza.
The tunnel leads to the City of David, an archaeological site run by ideological Jewish settlers located in the volatile neighbourhood of Silwan which lies just outside Dung Gate, immediately south of the Old City walls.
The project, started in 2004, has sparked controversy due to its proximity to the mosque compound and its funding from Elad, a hardline settler group which seeks to expand Jewish presence in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 11:19
SOURCE: AFP (1-25-11)
Israeli archaeologists have finished work on a tunnel which starts at a site near the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound inside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, officials said on Tuesday.
The controversial 600-metre (-yard) tunnel, originally built as a drainage channel during the Second Temple period, starts at an archaeological site just south of the area known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, which houses the third holiest site in Islam.
The tunnel leads to the City of David, an archaeological site run by ideological Jewish settlers located in the volatile neighbourhood of Silwan which lies just outside Dung Gate, immediately south of the Old City walls....
The controversial 600-metre (-yard) tunnel, originally built as a drainage channel during the Second Temple period, starts at an archaeological site just south of the area known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, which houses the third holiest site in Islam.
The tunnel leads to the City of David, an archaeological site run by ideological Jewish settlers located in the volatile neighbourhood of Silwan which lies just outside Dung Gate, immediately south of the Old City walls....
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 21:22
Name of source: The State (South Carolina)
SOURCE: The State (South Carolina) (1-21-11)
For the past two days, a sign on the cafeteria door at Hammond School read, “Jews and dogs not allowed.”
The sign was part of the sixth-grade’s simulation of 1930s Germany in which students were divided into two groups – Nazis and Jews.
The students portraying Nazis spent a day as a privileged class, sitting in front rows, serving as teachers’ pets and being told they were smart. Meanwhile, the students who portrayed Jews ate in silence in the hallways, sat on the floor in the backs of classrooms and wore stars pinned to their shirts, said Karen Shull, the sixth-grade English teacher who created the simulation.
Such simulations are performed in schools across the country as a way of teaching that prejudice can be casual and easy to adopt. While Hammond’s program is highly structured and appears to generate little criticism, education experts say similar simulations have gotten out of hand and been harmful to students. They urge schools to proceed with caution when planning them....
The sign was part of the sixth-grade’s simulation of 1930s Germany in which students were divided into two groups – Nazis and Jews.
The students portraying Nazis spent a day as a privileged class, sitting in front rows, serving as teachers’ pets and being told they were smart. Meanwhile, the students who portrayed Jews ate in silence in the hallways, sat on the floor in the backs of classrooms and wore stars pinned to their shirts, said Karen Shull, the sixth-grade English teacher who created the simulation.
Such simulations are performed in schools across the country as a way of teaching that prejudice can be casual and easy to adopt. While Hammond’s program is highly structured and appears to generate little criticism, education experts say similar simulations have gotten out of hand and been harmful to students. They urge schools to proceed with caution when planning them....
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - 11:08
Name of source: Reuters
SOURCE: Reuters (1-24-11)
A German foundation rejected Monday an Egyptian request to return the 3,400-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti, a sculpture which draws over one million viewers annually to a Berlin museum.
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) sent the request to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs the Neues Museum in the German capital where the bust is kept.
Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, appealed to the foundation seeking the return of the bust, famed for its almond-shaped eyes and swan-like neck. However, the foundation said it did not consider the letter an official state request as it had not been signed by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif....
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) sent the request to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which runs the Neues Museum in the German capital where the bust is kept.
Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, appealed to the foundation seeking the return of the bust, famed for its almond-shaped eyes and swan-like neck. However, the foundation said it did not consider the letter an official state request as it had not been signed by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif....
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 21:21
Name of source: ABC News
SOURCE: ABC News (1-24-11)
Egypt's antiquities chief says government asking Berlin to return Nefertiti bust
Egypt's top archaeologist has formally requested the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti that has been in a Berlin museum for decades, the latest move in his eight-year-old campaign to bring home ancient artifacts spirited out of the country during colonial times.
The bust dates back to the time of the 14th century B.C. queen and tops Egypt's wish list of artifacts that Zahi Hawass wants to see back home. The bust is currently at Berlin's Neues Museum.
Hawass, whose Indiana Jones hat has made him an instantly recognizable world figure, said his campaign has returned some 5,000 artifacts to Egypt from museums and private collections the world over since its launch in 2002.
His request for the Nefertiti bust, he added, was officially made after the approval of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Culture Minister Farouq Hosny.....
Egypt's top archaeologist has formally requested the return of the 3,300-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti that has been in a Berlin museum for decades, the latest move in his eight-year-old campaign to bring home ancient artifacts spirited out of the country during colonial times.
The bust dates back to the time of the 14th century B.C. queen and tops Egypt's wish list of artifacts that Zahi Hawass wants to see back home. The bust is currently at Berlin's Neues Museum.
Hawass, whose Indiana Jones hat has made him an instantly recognizable world figure, said his campaign has returned some 5,000 artifacts to Egypt from museums and private collections the world over since its launch in 2002.
His request for the Nefertiti bust, he added, was officially made after the approval of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Culture Minister Farouq Hosny.....
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 21:20
