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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: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-6-11)
China is to rebuild Burma's historic 'Stilwell Road', the route from India used by British and American forces to supply Chinese troops in the battle against Japanese occupation during the Second World War.
The road was named after American General 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell by nationalist China leader Chiang Kai-shek to honour his determination to find a faster way to get more military supplies from India to Chinese troops in Kunming.
Allied forces had been hampered after Japanese troops seized the Burma Road, and were forced to transport supplies to their Chinese allies by air over the Himalayan mountains. US Army engineers started work on the 478 mile road from Ledo in Assam (now in Arunachal Pradesh), India, to Mogaung in Burma in 1942.
The road is now set to be rebuilt by the Yunnan Construction Engineering Company in a joint venture with the Burmese military-backed Yuzana Group....
The road was named after American General 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell by nationalist China leader Chiang Kai-shek to honour his determination to find a faster way to get more military supplies from India to Chinese troops in Kunming.
Allied forces had been hampered after Japanese troops seized the Burma Road, and were forced to transport supplies to their Chinese allies by air over the Himalayan mountains. US Army engineers started work on the 478 mile road from Ledo in Assam (now in Arunachal Pradesh), India, to Mogaung in Burma in 1942.
The road is now set to be rebuilt by the Yunnan Construction Engineering Company in a joint venture with the Burmese military-backed Yuzana Group....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 21:17
Comments
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-6-10)
Alexandre Jardin, a top French novelist, has blamed his grandfather for the biggest wartime round up of French Jews, igniting a literary and family row as historians and critics trade blows over whether he has re-written history to suit the story.
Until now, Mr Jardin has been known for a string of fluffy, feel-good bestsellers in which he often makes light of his family.
But in his latest book, Very Nice People, out next week, he launches a scathing attack on his grandfather, Jean Jardin, who was chef de cabinetof Pierre Laval - prime minister of the collaborationist Vichy government – from April 1942 to October 1943.
Historians and writers – including Alexandre's own father – have concurred that Jean Jardin was a relatively minor figure in the Vichy government. He was pardoned of any wrongdoing after helping the Resistance later in the war from his base in Switzerland. He went on to be a financier and was close to several top politicians, including François Mitterrand, the former president. He was also a friend of Coco Chanel.
But Alexandre Jardin insists these accounts are indulgent, and that his grandfather was instrumental in the Vél' d'Hiv' roundup, in which around 13,000 French Jews, including more than 4,000 children, were arrested in Paris and placed in a bicycle racetrack and the nearby Drancy internment camp. Most died in Auschwitz....
Until now, Mr Jardin has been known for a string of fluffy, feel-good bestsellers in which he often makes light of his family.
But in his latest book, Very Nice People, out next week, he launches a scathing attack on his grandfather, Jean Jardin, who was chef de cabinetof Pierre Laval - prime minister of the collaborationist Vichy government – from April 1942 to October 1943.
Historians and writers – including Alexandre's own father – have concurred that Jean Jardin was a relatively minor figure in the Vichy government. He was pardoned of any wrongdoing after helping the Resistance later in the war from his base in Switzerland. He went on to be a financier and was close to several top politicians, including François Mitterrand, the former president. He was also a friend of Coco Chanel.
But Alexandre Jardin insists these accounts are indulgent, and that his grandfather was instrumental in the Vél' d'Hiv' roundup, in which around 13,000 French Jews, including more than 4,000 children, were arrested in Paris and placed in a bicycle racetrack and the nearby Drancy internment camp. Most died in Auschwitz....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 21:14
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-6-11)
A little known drawing kept in a provincial British museum has been revealed to depict the product of a meeting between two of the country's most beloved and famous artistes.
The sparse sketch by John Constable has been identified as showing another 19th century artistic great - the poet William Wordsworth.
The drawing belonging to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, Devon, was being formatted for inclusion on the museum's website when the curator of art, John Madin, noticed the sitter's resemblance to other known images of the poet.
The National Portrait Gallery has now confirmed that the man in the drawing is Wordsworth, famous for works such as I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
It is thought the drawing commemorates a meeting between the two in September 1806, when Constable visited the Lake District on a sketching tour.
"At that time Wordsworth was living at Dove Cottage in Grasmere and they met at a social gathering at nearby Brathay Hall where Constable was staying," a museum spokesman said....
The sparse sketch by John Constable has been identified as showing another 19th century artistic great - the poet William Wordsworth.
The drawing belonging to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, Devon, was being formatted for inclusion on the museum's website when the curator of art, John Madin, noticed the sitter's resemblance to other known images of the poet.
The National Portrait Gallery has now confirmed that the man in the drawing is Wordsworth, famous for works such as I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
It is thought the drawing commemorates a meeting between the two in September 1806, when Constable visited the Lake District on a sketching tour.
"At that time Wordsworth was living at Dove Cottage in Grasmere and they met at a social gathering at nearby Brathay Hall where Constable was staying," a museum spokesman said....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 12:17
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-4-11)
A veteran of Republican presidential administrations, including those of Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, has been found dead in a dump in Delaware.
The body of John Wheeler III, who also helped lead efforts to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, was discovered on New Year's Eve as a rubbish truck emptied its contents at a landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide.
Wheeler, 66, retired from the military in 1971 and lived in Delaware state. He had worked in the Reagan Defence Department and also served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force in the George W Bush administration.
The former Army officer reportedly was last seen Dec. 28, on the train from Washington to the Delaware capital, Wilmington.
Police have determined that all the stops made Friday by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins, several miles from Wheeler's home....
The body of John Wheeler III, who also helped lead efforts to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, was discovered on New Year's Eve as a rubbish truck emptied its contents at a landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide.
Wheeler, 66, retired from the military in 1971 and lived in Delaware state. He had worked in the Reagan Defence Department and also served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force in the George W Bush administration.
The former Army officer reportedly was last seen Dec. 28, on the train from Washington to the Delaware capital, Wilmington.
Police have determined that all the stops made Friday by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins, several miles from Wheeler's home....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 15:54
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (1-6-11)
The isolated kingdom of Bhutan has opened its doors to a team of art experts in order to preserve its Buddhist history.
Working for the first time in collaboration with Bhutan's Department of Culture, conservators from The Courtauld Institute of Art in England have spent the last three years documenting some of the reclusive kingdom's most precious wall paintings.
According to Lisa Shekede, leader of the project, the wall paintings date from around the 17th century and are some of the best surviving works in the region.
The team visited over 200 temples -- sometimes trekking for an entire day to reach remote monasteries -- and documented around 50 paintings in detail....
Working for the first time in collaboration with Bhutan's Department of Culture, conservators from The Courtauld Institute of Art in England have spent the last three years documenting some of the reclusive kingdom's most precious wall paintings.
According to Lisa Shekede, leader of the project, the wall paintings date from around the 17th century and are some of the best surviving works in the region.
The team visited over 200 temples -- sometimes trekking for an entire day to reach remote monasteries -- and documented around 50 paintings in detail....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 21:06
SOURCE: CNN (1-5-11)
Austrian officials plan to exhume a mass grave near a psychiatric hospital that could contain victims of the Nazis' so-called euthanasia program.
Officials in the western Austrian city of Hall told UPI that they will begin digging in March, when the ground thaws. The process could take two years.
The Irish Times reported that construction workers at the hospital, about 6 miles east of Innsbruck, found 220 decomposed bodies while they were excavating the site for a new building.
Though Christian Haring, a director at the hospital, which is still in operation, told the Times it was unclear whether all the bodies were of euthanasia victims, historian Oliver Seifert told UPI that the bodies were buried between 1942 and 1945.
Seifert further told the Guardian in London that the death rate of patients at the hospital spiked toward the end of World War II, even though the hospital was not officially included in the Third Reich’s euthanasia program.
“We know that murder was actively carried out at other psychiatric institutions, by overdosing patients, neglect or undernourishment,” Seifert told the newspaper.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum says Adolf Hitler’s attending physicians “began to organize a secret killing operation targeting disabled children” in 1939. It was broadened to include disabled adults later that year, the center says....
Officials in the western Austrian city of Hall told UPI that they will begin digging in March, when the ground thaws. The process could take two years.
The Irish Times reported that construction workers at the hospital, about 6 miles east of Innsbruck, found 220 decomposed bodies while they were excavating the site for a new building.
Though Christian Haring, a director at the hospital, which is still in operation, told the Times it was unclear whether all the bodies were of euthanasia victims, historian Oliver Seifert told UPI that the bodies were buried between 1942 and 1945.
Seifert further told the Guardian in London that the death rate of patients at the hospital spiked toward the end of World War II, even though the hospital was not officially included in the Third Reich’s euthanasia program.
“We know that murder was actively carried out at other psychiatric institutions, by overdosing patients, neglect or undernourishment,” Seifert told the newspaper.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum says Adolf Hitler’s attending physicians “began to organize a secret killing operation targeting disabled children” in 1939. It was broadened to include disabled adults later that year, the center says....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 12:22
SOURCE: CNN (1-5-11)
Several million people will decide in the next week or so whether to give birth to the world's newest nation.
They will cast ballots on whether to declare independence at polling stations sprinkled across the vast, flat plains of Southern Sudan, an East African landscape long riven by chaos.
War and famine have ravaged generations in the south for as long as anyone can remember. Fighting forced more people from their homes than in any other nation on earth. Hope remained elusive.
Yet the vote has given many southerners the rare sense of exhilaration that is borne of new beginnings.
From January 9 to January 15, the black Christians and animists in the autonomous region of Southern Sudan will vote on whether to declare independence from a northern government dominated by Arab Muslims. The two sides fought a war that killed 2 million people from 1983 to 2005, when a peace treaty set the stage for the upcoming vote.
Nearly 4 million have registered to cast ballots. Few doubt the outcome.
They will cast ballots on whether to declare independence at polling stations sprinkled across the vast, flat plains of Southern Sudan, an East African landscape long riven by chaos.
War and famine have ravaged generations in the south for as long as anyone can remember. Fighting forced more people from their homes than in any other nation on earth. Hope remained elusive.
Yet the vote has given many southerners the rare sense of exhilaration that is borne of new beginnings.
From January 9 to January 15, the black Christians and animists in the autonomous region of Southern Sudan will vote on whether to declare independence from a northern government dominated by Arab Muslims. The two sides fought a war that killed 2 million people from 1983 to 2005, when a peace treaty set the stage for the upcoming vote.
Nearly 4 million have registered to cast ballots. Few doubt the outcome.
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 11:46
SOURCE: CNN (1-4-11)
A new tax on tourists to the Eternal City is causing controversy, with hotels expressing fears it could hurt their business and scare tourists away.
As of January 1, nonresidents of Rome must pay the extra charge when staying at a hotel or visiting any tourist site, such as a museum, that charges admission.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno introduced the tax law last year after the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi cut funding to Italian cities, including Rome, as part of austerity measures.
The new tax will cost 3 euros ($4) per person per night for four- and five-star hotels and 2 euros ($2.70) for lower categories. Small children are exempt.
The tax will also see an extra 1 euro ($1.35) charged at the city's museums and other tourist attractions.....
As of January 1, nonresidents of Rome must pay the extra charge when staying at a hotel or visiting any tourist site, such as a museum, that charges admission.
Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno introduced the tax law last year after the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi cut funding to Italian cities, including Rome, as part of austerity measures.
The new tax will cost 3 euros ($4) per person per night for four- and five-star hotels and 2 euros ($2.70) for lower categories. Small children are exempt.
The tax will also see an extra 1 euro ($1.35) charged at the city's museums and other tourist attractions.....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 15:48
SOURCE: CNN (1-4-11)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly appealed to President Barack Obama on Tuesday to release convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, promising Israel would never again spy on the United States in the way Pollard did.
The White House has received the letter and "will review it," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Tuesday.
Netanyahu agreed in December to formally request the release of Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who was caught spying for Israel in 1985 and was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment.
He has already served 25 years of his sentence....
The White House has received the letter and "will review it," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Tuesday.
Netanyahu agreed in December to formally request the release of Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who was caught spying for Israel in 1985 and was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment.
He has already served 25 years of his sentence....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 15:42
Name of source:
Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president-elect, has invited to her inauguration 11 women with whom she shared a prison cell in the 1970s.
A spokesman for Ms Rousseff said that the women were militants fighting the dictatorship, as Ms Rousseff herself was.
She said on Thursday that all 11 have accepted the invitation for the Jan. 1 inauguration.
Ms Rousseff joined the anti-dictatorship Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard at the age of 19. For three years she helped lead the organisation, instructed comrades on Marxist theory and wrote for an underground newspaper....
A spokesman for Ms Rousseff said that the women were militants fighting the dictatorship, as Ms Rousseff herself was.
She said on Thursday that all 11 have accepted the invitation for the Jan. 1 inauguration.
Ms Rousseff joined the anti-dictatorship Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard at the age of 19. For three years she helped lead the organisation, instructed comrades on Marxist theory and wrote for an underground newspaper....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 17:10
Name of source: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News (1-6-11)
A new edition of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is causing controversy because of the removal of a racially offensive word.
Twain scholar Alan Gribben says the use of the word "nigger" had prompted many US schools to stop teaching the classic.
In his edition, Professor Gribben replaces the word with "slave" and also changes "injun" to "Indian".
But the publisher says hundreds of people have complained about the edits.
First published in 1884, Huckleberry Finn is considered one of the great American novels.
While telling the story of a boy's journey down the Mississippi River some time between 1835 and 1845, the novel satirises Southern attitudes on race and slavery.
History of controversy
"The book is an anti-racist book and to change the language changes the power of the book," said Cindy Lovell, executive director of The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri....
Twain scholar Alan Gribben says the use of the word "nigger" had prompted many US schools to stop teaching the classic.
In his edition, Professor Gribben replaces the word with "slave" and also changes "injun" to "Indian".
But the publisher says hundreds of people have complained about the edits.
First published in 1884, Huckleberry Finn is considered one of the great American novels.
While telling the story of a boy's journey down the Mississippi River some time between 1835 and 1845, the novel satirises Southern attitudes on race and slavery.
History of controversy
"The book is an anti-racist book and to change the language changes the power of the book," said Cindy Lovell, executive director of The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 17:10
SOURCE: BBC News (1-6-11)
He was famous for painting the town red, but now a mural of George Best in his native east Belfast has been painted out of history.
The mural of the former Manchester United legend on the Woodstock Road was a popular attraction for tourists from around the world.
But now a decision has been made to replace it with another, to the concern of a number of people in the area.
Andy Moorhead of East Belfast Alternatives, which is in charge of the mural, explained the reasoning behind the change.
"We were trying to show the world and the rest of Northern Ireland and east Belfast there are more people from east Belfast contributing than just George Best," he said.
"It wasn't anything personal against George.
"We have had a few people saying they are sad to see George is down, he has put east Belfast on the map.
The mural of the former Manchester United legend on the Woodstock Road was a popular attraction for tourists from around the world.
But now a decision has been made to replace it with another, to the concern of a number of people in the area.
Andy Moorhead of East Belfast Alternatives, which is in charge of the mural, explained the reasoning behind the change.
"We were trying to show the world and the rest of Northern Ireland and east Belfast there are more people from east Belfast contributing than just George Best," he said.
"It wasn't anything personal against George.
"We have had a few people saying they are sad to see George is down, he has put east Belfast on the map.
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 11:43
SOURCE: BBC News (1-4-11)
Officials in western Austria say exhumations are to take place at a psychiatric hospital thought to contain the remains of Nazi victims.
The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Tyrol province and the hospital believes many died as part of the Nazi euthanasia programme.
A planned construction project has been halted to allow a full investigation.
Thousands of people with physical or mental disabilities were killed by the Nazis who saw them as unfit to live.
Some 30,000 were killed at one psychiatric hospital alone - Schloss Hartheim, near Linz in upper Austria....
The remains of 220 people are buried at a cemetery in Hall in Tyrol province and the hospital believes many died as part of the Nazi euthanasia programme.
A planned construction project has been halted to allow a full investigation.
Thousands of people with physical or mental disabilities were killed by the Nazis who saw them as unfit to live.
Some 30,000 were killed at one psychiatric hospital alone - Schloss Hartheim, near Linz in upper Austria....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 10:00
Name of source: UPI
SOURCE: UPI (1-3-11)
Archaeologists in Iraq have begun working to protect and restore parts of ancient Babylon for the first time since the 2003 U.S. invasion, officials said.
The World Monuments Fund, working with Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, has created a conservation proposal to halt any further deterioration of Babylon's mud-brick ruins, The New York Times reported.
In November, the U.S. State Department announced a $2 million grant to start efforts to preserve the site's best-surviving ruins.
The aim of these efforts is to prepare the site and other ruins for what Iraqi officials hope will someday be a flood of scientists, scholars and tourists that could contribute to Iraq's economic revival....
The World Monuments Fund, working with Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, has created a conservation proposal to halt any further deterioration of Babylon's mud-brick ruins, The New York Times reported.
In November, the U.S. State Department announced a $2 million grant to start efforts to preserve the site's best-surviving ruins.
The aim of these efforts is to prepare the site and other ruins for what Iraqi officials hope will someday be a flood of scientists, scholars and tourists that could contribute to Iraq's economic revival....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 17:10
Name of source: The Times-Picayune
SOURCE: The Times-Picayune (1-3-11)
More than a century before the first modern-day civil rights march, there was Charles Deslondes and his make-do army of more than 200 enslaved men battling with hoes, axes and cane knives for that most basic human right: freedom.
They spoke different languages, came from various parts of the United States, Africa and Haiti, and lived miles apart on plantations along the German Coast of Louisiana. Yet after years of planning at clandestine meetings under the constant threat of immediate death, they staged a revolt on Jan. 8, 1811, that historians say is the largest uprising of enslaved people in this country.
To mark the 200 year anniversary of that revolt, Destrehan Plantation, in conjunction with Tulane University and the African American Museum, located in Treme, is organizing a yearlong look at the uprising that reverberated around the fledgling nation because of the large number of enslaved people involved, its military strategy and oddly enough, because it demonstrated that all was not well among those held in bondage.
The revolt, which started in St. John the Baptist Parish about 30 miles west of New Orleans, also raised awareness of the harshness of the slave system and fueled the abolitionist movement, Taylor said.
It occurred just a year before Louisiana gained statehood and 50 years before Louisiana and 10 other southern states voted to secede from the union in favor of forming the Confederacy. One of the central issues driving the secession, historians say, was an attempt to keep slavery legal because of its huge economic benefits for farmers....
They spoke different languages, came from various parts of the United States, Africa and Haiti, and lived miles apart on plantations along the German Coast of Louisiana. Yet after years of planning at clandestine meetings under the constant threat of immediate death, they staged a revolt on Jan. 8, 1811, that historians say is the largest uprising of enslaved people in this country.
To mark the 200 year anniversary of that revolt, Destrehan Plantation, in conjunction with Tulane University and the African American Museum, located in Treme, is organizing a yearlong look at the uprising that reverberated around the fledgling nation because of the large number of enslaved people involved, its military strategy and oddly enough, because it demonstrated that all was not well among those held in bondage.
The revolt, which started in St. John the Baptist Parish about 30 miles west of New Orleans, also raised awareness of the harshness of the slave system and fueled the abolitionist movement, Taylor said.
It occurred just a year before Louisiana gained statehood and 50 years before Louisiana and 10 other southern states voted to secede from the union in favor of forming the Confederacy. One of the central issues driving the secession, historians say, was an attempt to keep slavery legal because of its huge economic benefits for farmers....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 17:09
Name of source: Haaretz (Israel)
SOURCE: Haaretz (Israel) (1-5-11)
Over 915,000 visitors viewed exhibit in 2010, with 28% from Berlin, just under 40% from the rest of Germany and some 32% from abroad.
The exhibition "Hitler and the Germans" in Berlin has been extended by three weeks because of the throngs of visitors it continues to attract, the German Historical Museum announced on Wednesday.
Instead of ending on February 6, it will now close on February 27.
The exhibition features 600 objects and 400 photos in documenting how Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler could draw on the loyalty of average Germans during his 12-year reign (1933-1945).
The show has been a boon to the museum, setting a visitor record last year....
The exhibition "Hitler and the Germans" in Berlin has been extended by three weeks because of the throngs of visitors it continues to attract, the German Historical Museum announced on Wednesday.
Instead of ending on February 6, it will now close on February 27.
The exhibition features 600 objects and 400 photos in documenting how Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler could draw on the loyalty of average Germans during his 12-year reign (1933-1945).
The show has been a boon to the museum, setting a visitor record last year....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 17:08
Name of source: National Parks Traveler
SOURCE: National Parks Traveler (1-6-11)
During 2011-2015, the Civil War will be commemorated with special events in more than 70 Civil War-related national parks. This month's schedule includes highlighted events in four different parks.
A Great Opportunity
The National Park System's large complement of Civil War-related sites and related human and cultural resources ensure that the National Park Service and its partners will have a prominent role to play in the Civil War sesquicentennial commemoration that gets underway this year and continues through 2015.
The National Park Service sees this as a great opportunity to help the current generation of Americans learn about this country's greatest national crisis and explore the Civil War's enduring relevance in the 21st century.
Towards this end the agency has planned for improved interpretative programs and special commemorative activities at Civil War-related sites....
A Great Opportunity
The National Park System's large complement of Civil War-related sites and related human and cultural resources ensure that the National Park Service and its partners will have a prominent role to play in the Civil War sesquicentennial commemoration that gets underway this year and continues through 2015.
The National Park Service sees this as a great opportunity to help the current generation of Americans learn about this country's greatest national crisis and explore the Civil War's enduring relevance in the 21st century.
Towards this end the agency has planned for improved interpretative programs and special commemorative activities at Civil War-related sites....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 17:08
SOURCE: National Parks Traveler (1-2-11)
We usually think of the National Park Service as being in charge of campsites, not camp sites. As part of its mandate to preserve and protect sites of historical and cultural significance, the Park Service's Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program has awarded $3,895,000 in federal funds to private nonprofit organizations; educational institutions, and; state, local, and tribal governments to preserve and provide interpretation resources to the 10 relocation camps scattered in the West.
Heart Mountain, Wyoming
The largest of this year’s grants — $832,879 — goes to the nonprofit Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. On a cold, windy day last winter, I visited the Heart Mountain site between Cody and Powell, Wyoming. The experience was moving, shattering, and belatedly embarrassing for the way our government treated its own citizens — alas, neither the first nor the last time it has done so. Thanks to an earlier grant and the efforts of local volunteers, the meaningfulness of Heart Mountain is finally gaining traction. A lot of work has been done since my visit, and the new grant will help even more. The center’s motto is “Lessons From The Past – Guidance For The Future.” If only.
My visit, which I blogged about here, also had a beacon of inspiration in the person of LaDonna Zall, a diminutive retired phys-ed teacher who witnessed internees boarding trains to leave the camp soon after the war....
Heart Mountain, Wyoming
The largest of this year’s grants — $832,879 — goes to the nonprofit Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. On a cold, windy day last winter, I visited the Heart Mountain site between Cody and Powell, Wyoming. The experience was moving, shattering, and belatedly embarrassing for the way our government treated its own citizens — alas, neither the first nor the last time it has done so. Thanks to an earlier grant and the efforts of local volunteers, the meaningfulness of Heart Mountain is finally gaining traction. A lot of work has been done since my visit, and the new grant will help even more. The center’s motto is “Lessons From The Past – Guidance For The Future.” If only.
My visit, which I blogged about here, also had a beacon of inspiration in the person of LaDonna Zall, a diminutive retired phys-ed teacher who witnessed internees boarding trains to leave the camp soon after the war....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 18:37
SOURCE: National Parks Traveler (1-4-11)
This year the U.S. Postal Service will issue stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of two important Civil War events, the beginning of the war and the first great land battle. National parks preserve the sites of both of these events.
The Confederacy was launched soon after South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, and the Civil War got underway four month later. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, forcing its surrender the next day. No longer a war of words centered on the slavery issue, the Civil War was now a shooting war. Both sides raised armies of eager volunteers who believed that the war would soon be over, and with few casualties to count.
These beliefs were put to a severe test on July 21, 1861, when the first major land battle was fought at Manassas, Virginia. The First Battle of Bull Run -- called the First Battle of Manassas or just "First Manassas" in the South -- yielded a Confederate victory, thousands of casualties, and the sobering realization that both the North and the South might have to raise huge armies, shift their economies to a war footing, and fight a long and costly war.
That's exactly what happened. Union and Confederate forces ended up pounding away at each other in more than 10,000 skirmishes and battles fought in two major theaters during a war that dragged on for four long years, destroyed vast amounts of property, and cost more than 600,000 human lives.
The Civil War was certainly a watershed event in American history. More than just preserving the Union and ending slavery, it also reshaped the national economy, transformed the culture of the South, accelerated technological progress, and profoundly impacted millions of lives for both good and ill....
The Confederacy was launched soon after South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, and the Civil War got underway four month later. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, forcing its surrender the next day. No longer a war of words centered on the slavery issue, the Civil War was now a shooting war. Both sides raised armies of eager volunteers who believed that the war would soon be over, and with few casualties to count.
These beliefs were put to a severe test on July 21, 1861, when the first major land battle was fought at Manassas, Virginia. The First Battle of Bull Run -- called the First Battle of Manassas or just "First Manassas" in the South -- yielded a Confederate victory, thousands of casualties, and the sobering realization that both the North and the South might have to raise huge armies, shift their economies to a war footing, and fight a long and costly war.
That's exactly what happened. Union and Confederate forces ended up pounding away at each other in more than 10,000 skirmishes and battles fought in two major theaters during a war that dragged on for four long years, destroyed vast amounts of property, and cost more than 600,000 human lives.
The Civil War was certainly a watershed event in American history. More than just preserving the Union and ending slavery, it also reshaped the national economy, transformed the culture of the South, accelerated technological progress, and profoundly impacted millions of lives for both good and ill....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 10:21
Name of source: Polskie Radio (Poland)
SOURCE: Polskie Radio (Poland) (1-6-11)
Roman legionary quarters have been discovered on the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea by Polish archeologists.
A team of Polish archeologists supervised by Radoslaw Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski
from the Archeology Institute at the University of Warsaw have discovered a house of a Roman legionary consisting of several spacious rooms in Balaklava in the Crimea.
“The discovery suggests that there must have been a Roman fort here. We aren’t sure yet how big it was and where the borders were but we hope to find an answer to these questions,” says Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski.
The archeologists established that in 1 A.D. a settlement on the Crimean peninsula, which was later to become Balaklava, was burnt. In 2 A.D. it was conquered by the Romans who built the fort including legionary quarters.
A team of Polish archeologists supervised by Radoslaw Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski
from the Archeology Institute at the University of Warsaw have discovered a house of a Roman legionary consisting of several spacious rooms in Balaklava in the Crimea.
“The discovery suggests that there must have been a Roman fort here. We aren’t sure yet how big it was and where the borders were but we hope to find an answer to these questions,” says Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski.
The archeologists established that in 1 A.D. a settlement on the Crimean peninsula, which was later to become Balaklava, was burnt. In 2 A.D. it was conquered by the Romans who built the fort including legionary quarters.
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 12:28
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (1-6-11)
The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.
The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.
A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.
The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.
Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy....
The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.
A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.
The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.
Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy....
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 11:51
SOURCE: AP (12-26-10)
BOSTON – Growing up in segregated Memphis, Tenn., during the Jim Crow era, Augustus White III knew about those certain places off-limits to him as a black man — restrooms, diners and schools.
He just didn't pay racial barriers much mind.
The son of a doctor and teacher became the first African-American to graduate from Stanford Medical School, the first African-American resident and surgery professor at Yale and later the first black department head at Harvard's teaching hospitals.
Now 74 and one of the nation's leading orthopedic surgeons, White is releasing a memoir on his life. The book, "Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care" (Harvard University Press, $27.95), is also a call for more diversity in the medical field and the end to health care disparities, something the Harvard professor calls "the last frontier of racial prejudice."...
He just didn't pay racial barriers much mind.
The son of a doctor and teacher became the first African-American to graduate from Stanford Medical School, the first African-American resident and surgery professor at Yale and later the first black department head at Harvard's teaching hospitals.
Now 74 and one of the nation's leading orthopedic surgeons, White is releasing a memoir on his life. The book, "Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care" (Harvard University Press, $27.95), is also a call for more diversity in the medical field and the end to health care disparities, something the Harvard professor calls "the last frontier of racial prejudice."...
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:27
Name of source: Spiegel Online
SOURCE: Spiegel Online (1-5-11)
Not many people want to live in the isolated tracts of Siberia, where temperatures can fall to minus 40. But for the Old Believers, members of an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church who were persecuted by the Soviets, it's paradise. Now Moscow is trying to lure the deeply devout ethnic Russians back out of exile in a bid to repopulate the region.
With his white beard and felt jacket, Fjodor Kilin looks like he has stepped straight out of an oil painting by an old Russian master. The 70-year-old stands in front of a plain icon of the Virgin Mary. His melodious voice fills the farmer's cottage. He is speaking a soft Old Church Slavonic that few Russians know anymore, tinged with a Spanish accent.
A year ago, Fjodor and his wife Tatjana packed all their worldly belongings and their passports, which were issued in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, to journey to the land of their forefathers, a country they had never seen before. From the subtropical lands on the border with Argentina, they traveled to Siberia in Asia.
The Russian government helped them start a new life. In June 2007, Moscow set up a program designed to lure exiled ethnic Russians scattered around the globe back to their homeland, particularly to Siberia, which is becoming increasingly depopulated.
All manner of people are required in Siberia, even those like Fjodor and Tatjana. The two are Old Believers, members of an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church who were persecuted by the Soviets. The Russian government hopes to attract 300,000 returnees by 2012. However, only 20,000 have come home so far....
With his white beard and felt jacket, Fjodor Kilin looks like he has stepped straight out of an oil painting by an old Russian master. The 70-year-old stands in front of a plain icon of the Virgin Mary. His melodious voice fills the farmer's cottage. He is speaking a soft Old Church Slavonic that few Russians know anymore, tinged with a Spanish accent.
A year ago, Fjodor and his wife Tatjana packed all their worldly belongings and their passports, which were issued in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, to journey to the land of their forefathers, a country they had never seen before. From the subtropical lands on the border with Argentina, they traveled to Siberia in Asia.
The Russian government helped them start a new life. In June 2007, Moscow set up a program designed to lure exiled ethnic Russians scattered around the globe back to their homeland, particularly to Siberia, which is becoming increasingly depopulated.
All manner of people are required in Siberia, even those like Fjodor and Tatjana. The two are Old Believers, members of an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church who were persecuted by the Soviets. The Russian government hopes to attract 300,000 returnees by 2012. However, only 20,000 have come home so far....
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - 14:05
SOURCE: Spiegel Online (1-3-11)
Hitler salutes in the street and firing practice in the forest: Neo-Nazis have taken over an entire village in Germany, and authorities appear to have given up efforts to combat the problem. The place has come to symbolize the far right's growing influence in parts of the former communist east.
Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer have been working on their life's dream for six years, renovating a house in the woods near Jamel, a tiny village near Wismar in the far northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Birgit Lohmeyer writes crime novels, her husband is a musician, and both try to pretend everything is normal here in Jamel.
It wasn't easy to find their new home. The Lohmeyers spent months driving out to the countryside every weekend, heading east from where they lived in Hamburg, but most of the houses they saw were too expensive. Then they came across the inexpensive red brick farmhouse in Jamel. Slightly run-down, but not far from the Baltic Sea, the house sits surrounded by lime and maple trees, near a lake....
Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer have been working on their life's dream for six years, renovating a house in the woods near Jamel, a tiny village near Wismar in the far northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Birgit Lohmeyer writes crime novels, her husband is a musician, and both try to pretend everything is normal here in Jamel.
It wasn't easy to find their new home. The Lohmeyers spent months driving out to the countryside every weekend, heading east from where they lived in Hamburg, but most of the houses they saw were too expensive. Then they came across the inexpensive red brick farmhouse in Jamel. Slightly run-down, but not far from the Baltic Sea, the house sits surrounded by lime and maple trees, near a lake....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 16:23
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (1-4-11)
The crime evoked a touch of nostalgia, tracing back to an era when political activism and crime sometimes went hand in hand. Hijackings, especially to Cuba, seemed commonplace.
Luis Armando Peña Soltren was one of three men accused of hijacking of Pan American Flight 281, bound for Puerto Rico but taken to Cuba on Nov. 24, 1968. The other two men have long since pleaded guilty and served their sentences.
After 40 years living as a fugitive in Cuba, Mr. Soltren, now 67, received his sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
He walked slowly into the courtroom, with short, silvery hair and bowed shoulders. Then he stood before Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein and read for 15 minutes from a piece of paper....
Luis Armando Peña Soltren was one of three men accused of hijacking of Pan American Flight 281, bound for Puerto Rico but taken to Cuba on Nov. 24, 1968. The other two men have long since pleaded guilty and served their sentences.
After 40 years living as a fugitive in Cuba, Mr. Soltren, now 67, received his sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
He walked slowly into the courtroom, with short, silvery hair and bowed shoulders. Then he stood before Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein and read for 15 minutes from a piece of paper....
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - 12:03
SOURCE: NYT (1-4-11)
MOSCOW — A couple of months ago one of Russia’s elder statesmen set out on a paradoxical mission: to rehabilitate one of the most beloved figures in Russian history, Tolstoy.
This would have seemed unnecessary in 2010, a century after the author’s death. But last year Russians wrestled over Tolstoy much as they did when he was alive. Intellectuals accused the Russian Orthodox Church of blacklisting a national hero. The church accused Tolstoy of helping speed the rise of the Bolsheviks. The melodrama of his last days, when he fled his family estate to take up the life of an ascetic, was revived in all its pulpy detail, like some kind of early-stage reality television.
And in a country that rarely passes up a public celebration, the anniversary of his death, on Nov. 20, 1910, was not commemorated by noisy galas or government-financed cinematic blockbusters. Officially speaking, it was barely noted at all.
With this in mind Sergei V. Stepashin, a former prime minister here, sat down to write to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become an arbiter of politics and culture. In painstakingly diplomatic language, acknowledging “the particular sensitivity” of “this delicate theme,” Mr. Stepashin asked forgiveness on behalf of Tolstoy, who was excommunicated 110 years ago....
This would have seemed unnecessary in 2010, a century after the author’s death. But last year Russians wrestled over Tolstoy much as they did when he was alive. Intellectuals accused the Russian Orthodox Church of blacklisting a national hero. The church accused Tolstoy of helping speed the rise of the Bolsheviks. The melodrama of his last days, when he fled his family estate to take up the life of an ascetic, was revived in all its pulpy detail, like some kind of early-stage reality television.
And in a country that rarely passes up a public celebration, the anniversary of his death, on Nov. 20, 1910, was not commemorated by noisy galas or government-financed cinematic blockbusters. Officially speaking, it was barely noted at all.
With this in mind Sergei V. Stepashin, a former prime minister here, sat down to write to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become an arbiter of politics and culture. In painstakingly diplomatic language, acknowledging “the particular sensitivity” of “this delicate theme,” Mr. Stepashin asked forgiveness on behalf of Tolstoy, who was excommunicated 110 years ago....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 11:48
SOURCE: NYT (1-1-11)
The Brooklyn Museum is preparing to return about 4,500 pre-Columbian artifacts taken from Costa Rica roughly a century ago.
Costa Rica had made no claim to the objects, which were exported in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Minor C. Keith, a railroad magnate and a founder of the United Fruit Company. And there were none of the conflicts, legal threats or philosophical debates that sometimes accompany arguments between museums and countries that claim ownership of antiquities in their collections.
Instead, the museum simply decided that its closets were too full, overstuffed with items acquired during an era when it aimed to become the biggest museum in the world. So it offered the pieces to the National Museum of Costa Rica, which accepted but has yet to raise the $59,000 needed to pack and ship the first batch....
Costa Rica had made no claim to the objects, which were exported in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Minor C. Keith, a railroad magnate and a founder of the United Fruit Company. And there were none of the conflicts, legal threats or philosophical debates that sometimes accompany arguments between museums and countries that claim ownership of antiquities in their collections.
Instead, the museum simply decided that its closets were too full, overstuffed with items acquired during an era when it aimed to become the biggest museum in the world. So it offered the pieces to the National Museum of Costa Rica, which accepted but has yet to raise the $59,000 needed to pack and ship the first batch....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 20:28
SOURCE: NYT (12-27-10)
BERLIN — It’s eerily quiet in the depths of the German Foreign Ministry, where tens of thousands of documents are filed away in narrow drawers. The documents consist of telegrams and reports filed by German ambassadors from all over the world as well as from diplomats based in Berlin.
One document on display tells of the Wannsee Conference in 1942. There, in a villa in southern Berlin, a group of top Nazi officials drew up plans for the “final solution of the Jewish question.”
They involved the deportation of the Jewish population of Europe and the French colonies of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, to German-occupied areas in Eastern Europe, where they were to be murdered. Jews were also forcibly conscripted into labor camps for building roads and other projects....
One document on display tells of the Wannsee Conference in 1942. There, in a villa in southern Berlin, a group of top Nazi officials drew up plans for the “final solution of the Jewish question.”
They involved the deportation of the Jewish population of Europe and the French colonies of North Africa, including Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, to German-occupied areas in Eastern Europe, where they were to be murdered. Jews were also forcibly conscripted into labor camps for building roads and other projects....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:33
Name of source: WaPo
SOURCE: WaPo (1-4-11)
The actual process is getting increasingly complicated -- the Senate's first "legislative day" might take a couple of weeks, for instance -- but Senate Democrats look to be pushing forward with their effort to reform the filibuster. Cue shock and horror. It's "a radical changing of the Senate's rules," writes Brian Darling, "a naked power grab." Democrats used much the same language in 2005, when Sen. Bill Frist sought to eliminate the filibuster on judicial nominations.
These majority-driven changes are power grabs, at least insofar as they're attempting to give the majority more power to pass their agenda. But they're rarely radical. The Senate has a long tradition of revising its rules. Senators were originally elected by state legislatures, but we tired of that in 1913 and ratified the 17th amendment, turning that power over to the voters. And the Senate kept changing in the years after that.
Generally, governmental dysfunction is frowned on, and efforts to eliminate it are embraced. But in the Senate, such things take on the sepia-toned glow of Tradition. Imagine if no agency decisions could be made without 60 percent of all employees in agreement, and even then, the decision would first have to be debated for two days and then debated for a further 30 hours after the vote. The rule would be used as grist for sweeping and constant critiques of federal inefficiency. But that same rule, applied to the Senate, has many defenders....
These majority-driven changes are power grabs, at least insofar as they're attempting to give the majority more power to pass their agenda. But they're rarely radical. The Senate has a long tradition of revising its rules. Senators were originally elected by state legislatures, but we tired of that in 1913 and ratified the 17th amendment, turning that power over to the voters. And the Senate kept changing in the years after that.
Generally, governmental dysfunction is frowned on, and efforts to eliminate it are embraced. But in the Senate, such things take on the sepia-toned glow of Tradition. Imagine if no agency decisions could be made without 60 percent of all employees in agreement, and even then, the decision would first have to be debated for two days and then debated for a further 30 hours after the vote. The rule would be used as grist for sweeping and constant critiques of federal inefficiency. But that same rule, applied to the Senate, has many defenders....
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - 11:56
Name of source: Hampton Roads Pilot
SOURCE: Hampton Roads Pilot (1-3-11)
Just about every corner of Virginia has historic significance - whether it's a site of a famous battle or the former residence of a groundbreaking musician.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that 12 new state historic highway markers have been approved, including ones in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
"Markers are a great way to bring people together and make them more aware of the history in their community," department spokesman Randy Jones said.
In Hampton Roads, two new markers will commemorate events from the War of 1812. One will be at Fort Norfolk, which was constructed by 1810 to guard the Elizabeth River approaches to Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Gosport Navy Yard....
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that 12 new state historic highway markers have been approved, including ones in Norfolk and Virginia Beach, by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
"Markers are a great way to bring people together and make them more aware of the history in their community," department spokesman Randy Jones said.
In Hampton Roads, two new markers will commemorate events from the War of 1812. One will be at Fort Norfolk, which was constructed by 1810 to guard the Elizabeth River approaches to Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Gosport Navy Yard....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 18:36
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (1-3-11)
Humankind's oldest known ancestor probably lived in fear of several large sabretooth cats that roamed the same ancient lakeside habitat in Africa.
Palaeontologists have identified two new sabretooth species among fossils unearthed at Toros Menalla in Chad.
In 2001, a team unearthed remains of a seven million-year-old human-like creature - or hominid - known as "Toumai" at the central African site.
Its discoverers argue that Toumai is the oldest hominid known to science.
The fossilised skull of Toumai (which means "hope of life" in the local Dazaga language of Chad) was found in the Djurab desert by a team led by Michael Brunet of the University of Poitiers, France....
Palaeontologists have identified two new sabretooth species among fossils unearthed at Toros Menalla in Chad.
In 2001, a team unearthed remains of a seven million-year-old human-like creature - or hominid - known as "Toumai" at the central African site.
Its discoverers argue that Toumai is the oldest hominid known to science.
The fossilised skull of Toumai (which means "hope of life" in the local Dazaga language of Chad) was found in the Djurab desert by a team led by Michael Brunet of the University of Poitiers, France....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 16:01
SOURCE: BBC (1-4-11)
A US man of Cuban origin has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for hijacking a plane from New York to Cuba in 1968.
Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 67, boarded the Puerto Rico-bound plane with a pistol and a knife.
He forced the pilots to divert the plane, carrying 103 passengers and crew, to Havana.
Pena Soltren returned to the US from Cuba in 2009 reportedly to see his family. He pleaded guilty last March.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit air piracy, interfering with a flight crew and kidnapping....
Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 67, boarded the Puerto Rico-bound plane with a pistol and a knife.
He forced the pilots to divert the plane, carrying 103 passengers and crew, to Havana.
Pena Soltren returned to the US from Cuba in 2009 reportedly to see his family. He pleaded guilty last March.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit air piracy, interfering with a flight crew and kidnapping....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 15:57
Name of source: Entertainment Weekly
SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly (1-3-11)
What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the “n” word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 15:21
Name of source: Huffington Post
SOURCE: Huffington Post (1-3-11)
WASHINGTON -- The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In a newly published interview in the legal magazine California Lawyer, Scalia said that while the Constitution does not disallow the passage of legislation outlawing such discrimination, it doesn't itself outlaw that behavior:
In 1868, when the 39th Congress was debating and ultimately proposing the 14th Amendment, I don't think anybody would have thought that equal protection applied to sex discrimination, or certainly not to sexual orientation. So does that mean that we've gone off in error by applying the 14th Amendment to both?Yes, yes. Sorry, to tell you that. ... But, you know, if indeed the current society has come to different views, that's fine. You do not need the Constitution to reflect the wishes of the current society. Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 12:58
Name of source: Discovery News
SOURCE: Discovery News (1-3-11)
The tomb of King Tut’s wife, a buried pyramid, the Great Pyramid’s secret doors, and the final resting place of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony: these discoveries could await us in 2011, according to Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Hawass, one of the world's leading Egyptologists, gave an exclusive interview to Discovery News at an exhibition of images from ancient Egypt taken by photographer Sandro Vannini. Hawass’ many-years-long effort to solve the mystery behind the Great Pyramid’s secret doors and Cleopatra’s burial place is well known.
Less publicized has been his search for a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings and a buried pyramid in the Dashur area.
“We took satellite images over an area in Dashur and we could see that a pyramid is buried underneath the ground. Right now we are excavating this pyramid,” Hawass told Discovery News.
Located some 50 miles south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Dashur is the site of several pyramids. The best known are the “Bent” pyramid, so named because of its sloping upper half, the “Red" pyramid, named after the reddish limestone from which it is built, and the “Black” pyramid of Amenemhat III.
Hawass believes the buried pyramid might belong to a king of the 13th Dynasty (1782-1650 BC), a period marked by rivalry over the throne, with many kings reigning for a short time....
Hawass, one of the world's leading Egyptologists, gave an exclusive interview to Discovery News at an exhibition of images from ancient Egypt taken by photographer Sandro Vannini. Hawass’ many-years-long effort to solve the mystery behind the Great Pyramid’s secret doors and Cleopatra’s burial place is well known.
Less publicized has been his search for a new tomb in the Valley of the Kings and a buried pyramid in the Dashur area.
“We took satellite images over an area in Dashur and we could see that a pyramid is buried underneath the ground. Right now we are excavating this pyramid,” Hawass told Discovery News.
Located some 50 miles south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Dashur is the site of several pyramids. The best known are the “Bent” pyramid, so named because of its sloping upper half, the “Red" pyramid, named after the reddish limestone from which it is built, and the “Black” pyramid of Amenemhat III.
Hawass believes the buried pyramid might belong to a king of the 13th Dynasty (1782-1650 BC), a period marked by rivalry over the throne, with many kings reigning for a short time....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 10:26
Name of source: The Independent (UK)
SOURCE: The Independent (UK) (1-4-11)
An isolated community near the Black Sea coast in a remote part of north-eastern Turkey has been found to speak a Greek dialect that is remarkably close to the extinct language of ancient Greece.
As few as 5,000 people speak the dialect but linguists believe that it is the closest, living language to ancient Greek and could provide an unprecedented insight into the language of Socrates and Plato and how it evolved.
The community lives in a cluster of villages near the Turkish city of Trabzon in what was once the ancient region of Pontus, a Greek colony that Jason and the Argonauts are supposed to have visited on their epic journey from Thessaly to recover the Golden Fleece from the land of Colchis (present-day Georgia). Pontus was also supposed to be the kingdom of the mythical Amazons, a fierce tribe of women who cut off their right breasts in order to handle their bows better in battle.
Linguists found that the dialect, Romeyka, a variety of Pontic Greek, has structural similarities to ancient Greek that are not observed in other forms of the language spoken today. Romeyka's vocabulary also has parallels with the ancient language.
Ioanna Sitaridou, a lecturer in romance philology at the University of Cambridge, said: "Romeyka preserves an impressive number of grammatical traits that add an ancient Greek flavour to the dialect's structure, traits that have been completely lost from other modern Greek varieties....
As few as 5,000 people speak the dialect but linguists believe that it is the closest, living language to ancient Greek and could provide an unprecedented insight into the language of Socrates and Plato and how it evolved.
The community lives in a cluster of villages near the Turkish city of Trabzon in what was once the ancient region of Pontus, a Greek colony that Jason and the Argonauts are supposed to have visited on their epic journey from Thessaly to recover the Golden Fleece from the land of Colchis (present-day Georgia). Pontus was also supposed to be the kingdom of the mythical Amazons, a fierce tribe of women who cut off their right breasts in order to handle their bows better in battle.
Linguists found that the dialect, Romeyka, a variety of Pontic Greek, has structural similarities to ancient Greek that are not observed in other forms of the language spoken today. Romeyka's vocabulary also has parallels with the ancient language.
Ioanna Sitaridou, a lecturer in romance philology at the University of Cambridge, said: "Romeyka preserves an impressive number of grammatical traits that add an ancient Greek flavour to the dialect's structure, traits that have been completely lost from other modern Greek varieties....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 10:25
Name of source: Anatolian News Agency
SOURCE: Anatolian News Agency (1-3-11)
Burial chambers of Urartian King Argishti and his family in the western wing of the ancient castle in the eastern province of Van was opened for the first time.
The Anatolia news agency took photographs and video of the burial chambers which were closed to visitors.
Centered around the Lake Van in the eastern Turkey, the Urartian Kingdom ruled from the mid 9th century BC till its defeat by Media in the early 6th century BC. The most splendid monuments of the Urartian Kingdom take place in Van since the city was the capital of the kingdom.
Built on a rocky peak, the castle, one of the most significant samples of the Urartian architecture, was brought to daylight during excavations headed by lecturer Altan Cilingiroglu of the Ege University. The castle draws hundreds of Turkish and foreign visitors each year.
Argishti I was the sixth known king of the ancient kingdom, reigning from 786 BC to 764 BC. As the son and the successor of Menua, he continued the series of conquests initiated by his predecessors. Victorious against Assyria, he conquered the northern part of Syria and made Urartu the most powerful state in the post-Hittite Near East....
The Anatolia news agency took photographs and video of the burial chambers which were closed to visitors.
Centered around the Lake Van in the eastern Turkey, the Urartian Kingdom ruled from the mid 9th century BC till its defeat by Media in the early 6th century BC. The most splendid monuments of the Urartian Kingdom take place in Van since the city was the capital of the kingdom.
Built on a rocky peak, the castle, one of the most significant samples of the Urartian architecture, was brought to daylight during excavations headed by lecturer Altan Cilingiroglu of the Ege University. The castle draws hundreds of Turkish and foreign visitors each year.
Argishti I was the sixth known king of the ancient kingdom, reigning from 786 BC to 764 BC. As the son and the successor of Menua, he continued the series of conquests initiated by his predecessors. Victorious against Assyria, he conquered the northern part of Syria and made Urartu the most powerful state in the post-Hittite Near East....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 10:24
Name of source: Daily Mail (UK)
SOURCE: Daily Mail (UK) (1-3-11)
The eldest son of Hitler‘s deputy Martin Bormann has been accused of sexually abusing a young boy when he was a priest 50 years ago.
Martin Bormann Jr., 80, who has struggled to come to terms with the murderous past of his father all his life, is said to be 'destroyed' by the allegations.
A 63-year-old man said his mistreatment at the hands of Bormann took place in the early 60s when he was a Catholic priest teaching at the Hearts of Jesus monastery in the Austrian city of Salzburg.
The man, a pupil at the monastery, claims the abuse went on for more than a year. Austrian media reported on Monday that the man is seriously ill and incapable of giving interviews.
But his lawyer said that his condition is related to what happened to him all those years ago - and the fact that no-one believed him when he complained, not even his mother and grandmother.
Through his lawyer he said; 'I was so badly injured that for four weeks I could not go to the toilet properly.'
'This abuse ruined his life,' said his lawyer who wants to remain anonymous.
'Both his private and professional life was overshadowed by what happened to him. He has no self respect and no self confidence.
'Although this man has marvellous gifts - to paint, to carve wood - and he can appear to be so very cultivated, his experiences as a child can destroy his mood in a second.'
He is one of hundreds of abuse victims who have lodged complaints with the church in Germany and Austria since widespread abuse and its cover-up over decades were revealed early in 2010....
Martin Bormann Jr., 80, who has struggled to come to terms with the murderous past of his father all his life, is said to be 'destroyed' by the allegations.
A 63-year-old man said his mistreatment at the hands of Bormann took place in the early 60s when he was a Catholic priest teaching at the Hearts of Jesus monastery in the Austrian city of Salzburg.
The man, a pupil at the monastery, claims the abuse went on for more than a year. Austrian media reported on Monday that the man is seriously ill and incapable of giving interviews.
But his lawyer said that his condition is related to what happened to him all those years ago - and the fact that no-one believed him when he complained, not even his mother and grandmother.
Through his lawyer he said; 'I was so badly injured that for four weeks I could not go to the toilet properly.'
'This abuse ruined his life,' said his lawyer who wants to remain anonymous.
'Both his private and professional life was overshadowed by what happened to him. He has no self respect and no self confidence.
'Although this man has marvellous gifts - to paint, to carve wood - and he can appear to be so very cultivated, his experiences as a child can destroy his mood in a second.'
He is one of hundreds of abuse victims who have lodged complaints with the church in Germany and Austria since widespread abuse and its cover-up over decades were revealed early in 2010....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011 - 10:19
Name of source: Guardian (UK)
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (1-3-11)
For centuries Spain's senior aristocrats, the grandees, ruled in feudal glory but a recent split in their governing body reveals they can no longer run even themselves.
A faction of grandees and nobles have walked out of the Deputation of the Grandees, the body that has represented them for the past two centuries, as tempers fray over changes to the rules governing the way titles are handed down.
"There is a split. Some of the oldest families are involved," said one of their leaders, the count of Bilbao, who did not want to give names.
At the root of the rebels' decision to abandon the governing body lies a 2006 law that abolished male primogeniture. Titles must now be passed down the eldest child, regardless of sex....
A faction of grandees and nobles have walked out of the Deputation of the Grandees, the body that has represented them for the past two centuries, as tempers fray over changes to the rules governing the way titles are handed down.
"There is a split. Some of the oldest families are involved," said one of their leaders, the count of Bilbao, who did not want to give names.
At the root of the rebels' decision to abandon the governing body lies a 2006 law that abolished male primogeniture. Titles must now be passed down the eldest child, regardless of sex....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 16:22
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (12-30-10)
A man who donated a kidney to his dying twin brother 56 years ago in the world's first successful organ transplant has died in the United States.
Ronald Lee Herrick died, aged 79, on Monday in the Augusta Rehabilitation Centre, a hospital in Maine, New England, following complications from heart surgery in October, his widow, Cynthia, said.
Herrick donated a kidney to his identical twin, Richard, in a pioneering operation on 23 December 1954....
Ronald Lee Herrick died, aged 79, on Monday in the Augusta Rehabilitation Centre, a hospital in Maine, New England, following complications from heart surgery in October, his widow, Cynthia, said.
Herrick donated a kidney to his identical twin, Richard, in a pioneering operation on 23 December 1954....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:50
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (12-22-10)
The north-west London zebra crossing traversed by the Beatles one bright morning 41 years ago - and visited by musical pilgrims ever since - has has been granted Grade II listing.
The heritage minister John Penrose took the unusual decision to protect the crossing, which provided the cover shot for Abbey Road album, following advice from English Heritage.
Although the listing is the first of its kind, the Abbey Road studios where the 1969 album was recorded, won similar recognition this February....
The heritage minister John Penrose took the unusual decision to protect the crossing, which provided the cover shot for Abbey Road album, following advice from English Heritage.
Although the listing is the first of its kind, the Abbey Road studios where the 1969 album was recorded, won similar recognition this February....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:29
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (12-26-10)
The British government opted for the Trident nuclear weapons system because it estimated it could kill up to 10 million Russians and inflict "unacceptable damage" on the former Soviet Union, according to secret Whitehall documents written in the 1970s.
The macabre calculations that underpinned the decision in 1980 to replace Polaris nuclear missiles with Trident have been revealed by a Ministry of Defence memo, marked "personal and top secret". In a nuclear war, Britain would have had to be prepared "to finish what we start", it said.
Other MoD documents set out in chilling detail exactly how an attack on Moscow and St Petersburg could cause enough death and destruction "to bring about the breakdown of the city as a functioning community".
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw an escalation of international tensions in the cold war between the Soviet bloc and the west. In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, prompting a US trade embargo and a mass boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980....
The macabre calculations that underpinned the decision in 1980 to replace Polaris nuclear missiles with Trident have been revealed by a Ministry of Defence memo, marked "personal and top secret". In a nuclear war, Britain would have had to be prepared "to finish what we start", it said.
Other MoD documents set out in chilling detail exactly how an attack on Moscow and St Petersburg could cause enough death and destruction "to bring about the breakdown of the city as a functioning community".
The late 1970s and early 1980s saw an escalation of international tensions in the cold war between the Soviet bloc and the west. In 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, prompting a US trade embargo and a mass boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:28
Name of source: The Nation
SOURCE: The Nation (12-16-10)
"The suffering of southerners was created in colonial times," says Peter Lam, a retired teacher in his 70s from Malakal, a trading town in Sudan where north meets south on the banks of the Nile River. As Sudan's second independence approaches, we are discussing the first, and what has gone wrong.
Lam tells me that Britain's colonial neglect of the south meant that when it came to negotiations for independence, southern "native chiefs" were conned by the sophisticated northern "teachers and philosophers" into accepting a deal that united the country under a single government in Khartoum. "When independence came we felt deceived by unity and we revolted," recalls Lam.
In fact, Sudan's civil war began in 1955, the year before the country gained independence. The people of southern Sudan, an oil-rich but terribly poor region where most of the 9 million or so inhabitants have either Christian or animist beliefs, say they never got their independence. That is why they fought the dominance of the Arab Muslims of northern Sudan for the better part of fifty years. At last, they believe, independence is coming. "Now is our real independence," Lam says with a broad smile. "The south has already gone."...
Lam tells me that Britain's colonial neglect of the south meant that when it came to negotiations for independence, southern "native chiefs" were conned by the sophisticated northern "teachers and philosophers" into accepting a deal that united the country under a single government in Khartoum. "When independence came we felt deceived by unity and we revolted," recalls Lam.
In fact, Sudan's civil war began in 1955, the year before the country gained independence. The people of southern Sudan, an oil-rich but terribly poor region where most of the 9 million or so inhabitants have either Christian or animist beliefs, say they never got their independence. That is why they fought the dominance of the Arab Muslims of northern Sudan for the better part of fifty years. At last, they believe, independence is coming. "Now is our real independence," Lam says with a broad smile. "The south has already gone."...
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 16:22
Name of source: Hurriyet Daily News
SOURCE: Hurriyet Daily News (12-27-10)
The ancient city of Germenicia, which has been underground for 1,500 years, is being unearthed thanks to mosaics found during an illegal excavation in 2007 under a house in Southeast Turkey. Excavations are ongoing in the area, with authorities aiming to completely reveal the mosaics and the city, and then turn the site into an open-air museum.
Mosaics found during an illegal excavation in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş have led to the unearthing of an ancient city called Germenicia, which remained underground for 1,500 years. The mosaics, found under a house in the Dulkadiroğulları neighborhood, are expected to shed light on the history of the city.
The Roman-era city of Germenicia was unearthed by chance during an illegal excavation in the basement of a house. Preliminary examinations showed that the mosaics were high-quality contemporaries of those unearthed in the ancient cities of Zeugma and Yamaçevler. The first steps have been taken to completely unearth Germenicia and its mosaics, with houses in the area expropriated by the Culture Ministry....
Mosaics found during an illegal excavation in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş have led to the unearthing of an ancient city called Germenicia, which remained underground for 1,500 years. The mosaics, found under a house in the Dulkadiroğulları neighborhood, are expected to shed light on the history of the city.
The Roman-era city of Germenicia was unearthed by chance during an illegal excavation in the basement of a house. Preliminary examinations showed that the mosaics were high-quality contemporaries of those unearthed in the ancient cities of Zeugma and Yamaçevler. The first steps have been taken to completely unearth Germenicia and its mosaics, with houses in the area expropriated by the Culture Ministry....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:47
Name of source: The Sun (UK)
SOURCE: The Sun (UK) (12-4-10)
THE relatives of three soldiers who perished in World War One are being urged to come forward - so the men can be buried with full military honours.
The bodies of the Lancashire Fusiliers have been uncovered during an archaeological dig in Belgium. Experts, who were searching for the remains of 22 soldiers killed in a skirmish with the Germans near the River Lys also uncovered the Fusiliers' cap badges....
The bodies of the Lancashire Fusiliers have been uncovered during an archaeological dig in Belgium. Experts, who were searching for the remains of 22 soldiers killed in a skirmish with the Germans near the River Lys also uncovered the Fusiliers' cap badges....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:44
Name of source: Balitmore Sun
SOURCE: Balitmore Sun (12-27-10)
This bombardment was led by one man — a crane operator who ripped into the brick building at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine at dawn's early light.
"He's doing what the British couldn't do," park ranger Scott Sheads said jokingly about the contractor hired to demolish the structure at the fort, which defended Baltimore's harbor against the invaders during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that would become the national anthem.
The 5,200-square-foot structure was the 1960s-era visitors center, demolished to make way for one three times its size due to fully open in March.
The old center was outdated within a few years of being constructed on the Locust Point peninsula and is now overwhelmed by the 650,000 people who visit annually. Sheads was ready for bombs bursting in air, but acknowledged the Locust Lane Farms crane operator was handling the job with precision, reducing much of the building to a pile of metal and brick in about an hour....
"He's doing what the British couldn't do," park ranger Scott Sheads said jokingly about the contractor hired to demolish the structure at the fort, which defended Baltimore's harbor against the invaders during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that would become the national anthem.
The 5,200-square-foot structure was the 1960s-era visitors center, demolished to make way for one three times its size due to fully open in March.
The old center was outdated within a few years of being constructed on the Locust Point peninsula and is now overwhelmed by the 650,000 people who visit annually. Sheads was ready for bombs bursting in air, but acknowledged the Locust Lane Farms crane operator was handling the job with precision, reducing much of the building to a pile of metal and brick in about an hour....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:42
Name of source: Kathimerini
SOURCE: Kathimerini (12-27-10)
The government has condemned televised remarks by a Greek orthodox bishop last week who blamed the country’s financial woes on a worldwide Jewish conspiracy while claiming that the Holocaust was orchestrated by Zionist organizations.
Interviewed last week on Mega TV, Seraphim of Piraeus also claimed there is a plan to enslave Greece and Orthodox Christians, while describing Adolf Hitler as “an instrument of world Zionism.”...
Interviewed last week on Mega TV, Seraphim of Piraeus also claimed there is a plan to enslave Greece and Orthodox Christians, while describing Adolf Hitler as “an instrument of world Zionism.”...
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:37
Name of source: Dallas Morning News
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News (12-27-10)
George Cone is among the legions of people urgently gathering the oral histories of World War II veterans before they die.
But Cone has taken his campaign a step further: He's also interviewing the Germans who once tried to kill his dad on the battlefields of Italy.
He realized that he would never learn the complete story of what his father and his buddies faced at Anzio and Salerno without talking to German veterans who opposed them.
Cone estimates he has taken the oral histories of 20 German veterans, who are inextricably linked to the evil of Hitler and the Nazi party responsible for the genocide of 6 million Jews....
But Cone has taken his campaign a step further: He's also interviewing the Germans who once tried to kill his dad on the battlefields of Italy.
He realized that he would never learn the complete story of what his father and his buddies faced at Anzio and Salerno without talking to German veterans who opposed them.
Cone estimates he has taken the oral histories of 20 German veterans, who are inextricably linked to the evil of Hitler and the Nazi party responsible for the genocide of 6 million Jews....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:34
Name of source: Jewish telegraph Agency
SOURCE: Jewish telegraph Agency (12-21-10)
(JTA) -- The World Jewish Congress has called on U.S. courts to facilitate a quick extradition of alleged Nazi war criminal Peter Egner to Serbia.
Serbia's justice minister on Nov. 26 formally requested the extradition of Egner, 88, who lives in a retirement community outside of Seattle, Wash.
“The accusations brought against Egner are so horrendous that no further time must be wasted," Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said Tuesday in a statement....
Serbia's justice minister on Nov. 26 formally requested the extradition of Egner, 88, who lives in a retirement community outside of Seattle, Wash.
“The accusations brought against Egner are so horrendous that no further time must be wasted," Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, said Tuesday in a statement....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:31
Name of source: Fox News
SOURCE: Fox News (12-29-10)
Jewish historians are dismissing an apology by Henry Kissinger, offered over the weekend in response to a 1973 recording of him saying that sending Jews to a Soviet gas chamber "is not an American concern."
The 37-year-old comment by the former secretary of state followed immediately after a conversation Kissinger and President Richard Nixon had with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
In the meeting, Meir asked the U.S. to pressure the Soviet Union to release its Jews. Nixon and Kissinger declined....
The 37-year-old comment by the former secretary of state followed immediately after a conversation Kissinger and President Richard Nixon had with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
In the meeting, Meir asked the U.S. to pressure the Soviet Union to release its Jews. Nixon and Kissinger declined....
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 15:30
