This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: World Jewish Congress
January 28, 2010
Anti-Semitism has reached its highest level since the end of World War II, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) has concluded in its latest report released in Jerusalem on Sunday. Jews in Europe were particularly affected by the dramatic rise of incidents in 2009.
The JAFI report says that the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded in the first three months of 2009 in western Europe surpassed that of the entire year 2008. The data showed a spike in anti-Semitic violence during and
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 28, 2010
A collection of speeches by Benito Mussolini has become an unlikely and controversial hit on the internet.
Since the application was launched on Jan 21, it has been downloaded about 1,000 times a day Photo: AP
The speeches, the last of which was delivered in 1938 when Italy introduced laws which discriminated against Jews, are the second-most downloaded application on the Italian version of Apple's iTunes website.
The popularity of the application, called iMussol
Source: CNN
January 28, 2010
J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author whose 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," became a touchstone for generations of readers, has died. He was 91.
The author died Wednesday of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire, according to a family statement that his literary agent, Phyllis Westberg, provided Thursday.
Though he wrote more than 30 short stories and a handful of novellas -- many published in The New Yorker and collected in works such as &q
Source: Haaretz.com
January 28, 2010
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told dignitaries gathered at the Auschwitz extermination camp on Wednesday that the world must learn from the Holocaust to unite against new threats.
In what was apparently a thinly veiled reference to Iran, Netanyahu called on the international community to come together to confront "impending dangers".
Israel believes Iran to be building a nuclear bomb and views the Islamic Republic as an existential threat. Iran insists it
Source: CBC News
January 28, 2010
Mexican archeologists have found an 1,100-year-old tomb from the twilight of the Mayan civilization that they hope may shed light on what happened to the once-glorious culture.
Archeologist Juan Yadeun said the tomb, and ceramics from another culture found in it, may reveal who occupied the Mayan site of Tonina in southern Chiapas state after the culture's classic period began fading.
Many experts have pointed to internal warfare between Mayan city states, or environmen
Source: Irish Times
January 27, 2010
DUBLIN’S NORTHSIDE is revealing its own Viking past with the first evidence of 11th-century Dubliners choosing to settle on the north shore of the Liffey emerging in the past week.
Clear signs of a late-11th century – ie Viking – house have been found at a site in the Smithfield area owned by the Office of Public Works (OPW). Excavation works, commissioned and funded by the OPW, have been under way at Hammond Lane, off Church Street, since last year.
Some 17th- and 18th
Source: Science Daily
January 27, 2010
The paper, by Professor João Zilhão and colleagues, builds on his earlier research which proposed that, south of the Cantabro-Pyrenean mountain chain, Neanderthals survived for several millennia after being replaced or assimilated by anatomically modern humans everywhere else in Europe.
Although the reality of this 'Ebro Frontier' pattern has gained wide acceptance since it was first proposed by Professor Zilhão some twenty years ago, two important aspects of the model have remained
Source: Science Daily
January 27, 2010
Homo floresiensis, a pygmy-sized small-brained hominin popularly known as 'the Hobbit' was discovered five years ago, but controversy continues over whether the small brain is actually due to a pathological condition. How can its tiny brain size be explained?
The commonly held assumption that as primates evolved, their brains always tended to get bigger has been challenged by a team of scientists at Cambridge and Durham. Their work helps solve the mystery of whether Homo floresiens
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 28, 2010
The Obama administration may be forced to back down on plans to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other September 11 suspects in New York after Michael Bloomberg, the city's mayor, withdrew his support.
The decision of the mayor, an ally of the president, was a blow to the White House as it sought to hold trials that were intended in part make a statement about how its handling of justice and terror issues differed from the George W. Bush era.
With opposition to the
Source: Times Online (UK)
January 29, 2010
There were 200,000 British prisoners in Germany by the end of the Second World War and most spent their time in uncomfortable tedium.
Yet many hundreds did try to escape, even though success was highly unlikely. Most were soon recaptured and only a few dozen made it all the way home.
Two of the most famous escapes took place in Stalag Luft III. Designed to be the most secure prisoner-of-war camp, it was a bleak place hundreds of miles from the Swiss border and the Balti
Source: Global Times (China)
January 28, 2010
Unidentified tomb raiders hit more than 10 ancient tomb sites Monday in east Jiangsu Province, using bulldozers, and stealing most of the articles they unearthed, in an unprecedented sacking of the country's cultural relics, local archaeologists said.
The incident came almost a month after the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences claimed a major discovery of the tomb of Cao Cao, a renowned warlord and politician in the 3rd century AD, in central China.
Although the authen
Source: UCL
January 26, 2010
Part of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever has been discovered by researchers at UCL's Department of History. Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment. The fragments were being studied at UCL as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded "Projet Volterra" – a ten year study of Roman law in its full social, legal and political context.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
January 28, 2010
Marching along the frozen roads of Poland and northern Germany this week, a hardy group of young RAF recruits - accompanied by relatives of the survivors of the famous Great Escape of 1944 - are commemorating a legendary moment in history.
Sixty-five years on, they are recreating the deadly 1,000-mile march which the Nazis forced captured Allied airmen to undertake at the end of World War II.
It is a fitting commemoration of the bravery and toughness of a remarkable gro
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 28, 2010
Another Vietnam War shell has exploded - this time, in a schoolyard.
No one was injured when the artillery shell exploded in a school playing field on Wednesday, shattering windows and terrifying hundreds of students.
Unexploded ordnance and mines have killed more than 42,000 people and wounded some 62,000 since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 28, 2010
Watch Tony Blair's long-awaited appearance before the Iraq Inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq here live from 10am GMT on Friday 29 January 2010.
Telegraph.co.uk will be streaming the former prime minister's appearance live from the Iraq Inquiry in London.
Viewers will also be able to vote throughout the hearing on whether they think the former PM is telling the truth or not using our on screen 'lie detector'.
The video will also have live rolling hea
Source: AP
January 28, 2010
Helicopters are struggling to bring out Machu Picchu tourists stranded by mudslides, yet new arrivals are swelling the numbers of those hunkered down in villages near the Inca citadel, complaining of a lack of food, water and accommodations.
Conditions are deteriorating for the 1,500 travelers still stranded four days after slides cut a railway that is the only route to and from the hard-to-reach area atop an Andean mountain ridge. Officials had talked of having the rail route resto
Source: AP
January 27, 2010
Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.
Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing o
Source: Guardian (UK)
January 28, 2010
Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confir
Source: New York Times
January 26, 2010
When the remains of hundreds of colonial-era Africans were uncovered during a building excavation in Lower Manhattan in 1991, one coffin in particular stood out. Nailed into its wooden lid were iron tacks, 51 of which formed an enigmatic, heart-shaped design.
The pattern was soon identified as the sankofa — a symbol printed on funereal garments in West Africa — and it captured the imagination of scholars, preservationists and designers. Ultimately, it was embraced by many African-Am
Source: U.S. News & World Report
January 27, 2010
When President Barack Obama asked New York Sen. Hillary Clinton to join his cabinet as secretary of state, the move was widely praised. Clinton, his principal rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, added a measure of gravitas to his team of advisers and would, it was suggested, help unite the president's party at a time the Republicans appeared to be on the verge of complete collapse.
At the time, comparisons were made to Abraham Lincoln. Historian Doris Kearns Goodw
