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: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2009
"For young people, the Communist era is as exotic as ancient Greece," said Anna Dzierzgowska, a history teacher in Warsaw.
"We are lucky not to have to wear uniforms, observe army-style discipline, have our hair cut for school and admire Lenin," Clara Dimitrova, a high school student from Sofia, said with relief.
What students learn in school often clashes with the memories of their disillusioned parents, who struggled during the transition to demo
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2009
The former Bosnian Serb president boycotted the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague again but agreed to attend a hearing on Tuesday aimed at continuing the trial without him unless he takes his place in the dock.
Alan Tieger, the UN prosecutor, concluded his case, begun last week, by accusing Mr Karadzic of personal responsibility for "one of humanity's dark chapters", the slaughter of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
"He was in
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2009
Stained glass windows overlooking the tomb of Edward, Prince of Wales, were destroyed by Puritan iconoclasts in the 1640s, allowing damaging UV rays to enter the cathedral unfiltered. Since then, clear replacements have been installed and the deterioration of the paintwork on the 14th century canopy surrounding the prince's resting place has continued.
The brilliant colours of the artworks that look down on the bronze figure of the prince are fading rapidly and the red pigment used
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2009
The Conservative leader is understood to be holding open the option of withdrawing the Tory whip from the MP if he fails to say sorry for his remarks.
Mr Cameron made clear his displeasure when asked about the backbencher’s comments, made in an email to an angry voter, during a question and answer session following a speech in London.
In the message, written after he was accused of being a “trougher” for using his allowances to pay his own company £100,000, the MP com
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2009
The mayor of Rome, who would play a pivotal role in organizing the event, said the beatification of John Paul is expected to take place "at the latest" by 2010.
Speaking on a visit to Krakow, in the former Pope's native Poland, Gianni Alemmano said: "These are internal decisions (for the Vatican) but it is expected to take place at the latest by next year."
Vatican observers say the most likely date for the beatification would be April next year, on
Source: Deutsche Welle
October 31, 2009
The House of Terror Museum is located in the building which served as the successive secret police headquarters of both Hungary's fascist and communist governments.
The Nazi-affiliated Arrow Cross party took over Hungary in the last months of World War II. During the regime's short rule from October 1944 to January 1945, 80,000 Jews were deported to the Nazi death camps, while an estimated 20,000 Jews were killed outright – hundreds of them in the basement of the building which now
Source: Deutsche Welle
November 1, 2009
German news magazine Der Spiegel reports in its Monday edition that the witness, identified only as Samuel K., is "suspected of assisting in the gruesome murder of at least 434,000 people" when he was a guard at the Belzec death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Samuel K., an 88-year-old man who lives near Bonn, had given descriptions of his time as a guard to investigators in 1969, 1975, 1980 and again this past June.
"It was clear to us that Jews were kil
Source: BBC
October 31, 2009
Nelson Mandela was held prisoner on the island for most of the 27 years he was in jail, and it is now a World Heritage site and major tourist attraction.
But reports say thousands of feral rabbits are devastating local wildlife and undermining historic buildings.
The premier of the Western Cape has called for urgent action on the site.
Source: BBC
October 31, 2009
Beatrice And Virgil, a literary allegory for the Holocaust, will be published around the world in June 2010 - eight years after Life of Pi.
It will ask "profound and philosophical questions about the nature of love and evil", said the publishers.
The Canadian author's winning novel is one of the most successful Booker books to date.
Source: BBC
November 2, 2009
He boycotted the trial's start last week saying he needed more time to prepare his defence.
In a letter to the presiding judge, Mr Karadzic says he will attend a procedural hearing at the court on Tuesday to discuss his defence.
His letter also calls for a fair and expeditious trial.
Proceedings were adjourned when Mr Karadzic failed to appear in court last Monday.
Source: Al Jazeera
November 2, 2009
Hundreds of former Chilean military conscripts have offered to reveal details of crimes they committed and witnessed during the late General Augusto Pinochet's rule.
The former soldiers, who served in the army during Pinochet's 1973 coup against Salvador Allende, the then president of Chile, made the offer to talk during a demonstration on Sunday to seek financial and medical benefits from the state.
They said they would reveal details such as where bodies of victims we
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 31, 2009
Since the Communist party came to power in 1949, it has worked hard to remove traces of the time when the city was carved up into concessions run by the British, French, Americans and Japanese.
History textbooks refer to the "century of humiliation" that China endured at the hands of foreigners after it lost the Opium War of 1840.
The elegant two-floor building at number 33 on the Bund, Shanghai's historic waterfront, was at the heart of British trade and in
Source: Time
October 31, 2009
Who knew there was so much fight in those dusty books? When Google announced plans in 2004 to scan millions of tomes tucked into library stacks across the country, admirers embraced the ambitious project as a digital undertaking as visionary as Magellan setting sail around the world. The project would throw open musty archives everywhere, putting hidden works on the Internet for all to use.
How things change. The library project is now embroiled in a ferocious legal free-for-all spa
Source: WSJ
October 31, 2009
In 2001, a few days before the Sept. 11 attacks, a German engineering student named Said Bahaji unexpectedly announced to his family he had a job waiting for him at a Pakistani computer company and he flew to Karachi, leaving behind his wife and infant son.
In the aftermath of the attacks, Mr. Bahaji, the Muslim son of a German mother and Moroccan father, was found to have rented and shared an apartment with two suspected World Trade Center hijackers, including Mohammed Atta, the be
Source: Time (Nov 9th Issue)
November 1, 2009
Lunch period at an inner-city all-boys school is an event associated with the sounds of chaos, not classical music. And yet there are definitely strains of Beethoven coming from the piano in the cafeteria at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. Behind the pianist, another student waits patiently for his turn. Upstairs in the art room, a senior is using the lunch hour to apply more brushstrokes to a portrait. A few kids are playing pickup ball in the gym, but more are crowded
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 31, 2009
In previously unreported plans, the Government is to downgrade protection on old buildings and those in conservation areas in order to “benefit developers” and “reduce the number of applications for planning permission rejected on heritage grounds.”
The professional body representing town planners today launches an unprecedented attack on the proposal as “fundamentally flawed”, “unfit for purpose” and a potential “charter for people who want to knock buildings down.” The president o
Source: Neatorama
October 31, 2009
Daylight Saving Time ends in most of the United States a 2AM on Sunday, November 1st (Hawaii and Arizona have been on standard time all summer). We remember which way to set our clocks by thinking “spring forward, fall back.” It makes you wonder how we ever got our clocks coordinated in the first place. Believe it or not, standard time and time zones were the railroad industry’s idea.
“In the early 19th century … localities set their own time,” said Bill Mosley, a public
Source: BBC
November 1, 2009
Archaeologists have unearthed what they say could be a prehistoric Bronze Age burial site in central Oxford.
Experts say important chiefs may have been laid to rest at the site of the former Radcliffe Infirmary.
Land around the River Thames, known as the River Isis as it passes through Oxford, was often used for prehistoric burial, ritual and social monuments.
The Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) also revealed evidence of a later 6th Century Saxon sett
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 1, 2009
Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating an air and sea attack on the country during military exercises.
The armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which nuclear missiles were fired and troops practised an amphibious landing on the country's coast.
Documents obtained by Wprost, one of Poland's leading news magazines, said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from Belarus.
After spending 40 years
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 1, 2009
An epic film about the Prophet Mohammad backed by the producer of "The Lord of the Rings" is being planned with the aim of "bridging cultures".
Filming of the £90 million English-language film was set to start in 2011, with Barrie Osborne as its producer, Almoor Holdings, a Qatari media company, said.
The company said the film - in which the Prophet would not be depicted, in accordance with Islamic strictures - was in development and talks were bei
