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: NYT
February 3, 2007
THERE are not many places where a man convicted in the bombing of a commercial airliner that killed 73 people can be found roaming the streets. This city, home to Freddy Lugo, is one of them.
Mr. Lugo, like an uneasy memory from the cold war, is tucked away here, obscure to most of his countrymen but not completely forgotten. He was one of two men sentenced to 20 years in prison for placing explosives on a DC-8 jetliner flown by Cubana Airlines in 1976.
The plane blew u
Source: NYT
February 3, 2007
The book is called “Diplomat Heroes of the Holocaust,” and perhaps the most telling thing about it is that it is very slim.
Richard C. Holbrooke, former ambassador to the United Nations, made that point during a ceremony, held Jan. 24 at Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s East Side, to mark the book’s publication.
During the years of Nazi persecution and then mass murder of Jews, Mr. Holbrooke noted, Europe’s embassies and consulates were filled with thousands of offici
Source: WaPo
February 2, 2007
Fascinated by cultures as old as their own, Mexicans are pouring into museum exhibitions in wonder at ancient Middle Eastern artifacts never before seen in the Western Hemisphere.
Nearly 14,000 people visited the "Persia, Fragments of Paradise" display from Iran in Mexico City's Anthropological Museum on a recent Sunday, the highest single-day attendance in years.
That followed a blockbuster show of Egyptian archeological artifacts here last year that was one
Source: Independent Online (Capetown)
February 2, 2007
The South African National Museum of Military History is making a civil claim against the South African National Defence Force over a raid on the museum in 2005.
Museum director Major John Keene confirmed on Thursday that there was a claim underway, but would not divulge for how much or any other details.
"I don't think this matter is appropriate for public consumption," he said.
According to a report in Beeld, the claim could cost the defence for
Source: India-Asian News Service
February 2, 2007
NEW DELHI --Delhi High Court Friday dismissed a renewed plea by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to be allowed to set questions on certain objectionable sections in school history text books that describe some late freedom fighters as 'militants' and make derogatory references to some communities and historical incidents.
The plea by NCERT, the apex government body to advise on academic matters related to school education and the official publisher o
Source: http://thechronicleherald.ca
February 2, 2007
History isn’t pretty, says RCMP Cpl. Craig Smith — especially black history in Nova Scotia.
And that history includes the n-word, which Cpl. Smith, a Halifax Mountie, used in his new book, You Had Better Be White by Six A.M.: The African-Canadian Experience in the RCMP. He used the word in describing a scene in a segregated New Glasgow in 1946.
But he says that word has made the Education Department hesitant about using the book in the classroom, where he thought the bo
Source: Guardian
February 3, 2007
In the lexicon of political insults it will take some beating. Already known for his somewhat colourful use of language Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has probably written himself into the history books for a new sidewipe at his US counterpart George Bush.
In the latest salvo in the war of words between the two countries Mr Chávez described Mr Bush as "evil," a "criminal" but then added that he was "more dangerous than a monkey with a razor blade"...H
Source: Washington Post
February 3, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. -- The House of Delegates unanimously approved a resolution Friday expressing "profound regret" for Virginia's role in the slave trade, a significant act of contrition by a body that used to start the day with a salute that symbolized the state's Confederate heritage.
The resolution, one of several that lawmakers are considering as part of the 400th anniversary celebration of the founding of Jamestown, is one of the biggest steps any state has taken in offeri
Source: Washington Post
February 3, 2007
STAUNTON, Va. -- While U.S. troops were fighting in World War I in the summer of 1918, President Woodrow Wilson underwent treatment for a breathing problem in a hushed episode that foreshadowed worse health troubles to come.
The White House doctor, Cary T. Grayson, later recounted the incident to his wife in one of a slew of newly public documents that show how far Wilson's innermost circle went to conceal his frail condition amid major world events.
" The patient
Source: New York Times
February 3, 2007
In November O. J. Simpson sat for what would have been one of the most unusual interviews in television history —- a hypothetical recounting of how, if he had been the killer, he might have murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald L. Goldman more than a decade ago.
The interview, taped in Miami to publicize a book, “If I Did It,” was never broadcast, as public outrage exploded over the idea that Mr. Simpson might profit from the murders that many people beli
Source: New York Times
February 3, 2007
ATLANTA -— For every infamous killing that tore at the South in the 1950s and ’60s, there were many more that were barely noted, much less investigated.
Virtually all such cases gained momentum only when the victims of the past found voices in the present, like those that helped arrest a 71-year-old man last month in connection with the Klan killings of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964. Rather than police officials, it has often been journalists and filmmakers who have com
Source: Telegraph
February 3, 2007
Proposals to give teachers more freedom over the topics they cover in the first years of secondary education have been overruled by the Government.
Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, yesterday released a list of extra topics that he wants to see taught...He has told the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) that it must put more emphasis on teaching:
• Global warming
• The British slave trade and the anti-slavery campaign
• Britishness
•
Source: Times (of London)
February 3, 2007
In the three decades since Brian Peters died during Indonesia’s secret invasion of East Timor, his sister Maureen Tolfree has been told countless versions of who killed him and how.
There was the story put out by the Indonesians in 1975: that he and four fellow journalists died accidentally, caught up in shooting between rival groups of East Timorese. There was the testimony of several witnesses: that Brian and his colleagues were murdered by Indonesian commandos. And then there was
Source: International Herald Tribune
February 2, 2007
NEW YORK -- The break of contemporary culture with the artistic past is now so radical that most of us are no longer able to look at Old Master paintings.
A series of occurrences in Sotheby's $110 million sale last week lead to that astonishing conclusion.
One was the good old game which could be dubbed "Shall we call it a Rembrandt?" The master's œoeuvre goes up and down depending on the mood of those who know. From the early 20th century, when nearl
Source: AP
February 2, 2007
SAN DIEGO -- Free to a good home: vintage submarine, recently restored. One prior owner.
That's not quite how the notice is worded, but that's the message from the Navy, which is looking for someone to take over the USS Dolphin, one of the oldest submarines in its fleet.
The Dolphin, a one-of-a-kind research vessel, was commissioned in 1968. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it will accept offers from government agencies, nonprofit gro
Source: AP
February 2, 2007
LONDON -- They won't let you eat cake at Windsor Castle, but visitors are being invited to admire a couple of 167-year-old slices.
Pieces of Queen Victoria's wedding cake will go on display as part of an exhibition on Royal weddings from 1840 to 1947 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's diamond anniversary this year, palace officials said.
The slices will be on display for a year starting on April 27 in small boxes, one cardboard, another silver, marked "Buckingham Pa
Source: AP
February 3, 2007
Four of the senators who will vote next week on putting more troops in Iraq bear the scars of another war in another time, in a place called Vietnam. Three will vote against sending more troops. One will vote the other way.
John McCain, a former Navy fighter pilot, was captured by the Vietnamese, tortured and imprisoned for more than five years. Knowing what it's like to have fought before and lost, he's with President Bush on sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq.
Chuck H
Source: Newsday
January 28, 2007
The area of Long Island that would become synonymous with suburbia was farmland on the edge of the Hempstead Plains until William J. Levitt arrived in 1947 to build the development that shares his surname.
Levitt, then 40, broke ground for the first of the 17,000 homes that would pop up on 1,000 acres of potato farms 15 miles east of New York City on July 1, 1947. He earned his nickname as "the Henry Ford of Housing" by building fast, using mass-production techniques. By b
Source: UPI
February 2, 2007
JERUSALEM -- A government-run company has asked the Israel Museum to relinquish 400 works of art owned by Jews killed in the Holocaust. American troops found the paintings -- appropriated by Nazis from private collections throughout Europe -- hidden in salt mines in Germany.
The museum is negotiating with the company, which was established to locate and restore assets belonging to Holocaust victims, Haaretz reported. The company wants the artwork -- housed in the museum since its
Source: Live Science
February 2, 2007
Male nudes are the norm in Greek art, even though historians have stated that ancient Greeks kept their clothes on for the most part. New research suggests that art might have been imitating life more closely than previously thought.
Nudity was a costume used by artists to depict various roles of men, ranging from heroicism and status to defeat.
"In ancient Greek art, there are many different kinds of nudity that can mean many different things," said Jeffrey H
