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
December 19, 2005
First came the excitement over the discovery of a Colonial-era fortification in Battery Park. Now it's decision time: What should the New York City do with this massive relic?
City officials have conceded that the thick stone wall, which sits about nine feet below street level and perpendicular to the path of a planned subway tunnel, is too historically significant to cart off to a landfill. Archaeologists believe it was built at least 240 years ago and was either part of the batter
Source: South Coast Today
December 19, 2005
A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book." Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on
Source: Reuters
December 19, 2005
Britain ran a secret prison in Germany for two years after the end of World War II where inmates including Nazi party members were tortured and starved to death, the Guardian says.
Citing Foreign Office files that were opened after a request under the Freedom of Information Act, the newspaper says Britain had held men and woman at a prison in Bad Nenndorf until July 1947.
Locals at the time said you could hear prisoners scream at night.
Source: ITP Business
December 18, 2005
Former art smuggling kingpin Michel van Rijn is less than impressed with police forces’ efforts to crack down on the black market for Iraqi antiquities.
Michel Van Rijn is well versed in the dark arts of antiquity trading, as well as the riches that can be made from them. Claimed by some to have once been responsible for 90% of international art smuggling, the Dutchman admits to having made millions from less than legal activities — and to having lost millions as well.
Source: AP
December 18, 2005
A German aid worker and archaeologist kidnapped in Iraq with her driver has been freed after three weeks in captivity, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced Sunday night.
He did not disclose any details about Susanne Osthoff's release.
''I am glad to be able to announce to you ... that Mrs. Susanne Osthoff is no longer in the hands of the kidnappers,'' Steinmeier said at a hastily arranged news conference. ''As of today, she is safely in the care of the Ger
Source: Mirror
December 19, 2005
Black people should appear on bank notes to show how Britain has evolved, a Labour think tank will say this week. A report from the Fabian Society will call for "practical measures" to create a new definition of Britishness which includes blacks and Asians.One measure recommended includes getting rid of Florence Nightingale, Edward Elgar, and Charles Darwin from notes, or even remove the Queen's face altogether.
In their place could come Victorian blac
Source: AP
December 19, 2005
Violence in 1898 that resulted in the only known forceful overthrow of a city government in U.S. history has historically been called a race riot but actually was an insurrection that white supremacists had planned for months, a state commission concludes.
The violence in Wilmington, which resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of black people, "was part of a statewide effort to put white supremacist Democrats in office and stem the political advances of black citizens,&qu
Source: AP
December 14, 2005
The 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln is expected to pave the way for a series of one-cent coins to honor the martyred 16th president from the nation's Midwest.
Legislation calling for the honor in 2009 was given final congressional approval last night by the House and it is expected to be signed by President Bush.
The Senate -- where sponsors included Illinoisans Dick Durbin and Barack Obama -- passed the legislation last month.
Source: Australian
December 18, 2005
LISBON: Pope John Paul I, who died from an apparent heart attack just 33 days after becoming pontiff in 1978, was assassinated because of his plans to radically reform the Catholic church, according to a novel to be published next year.
Portuguese author and scriptwriter Luis Miguel Rocha said he based The Last Pope on documents he obtained through an undisclosed Vatican source, which he will make public when the novel is published in April.The nove
Source: Christian Science Monitor
December 18, 2005
During the holiday season, George W. Bush is not only commander in chief, he is entertainer in chief. Before escaping to Camp David for Christmas later this week, President and Mrs. Bush will have welcomed 9,500 guests to the White House for 26 parties spread over 21 days.The events vary in tone and size. For intimacy and prestige, it's hard to top the small dinner for Bush family members and close friends. Legislators are feted at a black tie congressional ball.
Source: Independent on Sunday (London)
December 18, 2005
A huge bronze statue by Henry Moore, worth more than £3m and hailed by art historians as of 'exceptional' importance, has been stolen and, police fear, may be melted down and sold for scrap.
The massive modernist art-work, entitled A Reclining Figure, was taken from the Henry Moore Foundation sculpture park at Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, late on Thursday night.Police believe that a crane was used to hoist the 11ft by 8ft, two- ton statue on to a Mercedes f
Source: CNN
December 17, 2005
Remains of a U.S. Navy sailor who was listed as missing in action after Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified and will be returned to his family, the Department of Defense said.Seaman 2nd Class Warren P. Hickok of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was assigned to the USS Sicard when Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office said Friday.
Hickok was
Source: chron.com
December 17, 2005
A "King Tut is back and he's still black" placard drew the gaze of visitors making their way to view the acclaimed exhibit at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale Saturday.
Across from the entrance, about 25 demonstrators donning T-shirts marked with various pro-black slogans held up the placards.
Waving the red, black and green African flag, at times moving to the beat of drums, they asked drivers in passing cars to honk in support of their goal: reminding pe
Source: NYT
December 18, 2005
FEW people who knew her could have been surprised when Susanne Osthoff was taken hostage in Iraq three weeks ago.
Impetuous, imperious and fearless, Ms. Osthoff, a German, had worked for years in Iraq as an archaeologist. After the American-led invasion, she campaigned to stop the looting of Iraq's spectacular archaeological sites.I have a personal interest in her fate. In June 2003, I bet my life on her and let her guide me to a scene of plundering
Source: Weekly Standard
December 19, 2005
FOR THE SECOND TIME IN recent weeks the Department of Defense has denied a request from The Weekly Standard to release unclassified documents recovered in postwar Iraq. These documents apparently reveal, in some detail, activities of Saddam Hussein's regime in the years before the war. This second denial could also be the final one: According to two Pentagon sources, the program designed to review, translate, and analyze data from the old Iraqi regime may be shuttered at the end of December, not
Source: Guardian (UK)
December 18, 2005
History teaching in British schools has become obsessed with the Second World War, at the expense of understanding other events that shaped Britain's national identity, an expert report warns.
Pupils are getting a 'Yo! Sushi experience of historical understanding', sampling a series of short, unconnected modules on detailed issues but unable to connect them into a broader picture, according to the Labour MP Gordon Marsden, who heads an informal advisory group on history teaching for
Source: Guardian (UK)
December 17, 2005
Turkey's prime minister accused the European Union on Saturday of trying to pressure Turkish courts in the trial of the country's best-known novelist.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his Cabinet will discuss Monday whether a court should press ahead with the trial of Orhan Pamuk, a case that has raised questions about Turkey's commitment to free speech. On Friday, the first day of the trial, a judge halted the proceeding and insisted the Justice Ministry first approve
Source: Financial Times (London, England)
December 17, 2005
They were born Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh respectively. One picked up his nickname after working as a butcher and the other after serving an 18-month jail term for robbery in Sundance, Wyoming.
And their tale went on to be adapted for the 1969 box office smash, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, which turned the tale of the Wild Bunch outlaws who fled to South America with USDollars 1,000 rewards on their heads into the
Source: CNN
December 16, 2005
Widely condemned remarks by Iran's president about Israel and the Holocaust were "misunderstood" by Western governments, the country's interior minister has said.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked international outrage on Wednesday when he described the Holocaust as "a myth" and suggested that Israel be moved to Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska.
But speaking at an Athens conference on immigration on Friday, Mostafa Pourmohammadi told The Associ
Source: BBC News
December 16, 2005
A piper who played the bagpipes as the troops went ashore during the D-Day Landings has been honoured in song. Scot Bill Millin, who is now 82, has lived in Dawlish, Devon, for 40 years.
Inspired by his musical past, north Devon folk singer Sheelagh Allen has written a tune for him called The Highland Piper.
