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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.
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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: WaPo
SOURCE: WaPo (7-27-10)
Arlington National Cemetery officials knew more than five years ago that many burials did not match Arlington's maps and paper records, according to documents released Tuesday by a Senate subcommittee investigating millions of dollars in botched contracts overseen by the Army.
The Senate documents reveal that a contractor hired to test the accuracy of Arlington records told cemetery officials about the errors in 2005, but they were not corrected. The Senate investigators also found that Arlington officials spent millions more than the Army has previously acknowledged in the failed effort to digitize its records and did not tell Office of Management and Budget officials about a report that recommended it use an existing, cheaper system rather than attempt to build its own.
The documents paint a picture of Arlington officials who selectively shared information with superiors about problems at the cemetery. The documents also conclude that Army officials up the chain of command did not exercise "even the most basic oversight" when continued spending on the same blunders raised obvious questions....
The Senate documents reveal that a contractor hired to test the accuracy of Arlington records told cemetery officials about the errors in 2005, but they were not corrected. The Senate investigators also found that Arlington officials spent millions more than the Army has previously acknowledged in the failed effort to digitize its records and did not tell Office of Management and Budget officials about a report that recommended it use an existing, cheaper system rather than attempt to build its own.
The documents paint a picture of Arlington officials who selectively shared information with superiors about problems at the cemetery. The documents also conclude that Army officials up the chain of command did not exercise "even the most basic oversight" when continued spending on the same blunders raised obvious questions....
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 - 10:29
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SOURCE: WaPo (7-26-10)
Cyclists, tourists and the occasional jogger stood out in the sea of Boy Scout troops wearing tan shirts, green shorts and thick green-and-red socks -- some rolled hastily down to their ankles. Spectators lined the sizzling sidewalks along Constitution Avenue in clusters wherever they could find shade.
The troops and accompanying bands were all smiles and appeared to be unaffected by the heat as they marched to celebrate the group's 100th anniversary.
The Grand Centennial parade marked the first time since 1937 that Boy Scout troops had marched through the District. The last time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited them to convene on the Mall for their first jamboree after a polio outbreak led to its cancellation in 1935.
On Sunday, troops young and old marched in the parade, and some stood cheering. Among them was Ted Parker, 71, of Oakton. He joined Troop 1956 as a child in Portsmouth, N.H., and said he made lasting friendships while learning values that served him throughout his life....
The troops and accompanying bands were all smiles and appeared to be unaffected by the heat as they marched to celebrate the group's 100th anniversary.
The Grand Centennial parade marked the first time since 1937 that Boy Scout troops had marched through the District. The last time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited them to convene on the Mall for their first jamboree after a polio outbreak led to its cancellation in 1935.
On Sunday, troops young and old marched in the parade, and some stood cheering. Among them was Ted Parker, 71, of Oakton. He joined Troop 1956 as a child in Portsmouth, N.H., and said he made lasting friendships while learning values that served him throughout his life....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 17:50
SOURCE: WaPo (7-27-10)
Art officials on Tuesday unveiled the painting at the center of the latest Caravaggio mystery, after the Vatican newspaper first suggested and then denied that the canvas was the work of the Italian master.
The "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" will now be subjected to X-rays and other analyses to ascertain its attribution. But art officials and scholars attending the unveiling agreed the painting did not look like a Caravaggio - but rather like the work of one or more of his followers.
"It's a very interesting painting but I believe we can rule out - at least for now - that it's a Caravaggio," said art superintendent Rossella Vodret. "The quality of the painting doesn't hold up."...
The "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" will now be subjected to X-rays and other analyses to ascertain its attribution. But art officials and scholars attending the unveiling agreed the painting did not look like a Caravaggio - but rather like the work of one or more of his followers.
"It's a very interesting painting but I believe we can rule out - at least for now - that it's a Caravaggio," said art superintendent Rossella Vodret. "The quality of the painting doesn't hold up."...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 10:03
SOURCE: WaPo (7-27-10)
A voluminous cache of secret documents is leaked, shedding new light on official statements and drawing into question some of the rationale for America's involvement in a murky, distant and long-running war.
That would accurately describe the publication in 1971 of the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War that revealed a "credibility gap" between the Johnson administration's public statements and its private actions.
It might also describe the leak Sunday of thousands of official military documents characterizing the U.S. military's prosecution of the war in Afghanistan.
In the wake of the release of the Afghan documents, the link between the two leaks 39 years apart was made by Julian Assange, the Australian who is the key proprietor of WikiLeaks, the whistleblower Web site that posted the documents and orchestrated their simultaneous publication by the New York Times, the Guardian newspaper of Great Britain and Der Spiegel magazine of Germany. It also was made by Daniel Ellsberg, the renegade Rand Corp. researcher who leaked the Pentagon Papers, first to the New York Times and later to The Washington Post and other newspapers....
That would accurately describe the publication in 1971 of the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War that revealed a "credibility gap" between the Johnson administration's public statements and its private actions.
It might also describe the leak Sunday of thousands of official military documents characterizing the U.S. military's prosecution of the war in Afghanistan.
In the wake of the release of the Afghan documents, the link between the two leaks 39 years apart was made by Julian Assange, the Australian who is the key proprietor of WikiLeaks, the whistleblower Web site that posted the documents and orchestrated their simultaneous publication by the New York Times, the Guardian newspaper of Great Britain and Der Spiegel magazine of Germany. It also was made by Daniel Ellsberg, the renegade Rand Corp. researcher who leaked the Pentagon Papers, first to the New York Times and later to The Washington Post and other newspapers....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 09:56
Name of source: Bloomberg News
SOURCE: Bloomberg News (7-26-10)
Archaeologists have uncovered for the first time in Israel fragments of a law code that resemble portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi.
The code was found on two fragments of a clay tablet, and is between 3,700 and 3,800 years old, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said today in an e-mailed statement.
The discovery opens an interesting avenue for investigation of a connection between Biblical law and the Code of Hammurabi, according to Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, who is preparing the law code fragments for publication. The style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, he said.
The tablet, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, was discovered in Hazor, in the north of Israel. Words that have been deciphered include “master,” “slave” and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for “tooth.”
The two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest body of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents found dealt with subjects including the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute, and a text of multiplication tables....
The code was found on two fragments of a clay tablet, and is between 3,700 and 3,800 years old, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said today in an e-mailed statement.
The discovery opens an interesting avenue for investigation of a connection between Biblical law and the Code of Hammurabi, according to Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, who is preparing the law code fragments for publication. The style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, he said.
The tablet, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, was discovered in Hazor, in the north of Israel. Words that have been deciphered include “master,” “slave” and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for “tooth.”
The two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest body of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents found dealt with subjects including the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute, and a text of multiplication tables....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 23:28
Name of source: NPR
SOURCE: NPR (7-25-10)
In a 5-acre clearing in central New Jersey, half an hour south of Trenton, there's a hole about 6 feet deep and 15 feet across. Months ago, except for a few trees, the site was empty.
For decades, it was rumored to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Turns out it was. Now, Westampton Township has commissioned a geophysical survey and allowed Temple University archaeologists to do a thorough excavation. And they're finding that the freed and escaped slaves who made it here didn't just pass through — they stayed
The site was once a village called Timbuctoo. In the 1820s, freed and escaped blacks formed a self-sustaining town well before the Civil War and emancipation. Timbuctoo survived through the end of slavery in New Jersey, the Fugitive Slave Act and the Jim Crow era. The last families didn't leave until the 1950s. At its peak, Timbuctoo was home to more than 150 people.
The villagers weren't all escaped slaves from the South. Some were freed slaves from New Jersey, and a few immigrants and American Indians joined the community as well.
Researchers don't know if the name "Timbuctoo" was chosen by the blacks who founded the village or by the Quakers in the area, who most likely offered assistance to them....
For decades, it was rumored to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Turns out it was. Now, Westampton Township has commissioned a geophysical survey and allowed Temple University archaeologists to do a thorough excavation. And they're finding that the freed and escaped slaves who made it here didn't just pass through — they stayed
The site was once a village called Timbuctoo. In the 1820s, freed and escaped blacks formed a self-sustaining town well before the Civil War and emancipation. Timbuctoo survived through the end of slavery in New Jersey, the Fugitive Slave Act and the Jim Crow era. The last families didn't leave until the 1950s. At its peak, Timbuctoo was home to more than 150 people.
The villagers weren't all escaped slaves from the South. Some were freed slaves from New Jersey, and a few immigrants and American Indians joined the community as well.
Researchers don't know if the name "Timbuctoo" was chosen by the blacks who founded the village or by the Quakers in the area, who most likely offered assistance to them....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 23:23
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (7-27-10)
Vietnam has turned down a request to scatter the ashes of a French war veteran at the site of a battle which helped end colonial rule by France.
General Marcel Bigeard, one of France's most decorated soldiers, who died last month, reportedly asked to rejoin his fallen comrades.
But a Vietnamese official is quoted as saying this would "create a precedent".
The refusal is thought to be a reference to American soldiers who might request similar treatment....
General Marcel Bigeard, one of France's most decorated soldiers, who died last month, reportedly asked to rejoin his fallen comrades.
But a Vietnamese official is quoted as saying this would "create a precedent".
The refusal is thought to be a reference to American soldiers who might request similar treatment....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 23:15
SOURCE: BBC (7-27-10)
The former Cambodian Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, who was convicted of crimes against humanity, will appeal against his sentence, his lawyer has said.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a UN-backed court on Monday.
He was found guilty of overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of people at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.
His lawyer gave no further details of the grounds for the appeal....
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a UN-backed court on Monday.
He was found guilty of overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of people at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh.
His lawyer gave no further details of the grounds for the appeal....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 23:12
SOURCE: BBC (7-27-10)
The oldest theatre and largest chapel in Wales are among 24 historic buildings to be offered grants totalling almost £1m.
The money is being made available by the Welsh Assembly Government to carry out repairs and restoration.
Monmouth's Savoy Theatre will receive £39,300 towards repairs to the front elevation while Tabernacle Chapel in Morriston will benefit from £100,000.
Over £60,000 will go to Animal Wall in Cardiff, part of the castle complex.
It will pay towards the repair of the wall and the re-pointing and restoration of its metal railings and famous stone animals....
The money is being made available by the Welsh Assembly Government to carry out repairs and restoration.
Monmouth's Savoy Theatre will receive £39,300 towards repairs to the front elevation while Tabernacle Chapel in Morriston will benefit from £100,000.
Over £60,000 will go to Animal Wall in Cardiff, part of the castle complex.
It will pay towards the repair of the wall and the re-pointing and restoration of its metal railings and famous stone animals....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 23:09
SOURCE: BBC (7-27-10)
Trinidad and Tobago is marking the 20th anniversary of one of the bloodiest and confused periods in its history.
On 27 July 1990, more than 100 members of an Islamist radical group, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, stormed parliament.
Everyone inside, including the prime minister, was held hostage for several days, as violence and looting erupted in the capital.
Twenty years on, the government has announced an inquiry into what provoked the coup attempt....
On 27 July 1990, more than 100 members of an Islamist radical group, Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, stormed parliament.
Everyone inside, including the prime minister, was held hostage for several days, as violence and looting erupted in the capital.
Twenty years on, the government has announced an inquiry into what provoked the coup attempt....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 23:06
Name of source: AOL News
SOURCE: AOL News (7-27-10)
A California man who bought a collection of glass negatives at a garage sale says they have been authenticated as lost works of Ansel Adams, but the famed photographer's grandson isn't so sure.
After six months of study, experts concluded the 65 negatives were early works by Ansel Adams -- and worth at least $200 million, according to an attorney for Rick Norsigian, a Fresno man who bought them at a garage sale for $45.
The black-and-white images of Yosemite National Park's dramatic landscape recall some of Ansel Adams' most famous works. But Matthew Adams says they were probably not made by his grandfather, who died in 1984....
After six months of study, experts concluded the 65 negatives were early works by Ansel Adams -- and worth at least $200 million, according to an attorney for Rick Norsigian, a Fresno man who bought them at a garage sale for $45.
The black-and-white images of Yosemite National Park's dramatic landscape recall some of Ansel Adams' most famous works. But Matthew Adams says they were probably not made by his grandfather, who died in 1984....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:59
Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (7-27-10)
German language experts have launched a campaign against the hybrid "Denglish" which they claim is polluting culture through its growing use in advertising and television.
The advocacy groups are intensifying their fight against the use of a hybrid of the two languages, which has begun to encroach on everyday parlance.
As part of the campaign, the German Language Foundation called on Germans to find an alternative for the English term "fast food". The result was "Ruckizuckifutti".
The campaigns to name and shame linguistic miscreants have had some recent success.
Deutsche Bahn announced in February that it would refrain from using English at train stations....
The advocacy groups are intensifying their fight against the use of a hybrid of the two languages, which has begun to encroach on everyday parlance.
As part of the campaign, the German Language Foundation called on Germans to find an alternative for the English term "fast food". The result was "Ruckizuckifutti".
The campaigns to name and shame linguistic miscreants have had some recent success.
Deutsche Bahn announced in February that it would refrain from using English at train stations....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:54
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (7-27-10)
US Senators have postponed a hearing to investigate BP’s alleged role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber after the oil giant and British officials “stonewalled” requests for information.
The US Senate was forced to abandon this Thursday’s hearing after former ministers and senior BP executives refused to appear.
Those shunning invitations included Jack Straw, the former Justice Secretary, and Tony Hayward, the outgoing chief executive of BP.
The British Government has also failed to release documents requested by Senators in time. The information is currently being reviewed by the Cabinet Secretary.
The postponement of the hearing is likely to fuel growing American suspicion that a BP oil deal may have played a part in the release of the Lockerbie bomber last year — despite categorical denials from the British and Scottish governments that this was the case....
The US Senate was forced to abandon this Thursday’s hearing after former ministers and senior BP executives refused to appear.
Those shunning invitations included Jack Straw, the former Justice Secretary, and Tony Hayward, the outgoing chief executive of BP.
The British Government has also failed to release documents requested by Senators in time. The information is currently being reviewed by the Cabinet Secretary.
The postponement of the hearing is likely to fuel growing American suspicion that a BP oil deal may have played a part in the release of the Lockerbie bomber last year — despite categorical denials from the British and Scottish governments that this was the case....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:48
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (7-23-10)
An ancient ceremonial ground used by a Pre-Columbian civilisation for human sacrifices has been uncovered on Peru's northern coast, archaeologists said on Thursday.
The discovery appears to reinforce prevailing theories about a ceremony known as "the presentation" that was carried out by the Moche people, an agricultural civilisation that flourished between 100 BC and 800 AD.
Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Bruning Museum in Peru and a leader of the dig, said the ceremonial site likely hosted ritual killings of prisoners of war.
Photographs taken at the site show more than half a dozen skeletons on the floor of the hall....
The discovery appears to reinforce prevailing theories about a ceremony known as "the presentation" that was carried out by the Moche people, an agricultural civilisation that flourished between 100 BC and 800 AD.
Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Bruning Museum in Peru and a leader of the dig, said the ceremonial site likely hosted ritual killings of prisoners of war.
Photographs taken at the site show more than half a dozen skeletons on the floor of the hall....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:37
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (7-26-10)
The remains of the largest rat to ever roam the Earth have been discovered in a remote cave in East Timor.
The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog.
Australian archaeologists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found the bones of the giant rat alongside 11 new species of rat, eight of which weighed more than 2lbs.
Dr Ken Aplin, who was part of the team that unearthed the remains, said that the find proved that rats dominated the East Timorese animal kingdom about five million years ago.
"It was rat land with at least 13 species of rodents on an island that isn't that big," he said.
While they may not be popular, rats are vitally important to the world's ecosystems, Dr Aplin said.
"Rodents make up 40 per cent of mammalian diversity worldwide and are a key element of ecosystems, important for processes like soil maintenance and seed dispersal. Maintaining biodiversity among rats is just as important as protecting whales or birds."
On East Timor, which lies north of Australia and east of Indonesia, rats have been on the menu for thousands of years, but recently some species had been threatened by extinction....
The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog.
Australian archaeologists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found the bones of the giant rat alongside 11 new species of rat, eight of which weighed more than 2lbs.
Dr Ken Aplin, who was part of the team that unearthed the remains, said that the find proved that rats dominated the East Timorese animal kingdom about five million years ago.
"It was rat land with at least 13 species of rodents on an island that isn't that big," he said.
While they may not be popular, rats are vitally important to the world's ecosystems, Dr Aplin said.
"Rodents make up 40 per cent of mammalian diversity worldwide and are a key element of ecosystems, important for processes like soil maintenance and seed dispersal. Maintaining biodiversity among rats is just as important as protecting whales or birds."
On East Timor, which lies north of Australia and east of Indonesia, rats have been on the menu for thousands of years, but recently some species had been threatened by extinction....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 11:44
Name of source: Fox News
SOURCE: Fox News (7-27-10)
President Obama will make history as the first sitting president on a daytime talk show when he visits with the ladies of "The View." But he'll be missing out on another historic occasion -- the Boy Scouts' Jamboree marking the group's 100th anniversary, right in the president's backyard.
The Jamboree kicked off this week at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where organizers had invited the president to speak to the 45,000 scouts in attendance. All three of Obama's predecessors have made it to one Jamboree while in office.
But the president will instead be traveling Wednesday to New York for a taping of the ABC show, as well as Democratic fundraisers and a stop in New Jersey. The talk show appearance comes as campaign season moves into full swing, but also amid efforts to cap the Gulf oil spill for good, contain the damage from an unprecedented leak of Afghanistan war documents and battle Arizona over its immigration law -- set to go into effect Thursday. Obama also has an out-of-town event planned for Friday in Detroit....
The Jamboree kicked off this week at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where organizers had invited the president to speak to the 45,000 scouts in attendance. All three of Obama's predecessors have made it to one Jamboree while in office.
But the president will instead be traveling Wednesday to New York for a taping of the ABC show, as well as Democratic fundraisers and a stop in New Jersey. The talk show appearance comes as campaign season moves into full swing, but also amid efforts to cap the Gulf oil spill for good, contain the damage from an unprecedented leak of Afghanistan war documents and battle Arizona over its immigration law -- set to go into effect Thursday. Obama also has an out-of-town event planned for Friday in Detroit....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:43
SOURCE: Fox News (7-26-10)
A strip of land on Africa's southern coast became a last refuge for the band of early humans who survived an ice age that wiped out the species elsewhere, scientists maintained Sunday.
The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago.
Scientists' excavations showed how a combination of rich vegetation on land and nutrient-laden currents in the sea created a source of food that could sustain early humans through devastating climate changes.
"Shortly after Homo sapiens first evolved, the harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species," said Professor Curtis Marean, of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. "Recent finds suggest the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa."...
The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago.
Scientists' excavations showed how a combination of rich vegetation on land and nutrient-laden currents in the sea created a source of food that could sustain early humans through devastating climate changes.
"Shortly after Homo sapiens first evolved, the harsh climate conditions nearly extinguished our species," said Professor Curtis Marean, of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. "Recent finds suggest the small population that gave rise to all humans alive today survived by exploiting a unique combination of resources along the southern coast of Africa."...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 17:16
SOURCE: Fox News (7-27-10)
A team of scientists will launch an expedition to the Titanic next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck and create a detailed three-dimensional map that will "virtually raise the Titanic" for the public.
The expedition to the site 2 miles 1/2 miles (four kilometers) beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.
The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 2-by-3 mile (3-by-5 kilometer) debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.
Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.
"For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind," David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. "One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is."...
The expedition to the site 2 miles 1/2 miles (four kilometers) beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.
The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 2-by-3 mile (3-by-5 kilometer) debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.
Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.
"For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind," David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. "One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is."...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 11:05
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (7-27-10)
It seemed too good to be true: The discovery of a new painting by Caravaggio during the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of his death. It turns out, it probably was.
Scholars unveiling the painting Tuesday concurred that the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" did not look like a Caravaggio, but rather like the work of one or more of his followers. This week, the Vatican newspaper, which first suggested the canvas could be the work of Caravaggio, shot down its own report and retracted the claim.
The painting will still be subjected to X-ray tests and other analyses to ascertain its attribution. But experts held out little hope that a new work by the Italian master has been found....
Scholars unveiling the painting Tuesday concurred that the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" did not look like a Caravaggio, but rather like the work of one or more of his followers. This week, the Vatican newspaper, which first suggested the canvas could be the work of Caravaggio, shot down its own report and retracted the claim.
The painting will still be subjected to X-ray tests and other analyses to ascertain its attribution. But experts held out little hope that a new work by the Italian master has been found....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:39
SOURCE: AP (7-26-10)
The Vatican's top art historian on Monday shot down a report in its own newspaper that suggested a recently discovered painting was a Caravaggio.
The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the work was most likely a copy of an original by a Caravaggio-influence artist.
It was L'Osservatore itself that set the art world aflutter last week with a front-page article headlined "A New Caravaggio," detailing the artistry behind the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," which had been discovered in the sacristy of a Jesuit church in Rome.
The author of the article, art historian Lydia Salviucci Insolera, had made clear that she was not making any conclusions about the authenticity of the work and that more diagnostic tests were required....
The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the work was most likely a copy of an original by a Caravaggio-influence artist.
It was L'Osservatore itself that set the art world aflutter last week with a front-page article headlined "A New Caravaggio," detailing the artistry behind the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence," which had been discovered in the sacristy of a Jesuit church in Rome.
The author of the article, art historian Lydia Salviucci Insolera, had made clear that she was not making any conclusions about the authenticity of the work and that more diagnostic tests were required....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 15:08
SOURCE: AP (7-26-10)
Lynnewood Hall, a century-old stunner of a building just outside Philadelphia, silently, almost invisibly, languishes 200 feet beyond a two-lane blacktop road like a crumbling little Versailles.
The graceful fountain that welcomed hundreds of well-heeled visitors, President Franklin Roosevelt among them, was dismantled and sold years ago. Its once meticulously sculpted French gardens are overgrown with weeds and vines. The classical Indiana limestone facade may have lost its luster but its poise still remains — at least from the other side of rusted wrought iron gates that keep the curious at bay.
Like other Gilded Age palaces of the nation's pre-Depression industrial titans, Lynnewood Hall is a relic of a bygone era facing an uncertain future. Will it befall the same fate as neighboring Whitemarsh Hall, the demolished mansion of banking magnate Edward Stotesbury? Or will it be returned to former glory, like industrialist Alfred I. duPont's former Nemours Mansion in Delaware?...
The graceful fountain that welcomed hundreds of well-heeled visitors, President Franklin Roosevelt among them, was dismantled and sold years ago. Its once meticulously sculpted French gardens are overgrown with weeds and vines. The classical Indiana limestone facade may have lost its luster but its poise still remains — at least from the other side of rusted wrought iron gates that keep the curious at bay.
Like other Gilded Age palaces of the nation's pre-Depression industrial titans, Lynnewood Hall is a relic of a bygone era facing an uncertain future. Will it befall the same fate as neighboring Whitemarsh Hall, the demolished mansion of banking magnate Edward Stotesbury? Or will it be returned to former glory, like industrialist Alfred I. duPont's former Nemours Mansion in Delaware?...
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:52
SOURCE: AP (7-23-10)
A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.
Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.
But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia....
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.
Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.
But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:45
SOURCE: AP (7-21-10)
The Office of State Parks says budget cuts have made five more historic sites available by appointment only.
The Plaquemine Lock, Marksville, Fort Pike, Fort Jesup and Centenary state historic sites will go into "caretaker status" on July 26....
The Plaquemine Lock, Marksville, Fort Pike, Fort Jesup and Centenary state historic sites will go into "caretaker status" on July 26....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:40
SOURCE: AP (7-23-10)
McGill, a program officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will spend Saturday night in a cabin at Hobcaw Barony near the coastal community of Georgetown.
It will be the fifth night this year that he has slept on a cabin floor, trying to attract attention to the need to preserve the structures and the history they hold.
McGill, who is black, is also a reenactor with the 54th Massachusetts, the black Union regiment that fought at Battery Wagner on Charleston Harbor during the Civil War. He said spending the night in the cabins helps him connect with his ancestors.
It will be the fifth night this year that he has slept on a cabin floor, trying to attract attention to the need to preserve the structures and the history they hold.
McGill, who is black, is also a reenactor with the 54th Massachusetts, the black Union regiment that fought at Battery Wagner on Charleston Harbor during the Civil War. He said spending the night in the cabins helps him connect with his ancestors.
Sunday, July 25, 2010 - 22:33
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (7-27-10)
Former Bosnian leader Ejup Ganic will not be extradited to Serbia, a British court ruled Tuesday, setting him free.
Ganic called the extradition request "a textbook example of abuse," accusing the Serbian government of trying to "undermine the judiciary in this country."
The extradition request was politically motivated, Justice Timothy Workman found in throwing it out....
Ganic called the extradition request "a textbook example of abuse," accusing the Serbian government of trying to "undermine the judiciary in this country."
The extradition request was politically motivated, Justice Timothy Workman found in throwing it out....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:33
SOURCE: CNN (7-27-10)
Cuba's Fidel Castro on Tuesday said he would publish a new book in August on the fighting more than 50 years ago between his ragtag rebels and the 10,000-strong army under former dictator Fulgencio Batista.
In an essay published Tuesday on the state-run website, www.cubadebate.cu, Castro said the book will be called "The Strategic Victory."
Castro said the 25 chapters contain photos, maps and illustrations of the weapons used during a series of battles that lasted 74 days in 1958 and paved the way for his bearded revolutionaries to declare victory on January 1, 1959....
In an essay published Tuesday on the state-run website, www.cubadebate.cu, Castro said the book will be called "The Strategic Victory."
Castro said the 25 chapters contain photos, maps and illustrations of the weapons used during a series of battles that lasted 74 days in 1958 and paved the way for his bearded revolutionaries to declare victory on January 1, 1959....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 22:31
SOURCE: CNN (7-26-10)
Rachel Sussman is a time traveler. For the last few years, the American photographer has journeyed across the globe on a mission to bring back images of the world's oldest living organisms.
In her ongoing project, Sussman has traveled to the primal landscapes of southern Greenland, the timeless high-altitude Andean deserts of South America and even under the ocean.
"[The project] is a celebration and record of our past, a call to action now, and also a barometer of our future," she told CNN.
Sussman began her time-traveling trips in 2004 while visiting the island of Yakushima in Japan to see a reportedly 2,200-year-old tree. On her return to the U.S., the idea to photograph an example of other long-living ancient species germinated and grew.
"It's been a fantastic learning experience and so unexpected," said Sussman. "[These organisms] have never been cataloged in this way; there isn't a global species longevity catalog."
Sussman's ancient organisms are continuously living and are genetically identical individuals.
So far, she has shot more than 25 different species of plant or organism, each being older than 2,000 years -- "I wanted to start with the idea of 'year zero' " -- with the oldest being actinobacteria from the permafrost of Siberia estimated to be around 500,000 years old.
After initial research on the Internet to track her subjects down, Sussman contacted scientists who were studying the species she wanted to photograph.
"Nine times out of 10, they're thrilled that someone outside of their field is interested in this esoteric work that they're doing," said Sussman.
"Then once the word got out there, people started contacting me."
Sussman discovered the llaretta in the Atacama Desert -- a relative of parsley that resembles a large green rock-- from a comment left on her blog after announcing she was going to Chile....
In her ongoing project, Sussman has traveled to the primal landscapes of southern Greenland, the timeless high-altitude Andean deserts of South America and even under the ocean.
"[The project] is a celebration and record of our past, a call to action now, and also a barometer of our future," she told CNN.
Sussman began her time-traveling trips in 2004 while visiting the island of Yakushima in Japan to see a reportedly 2,200-year-old tree. On her return to the U.S., the idea to photograph an example of other long-living ancient species germinated and grew.
"It's been a fantastic learning experience and so unexpected," said Sussman. "[These organisms] have never been cataloged in this way; there isn't a global species longevity catalog."
Sussman's ancient organisms are continuously living and are genetically identical individuals.
So far, she has shot more than 25 different species of plant or organism, each being older than 2,000 years -- "I wanted to start with the idea of 'year zero' " -- with the oldest being actinobacteria from the permafrost of Siberia estimated to be around 500,000 years old.
After initial research on the Internet to track her subjects down, Sussman contacted scientists who were studying the species she wanted to photograph.
"Nine times out of 10, they're thrilled that someone outside of their field is interested in this esoteric work that they're doing," said Sussman.
"Then once the word got out there, people started contacting me."
Sussman discovered the llaretta in the Atacama Desert -- a relative of parsley that resembles a large green rock-- from a comment left on her blog after announcing she was going to Chile....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 11:02
SOURCE: CNN (7-27-10)
Rick Norsigian's hobby of picking through piles of unwanted items at garage sales in search of antiques has paid off for the Fresno, California, painter.
Two small boxes he bought 10 years ago for $45 -- negotiated down from $70 -- are now estimated to be worth at least $200 million, according to a Beverly Hills art appraiser.
Those boxes contained 65 glass negatives created by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams in the early period of his career. Experts believed the negatives were destroyed in a 1937 darkroom fire that destroyed 5,000 plates.
"It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career," said David W. Streets, the appraiser and art dealer who is hosting an unveiling of the photographs at his Beverly Hills, California, gallery Tuesday.The photographs apparently were taken between 1919 and the early 1930s, well before Adams -- who is known as the father of American photography -- became nationally recognized in the 1940s, Streets said.
"This is going to show the world the evolution of his eye, of his talent, of his skill, his gift, but also his legacy," Streets said. "And it's a portion that we thought had been destroyed in the studio fire."
How these 6.5 x 8.5 inch glass plate negatives of famous Yosemite landscapes and San Francisco landmarks -- some of them with fire damage -- made their way from Adams collection 70 years ago to a Southern California garage sale in 2000 can only be guessed.
The person who sold them to Norsigian at the garage sale told him he bought them in the 1940s at a warehouse salvage in Los Angeles.
Photography expert Patrick Alt, who helped confirm the authenticity of the negatives, suspects Adams carried them to use in a photography class he was teaching in Pasadena, California, in the early 1940s....
Two small boxes he bought 10 years ago for $45 -- negotiated down from $70 -- are now estimated to be worth at least $200 million, according to a Beverly Hills art appraiser.
Those boxes contained 65 glass negatives created by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams in the early period of his career. Experts believed the negatives were destroyed in a 1937 darkroom fire that destroyed 5,000 plates.
"It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career," said David W. Streets, the appraiser and art dealer who is hosting an unveiling of the photographs at his Beverly Hills, California, gallery Tuesday.The photographs apparently were taken between 1919 and the early 1930s, well before Adams -- who is known as the father of American photography -- became nationally recognized in the 1940s, Streets said.
"This is going to show the world the evolution of his eye, of his talent, of his skill, his gift, but also his legacy," Streets said. "And it's a portion that we thought had been destroyed in the studio fire."
How these 6.5 x 8.5 inch glass plate negatives of famous Yosemite landscapes and San Francisco landmarks -- some of them with fire damage -- made their way from Adams collection 70 years ago to a Southern California garage sale in 2000 can only be guessed.
The person who sold them to Norsigian at the garage sale told him he bought them in the 1940s at a warehouse salvage in Los Angeles.
Photography expert Patrick Alt, who helped confirm the authenticity of the negatives, suspects Adams carried them to use in a photography class he was teaching in Pasadena, California, in the early 1940s....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 11:01
Name of source: Guardian (UK)
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (7-26-10)
It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre around the tourist towns of Lamu and Malindi and should shed light on a largely unknown part of both countries' histories.
The sunken ship is believed to have been part of a mighty armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan lore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swum ashore. After killing a python that had been plaguing a village, they were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating a community of African-Chinese whose descendants still live in the area....
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre around the tourist towns of Lamu and Malindi and should shed light on a largely unknown part of both countries' histories.
The sunken ship is believed to have been part of a mighty armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan lore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swum ashore. After killing a python that had been plaguing a village, they were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating a community of African-Chinese whose descendants still live in the area....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 18:20
Name of source: AHA Blog
SOURCE: AHA Blog (7-20-10)
The AHA welcomes the Construction History Society of America as its newest Affiliated Society.
Our new affiliate has the following statement of purpose:
The Construction History Society of America is dedicated to the study of the history and evolution of all aspects of the built environment—its creation, maintenance, and management. It is a forum for scholars and professionals in the field to share, meet, and exchange ideas and research. Membership is open to a wide range of construction-related disciplines involved in the planning, development, design, and construction of buildings and engineering infrastructure, in addition to those concerned with their operation and preservation. Members share a passion for examining how our existing structures were planned, designed and built, with the purpose of using this knowledge to better preserve what we have and to guide us in determining future directions....
Our new affiliate has the following statement of purpose:
The Construction History Society of America is dedicated to the study of the history and evolution of all aspects of the built environment—its creation, maintenance, and management. It is a forum for scholars and professionals in the field to share, meet, and exchange ideas and research. Membership is open to a wide range of construction-related disciplines involved in the planning, development, design, and construction of buildings and engineering infrastructure, in addition to those concerned with their operation and preservation. Members share a passion for examining how our existing structures were planned, designed and built, with the purpose of using this knowledge to better preserve what we have and to guide us in determining future directions....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 18:07
SOURCE: AHA Blog (7-21-10)
Digital Humanities AwardsOn July 20, 2010, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft or DFG) announced they have awarded $1.67 million to five international digital humanities projects.
The NEH/DFG Enriching Digital Collections Grants support collaborations between U.S. and German scholars to develop digitization projects that will benefit research in the humanities. Each project was sponsored jointly by an American and a German institution, whose activities will be funded by NEH and DFG respectively. The NEH provided $897,000 in grants while the DFG contributed approximately $772,000.
Brett Bobley, director of NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities, said, “Our partnership with the DFG has inspired scholars, librarians, and archivists in both Germany and the United States to work together on these groundbreaking projects that combine new technology with leading-edge scholarship.”
“The NEH/DFG cooperation has proved to be a fruitful framework for encouraging ambitious cooperative projects in the digital humanities,” said Christoph Kuemmel, program officer within DFGs Scientific Library Services and Information Services division. “These grants will make it possible to develop encoding standards, digitize large collections of text and materials, and integrate valuable existing databases from both sides of the ocean. It has been very satisfying to see digital collections being improved and enriched in such an innovative way.”...
The NEH/DFG Enriching Digital Collections Grants support collaborations between U.S. and German scholars to develop digitization projects that will benefit research in the humanities. Each project was sponsored jointly by an American and a German institution, whose activities will be funded by NEH and DFG respectively. The NEH provided $897,000 in grants while the DFG contributed approximately $772,000.
Brett Bobley, director of NEH’s Office of Digital Humanities, said, “Our partnership with the DFG has inspired scholars, librarians, and archivists in both Germany and the United States to work together on these groundbreaking projects that combine new technology with leading-edge scholarship.”
“The NEH/DFG cooperation has proved to be a fruitful framework for encouraging ambitious cooperative projects in the digital humanities,” said Christoph Kuemmel, program officer within DFGs Scientific Library Services and Information Services division. “These grants will make it possible to develop encoding standards, digitize large collections of text and materials, and integrate valuable existing databases from both sides of the ocean. It has been very satisfying to see digital collections being improved and enriched in such an innovative way.”...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 18:07
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (7-27-10)
Seth Mydans' dispatches from Cambodia on Monday (“A Verdict Is Due in the First Trial of a Major Khmer Rouge Figure”) and Tuesday (“Prison Term for Khmer Rouge Jailer Leaves many Dissatisfied") relayed the surprisingly lenient verdict in Cambodia of the Khmer Rouge jailer and killer known as “Duch.” They were unsparing and graphic, but strangely incomplete....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 16:32
SOURCE: NYT (7-26-10)
Raúl Castro is known among Cubans as a pragmatist, not an orator. But the Cuban president surprised even those accustomed to his reticence on Monday, when he chose not to address an expectant crowd gathered to celebrate Revolution Day in this university town.
Related
Instead, he delegated the task to the 79-year old vice president, José Ramón Machado Ventura, who appealed for discipline and patience as Cuba tackles economic reforms and condemned the United States for its economic isolation of the island as Mr. Castro applauded from his seat....
Mr. Castro’s choice to not to speak at one of the most important fixtures on the Cuban calendar disappointed some in this central Cuban city. Cubans and officials interviewed Monday said they could not recall an occasion when either Mr. Castro, 79, or his brother, Fidel, 83, did not speak on July 26, when Cubans commemorate the 1953 rebel assault on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, an event often celebrated here as the birth of the revolution against President Fulgencio Batista....
Related
Instead, he delegated the task to the 79-year old vice president, José Ramón Machado Ventura, who appealed for discipline and patience as Cuba tackles economic reforms and condemned the United States for its economic isolation of the island as Mr. Castro applauded from his seat....
Mr. Castro’s choice to not to speak at one of the most important fixtures on the Cuban calendar disappointed some in this central Cuban city. Cubans and officials interviewed Monday said they could not recall an occasion when either Mr. Castro, 79, or his brother, Fidel, 83, did not speak on July 26, when Cubans commemorate the 1953 rebel assault on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, an event often celebrated here as the birth of the revolution against President Fulgencio Batista....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 09:52
SOURCE: NYT (7-26-10)
For 30 years since the brutal Khmer Rouge regime was driven from power, Cambodians have lived with unresolved trauma, with skulls and bones from killing fields still lying in the open and with parents hiding the pain of their past from their children.
A Cambodian woman cried after Kaing Guek Eav, a Khmer Rouge leader responsible for more than 14,000 deaths, was sentenced to 35 years Monday.
Journalists watched in Phnom Penh as Kaing Guek Eav, awaited his sentence. It was Cambodia’s first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure.
On Monday, Cambodia took a significant step toward addressing its harsh past with the first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.
But some survivors were distraught over what they saw as a lenient sentence, one that could possibly allow the defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, 67, commonly known as Duch, to walk free one day.
A United Nations-backed court found Duch (pronounced DOIK), the commandant of the central Khmer Rouge prison, Tuol Sleng, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for overseeing the torture and killing of more than 14,000 people. The court reduced that term to 19 years because of time already served and in compensation for a period of illegal military detention....
A Cambodian woman cried after Kaing Guek Eav, a Khmer Rouge leader responsible for more than 14,000 deaths, was sentenced to 35 years Monday.
Journalists watched in Phnom Penh as Kaing Guek Eav, awaited his sentence. It was Cambodia’s first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure.
On Monday, Cambodia took a significant step toward addressing its harsh past with the first conviction of a major Khmer Rouge figure in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.
But some survivors were distraught over what they saw as a lenient sentence, one that could possibly allow the defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, 67, commonly known as Duch, to walk free one day.
A United Nations-backed court found Duch (pronounced DOIK), the commandant of the central Khmer Rouge prison, Tuol Sleng, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 35 years in prison for overseeing the torture and killing of more than 14,000 people. The court reduced that term to 19 years because of time already served and in compensation for a period of illegal military detention....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 09:49
SOURCE: NYT (7-25-10)
...Indonesia’s linguistic legacy is increasingly under threat as growing numbers of wealthy and upper-middle-class families shun public schools where Indonesian remains the main language but English is often taught poorly. They are turning, instead, to private schools that focus on English and devote little time, if any, to Indonesian....
In 1928, nationalists seeking independence from Dutch rule chose Indonesian, a form of Malay, as the language of civic unity. While a small percentage of educated Indonesians spoke Dutch, Indonesian became the preferred language of intellectuals.
Each language had a social rank, said Arief Rachman, an education expert. “If you spoke Javanese, you were below,” he said, referring to the main language on the island of Java. “If you spoke Indonesian, you were a bit above. If you spoke Dutch, you were at the top.”
Leaders, especially Suharto, the general who ruled Indonesia until 1998, enforced teaching of Indonesian and curbed use of English....
With Indonesia’s democratization in the past decade, experts say, English became the new Dutch....
In 1928, nationalists seeking independence from Dutch rule chose Indonesian, a form of Malay, as the language of civic unity. While a small percentage of educated Indonesians spoke Dutch, Indonesian became the preferred language of intellectuals.
Each language had a social rank, said Arief Rachman, an education expert. “If you spoke Javanese, you were below,” he said, referring to the main language on the island of Java. “If you spoke Indonesian, you were a bit above. If you spoke Dutch, you were at the top.”
Leaders, especially Suharto, the general who ruled Indonesia until 1998, enforced teaching of Indonesian and curbed use of English....
With Indonesia’s democratization in the past decade, experts say, English became the new Dutch....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 08:55
SOURCE: NYT (7-24-10)
Like everything else, war is a lot more expensive than it used to be.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Americans a staggering $1 trillion to date, second only in inflation-adjusted dollars to the $4 trillion price tag for World War II, when the United States put 16 million men and women into uniform and fought on three continents.
Sticker shock is the inevitable first reaction to the latest statistics on the costs of all major United States wars since the American Revolution, compiled by the Congressional Research Service and released late last month, and the figures promise to play into intensifying political and economic pressures to restrain the Pentagon budget.
Still, 21st-century technology is an obvious explanation for why two relatively small (although long) wars in developing societies like Iraq and Afghanistan are so expensive. As Stephen Daggett, a specialist in defense policy and budgets, writes in the Congressional Research Service report, in the Revolutionary War “the most sophisticated weaponry was a 36-gun frigate that is hardly comparable to a modern $3.5 billion destroyer.”
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Americans a staggering $1 trillion to date, second only in inflation-adjusted dollars to the $4 trillion price tag for World War II, when the United States put 16 million men and women into uniform and fought on three continents.
Sticker shock is the inevitable first reaction to the latest statistics on the costs of all major United States wars since the American Revolution, compiled by the Congressional Research Service and released late last month, and the figures promise to play into intensifying political and economic pressures to restrain the Pentagon budget.
Still, 21st-century technology is an obvious explanation for why two relatively small (although long) wars in developing societies like Iraq and Afghanistan are so expensive. As Stephen Daggett, a specialist in defense policy and budgets, writes in the Congressional Research Service report, in the Revolutionary War “the most sophisticated weaponry was a 36-gun frigate that is hardly comparable to a modern $3.5 billion destroyer.”
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 10:14
Name of source: Huffington Post
SOURCE: Huffington Post (7-26-10)
Oliver Stone says that Hitler caused more damage to the Russian people than to Jewish people, but that the American focus on the Holocaust stems from the "Jewish domination of the media."
Update, Stone apology below
The director made the controversial claim in an interview with London's Sunday Times (behind a paywall).
"Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein," Stone said (via The Telegraph). "German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support...
"Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than [to] the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed]."
The reason few people know this, according to Stone?
"The Jewish domination of the media," he said. "There's a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years."
Earlier this year, Stone described Hitler as "an easy scapegoat."
UPDATE: Stone has apologized for what he is describing as "a clumsy association" he made about the Holocaust.
In a statement, Stone took back his statement that Jews control the media and called the Holocaust an "atrocity":
"In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret. Jews obviously do not control media or any other industry. The fact that the Holocaust is still a very important, vivid and current matter today is, in fact, a great credit to the very hard work of a broad coalition of people committed to the remembrance of this atrocity - and it was an atrocity."
UPDATE: The Anti-Defamation League has condemned Stone's statement, saying that the director has "once again shown his conspiratorial colors." Abraham H. Foxman, the organization's National Director, issued the following statement:
Oliver Stone has once again shown his conspiratorial colors with his comments about 'Jewish domination of the media' and control over U.S. foreign policy. His words conjure up some of the most stereotypical and conspiratorial notions of undue Jewish power and influence.
The myth of Jewish control is an old stereotype that persists to this day. Stone uses it in a particularly egregious fashion by suggesting that Hitler has gotten an unfair shake because of Jewish influence.
This is the most absurd kind of analysis and shows the extent to which Oliver Stone is willing to propound his anti-Semitic and conspiratorial views.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 15:10
Name of source: haaretz (Israel)
SOURCE: haaretz (Israel) (7-26-10)
Outspoken Hollywood director says new film aims to put Adolf Hitler, who he has called an 'easy scapegoat' in the past, in his due historical context.
Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years.
n the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the "Jewish domination of the media," adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "in context."
"There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington."
The famed Hollywood director of such films as Platoon and JFK, also said that while "Hitler was a Frankenstein," there was also a "Dr Frankenstein."
"German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support," Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed]."...
Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years.
n the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the "Jewish domination of the media," adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "in context."
"There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington."
The famed Hollywood director of such films as Platoon and JFK, also said that while "Hitler was a Frankenstein," there was also a "Dr Frankenstein."
"German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support," Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed]."...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 15:10
Name of source: Billings Gazette
SOURCE: Billings Gazette (7-23-10)
Sacajawea may have spent part of her early childhood among the Crow, Crow historian Elias Goes Ahead said.
Goes Ahead, who has been researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Crow point of view, said his information came from an old account taken by a nephew of White Dog, who died in the 1930s at the age of 106.
It’s impossible to verify more than 200 years later, but the story apparently came down as oral tradition before it was written down sometime in the 20th century....
Goes Ahead, who has been researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition from the Crow point of view, said his information came from an old account taken by a nephew of White Dog, who died in the 1930s at the age of 106.
It’s impossible to verify more than 200 years later, but the story apparently came down as oral tradition before it was written down sometime in the 20th century....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 13:05
Name of source: Asahi (Japan)
SOURCE: Asahi (Japan) (6-23-10)
Sadamitsu Ushijima was told his paternal grandfather was a gentle man. How, then, could his grandfather have ordered his troops to fight to the last man during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945?
Hoping to find an answer to that question, Ushijima, 56, an elementary school teacher in Tokyo, has repeatedly visited the southern island prefecture since 1994.
His grandfather was Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, the Japanese Imperial Army commander of forces on Okinawa, the site of the bloodiest ground battle of the Pacific War.
Ushijima committed suicide at Mabuni, on the southern tip of Okinawa's main island where the last fierce battle was fought, on June 23, 65 years ago. He was 57.
Okinawa now marks June 23, when organized Japanese resistance to the U.S. forces ended, as a day to remember the battle's more than 200,000 victims.
As a teacher, Ushijima long focused his efforts on integrated education that encourages children with disabilities to learn alongside their non-disabled peers.
But he stayed away from Okinawa as a subject.
He hated his name, which includes the same Chinese character as his grandfather's. He was afraid he would be asked about the late commander.
His first visit to Okinawa in 1994, at the urging of colleagues, changed all that.
Ushijima visited a peace memorial museum in Mabuni to find his grandfather's fight-to-the-last order on exhibit at the entrance....
Hoping to find an answer to that question, Ushijima, 56, an elementary school teacher in Tokyo, has repeatedly visited the southern island prefecture since 1994.
His grandfather was Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, the Japanese Imperial Army commander of forces on Okinawa, the site of the bloodiest ground battle of the Pacific War.
Ushijima committed suicide at Mabuni, on the southern tip of Okinawa's main island where the last fierce battle was fought, on June 23, 65 years ago. He was 57.
Okinawa now marks June 23, when organized Japanese resistance to the U.S. forces ended, as a day to remember the battle's more than 200,000 victims.
As a teacher, Ushijima long focused his efforts on integrated education that encourages children with disabilities to learn alongside their non-disabled peers.
But he stayed away from Okinawa as a subject.
He hated his name, which includes the same Chinese character as his grandfather's. He was afraid he would be asked about the late commander.
His first visit to Okinawa in 1994, at the urging of colleagues, changed all that.
Ushijima visited a peace memorial museum in Mabuni to find his grandfather's fight-to-the-last order on exhibit at the entrance....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 11:11
Name of source: telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: telegraph (UK) (7-25-10)
As they prepare for holiday reading in Tuscany, City bankers are buying up rare copies of an obscure book on the mechanics of Weimar inflation published in 1974.
Ebay is offering a well-thumbed volume of "Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations" at a starting bid of $699 (shipping free.. thanks a lot).
The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason" , causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks. The shift invariably catches economists by surprise. They wait too long to drain the excess money.
"Velocity took an almost right-angle turn upward in the summer of 1922," said Mr O Parsson. Reichsbank officials were baffled. They could not fathom why the German people had started to behave differently almost two years after the bank had already boosted the money supply. He contends that public patience snapped abruptly once people lost trust and began to "smell a government rat".
Some might smile at the Bank of England "surprise" at the recent the jump in Brtiish inflation. Across the Atlantic, Fed critics say the rise in the US monetary base from $871bn to $2,024bn in just two years is an incendiary pyre that will ignite as soon as US money velocity returns to normal.
Morgan Stanley expects bond carnage as this catches up with the Fed, predicting that yields on US Treasuries will rocket to 5.5pc. This has not happened so far. 10-year yields have fallen below 3pc, and M2 velocity has remained at historic lows of 1.72.
As a signed-up member of the deflation camp, I think the Bank and the Fed are right to keep their nerve and delay the withdrawal of stimulus -- though that case is easier to make in the US where core inflation has dropped to the lowest since the mid 1960s. But fact that O Parsson’s book is suddenly in demand in elite banking circles is itself a sign of the sort of behavioral change that can become self-fulfilling....
Ebay is offering a well-thumbed volume of "Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations" at a starting bid of $699 (shipping free.. thanks a lot).
The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason" , causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks. The shift invariably catches economists by surprise. They wait too long to drain the excess money.
"Velocity took an almost right-angle turn upward in the summer of 1922," said Mr O Parsson. Reichsbank officials were baffled. They could not fathom why the German people had started to behave differently almost two years after the bank had already boosted the money supply. He contends that public patience snapped abruptly once people lost trust and began to "smell a government rat".
Some might smile at the Bank of England "surprise" at the recent the jump in Brtiish inflation. Across the Atlantic, Fed critics say the rise in the US monetary base from $871bn to $2,024bn in just two years is an incendiary pyre that will ignite as soon as US money velocity returns to normal.
Morgan Stanley expects bond carnage as this catches up with the Fed, predicting that yields on US Treasuries will rocket to 5.5pc. This has not happened so far. 10-year yields have fallen below 3pc, and M2 velocity has remained at historic lows of 1.72.
As a signed-up member of the deflation camp, I think the Bank and the Fed are right to keep their nerve and delay the withdrawal of stimulus -- though that case is easier to make in the US where core inflation has dropped to the lowest since the mid 1960s. But fact that O Parsson’s book is suddenly in demand in elite banking circles is itself a sign of the sort of behavioral change that can become self-fulfilling....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 11:07
Name of source: San Jose Mercury-News
SOURCE: San Jose Mercury-News (7-26-10)
The San Jose artist once revered for saving Big Basin's redwoods from greedy loggers isn't exactly a household name. But with the transformation Sunday of his home into a public showpiece, local historians are hoping Andrew P. Hill is again recognized as a California hero.
"If it wasn't for Andrew Hill, we wouldn't have been able to go to Big Basin to see the redwoods on Mother's Day," said Rich Winslow, a San Jose engineer who brought his family to the grand opening of Hill's candy box of a Victorian at History Park on Senter Road in San Jose.
Hill's house — like his legend — seemed destined to fade away when the Victorian Preservation Association of Santa Clara County stepped in 15 years ago. Back then, the Queen Anne-style home on Alma Street south of downtown San Jose was a crumbling wreck defaced by graffiti, its fish-scale shingles marred by roof moss and wood floors littered with trash three-feet deep....
"If it wasn't for Andrew Hill, we wouldn't have been able to go to Big Basin to see the redwoods on Mother's Day," said Rich Winslow, a San Jose engineer who brought his family to the grand opening of Hill's candy box of a Victorian at History Park on Senter Road in San Jose.
Hill's house — like his legend — seemed destined to fade away when the Victorian Preservation Association of Santa Clara County stepped in 15 years ago. Back then, the Queen Anne-style home on Alma Street south of downtown San Jose was a crumbling wreck defaced by graffiti, its fish-scale shingles marred by roof moss and wood floors littered with trash three-feet deep....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:44
Name of source: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News (7-21-10)
It has been more than 150 years since Capt Sir John Franklin and his 128 men perished in the Canadian Arctic, their ships lost in one of the greatest disasters of British polar exploration.
Now, a Canadian archaeological team is en route to the Arctic in a fresh hunt for Franklin's ships.
Relying on 150-year-old testimony of indigenous Inuits and 21st-Century methods like sea-floor surveying, the team hopes to find HMS Terror and HMS Erebus and discover once and for all the fate of the men - who are believed to have succumbed to scurvy, hypothermia and even cannibalism before they perished in the frozen Arctic.
The expedition by Parks Canada, a Canadian government agency, comes amid Canada's increasing efforts to assert sovereignty over the waters of the Northwest Passage, which is increasingly navigable for longer periods during the summer.
This sea route is the same one Franklin and his men set out to find in 1845.
The expedition will also be the first to search for the ship sent to rescue Franklin, HMS Investigator....
Now, a Canadian archaeological team is en route to the Arctic in a fresh hunt for Franklin's ships.
Relying on 150-year-old testimony of indigenous Inuits and 21st-Century methods like sea-floor surveying, the team hopes to find HMS Terror and HMS Erebus and discover once and for all the fate of the men - who are believed to have succumbed to scurvy, hypothermia and even cannibalism before they perished in the frozen Arctic.
The expedition by Parks Canada, a Canadian government agency, comes amid Canada's increasing efforts to assert sovereignty over the waters of the Northwest Passage, which is increasingly navigable for longer periods during the summer.
This sea route is the same one Franklin and his men set out to find in 1845.
The expedition will also be the first to search for the ship sent to rescue Franklin, HMS Investigator....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:40
SOURCE: BBC News (7-19-10)
Archaeologists start excavations on a suspected ancient burial site to try to understand the significance of a Llangollen landmark on which it stands.
But the team will have to work carefully because the 9th Century Pillar of Eliseg, a Cadw-protected ancient monument, stands directly on top of the barrow - burial mound - and the archaeologists can't disturb it.
Medieval archaeology Professor Nancy Edwards, from Bangor University, says it is the first time the site has been dug since 1773 when, it is believed, a skeleton was unearthed....
But the team will have to work carefully because the 9th Century Pillar of Eliseg, a Cadw-protected ancient monument, stands directly on top of the barrow - burial mound - and the archaeologists can't disturb it.
Medieval archaeology Professor Nancy Edwards, from Bangor University, says it is the first time the site has been dug since 1773 when, it is believed, a skeleton was unearthed....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 12:39
SOURCE: BBC News (7-26-10)
Archaeologists have discovered a 4th Century Roman villa near Aberystwyth.
It is the most north-westerly villa found in Wales and has forced experts to reconsider the whole nature of Roman settlement across mid and north Wales.
Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.
"The discovery raises significant new questions," said Dr Toby Driver and Dr Jeffrey Davies, excavation directors.
The villa is likely to have belonged to a wealthy landowner, with pottery and coin finds on the site indicating occupation in the late 3rd and early 4th Centuries AD.
It was roofed with local slates, which were cut for a pentagonal roof. The walls were built of local stone and there was a cobbled yard.
The confirmation of the villa comes after Royal Commission aerial photography during the drought of 2006 suggested marks of a building and a ditch which could be an important historical monument.
Dr Driver and Dr Davies, while filming for BBC2 Wales' Hidden Histories programme in 2009 conducted a geophysical survey of the field. It revealed a vast ditched enclosure and annex, as well the buried footings of a winged stone building.
This led to the 2010 excavations.
It is the most north-westerly villa found in Wales and has forced experts to reconsider the whole nature of Roman settlement across mid and north Wales.
Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.
"The discovery raises significant new questions," said Dr Toby Driver and Dr Jeffrey Davies, excavation directors.
The villa is likely to have belonged to a wealthy landowner, with pottery and coin finds on the site indicating occupation in the late 3rd and early 4th Centuries AD.
It was roofed with local slates, which were cut for a pentagonal roof. The walls were built of local stone and there was a cobbled yard.
The confirmation of the villa comes after Royal Commission aerial photography during the drought of 2006 suggested marks of a building and a ditch which could be an important historical monument.
Dr Driver and Dr Davies, while filming for BBC2 Wales' Hidden Histories programme in 2009 conducted a geophysical survey of the field. It revealed a vast ditched enclosure and annex, as well the buried footings of a winged stone building.
This led to the 2010 excavations.
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 11:33
SOURCE: BBC News (7-26-10)
Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal, which is investigating the country's 1971 liberation struggle against Pakistan, has issued its first arrest warrants.
Court officials told the BBC the war crimes indictments targeted four leaders of Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, already in custody.
The tribunal was set up in March to try people accused of atrocities.
Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until the nine-month war of secession, which left up to three million people dead.
The four accused - Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami; his deputy Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid; and two other senior leaders, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah - were detained last month on unrelated charges.
A senior court official, Mohammed Shahinur Islam, told the BBC on Monday the four would not be able to apply for bail under Monday's warrants....
Court officials told the BBC the war crimes indictments targeted four leaders of Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, already in custody.
The tribunal was set up in March to try people accused of atrocities.
Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until the nine-month war of secession, which left up to three million people dead.
The four accused - Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami; his deputy Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid; and two other senior leaders, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah - were detained last month on unrelated charges.
A senior court official, Mohammed Shahinur Islam, told the BBC on Monday the four would not be able to apply for bail under Monday's warrants....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 11:13
SOURCE: BBC News (7-25-10)
President Sebastian Pinera of Chile has rejected a plea by the Roman Catholic Church that he pardon members of the armed forces over human rights abuses committed during military rule.
Mr Pinera said the proposal had caused division in Chile and reopened old wounds.
He said there could be no pardon for serious offences such as murder and crimes against humanity.
More than 3,000 Chileans were killed by the military between 1973 and 1990.
The Chilean Bishops' Conference had urged Mr Pinera to show clemency to long-serving inmates who had shown repentance, in a gesture to mark 200 years of Chilean independence.
In a letter last week, the bishops said that not all of those convicted of crimes under the rule of General Augusto Pinochet shared equal responsibility.
'Old wounds'
But Mr Pinera rejected the suggestion saying: "I have reached the conclusion that it would not be prudent or convenient in the current circumstances to promote a new law of general pardon.
Mr Pinera said the proposal had caused division in Chile and reopened old wounds.
He said there could be no pardon for serious offences such as murder and crimes against humanity.
More than 3,000 Chileans were killed by the military between 1973 and 1990.
The Chilean Bishops' Conference had urged Mr Pinera to show clemency to long-serving inmates who had shown repentance, in a gesture to mark 200 years of Chilean independence.
In a letter last week, the bishops said that not all of those convicted of crimes under the rule of General Augusto Pinochet shared equal responsibility.
'Old wounds'
But Mr Pinera rejected the suggestion saying: "I have reached the conclusion that it would not be prudent or convenient in the current circumstances to promote a new law of general pardon.
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 11:12
SOURCE: BBC News (7-26-10)
Closing arguments are to begin in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Mr Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his office for personal gain - including an effort to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat - and attempted extortion.
The case turns largely on hours of conversations wire-tapped by the FBI.
The defence says Mr Blagojevich's talk was mere bluster, arguing prosecutors have not proven he committed crimes.
Mr Blagojevich, a Democrat, was ejected from office by the Illinois state legislature in January 2009.
Prosecutors say Mr Blagojevich, in a desperate attempt to shore up his shaky family finances, threatened to withhold state business from companies that did not hire his wife and conspired to benefit from his authority to hand out state contracts and appointments.
'He's broke'
In the most lurid accusation, Mr Blagojevich is accused of trying to win a high-paying job or government position for himself in exchange for an appointment to the US senate seat that Barack Obama left when he was elected president.
He is also accused of wire fraud and others charges which relate to demanding donations from potential campaign contributors in exchange for favours....
Mr Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his office for personal gain - including an effort to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat - and attempted extortion.
The case turns largely on hours of conversations wire-tapped by the FBI.
The defence says Mr Blagojevich's talk was mere bluster, arguing prosecutors have not proven he committed crimes.
Mr Blagojevich, a Democrat, was ejected from office by the Illinois state legislature in January 2009.
Prosecutors say Mr Blagojevich, in a desperate attempt to shore up his shaky family finances, threatened to withhold state business from companies that did not hire his wife and conspired to benefit from his authority to hand out state contracts and appointments.
'He's broke'
In the most lurid accusation, Mr Blagojevich is accused of trying to win a high-paying job or government position for himself in exchange for an appointment to the US senate seat that Barack Obama left when he was elected president.
He is also accused of wire fraud and others charges which relate to demanding donations from potential campaign contributors in exchange for favours....
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 11:10
SOURCE: BBC News (7-26-10)
Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He had admitted overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness.
This is the tribunal's first verdict.
Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40-year prison sentence.
However, Duch will not serve the full 35 allotted years as judges reduced the sentence by five years because he had been held illegally, and reduced it by a further 11 years for time already served behind bars.
Wearing a blue shirt, the former Khmer Rouge jailer looked pensive and slumped in his chair as proceedings were held behind a floor-to-ceiling bullet-proof screen which separated the public gallery from the rest of the court.
Reading out the sentence, the president of the five-judge panel said it reflected the "shocking and heinous" nature of the offences.
Crowds of Cambodians attended the specially built court on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, to hear the verdict, which was also broadcast live across the country.
...
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He had admitted overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness.
This is the tribunal's first verdict.
Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40-year prison sentence.
However, Duch will not serve the full 35 allotted years as judges reduced the sentence by five years because he had been held illegally, and reduced it by a further 11 years for time already served behind bars.
Wearing a blue shirt, the former Khmer Rouge jailer looked pensive and slumped in his chair as proceedings were held behind a floor-to-ceiling bullet-proof screen which separated the public gallery from the rest of the court.
Reading out the sentence, the president of the five-judge panel said it reflected the "shocking and heinous" nature of the offences.
Crowds of Cambodians attended the specially built court on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, to hear the verdict, which was also broadcast live across the country.
...
Monday, July 26, 2010 - 11:08
Name of source: Guardian
SOURCE: Guardian (7-25-10)
Search for remains of armada which came to grief on a pioneering voyage to Kenya 600 years ago.
It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre around the tourist towns of Lamu and Malindi and should shed light on a largely unknown part of both countries' histories.
The sunken ship is believed to have been part of a mighty armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan lore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swum ashore. After killing a python that had been plaguing a village, they were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating a community of African-Chinese whose descendants still live in the area....
It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre around the tourist towns of Lamu and Malindi and should shed light on a largely unknown part of both countries' histories.
The sunken ship is believed to have been part of a mighty armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan lore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swum ashore. After killing a python that had been plaguing a village, they were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating a community of African-Chinese whose descendants still live in the area....
Sunday, July 25, 2010 - 22:35
