This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: BBC
December 31, 2008
The famous beards and moustaches of India - seen as representing a huge
tradition to the outside world - are under threat, a new book says.
It says that the country's famous facial hairs are disappearing as India
enters the clean-shaven digital age.
The book says that the traditional belief that facial hair is a sign of
virility appears to be facing the chop.
It says that young people in particular do not want an itchy moustache or
beard which they think makes them look
Source: BBC
December 30, 2008
One of the most famous sites in Hinduism, the Pashupatinath Temple in
Nepal, has experienced a significant break with tradition.
Its prayers always used to be led by high caste, Brahmin priests recruited
from south India.
But now they have been replaced by local priests - ending centuries of
tradition and long-held rituals.
Source: BBC
December 30, 2008
For Irving Kahn it was the start of his career. He worked on Wall Street
at the time of the stock market crash in 1929.
But as he recalls, he was one of the luckier ones."I got my pay cut to 60 dollars a week. And I remember my rich employer
saying to me 'Why are you smiling?'. And I said 'I thought you were going
to fire me'."
At the age of 103, Mr Kahn may be the oldest working financial analyst on
Wall Street.
He is chairman of Kahn Brothers, a New York investment fir
Source: BBC
December 31, 2008
An Iraqi-born Canadian has been charged by the US authorities with
conspiring to spy for the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein from 2000
until 2003.
Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish, 47, who worked in the US at the time, is accused
of giving information to Iraqi officials.
He was detained on 24 December as he tried to enter the US from Canada.
Source: USA Today
December 31, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's inauguration will be saturated in Abraham Lincoln symbolism.
The president-elect launched his campaign nearly two years ago in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Ill. Obama will ride into the nation's capital in a railroad car, as did Lincoln. And he will be sworn into office on Lincoln's bible.
But the comparisons take an abrupt turn from there as Obama faces two fundamental challenges that are the opposite of what Lincoln faced nearly a ce
Source: AP
December 31, 2008
WASHINGTON -— The exclusive Hay-Adams Hotel just yards from the White House will become a temporary home "suite" home for President-elect Barack Obama and his family when they move to the capital this weekend.
With daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, beginning classes Monday at the private Sidwell Friends School, the family needed someplace to stay...
Opened in 1928, the hotel sits across Lafayette Square from the White House, Obama's eventual work place and ho
Source: WaPo
December 31, 2008
While Obama vacationed, some of the main characters from his political past took turns starring in a bizarre Chicago news conference. First to the lectern was embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested this month on federal corruption charges, and from whom Obama has worked to distance himself. Blagojevich then introduced Roland Burris, his appointment to fill Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate. Burris once held a fundraiser at his house for Obama and calls the president-elect "
Source: CNN
December 31, 2008
A number of atheists and non-religious organizations want Barack Obama's
inauguration ceremony to leave out all references to God and religion.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington, the plaintiffs demand that the
words"so help me God" not be added to the end of the president's oath of
office.
In addition, the lawsuit objects to plans for ministers to deliver an
invocation and a benediction in which they may discuss God and religion.
An advance copy of the lawsuit was
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 30, 2008
David Owen, James Callaghan's Foreign Secretary, feared that revelations about what he accepted was a "violation of British sovereignty" on Southern Thule would derail talks between the two countries about the future control of the Falklands themselves.
In diplomatic language, he described the prospect of the islanders finding out about a large Argentine base on British territory to the south of them as a "complicating factor".
Mr Owen, now Lord Owe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 31, 2008
Fifty years after Fidel Castro's guerrillas claimed control of Cuba, the
country's communist leadership will celebrate Thursday's landmark
anniversary amid a deepening economic crisis and speculation about the
frail health of the father of that revolution.
Castro's younger brother Raul, 77, who replaced the veteran dictator as
president in February, will lead the main celebrations in the eastern city
of Santiago, addressing a crowd from the same balcony where Fidel
proclaimed victor
Source: Wall Street Journal
December 31, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Alberto Gonzales, who has kept a low profile since resigning as attorney general nearly 16 months ago, said he is writing a book to set the record straight about his controversial tenure as a senior official in the Bush administration.
Mr. Gonzales has been portrayed by critics both as unqualified for his position and instrumental in laying the groundwork for the administration's "war on terror." He was pilloried by Congress in a manner not usually directed t
Source: AP
December 30, 2008
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Tuesday awarded more than $65 million to several men who were captured and tortured by North Korea after the communist country seized the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo during the Cold War. North Korea never responded to the lawsuit filed by William Thomas Massie, Donald Raymond McClarren, Dunnie Richard Tuck and the estate of Lloyd Bucher. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. entered the judgment against the country.
The USS Pueblo was seized off North
Source: AP
December 30, 2008
BUENOS AIRES -– Workers digging to lay the foundation of a luxury apartment complex in Argentina uncovered a Spanish ship believed to be from the 18th century.
It was found in Buenos Aires' upscale Puerto Madero neighborhood, on the banks of the Plata River. The area used to be the city's old port, but was eventually filled in and developed.
Source: Guardian
December 31, 2008
In the late 18th century, it was a dangerous idea, a political view that could entail deportation to the penal colonies. But the revered Scots poet Robert Burns was openly discussing republican sentiments in the last months of his life, risking punitive action for challenging the authority of the king, an expert in Scottish literature has found.
In a biography to mark the 250th anniversary of Burns's birth, Prof Robert Crawford of St Andrews University has unearthed new evidence whi
Source: MSNBC
December 30, 2008
Israel began a massive assault on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27, inflicting scores of casualties over the following days. History provides some clues to what is behind this violence.
Where is the Gaza Strip?
The Gaza Strip is, as its name implies, a 146-square-mile strip of coastal land running along Israel's southwestern flank on the Mediterranean Sea and on the border with Egypt. Around 1.5 million Palestinians live there and it is governed by militant Islamist group Hamas.
Source: http://www.concordmonitor.com
December 30, 2008
Is Franklin Pierce due for a promotion? Pierce, the only New Hampshire man elected to the White House, is a perennial nominee for Worst President Ever. But as that office's current occupant finds his own reputation under attack from many historians and the public, Pierce could move up a notch from the bottom of the presidential rankings - a boost Pierce partisans say is long past due.
"When I speak to groups, somebody always asks, 'How does it feel to know your man is no longer
Source: McClatchy
December 30, 2008
An ancient mariner who lived and died 10,000 years ago on an island west of Ketchikan probably doesn't have any close relatives left in Alaska.
But some of them migrated south, and their descendants can be found today in coastal Native American populations in California, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina.
That's some of what scientists learned this summer by examining the DNA of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Indians in Southeast Alaska.
Source: Boston Globe
December 28, 2008
When Barack Obama takes the oath of office at the US Capitol, the first African-American to become president will be standing amid stonework laid by slaves more than two centuries ago. He will appear before a crowd massed on the Mall, where slaves were once held in pens, ready for auction. He will end his inauguration route at the White House, where the foundations were laid by slaves, and where eight presidents held blacks as their human property.
At nearly every turn of Obama's ma
Source: Karl Rove in the WSJ
December 26, 2008
With only five days left, my lead is insurmountable. The competition can't catch up. And for the third year in a row, I'll triumph. In second place will be the president of the United States. Our contest is not about sports or politics. It's about books.
It all started on New Year's Eve in 2005. President Bush asked what my New Year's resolutions were. I told him that as a regular reader who'd gotten out of the habit, my goal was to read a book a week in 2006. Three days later, we w
Source: CNN
December 30, 2008
A NASA report on the last minutes of Space Shuttle Columbia cited problems
with the crew's helmets, spacesuits and restraints, which resulted in"lethal trauma" to the seven astronauts aboard.
But the report also acknowledged that"the breakup of the crew module ...
was not survivable by any currently existing capability."
The spacecraft broke up while re-entering Earth's atmosphere near the end
of its mission on February 1, 2003.
