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: Times (UK)
December 7, 2008
BRITAIN, which has long marketed itself to tourists as a treasure trove of monuments, is preparing to stop nominations to the United Nations list of the most important historic sites in the world.
The change of policy follows indications that Unesco, the UN body that monitors world heritage sites, believes Britain has its fair share. There are 24, ranging from Durham cathedral to the Palace of Westminster and neolithic Orkney.
Unesco wants instead to concentrate on th
Source: Observer (UK)
December 7, 2008
More than 400 years after a Spanish galleon loaded with gold and silver slid beneath the waves in the waters surrounding the Isle of Mull, a new mission has been launched to try to recover its hoard of treasure.
Divers will begin to sift through the silt at the bottom of Tobermory Bay in an attempt to recover the valuable cargo, reputed to have been intended to bankroll the ill-fated Spanish invasion of England in 1588. It is the second time that Sir Torquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 5, 2008
Patriarch Aleksy II of the Russian Orthodox Church, who presided over the restoration of his church as the largest Orthodox church in the world and a powerful influence in Russian society after decades of Soviet persecution, died on Friday at his country residence in Peredelkino, outside of Moscow. He was 79.
The Moscow Patriarchate said that doctors were determining the cause of death. The patriarch had reportedly suffered from myocardial ischemia for years and been treated in Russ
Source: Deutsche Welle
December 6, 2008
The images were made available to the Wikimedia Commons page, a database of over three million freely usable media files, from Thursday, Dec. 4.
The donated pictures cover periods such as the Weimar Republic, the German colonial era, the Third Reich and Germany after reunification.
It was the largest donation of media to the Commons page since it was set up in September 2004.
The public had a right to access the photos, said Angelika Menne-Haritz, vice-pres
Source: BBC
December 6, 2008
The man who led the anti-apartheid movement in the UK for nearly 20 years, Mike Terry, has died of a heart attack at the age of 61.
He played a key role in transforming public opinion, turning the South African apartheid government into an international pariah.
A tireless campaigner, he organised two huge concerts in support of the campaign to free Nelson Mandela.
Source: CNN
December 6, 2008
It's a position that John Quincy Adams once called downright pathetic:
that of a former president.
After all, the process of relinquishing the most powerful job in the world
isn't an easy one, especially given the American public's notoriously
fleeting attention span and penchant for paying little heed to
once-prominent political figures after they exit the public stage.
As the days dwindle until President Bush joins what Herbert Hoover called
the"most exclusive trade union in
Source: BBC
December 6, 2008
Further evidence has emerged that King Edward VIII was seeing a mystic
during the abdication crisis, prompting the Archbishop of Canterbury to
intervene.
Previously undisclosed archives tell the story of a king in the grip of a
man known as"The Yorkshire Yogi".
Dr Alexander Cannon trained as a medic, and dabbled in alternative
treatments, mystic techniques and black magic.
Lambeth Palace was tipped off that the King was receiving hypnotic
treatment from Dr Cannon for a
Source: Washington Post
December 6, 2008
George W. Bush is not generally prone to introspection. "I really do not feel comfortable in the role of analyzing myself," he once said.
But with only weeks left in his presidency, the self-analysis has begun. After a year of relentless criticism from both parties, the departing president has embarked on a valedictory tour, touting his record in television interviews and public appearances while admitting, with some hesitation, that things did not always go as planned.
Source: BBC News
December 5, 2008
Patriarch Alexiy II, who died on Friday, had an extraordinary career, in which he switched from suppressing the Russian Orthodox Church to being its champion.
A favourite of the KGB, he was promoted rapidly through the Church hierarchy, doing the Kremlin's bidding at a time when dissident priests were thrown into jail.
As the Church's effective foreign minister, he helped cover up the repression of Russian Christians, defending the Soviet system to the outside world.
Source: AP (& White House press release)
December 5, 2008
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday established a World War II monument dedicated to those who fought in the Pacific.
The World War II Valor in Pacific National Monument will encompass nine sites, five in Hawaii, three in Alaska and one in California at the Tule Lake Segregation Center, where thousands of Japanese-Americans were detained after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"The purpose of the monument is to remind generations of Americans of the sacrifices that Ame
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 5, 2008
A remarkable First World War letter from the Prince of Wales has been uncovered which echoes the same frustrations felt today by Princes William and Harry in their military careers.
The note written from the British Army HQ at St Omer in Northern France in March 1915 gives a fascinating insight into the mind of the future Edward VIII who was just 19.
Just like Prince William and Prince Harry he complains at being denied the right to go on to the front line to fight for
Source: TheDailyBeast.com (summary of WaPo op ed)
December 5, 2008
The resurrection of Henry Kissinger was one of the more unusual side stories of the last election, and the former secretary of state seems determined to make good on his newfound popularity. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Kissinger praises Obama's national security team. Most interesting is his advice to Hillary. "I know of no exception to the principle that secretaries of state are influential if and only if they are perceived as extensions of the president," Kissinger writes. &
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 5, 2008
Stalin planned to blow up more than 1,200 buildings including the Bolshoi
Theatre and St Basil's Cathedral if the Nazis ever took Moscow, documents
have revealed.
An exhibition of secret papers staged to commemorate 90 years of military
counter-intelligence showed the extraordinary lengths the Soviet high
command was prepared to go to if the city fell.
The documents were drawn from archives of the so-called"Moscow Plan"
drawn up in the Autumn of 1941, when German forces were w
Source: http://www.newscientist.com
December 4, 2008
It's not often that cultural and religious persecution makes countries more diverse, but the Spanish Inquisition might have done just that.
One in five Spaniards and Portuguese has a Jewish ancestor, while a tenth of Iberians boast North African ancestors, finds new research.
This melting pot probably occurred after centuries of coexistence and tolerance among Muslims, Jews and Christians ended in 1492, when Catholic monarchs converted or expelled the Islamic population
Source: CNN
December 5, 2008
Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic. They are household names, infamous for masterminding genocide. But who were the foot soldiers who did the dirty work?
In many cases they were equally notorious in their communities because they were the friends, neighbors and co-workers of those they raped, slaughtered and buried alive....
Researchers say most perpetrators of genocide were not destined for murder
and had never killed before.
"You don't have to be mentally ill or
Source: FoxNews.com
December 5, 2008
A white social studies teacher attempted to enliven a seventh-grade
discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls,
prompting outrage from one girl's mother and the local chapter of the
NAACP.
After the mother complained to Haverstraw Middle School, the
superintendent said he was having" conversations with our staff on how to
deliver effective lessons.""If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea," said Superintendent
Brian Monahan of the North Rockland
Source: Chicago Tribune
December 1, 2008
GEORGETOWN, S.C. — Tiny wooden cabins line the dirt road once known as Slave Street as it winds through Friendfield Plantation.
More than 200 slaves lived in the whitewashed shacks in the early 1800s, and some of their descendants remained for more than 100 years after the Civil War. The last tenants abandoned the hovels about 30 years ago, and even they would have struggled to imagine a distant daughter of the plantation one day calling the White House home.
But a hist
Source: AP
December 4, 2008
AUSTIN — The LBJ Library in Austin has released the final batch of recordings of private telephone conversations by former President Lyndon Johnson.
The recordings cover the last months of Johnson's presidency in late 1968 and early 1969. Johnson can be heard expressing his condolences to Sen. Edward Kennedy after the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy. He also voiced worry over problems with the Vietnam War peace talks and said associates of Richard Nixon were acting treasonous i
Source: CBS News
December 4, 2008
Forty years before Democrats nominated their first candidate of color, President Lyndon Johnson told 1968 presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey that he should pick a Japanese-American as his running mate.
It was Sen. Daniel Inouye, who was awarded a silver star in World War II, and who lost an arm in battle.
"He answers Vietnam with that empty sleeve. He answers your problems with Nixon with that empty sleeve. He has that brown face," Johnson said.
Source: AP
December 4, 2008
AUSTIN — In the last months of his administration, President Lyndon B. Johnson suggested that associates of Richard M. Nixon were trying to persuade the South Vietnamese government not to join the peace talks until after the 1968 election, recordings of telephone conversations released Thursday show.
Progress on peace in Vietnam before the election might have given Hubert H. Humphrey, the Democratic presidential nominee and Johnson’s vice president, support among voters.
