This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: NYT
November 1, 2008
“THE conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Nineteenth Amendments can mean only one thing — one person, one vote,” the Supreme Court ruled almost a half-century ago. Yet the framers of the Constitution made this aspiration impossible, then and now.
Under the Constitution, electoral votes are apportioned to states according to the total number of senators and representatives from each s
Source: NYT
November 1, 2008
DONORA, Pa. — When the killer smog rolled into town here in October 1948, 12-year-old Joann Crow thought it was an adventure.
“Dad couldn’t drive us to school because it was so hard to see,” said Mrs. Crow, now 72. “He had to walk us to school that Wednesday with a flashlight, which we thought was fun.”
But the next day, Thursday, Oct. 28, her grandmother, Susan Gnora, 62, started coughing and experiencing chest pains. It was the same for a lot of older residents of thi
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
November 2, 2008
Town halls have banned employees from using Latin words on documents because they could confuse people who don't speak English as their first language.
The move has infuriated classical scholars who have blasted it as the 'linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing'.
Bournemouth Council has listed 19 items which are no longer suitable for use on its documents.
These include bona fide, eg, prima facie, ad lib, etc, ie, inter alia, NB, per se, pro rata, vis-a-vis an
Source: Times (UK)
October 31, 2008
Who is the greatest of them all? While Barack Obama and John McCain battle to become the 44th President of the United States, we asked a panel of experts from The Times to rank the previous Commanders-in-Chief in order of greatness.
1. Abraham Lincoln
1861-65 (Republican, National Union)
The No 1: our panel chose the radical Republican who kept the fledgling nation alive when it could have collapsed altogether.
The first Republican Presiden
Source: Times (UK)
November 1, 2008
Graffiti on a wall near the hall where Saddam Hussein is buried describes him as the “martyr of the Arab nation”, another line simply says: “Long live Saddam”.
Inside the tomb, which is treated more like a shrine, the sense of adoration grows stronger. Photographs of the executed president with a smile on his face adorn the walls, along with gifts and a number of poems inspired by his death.
The former dictator’s body rests in the centre of the room. His grave, framed
Source: Times (UK)
November 1, 2008
The body of Saddam Hussein was stabbed six times after he was executed, according to the head guard at the former president’s tomb north of Baghdad, who was one of the people that helped bury the corpse.
The claim is categorically denied by the head of Saddam’s tribe. The Iraqi Government similarly denies any mutilation took place after the dictator was hanged on December 30, 2006, for crimes against humanity.
Talal Misrab, 45, is the chief guard at Saddam’s tomb, hou
Source: History Today
October 30, 2008
The prominent South African academic and writer, Es'kia Mphahlele, died on October 27th, aged 88. He was particularly famous for his autobiography Down Second Avenue (1959) about his life as a herdsman, teacher and journalist for the magazine Drum.
He became a teacher, but was banned from teaching in the early 1950s as a result of his opposition to the 1953 Bantu Education Act, which notably enforced the separation of races in all educational institutions.
In 1957, Mphahlele
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2008
But time and technology have not been kind to the traditional kiosk, with thousands taken out of service in the face of neglect and the increased use of mobile phones.
Now, however, 500 of the booths are to be saved, after local communities stepped forward to safeguard their future - ensuring that in some places at least they will remain a quintessential part of the British landscape.
In 500 locations, parish and district councils have applied to 'adopt a kiosk', as par
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 2, 2008
The 1994 genocide in Rwanda left 800,000 people dead and laid the roots for the conflict in the neighbouring state when many of the perpetrators fled to sanctuary across the border.
The Prime Minister was speaking on a trip to the Gulf as Foreign Secretary David Miliband led an EU mission to Rwanda with. French counterpart Bernard Kouchner.
"The humanitarian need is absolutely pressing," said Mr Miliband, who toured the area of Goma, capital of Nord-Kivu pro
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 1, 2008
The coffin is part of a collection of the kitsch plastic that could be sold for as much as £8,000.
The 6ft casket is one of only five ever produced and is the largest object ever made from the world's first synthetic plastic.
It is among 24 lots from a private collection that will be sold next week. Other items include telephones, a hairdryer, Art Deco clocks and a 1949 TV set.
In its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, the "material of a thousand uses"
Source: Deutsche Welle
November 1, 2008
"The government intends to obtain a clarification on the issue from the International Court of Justice," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in Berlin.
German news magazine Der Spiegel said Berlin planned to argue before The Hague court that sovereign actions by countries, including those of their armed forces, are protected under international law by sovereign immunity.
Diplomats fear that the floodgates would otherwise be opened for "legal claims agains
Source: BBC
October 31, 2008
Libya has paid $1.5bn into a US compensation fund for relatives of victims of terror attacks blamed on Tripoli, the US state department says.
The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US.
The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200.
Under the deal, Libya did not accept responsibility for the attacks, but agreed to compensa
Source: BBC
November 1, 2008
Swiss-based marine explorer and inventor Jacques Piccard, who was part of the deepest submarine dive in history, has died at his home aged 86.
In 1960, Piccard and US co-pilot Don Walsh took a submersible developed by his father to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.
They went 11km (seven miles) beneath the surface of the sea.
Their discovery of living organisms at that depth led to a ban on the dumping of nuclear waste in ocean tren
Source: BBC
November 1, 2008
Descendants of people who fled Spain during the country's civil war are to be allowed to apply for citizenship.
The decision will allow an estimated 500,000 children and grandchildren of civil war-era exiles to seek to return.
That number is believed to include 300,000 people in Argentina alone, Spain's government says.
The measure is part of new legislation passed last year that aims to compensate and rehabilitate victims of Spain's 1936-1939 civil war.
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 1, 2008
A rare US postage stamp from 1868 has sold for more than $1m at an auction in New York city. The three-cent, rose-coloured "B Grill" stamp was sold in a three-day Siegel auction galleries sale that ended on Thursday. The auction house said that only three other known examples of the stamp remain. "B Grill" refers to the embossed pattern in the stamp paper. An anonymous buyer put in the winning bid of $1,035,000 (£620,000). The auction also included one of the most famous stam
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 1, 2008
Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, in a first interview since the 1995 killing, says he acted because hawkish former generals warned that the Israeli prime minister's land-for-peace negotiations with the Palestinians would bring disaster.
Yigal Amir shot Rabin at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Amir opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accord Rabin signed with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which involved returning war-won land.
He told Israel's Channel 10 TV he was spurred into
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 1, 2008
Interest in Britain's first potential saint for 300 years yesterday was only a dribble which turned into a trickle, but advocates for Cardinal Henry Newman weren't dismayed. "It takes a very long time to make a saint," said Peter Jennings of Birmingham diocese, as another handful of the devout or curious drifted into the city's Oratory to examine the latest stage in a 30-year campaign.
Displayed to the public for the first time this weekend in a gold and glass reliquary, b
Source: Reuters
October 30, 2008
Two German entertainers will use hundreds of Playmobil men to re-enact the history of Germany from 1949 until 1990 on live television, a spokeswoman for the production company said on Thursday.
The re-enactment is based on a 500-page book by German historian, Hans-Ulrich Wehler and will be aired on Thursday night on public channel ARD, said the spokeswoman for Bonito TV.
"We want to show that today's television still has something to do with culture," comedian
Source: NYT
October 31, 2008
A high-ranking Japanese military official was dismissed Friday for writing an essay stating that the United States had ensnared Japan into World War II, denying that Japan had waged wars of aggression in Asia and justifying Japanese colonialism.
The Defense Ministry fired Gen. Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan’s air force, late on Friday night, only hours after his essay was posted on a private company’s Web site. The quick dismissal seemed intended to head off criticism from
Source: Boston Globe
October 31, 2008
Happy 200th birthday, Honest Abe! The nation is preparing to throw you a party.
The celebration will be focused in the nation's capital, where museums, theaters and other attractions announced plans yesterday for more than 80 exhibits and programs in the coming months to celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The events will run from January through the end of April.
"I haven't heard anything about a birthday cake," a Lincoln look-alike said,
