Links to the News

Anandabazar Patricka, Dec. 1, 2008 Newseum Image

December 1, 2008: The Calcutta, India newspaper, Anandabazar Patricka reports on the Mumbai attacks. Here is an excerpt from a story on the BBC News Web site:

Bustling Mumbai tries to find normality 

By PRACHI PINGLAY 

The citizens of Mumbai returned to its bustling streets on Monday with a mixture of necessity, resolve -- and a lot of fatigue.

But what of the Mumbai "spirit" of bouncing back from tragedy? Has it been doused by the deadly attacks?

Offices, schools and colleges opened. Railways stations were crowded; roads were jammed with the usual traffic. The stock markets opened in the black but fell back during the day's trade.

At the targeted sites like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) rail station, the Oberoi-Trident hotel and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, people were discussing the attacks on India's financial capital.

Dinesh Patel, a bank employee who comes to Churchgate station every day, complained security was far from adequate.

"When Mumbai has been attacked so many times, security should be as tight as it is at airports. There should be vigilance. But basically everyone is just getting used to these incidents and even the loss of life."

There is a feeling of being let down by the government -- with Mumbai's security compromised so often.
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The Telegraph, Nov. 28, 2008 Newseum Image

November 28, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Calcutta, India newspaper, The Telegraph:

FEAR
Room-to-room battles at hotels and Jewish centre

 

Mumbai, Nov. 27: Commandos rescued most of the hostages after room-to-room battles with terrorists inside two landmark hotels, as the country and the maximum city grappled to come to terms with the series of attacks being dubbed India’s 9/11 for their massive scale and ruthless efficiency.

 

At least 109 people have been killed and 315 wounded in the strikes that began a little after 9 on Wednesday evening and were continuing over 27 hours later, the battlegrounds being the iconic Taj Mahal hotel, the Oberoi-Trident and Nariman House, a Jewish centre in Colaba frequented by Israeli visitors. The Union home ministry put the number of dead at 125 and the wounded at 327.

 

An unexpected casualty appeared to be the resilience of Mumbai which has in the past bounced back in the face of disasters — manmade or otherwise. From UB group chairman Vijay Mallya to other ordinary office-goers, Mumbaikars stayed home as fear gripped its office-going population.

 

When the day began after a horrifying night of chain strikes that numbed the city that never sleeps, around 200 people were trapped in the three places. The two hotels and the Jewish centre are located a short distance away from each other in south Mumbai, the symbol of India’s financial prowess much like the twin towers of the World Trade Center that fell on September 11, 2001.

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The Christian Science Monitor Nov. 25, 2008, Newseum Image

November 25, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Christian Science Monitor:

Our first century
A mandate to 'lighten' still drives the Monitor at the dawn of its second 100 years.

By DAVID T. COOK 

One hundred years ago today, the first issue of The Christian Science Monitor thundered off presses in Boston's Back Bay.

So began a remarkable chapter in American journalism: a newspaper published by a church, aimed at a general rather than a denominational audience, and promising coverage that was global in scope and constructive in character.

It is a story rich in courage, devotion, and experimentation. In its first century, the Monitor would win seven Pulitzer Prizes for news coverage and cartooning, see three of its correspondents taken captive while on assignment, start two magazines, multiple radio programs and a cable-TV news channel, cycle through 14 editors, and print stories from a diverse group of writers – including Winston Churchill and Ralph Nader. All of this was done to deliver to families and political leaders journalism that illuminated the world's challenges in an effort to help humanity.

The Monitor's launch was mission-driven rather than market-driven. In the summer of 1908, Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of the Christian Science religion, ordered the startled officials of her church to "start a daily newspaper at once." Just over 100 days later, a professional news organization was in operation.

Mrs. Eddy was an inveterate clipper of newspaper articles and had written for several papers. She also knew the ugly side of the press firsthand, having been savaged by a journalistic and legal attack mounted by Joseph Pulitzer's sensational New York World.

Once the World's assault ended, Mrs. Eddy's response was an ambitious effort to reform journalism by example.
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The Virginian-Pilot, Nov. 24, 2008 Newseum Image

November 24, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Virginian-Pilot:

A home lost and found in less than 150 days

The Suffolk Tornado
(Part 2 of 2) (Part 1)

By KRISTIN DAVIS

SUFFOLK -- Lines rose over Monica Alvarado's right upper arm like little jagged mountains.
Everyone watched. Her mother and father. Her brother, Kenny. The hospital corpsman in scuffed boots and brown fatigues with his tray of instruments.

The doctor at Oceana Naval Air Station's Branch Health Clinic declared that Monica's stitches were ready to come out.

"There will be permanent scars," the doctor said. "Antibiotic ointment will help."

Monica wasn't worried about that at the moment. She's right-handed and the cuts made it hard to write. A teacher at school insisted she try with her left, but she couldn't make it work. She was worried about algebra, a subject that stumped her from the start but now seemed nearly impossible.

Monica lifted her shoulders and then dropped them and let out a sigh when the stitches were out. She smiled, and her mother stopped cringing.

Monica showed off her right arm. "Now I have a bigger scar than you," she said to Kenny.

The wind picked up outside. It was a warm, sticky day in early May. Most of eastern Virginia was under a tornado watch, but Kenny and Monica's parents didn't tell them.
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The Sun, Nov. 21, 2008 Newseum Image

November 21, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Baltimore Sun:

Turmoil grows

From Sun news services

WASHINGTON -- Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress raced to approve legislation yesterday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for 1 million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out.

The economic picture was only getting worse, if Wall Street was any indication. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 400 points for a second straight day, reaching the lowest level in more than five years, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell below lows established six years ago as it lost almost 7 percent.

And the $25 billion rescue plan for the auto industry, desperately sought by Detroit's beleaguered Big Three, collapsed yesterday as Congress drew the line at one more bailout and Democrats said they would not even consider it until the companies produce a convincing plan for rebuilding their once-mighty industry.
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The Detroit News, Nov. 20, 2008 Newseum Image

November 20, 2008: An excerpt from a column in The Detroit News:

To rest of U.S., Detroit is mired in the past

By DANIEL HOWES 

To watch two days of hearings on how -- or whether -- Congress should rescue Detroit's close-to-failing automakers is to be haunted by a recurring question: How did we get here?

I don't mean the fine technical points of product plans, quality, fuel efficiency, market share, financial reports and brand image -- or lack thereof. That story we know, especially here, in all its excruciating detail. I mean the broader strokes of a country that has moved further into the future, or so it clearly felt this week, than the three automakers from Detroit.

The CEOs of once-powerful engines of American industry, whose might helped win World War II and whose wealth helped build the middle class, are reduced to lobbying for emergency financial aid from politicians straining to understand the car business. The president of the United Auto Workers is forced to defend 70 years of bargaining, a model fast disappearing from American business.
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The Vancouver Sun, Nov. 19, 2008 Newseum Image

November 19, 2008:
The Vancouver Sun has compiled a special section for the 150th anniversary of British Columbia.

It includes a collection of newspaper front pages beginning in 1858.


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San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 18, 2008 Newseum Image

November 18, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Jonestown and the City Hall Assassinations
Ten days That Shook the City

(Last of Three Parts)

By DUFFY JENNINGS 

Monday, Nov. 27, 1978. 10:35 a.m.

I'm sitting at my desk in the city room on the third floor of The Chronicle at Fifth and Mission streets, reading the newspaper and waiting for a story to do.

A moment later, assignment editor Richard Hemp beckons me urgently as he hangs up a call from Bob Popp, our police beat reporter stationed at the Hall of Justice.

"Some kind of police activity going on at City Hall," Hemp says. "Lots of units responding."

"On the way, Dick," I answer, already out of my chair, grabbing my coat and notebook. "What do we know?"

"Report of a shooting is all. Call me from the car."

In front of him on the desk stands a small microphone wired directly to head photographer Gordon Peters down the hall. Hemp leans in to the mike, presses down the button. The radio crackles to life.

"Shots fired at City Hall, Gordo. I'm sending Duffy."
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The Record, Nov. 18, 2008 Newseum Image

November 18, 2008: An excerpt from a story in the Stockton, California newspaper, The Record:

Jonestown: 30 Years Later

By TIM REITERMAN
(The Associated Press)

Dark clouds tumbled overhead on that afternoon 30 years ago, in the last hours of the congressman's mission deep in the jungle of Guyana.

With a small entourage, Rep. Leo Ryan had come to investigate the remote agricultural settlement built by a California-based church. But while he was there, more than a dozen people had stepped forward: We want to return to the United States, they said fearfully.

Suddenly a powerful wind tore through the central pavilion, riffling pages of my notebook, and the skies dumped torrents that bowed plantain fronds. People scrambled for cover as I interviewed the founder of Peoples Temple.

"I feel sorry that we are being destroyed from within," intoned the Rev. Jim Jones, stunned that members of his flock wanted to abandon the place he called the Promised Land.

That freakish storm and the mood seemed ominous -- and not just to me. "I felt evil itself blow into Jonestown when that storm hit," recalls Tim Carter, one of the few settlers to survive that day.

Within hours, Carter would see his wife and son die of cyanide poisoning, two of the more than 900 people Jones led in a murder and suicide ritual of epic proportions.

And I would be wounded when a team of temple assassins unleashed a fusillade that killed Ryan -- the first congressman slain in the line of duty -- and four others, including three newsmen.
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Orange County Register, Nov. 17, 2008 Newseum Image

November 17, 2008: An excerpt from a story in The Orange County Register:

'Dad - prepare yourself'
A daughter prepares her traveling father that his Yorba Linda home was destroyed in a firestorm.

By GREG HARDESTY
 
YORBA LINDA -- "Dad, I think you need to prepare yourself," Kim Bailey told her father. "Nothing is going to prepare you for this. Hold on tight."

The home he and his wife had shared for more than 20 years - packed with memories and invaluable items - was gone.

"Need any help?" a passerby asked Bailey.

"What's there to do," she said, not really asking a question.

Bailey's husband, Mike, wearing protective gloves, randomly poked through the mess, seeing but really not comprehending the magnitude of what surrounded him.

"It's hard to figure out what anything is at this point," Mike Bailey said.
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Publico, November 14, 2008 Newseum Image

November 14, 2008: The Lisbon, Portugal newspaper, Publico, reports on photographs of distant planets. Here is an excerpt from a story on the BBC News Web site:

Exoplanets finally come into view

The first pictures of planets outside our Solar System have been taken, two groups report in the journal Science.

Visible and infrared images have been snapped of a planet orbiting a star 25 light-years away.

The planet is believed to be the coolest, lowest-mass object ever seen outside our own solar neighbourhood.

In a separate study, an exoplanetary system, comprising three planets, has been directly imaged, circling a star in the constellation Pegasus.

While several claims have been made to such direct detection before, they have later been proven wrong or await confirmation.
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The Guardian, November 13, 2008 Newseum Image

November 13, 2008:  An updated Web site story from the London, England newspaper, The Guardian:

World markets slide on further economic gloom

By JULIA KOLLEWE        

Stockmarkets in Europe and Asia were hit today by worries over the US and Chinese economies, as Germany became the second eurozone country to sink into recession.

After a surge of selling, Japan's Nikkei index closed down 5.25%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 5.15%, in an indication that the global financial turmoil is continuing.

In London, traders also reacted badly to the official confirmation that Germany, Europe's largest economy, has followed Ireland into recession. Shortly before midday the FTSE 100 was down 72 points at 4110, having lost over 100 points at one stage.

Investors were also spooked by US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson's surprise move yesterday to abandon plans to buy toxic mortgage-related assets from banks as part of a $700bn (£380bn) financial resucue package.