Source for International news in English

[Platapus]

As some of you know and less may care, I am a researcher by profession. Sources and citations are my lifeblood. Since it is impossible to find a source that is unbiased, it is fruitless to even try to find one. The key to accurate research is to find sources with identified and different biases so that you can make the proper inferences.

Reading four or five American news sources is not exactly a complete way of researching an issue. While individual American news sources may have different political viewpoints, all represent the American interpretation of the issue. It is my belief that in order to fully understand an issue, it is important to consult foreign sources to get their viewpoints and to integrate their biases in your inferences.

The problem is how do you find English translations of news services from say Brazil or Uruguay news services?

In case some of you are not aware of this site, I would like to recommend the following site.

Www.watchingamerica.com

Watching America's website has only been in existence since 2005 so it is a pretty new service. This website provides two important services:

1. In the upper half of the web page there is a sampling of international press stories that are focused on America. This is a good way to get an idea on what foreign news services are writing about us. The archive is searchable. The problem with this portion of the web page is that the stories posted represent only a tiny fraction of the foreign news stories published.

2. However the best part of the site is at the bottom. At the bottom of the web page are links to foreign news services from all over the world and either their English language version or an automated machine translation into English.

This is a really handy way to read news services from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and all over the world.

So the next time there is an international issue that interests you, you can access the news services from that country and from third party countries (most important) that may give you insight not reported in American sources.

I use this web site in my work. While it is not the ultimate source for foreign news, it is a handy place to start.

[Skybird]

Bots do the auto-translation, that always creates a bit of a messy language, but it cant be as worse as my usual many typos. :) I actually understood some of the English translations of German texts I tried out.

What kind of researches are you doing, and for whom?

[Platapus]

What kind of researches are you doing, and for whom?

(eyes shifting)

All kinds

(lowering voice)

for "them".

No I can' back that up. I am just a political analyst working for a Federally Funded Research and Development Center(FFRDC) supporting the government.

[UnderseaLcpl]

This is a great site! :up:
Always helps to see things from other countries' perspectives, even when I disagree.

[Digital_Trucker]

Thanks for that Platapus:up: Now I can watch "Watch America" watch America:D Always good to get all the opinions you can find.

[Wreford-Brown]

At the risk of stating the obvious, a good website for the more extreme anti-Western views is at: http://www.aljazeera.com/.

[Platapus]

http://www.aljazeera.com/.

A lot can be learned by studying extremist sites like that. :know:

[1480]

At the risk of stating the obvious, a good website for the more extreme anti-Western views is at: http://www.aljazeera.com/.

You the best W B..... :up:

@ Platapus, thanks for the info, another page to bookmark, my better half will be happy with you. :rotfl:

[Randomizer]

Nice resource, thanks for the link.

[Schroeder]

Here is a link to the English version of the website of the German "Tagesschau" newsshow.
http://www.tagesschau.de/newsinenglish/index.html

[August]

Much obliged Platapus! :up:

[UnderseaLcpl]

I'm going to have hours of fun with DPRK News:D

KCNA Slams U.S. Provocative Act to Scuttle Denuclearization Process of Korean Peninsula

Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) -- The United States is again raising the "human rights issue" of the DPRK.
This is clearly evidenced by the fact that U.S. President Bush during his junket to Asian countries blustered that he would handle the "human rights issue" as "an element for negotiations with north Korea."
We categorically dismiss this as a premeditated act of the U.S. to deliberately throw a hurdle in the process of the six-party talks and, furthermore, go without implementing points of the October 3 agreement on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
As far as the "human rights issue" touted by the U.S. is concerned, it is a trite method it employed whenever it felt it necessary to delay or scuttle the talks in a bid to pursue its hostile policy toward the DPRK.
This is clearly proved by the whole process of the six-party talks.
At the third session of the six-party talks held in June 2004 all the parties to the talks agreed in unison to abide by the principles of "words for words" and "action for action".
But no sooner had the talks come to an end than the U.S. enacted and put into force the "North Korean Human Rights Act". It went the lengths of peddling the story of the "test of poisonous gas on human bodies" based on "testimonies made by defectors from the north", thus branding the DPRK as a "human rights abuser".
Even after the adoption of the September 19 joint statement in 2005 the U.S. escalated "human rights offensive" against the DPRK, talking about "counterfeiting" and "drug smuggling", thus throwing a big hurdle in the progress of the six-party talks and the implementation of the joint statement.
It even cooked up the story of "illegal trafficking" and applied sanctions against the dialogue partner, thus completely scuttling the already scheduled six-party talks and putting the talks in a stalemate for more than one year.
The "human rights" ruckus again kicked up by the U.S. is a product of its deliberate scheme to deter the six-party talks from making progress and completely scuttle the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula.
As already known, the DPRK submitted an accurate and complete nuclear declaration according to the October 3 agreement of the six-party talks.
The U.S., however, has not honored its commitment to write the DPRK off the list of "state sponsors of terrorism", a key political compensation in concluding the implementation of the agreement, although the date it promised to do so has already passed.
This is obviously a violation of the principle of "action for action" essential for realizing denuclearization.
The implementation of the agreed points of the six-party talks has been delayed due to the U.S. perfidious attitude.
However, the U.S. raised the "human rights issue" before the deadline it set as regards the delisting of the DPRK as a "state sponsor of terrorism". Lurking behind this is its sinister intention to shirk off the responsibility for the delayed implementation of the agreement on to the DPRK.
This proves that the U.S. has sought the sinister purpose of putting pressure upon the DPRK while letting the talks to drag on without any results, showing no interest in settling the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the U.S. through the talks from their outset.
Explicitly speaking, there is no "human rights issue" much touted by the U.S. in the DPRK.
The Korean people fully enjoy genuine freedom and rights under the socialist system where all people form a big family. It is the consistent popular policy of the DPRK government to fully guarantee the rights of the citizens in a responsible manner.
In the DPRK based on the man-centered Juche idea all working people do labor according to their abilities and wishes and lead a genuine life, given ample opportunity of learning.
It is absolutely illogical for the U.S. to talk about the "human rights issue" while ignoring such reality.
There is the most serious human rights issue in the U.S. as it is a rogue state that exterminated tens of millions of native Indians and accumulated wealth through slave trade and flesh traffic and a country where the almighty dollar principle and the fin de sickle lifestyle based on the law of the jungle prevail.
The impoverishment of Americans in the mental and cultural lives is actively fostered institutionally, driving them into the abyss of corruption, despair and crimes. This is a true picture of the American society today.
The U.S. administration fabricated the "Cuban Adjustment Act", thus causing huge casualties and preventing independent countries from making progress for the past more than four decades. It even infringed upon the sovereignty of Iraq by force of arms on the basis of false information and indiscriminately dropped bombs upon heads of innocent and peaceable citizens and children. This was the most vivid manifestation of human rights abuses.
The U.S. cursed and censured as the kingpin of human rights abuses is still behaving as if it were a "human rights judge". This is nothing but a poor charade of the U.S. which does not know where it stands and does not feel ashamed of itself.
The "human rights" piffle made by the U.S. high-ranking officials indicates that they have no stand to recognize and respect the dialogue partner.
The U.S. is persisting in the politically motivated provocations as evidenced by the ruckus kicked up over the non-existent "human rights issue" in the DPRK, an indication of its deep-rooted hostility and inveterate enmity toward the DPRK. This attitude leaves the DPRK and the countries concerned skeptical about the U.S. intention to implement the points of the October 3 agreement.
Such provocative acts of the U.S. as slandering and pulling up its dialogue partner can never help the talks make any progress in the positive direction.

Immediate Halt to Joint Military Exercises for Aggression Demanded

Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army released a statement on Monday denouncing the criminal Ulji Freedom Guardian south Korea-U.S. joint military exercises that kicked off today.
The statement recalled that the KPA side had already reminded the U.S. forces side that the above-said joint military exercises are a challenge to the Korean Armistice Agreement and dangerous acts of rendering the situation on the Korean Peninsula extremely tense and strongly demanded it cancel the projected reckless war maneuvers.
This notwithstanding, the U.S. forces side started the joint military exercises, defying the KPA side's just demand, the statement said, and went on:
The joint military exercises launched according to a new war scenario of the U.S. military are new war maneuvers to invade the north as they are aimed at boosting the ground operation capability by using troops of the south Korean puppet army as bullet-shields in "contingency" on the Korean Peninsula and raising the effect of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces' medium-and long-range precision strikes and rapid task strikes at the DPRK's strategic bases from the sea and the air.
Recently the U.S. ruling quarters remaining hostile to the DPRK and the Lee Myung Bak group driving the inter-Korean relations to a collapse and the situation on the Korean Peninsula to a touch-and-go situation, ignorant of political and military affairs, are kicking off war hysteria, crying out for the "tightened south Korea-U.S. alliance" to cope with the non-existent "threat" from the DPRK and "prompt and overwhelming firepower strikes" and "preemptive strikes." These facts go to prove that the U.S. and south Korean conservative forces are keen to ignite a war in Korea at any cost.
The U.S. and south Korean bellicose forces are staging the above-said joint exercises for a preemptive strike at the DPRK at a time when the conservative U.S. military is bringing to naught a series of positive changes being effected in the process for the denuclearization after branding the DPRK as "a rogue state" once again. The KPA side can not remain a passive onlooker to this.
It will deal a resolute counterblow at the crafty trick of the U.S. to stifle the DPRK militarily behind the scene, while talking about "the realization of the denuclearization."
Whoever threatens the sovereignty and the precious socialist system in the DPRK and the peace and security on the peninsula will not be able to escape the merciless retaliatory blows of the KPA.
The U.S. forces side should behave itself, facing up to the trend of the times, and stop at once the joint military exercises for aggression.

[Digital_Trucker]

As Arte Johnson used to say "Verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interrrrrrrrresting!"

[Sailor Steve]

Nice sites all! Something more to read every day.

[1480]

I think this may be a worthwhile stickied thread, just saying....

[Frame57]

http://www.aljazeera.com/.

A lot can be learned by studying extremist sites like that. :know:"Know thy enemy":up:

[Tchocky]

Al Jazeera isn't an extremist organisation by any measure. Good news channel and website. Maybe ye are all being sarcastic :)

[Skybird]

Know your enemy.

If you want to outthink him, you need to learn how he sees things, no matter how strange that view appears to you. It does not matter what you think he should think - it is about you understanding how he ticks in fact.

That'S why I occasionally visit al Jazeerah as well. It makes me shaking my head, and laugh at times, but one needs to track what the other side is thinking, and why. If you do not know the drives and motivations of your enemy, you cannot project his next moves, and how his moves are linked to one strategy, and what that strategy is about.

20 seconds-news-spots don't understand all this. They make sure to educate a people becoming stupid and mentally impotent. That's why I consider much of the modern quick-news programs as dangerous and harmful.

[Wreford-Brown]

Al Jazeera isn't an extremist organisation by any measure. Good news channel and website. Maybe ye are all being sarcastic :)

Al Jazeera itself isn't extremist but it gives an understanding of what the Middle Eastern mind thinks of international issues. It also tends to have news reports from the 'enemy' point of view with organisations such as al-Quaeda using it as the first international forum for their views before it gets passed to Reuters etc.

A good friend is fluent in both Farsi and Arabic and he tells me that the original (Arabic) version tends to be more informative than the English language version, but for Platapus' research it should be a decent source of info (look up their views on Georgia, for example).

[Tchocky]

I read Al Jazeera becuase it's a non Western-centric news organisation, covering a lot of stories that just don't get told in Europe/North America.
Not for any sense of trying to understand the "Middle Eastern mind", or "knowing my enemy". I thought we were past those kind of constructions.

[Skybird]

Not for any sense of trying to understand the "Middle Eastern mind", or "knowing my enemy". I thought we were past those kind of constructions.
I thought that, too, but then reality overtook me on the right side, and laughed.

I occasionally skim over korean, russian and Israeli newspapers, too, and it is surprisng how some stories making big headlines over here - do not even get a small message there, and vice versa.

[Tchocky]

Firstly, there's no one coagulent mass that can be described as the "Middle Eastern mind". One might have noticed the many differences of opinion that exist in that corner of the world. Wars, etc. Terrorism, etc. Strrongly indicative of large differences of opinion. This kind of thinking, where an entire region can be distilled into a single personality, gets us precisely nowhere.

Second, if indeed there are enemies of mine sitting out there in Qatar, it's news to me. Rageh Omaar isn't my enemy, David Frost isn't my enemy. So who at Al-Jazeera is?
Maybe this "Middle Eastern mind" is my enemy. How shall I deal with him.

[Skybird]

Tchocky, you know what was meant, and you know that all this is no issue to debate at all, so why the show?

[Tchocky]

This "know your enemy" stuff makes no sense when applied to Al-Jazeera, whether taking it literally or figuratively.
Same goes for the crock about the Middle Eastern mind.

It also tends to have news reports from the 'enemy' point of view with organisations such as al-Quaeda using it as the first international forum for their views before it gets passed to Reuters etc.

[Skybird]

This "know your enemy" stuff makes no sense when applied to Al-Jazeera, whether taking it literally or figuratively.
Same goes for the crock about the Middle Eastern mind.

It also tends to have news reports from the 'enemy' point of view with organisations such as al-Quaeda using it as the first international forum for their views before it gets passed to Reuters etc.

Oh, now i understand. Sorry, my fault that I overlooked that context. I had no intention to refer to that quote by somebody else. I was using the phrase in a strictly general term. AJ is a highly infuential news source in the Muslim world, an reports from the muslim world's point of view. Since you know that I do not see that civilisation as our friend (no matter if you agree with me or not), you may understand how i came to that statement.

[Frame57]

My families dealing with the "Sultans of swing" go back to the 1400's. Stories were passed down from generation to generation. When they invaded our land, they wanted people to become muslim, if that was fought against, then death was the ultimatim. The men were killed first for obvious reasons, then they fed the dead men to their families. My family luckily made it to MonteNegro as the Sultan could not get his goons to conquor in those mountains. I would like to think that they are a "religion of peace" but history has proven otherwise IMO.