Civil War

By Myles Martel Today, we pause to remember the birth of President Abraham Lincoln and, later this year, on Nov. 19, the nation will commemorate the 150th anniversary of his Gettysburg Address. This two-minute oration, consisting of less than 300 words, is widely regarded as the greatest speech in American history. Scholars from several disciplines, including history, literature and speech communication, have written extensively and perceptively about Lincoln's tribute to the 50,000 Union and Confederate troops who were killed or wounded at Gettysburg.

Safety drill leaves 5 dead LA PALMA, Canary Islands - A lifeboat being used on a safety drill aboard a cruise ship in Spain's Canary Islands fell about 65 feet into a port on Sunday when a cable snapped, trapping crew members beneath it and killing five of them, officials said. None of the hundreds of passengers aboard the British-operated vessel were involved in the accident, which also injured three crew members, said the Canary Islands port authority. Divers raced to the lifeboat, which had hit the water upside down, recovering four bodies and trying without success to revive a fifth crewman who had stopped breathing, the authority said.

Museumgoers will have the opportunity to brush up on a lot of dramatic American history around town this spring, with major exhibitions and events covering the Civil War, U.S. spycraft, the countercultural epicenter of 1968, the antilynching writer Ida B. Wells, and the black presence on the Delaware River - as both cargo and seafarers. In addition, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, which originally blasted through town two years ago, is back for a month from the end of March to the end of April.

JERUSALEM - Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike to stop Syria's chemical weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hezbollah or al-Qaeda inspired groups, officials said Sunday. The warning came as the military moved a rocket defense system to a main northern city, and Israel's premier warned of dangers from both Syria and Iran. Israel has long expressed concerns that Syrian President Bashar al Assad, clinging to power during a 22-month civil war, could lose control over his chemical weapons.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry has held up Syria as a country that could bring peace and stability to the Mideast and predicted that the now-disgraced government of President Bashar al-Assad would pursue a legitimate relationship with the United States. Those assertions are certain to draw scrutiny at Kerry's confirmation hearing to be secretary of state as Assad's brutal crackdown has plunged his country into civil war. Conservative websites have mocked the relationship as a Kerry-Assad "bromance," seizing on comments the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman has made in speeches and during his six visits to Syria.

On the first day of 1863, as the Civil War raged on, President Lincoln proclaimed all the slaves in the rebellious Confederate states to be "forever free. " With his Emancipation Proclamation, whose 150th anniversary the United States celebrates this week, Lincoln made the end of slavery a Civil War goal. As PBS's ambitious documentary miniseries The Abolitionists shows, Lincoln's words came at the end of a decadeslong antislavery campaign led by a tiny group of activists whose fervor alienated them from the mainstream of American life.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An American journalist has been missing in Syria since he was kidnapped more than one month ago, his family said Wednesday, less than two years after he was held by government forces in Libya while covering that country's civil war. The family of James Foley, of Rochester, N.H., said he was kidnapped in northwest Syria by unknown gunmen on Thanksgiving Day. Foley, 39, has worked in a number of conflict zones around the Middle...

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF . - A suspect who fired about 50 shots in the parking lot of a crowded Southern California shopping mall, sending shoppers sprinting for safety, was cooperative when officers took him into custody, authorities said Sunday. Witnesses said people ran, screaming and ducking for cover, when Marcos Gurrola, 42, fired into the air and onto the ground Saturday afternoon near the Macy's store at the open-air Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach. Then Gurrola put the gun down and offered no resistance when bicycle officers arrested him about 4:30 p.m., said Lt. John Lewis.

BEIRUT - Syria's civil war spilled over into neighboring Lebanon again Sunday, with gun battles in the northern city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad's regime that left four dead. Nine Syrian judges and prosecutors also defected to the opposition. It was the latest setback for the regime, which appears increasingly embattled with rebels making gains in northern Syria and near Damascus, the capital. The defecting judges posted a joint statement online urging others to join them and break ranks with Assad's regime.