According to today’s literary supplement of El País (Babelia), Jorge M. Reverte has published a new book in which he reconstructs the history of an important part of Francoist Spain’s support of Hitler and Nazism during World War II. The Spanish falangist José Luis Arrese proposed the name “División Azul”  to refer to the...
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"Don't mess with Wisconsin," Christopher Hitchens tells his Vanity Fair readers this week, recalling the state's solid progressive tradition:

To make a stop in Madison, either as author or speaker or both, used to be no ordinary part of a radical tour. You bumped up against a tradition that went back a...
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Several years ago, when the Museum of the City of New York was gearing up for its show “Facing Fascism:  New York and the Spanish Civil War,” we realized that while we knew a good deal about how some communities or groups in New York had responded to the outbreak of the war in...
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As the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has announced an investigation of Qaddafi and his circle for possible crimes against humanity, El País reports that judge Baltasar Garzón, who has been working at the ICC since his suspension from Spain's criminal court last May, will serve as advisor...
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Calling for a no-fly zone over Libya, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said in a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva that "we should never forget Guernica," The Australian reports. "Guernica is known throughout the world for the bombing of the civilian population. We have seen evidence of that in Libya....
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This week's New York Times Magazine features an 8.300-word piece by Jennifer Egan on Lori Berenson, the US woman who served 15 years in a Peruvian prison for abetting a left-wing terrorist plot in Perú:

In 1980, when Lori was 11, three American nuns were murdered in El Salvador. “That stayed...
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An hour-long BBC radio program broadcast this past Sunday--with several new and many archival interviews, and the participation of Richard Baxell and Paul Preston-- can now be listened to online, here.
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Next week, March 8-10, the Universidad Complutense in Madrid will feature a three-day event (program here in pdf) on the International Brigades, organized by the AABI (Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales) and the Facultad de Bellas Artes, with the goal of exploring the idea of an IB memorial on the university...
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Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone, former military leaders of Argentina, are being accused of overseeing the systematic theft of babies from political prisoners. Their trial has opened, the BBC reports:

More than 100 children are known to have been given for adoption to military or police couples. The long-awaited trial,...
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Benicassim remembers the IB Hospital, Friday, March 4. Guillermo Casañ, who has carried out extensive research on the IB Hospital in Benicassim, will lead a guided tour of IB related sites in the coastal town. Program: II JORNADES MEMÒRIA HISTÒRICA BENICÀSSIM Viernes 4 de marzo, 2011 17:00 Antiguo apeadero del tren de Las Villas...
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