Mes: agosto 2019

New video has surfaced online showing missing American journalist Austin Tice surrounded by anonymous captors, but the brief clip sheds little light on his whereabouts or condition. Tice, a former Marine and freelance journalist who has worked for CBS and other news organizations, has been missing since August 13, when he last emailed colleagues, according to McClatchy Newspapers. Before Tice vanished outside Damascus, he had been reporting on the escalating violence in Syria as a freelance journalist. No group has claimed responsibility for his abduction so far, but U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters Monday they have an idea. More in After the Arab Spring “You know, there’s a lot of reason for the Syrian government to duck responsibility,” Nuland said, “but we continue to believe that to the best of our knowledge we think he is in Syrian government custody” – something the Assad regime denies. The video appeared on a Facebook page of one of Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s supporters, but had been on YouTube for six days prior, reports CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan. The video shows Tice being led by men in robes carrying automatic weapons, and repeating “God is great” in Arabic. Tice is then heard saying part of an Islamic prayer in broken Arabic, and just before the end of the 47-second clip, he appears in distress, saying “Oh Jesus”...

On Saturday, it will be 20 years since a relatively unknown band from Washington State released an album that changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll. Nirvana’s landmark recording “Nevermind” challenged the conventions of mainstream music, selling more than 30 million copies in the process. It also propelled the Seattle sound, a raw and honest style of music called grunge, onto the world stage, and provided a confused generation with an unlikely anthem. Pictures: Kurt Cobain Elizabeth Keenan, ethnomusicology professor at Columbia University, said of the time when Nevermind was released, “It was one of those really interesting political times. There were the years of Reagan growth, but then in ‘87 there’s the stock market crash, and then in 1990, there’s Operation Desert Storm. There’s this mood of real anxiety — especially for young people. In places like Seattle, this was really characteristic of the mood of the music scene.” Charles Peterson, a grunge photographer said, “Everybody was working really crappy day jobs and driving crappy cars and renting, you know, group houses. Really, no future in sight.” Susan Silver, former manager of Soundgarden and manager of Alice in Chains, said the groups “had to play music.” She said, “It wasn’t to get a record deal, it wasn’t to go on tour, it was — was what they did, what they were driven to do.” Sean Kinney, drummer for...

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