This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: GlobalPost
April 2, 2010
At 46, each year of misery seems to have etched new wrinkles around Tran Thanh Dung’s angry gaze.
When he was child in the early 1970s, Tran says he witnessed U.S. soldiers shoot his parents — both of whom were communist Viet Cong soldiers during the Vietnam War. Bent on revenge, he joined the guerrilla group within hours.
To this day, Tran weeps over the memories of bloodshed and the hellish cries of his dying friends. But one bizarre memory will haunt him forever. &qu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 1, 2010
Britons have been warned to stay away from marches in Buenos Aires on Friday as thousands are expected to mass for Argentina's biggest anti-British protests in years.
The controversy surrounding plans to drill for oil in the waters surrounding the islands has stoked hostility in recent weeks.
Demonstrators will march on the British Embassy in the capital to mark the April 2 anniversary of the Argentina's brief occupation of the Falkland Islands during the 1982.
Source: Spiegel Online
April 2, 2010
During World War II, desert explorer Laszlo Almasy smuggled Nazi agents through the Sahara on an epic journey behind enemy lines. Now the true story of the man depicted in "The English Patient," is coming to light.
As a boy, the son of a Hungarian nobleman would often stare off into the distance from his birthplace, a castle in the Burgenland region of present-day Austria. He always longed for the unattainable.
At 14, the boy built himself a glider to fly up t
Source: NYT
April 1, 2010
The case that has raised questions about the future pope’s handling of a pedophile priest in Germany came to light three decades after it occurred, and then almost by chance. It happened when Wilfried Fesselmann, an early victim, said he stumbled on Internet photographs of the priest who sexually abused him, still working with children.
Mr. Fesselmann, who had long remained silent about the abuse he suffered in 1979, said the pictures stunned him and spurred him to contact his abus
Source: Investopedia.com
April 2, 2010
Benjamin Franklin was correct in his assessment of both death and taxes, but while taxes have been certain, they've been far from consistent. (The receipts you cram into your wallet could be replaced with cash come tax season. To learn more, read 10 Most Overlooked Tax Deductions.)
The Land that Tax Forgot
America was tax-free for much of its early history. That is, free of direct taxation like income tax. It was, after all, taxes that led Americans to revolt against
Source: Christian Science Monitor
March 30, 2010
Look, Ronald Reagan’s face is not going to be on the $50 bill, OK? It just won’t happen, at least not soon....
But here’s the kicker: Reagan will be engraved on US money anyway. The US Mint is issuing four presidential $1 coins every year, featuring images of deceased chief executives in the order in which they served.
This year, it’s Presidents Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and Lincoln. Next year, it will be Presidents Johnson, Grant, Hayes, and Garfield. Reagan’s turn f
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 1, 2010
A chapel built on a mountainside in Germany is turning into a shrine for neo-Nazis after it emerged that it was built with marble and grainte taken from the ruins of Adolf Hitler's luxury retreat.
A swastika was reportedly found carved into one of the wooden beams of the Wegmacher Chapel, which was built in 1997, while local residents claim a number of shaven-headed, leather jacket-wearing 'pilgrims' leave behind notes of praise to Hitler and candles burning in his memory.
Source: AP
April 1, 2010
More than 20 years after a self-described mob hit man set the rumor mill in motion with an interview in Playboy magazine, the question lingers: Is the answer to one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century buried beneath the stadium — and about to be buried even deeper when the stadium is demolished this spring?
To one former law enforcement official who investigated the case in the 1980s, there is no mystery.
The FBI considered the Giants Stadium tale "a dead
Source: Times Online (UK)
March 28, 2010
At the headquarters of Human Rights Watch, more than 30 storeys above the noise and bustle of Manhattan, there is so much high-mindedness hanging in the air you can almost taste it. This is the epicentre of a certain type of socially smart, progressive activism — the kind that persuades Hollywood grandees, power lawyers and liberal financiers to dig deeply into their pockets.
When the story broke that one of the organisation’s most prominent and vocal members of staff might be a col
Source: Live Science
March 31, 2010
Though pranksters and joke-lovers in many countries now gleefully prepare to dupe friends and loved ones on April Fool's Day, no one knows exactly when or why, or even where, this tradition began.
A giddy spurt of practical joking seems to have coincided with the coming of spring since the time of the Ancient Romans and Celts, who celebrated a festival of mischief-making. The first mentions of an All Fool's Day (as it was formerly called) came in Europe in the Middle Ages.
Source: BBC
April 1, 2010
One of five men accused of being part of a £4.25m Leonardo da Vinci extortion plot has been involved in a car crash.
Calum Jones, 45, was described as being "shaken" after the incident, which was said to have happened as he made his way to a railway station.
As a result he did not make it to the High Court in Edinburgh on time and no evidence was heard for the day.
Mr Jones and four others deny seeking to extort money for the safe return of the
Source: BBC
April 1, 2010
The international court trying ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for alleged war crimes has dismissed his appeal for the trial to be delayed.
The court said the trial would resume on 13 April after rejecting Mr Karadzic's bid to have it postponed until 17 June.
Mr Karadzic had argued he needed more time to prepare himself.
He is charged with 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide - all of which he denies.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 1, 2010
The black and white tights bear a crest design and are said to have been a favourite style of the Queen in the 1870s.
Auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull believed the sale would attract the interest of collectors of ''Victoriana''.
The hand-stitched stockings went under the hammer for £690 at the auction house's Edinburgh sale, surpassing an initial valuation of around £400.
Lyon and Turnbull said they were snapped up by a dealer on behalf of a third party.
Source: AP
April 1, 2010
Researchers say new evidence from Russian archives suggests that a Swedish diplomat credited with rescuing thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust was alive after the Soviets reported his death in prison.
The fate of Raoul Wallenberg, whom the Soviet army arrested in Budapest in January 1945, has remained one of the great mysteries of World War II.
The Soviets claimed he was executed in 1947 but never produced a reliable death certificate or his remains. Witnesse
Source: AP
April 1, 2010
Former Prime Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis, who led a short-lived coalition government in 1989 while the country was rocked by corruption scandals and political turmoil, has died at 82.
Tzannetakis' office said he died in an Athens hospital Thursday but gave no other details.
During his three-month tenure as prime minister, Tzannetakis headed a coalition government that included his conservative New Democracy party and the Greek Communist Party.
Source: CNN
March 31, 2010
Former first lady Barbara Bush was released from a Texas
hospital Wednesday, four days after being admitted for a series of tests.
Doctors believe the 84-year-old wife of former President George H.W. Bush may have suffered a mild relapse of Graves disease, a thyroid condition for which she was first treated in 1989, according to a statement released from Houston's Methodist Hospital.
In response, Mrs. Bush's medication levels have been adjusted, the statement sa
Source: NYT
March 31, 2010
The European Union, which has been coaxing Serbia into a historical reckoning about its bloody role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, gave a cautious welcome Wednesday to a declaration by the Serbian Parliament that condemned the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica. But it warned that what amounted to reluctant, latter-day contrition about the worst massacre in Europe since World War II was insufficient if Serbia wanted closer ties with the bloc.
For that, the E.U. foreign p
Source: Press Release from Duke University
April 1, 2010
A Duke University graduate student has discovered what is believed to be the only known printed copy of Haiti’s Declaration of Independence.While researching the early independence of Haiti in February, Julia Gaffield found the document, an eight-page pamphlet dated Jan. 1, 1804, in the British National Archives in London. It is only the second declaration of its kind in the world, the first being the U.S. Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson and
Source: Christian Science Monitor
April 1, 2010
April Fools day is canceled. Seriously. April Fools jokes are not happening around the world today, as they have for centuries. The holiday is over.
So, without any April Fools pranks today, let's remember the best from past years.
Ever hear about the April Fools prank that Uday pulled on his dad Saddam Hussein? Or how about the time a Boston University professor pranked the entire American media into believing he'd discovered the origins of April Fools Day? And don't
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 1, 2010
A secretive temple where the ashes of seven of Japan’s most notorious war criminals have been quietly buried is becoming a point of convergence for a new generation of Japanese nationalists.
The seven wartime leaders were executed 61 years ago and some of their remains later surreptitiously transferred to the Koa Kannon temple, overlooking the coastal resort of Atami, 90 miles southwest of Tokyo.
The priestess of the temple says it is a place to contemplate peace, but t
