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: Google News
October 16, 2009
DARGAN, Md. — As many as 300 people are preparing for a cold, dark walk down a Maryland country road in commemorative event to kick off the Civil War sesquicentennial.
Friday marks the 150th anniversary of the night that abolitionist John Brown launched his ill-fated raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry from the Kennedy farmhouse near Dargan.
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Chief Historian Dennis Frye says he aims to make the nearly five-mile hike a rever
Source: Fox News
October 16, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — When an earthquake collapsed two 50-foot sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during the 1989 World Series, the nightmares of hundreds of thousands of commuters who cross the Depression-era span each day were brought to life.
On this 20-year anniversary of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that killed 63 people, injured almost 3,800 and caused up to $10 billion damage, the bridge reconstruction has become the largest public works project in California history
Source: JuraForum
October 16, 2009
A faked telegram from a sick relative, knockout drops in a glass of beer or simply brute force - the methods used by the East German secret police, the "Stasi", were varied and imaginative when it came to kidnapping opponents and critics of the East German regime in West Germany and putting them on trial in the GDR. Historian Susanne Muhle (29) has found over 400 cases in the files of the Birthler Agency (named after Marianne Birthler, who heads the agency that oversees the archives ho
Source: Yahoo News
October 16, 2009
NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana's governor and a U.S. senator joined Friday in calling for the ouster of a local official who refused to marry an interracial couple, saying his actions clearly broke the law.
Keith Bardwell, a white justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish in the southeastern part of the state, refused to issue a marriage license earlier this month to Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black. His refusal has prompted calls for an investigation or resigna
Source: BBC
October 17, 2009
Yoon Sang-hyun, of the ruling Grand National Party, said inmates worked long hours in return for meagre food rations, reported Yonhap news agency.
Mr Yoon said he was basing his claims on a South Korean government report.
North Korea denies claims it abuses human rights. Earlier this year it amended its constitution to refer to its "respect" for human rights.
But human rights groups and North Korean refugees describe blatant, widespread and ong
Source: BBC
October 16, 2009
The poll by the Levada-Centre showed that 57% of those questioned considered that Russia needed democracy - the lowest number since 2006.
It said 26% believed that democratic governing was not suitable for Russia.
Nearly 95% of respondents said they had little or no influence on what was happening in the country.
Source: BBC
October 17, 2009
It comes in the wake of the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber.
Mr Salmond told the SNP conference it should be "proud" of Kenny MacAskill's decision to free terminally-ill Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi in August.
In his keynote speech, the SNP leader also set out his objective to boost the number of SNP MPs from seven to 20.
Source: Times (UK)
October 18, 2009
THE war in Afghanistan is “madcap” and “futile” and serves “no conceivable national interest”, says Sir Christopher Meyer, who as Britain’s ambassador to Washington had a ringside seat on the dispatch of troops there.
The fighting is “a waste of blood and treasure” because there is no coherent purpose behind it, he argues scornfully in a new book.
Meyer, who was Tony Blair’s man in America from 1997 to 2003, writes that: “After nearly eight years in Afghanistan . . .
Source: NYT
October 15, 2009
Through saplings descended from the majestic horse chestnut tree that gave her so much pleasure in her bleak hideout, Anne Frank will soon have her story joined with that of the Little Rock Nine — the black students who integrated an Arkansas high school under the guard of 1,200 soldiers in 1957.
The school, Little Rock Central High School, is one of 11 sites dedicated to fighting intolerance that have been chosen by the Anne Frank Center USA in Lower Manhattan as the destination fo
Source: NYT
October 16, 2009
The Obama administration said Friday that the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before and the largest shortfall relative to the size of the economy since 1945.
The number, while lower than forecast a few months ago, underscored the challenges ahead in shrinking the deficit even as the White House and Congress are considering more steps to stimulate an economy that is making a slow recovery.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 16, 2009
The image of a drunk student urinating on a war memorial has provoked a furious backlash from relatives who had laid wreaths of poppies in tribute to their loved ones.
John Ievers, the grandson of a World War I soldier who died in 1917, branded student Philip Laing, 19, a 'drunken idiot' for desecrating the memorial in Baker's Pool, Sheffield.
The 49-year-old software sales consultant said: 'I am annoyed - he's a drunken idiot.
Source: BBC
October 16, 2009
A Russian academic investigating the fate of ethnic Germans deported by Stalin during World War II has had his research seized by security services.
History professor Mikhail Suprun was briefly arrested in the far north of Russia last month, but the incident has only now come to light.
Prof Suprun told the BBC he has been ordered not to comment on the case. Prof Suprun had managed to track down the files of 5,000 deportees and had inter
Source: WSJ
October 16, 2009
In a dark and drafty warehouse, a new Berlin Wall is taking shape.
Nearly 1,000 pieces, each one over 8 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 16 inches thick, have already been crafted. Soon, they will be assembled and become part of a barrier stretching nearly a mile through the historic center of the city along the path of the old Wall, from the Reichstag to the Brandenburg Gate and beyond.
But this Berlin Wall isn't meant to be permanent. It is made of Styrofoam, and it is risi
Source: LA Times
October 15, 2009
While the great women's rights advocates Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (pictured) surely would be proud that the U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to establish a National Women's History Museum in Washington, some, including our art critic, Christopher Knight, worry that the prime federal real estate where it would be built, the National Mall in Washington, is in bad condition and in danger of being overrun by haphazard development.
The bipartisan bill pass
Source: NYT
October 13, 2009
PRAGUE — It was supposed to be an interview about the revolutions that overturned communism 20 years ago in Europe. But first, Vaclav Havel had a question.
Was it true that President Obama had refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington?...
... But Mr. Havel’s reticence did not prevent him, during a 45-minute interview, from aiming squarely at what he called the current “era of disgust” in Czech politics.
“If you look at the C.V.’s of current Czech politic
Source: Times Online
October 16, 2009
The Director General of MI5 has issued a powerful defence of Britain's co-operation with intelligence agencies in America and other countries accused of the abuse and torture of detainees, saying they had stopped "many attacks" in the aftermath of the September 11 strikes.
Speaking for the first time about charges of MI5 complicity in the abuse of suspects overseas, Jonathan Evans said Britain had had to get overseas help at the time as its own knowledge of al-Qaeda was in
Source: CNSNews.com
October 16, 2009
President Barack Obama, who has called on Americans to perform more community service, is joining former President George H.W. Bush in urging citizens to volunteer.
Bush on Friday was to host a forum on volunteering at Texas A&M University, to be attended by Obama, who initiated a "United We Serve" call to service in June that culminated in a national day of service on the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The forum is affiliated with t
Source: Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey)
October 14, 2009
The Elmali Coins that were revealed in Antalya’s Elmali district in 1984 as a result of unlawful excavations are set to be exhibited at the Antalya Archeology Museum.
The treasure had been smuggled to the United States in 1984 and has been on exhibit in the Ankara Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara since it was returned to Turkey in 1999. The process to get the coins back was hard and challenging, including major legal wars.
Sadik Badak, Antalya deputy for the rul
Source: BBC
October 16, 2009
Vandals have caused damage running to thousands of pounds at the new Highland Archive and Registration Centre in Inverness.
The 10.5m pound building which will house and preserve historical documents is due to open a week on Monday.
Police said windows at the centre at the Bught were broken sometime between Wednesday and Thursday.
Historical documents from Highland presbyteries and Kirk sessions are also to transfer from Edinburgh to the centre, along wit
Source: BBC
October 16, 2009
Peter Brierley, whose son died in Iraq in 2003, was one of several relatives critical of ministers in a preliminary hearing of the Iraq war inquiry.
He said: "If someone has done something wrong they should pay."
At an Iraq memorial service last week he told Mr Blair he would not shake his hand "because it had blood on it".
Speaking at an inquiry session on Friday, Mr Brierley, 59, of Batley, West Yorkshire said: "Members of the
