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: BBC
October 15, 2009
Infamously ugly and unfinished, the shell of the Ryugyong Hotel dominates North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. But work on the skyscraper began again last summer after a 16-year hiatus and, as the company behind it tells the BBC's Matthew Davis, an end may finally be in sight.
A three-sided pyramid with walls that jag upwards at 75 degrees, capped by a series of concentric rings, the Ryugyong Hotel was described by one magazine simply as "the worst building in the hi
Source: NYT
October 14, 2009
Soldiers have often returned to old battlefields, to honor fallen comrades and to exorcise persistent demons. British soldiers go back to the Falklands. Normandy cemeteries are on many V.F.W. and American Legion itineraries. Vietnam veterans can even get package tours now to the places where they were stationed.
Now, Americans wounded in the Iraq war are being ferried back to the scenes where they were maimed to help achieve psychological closure, the first time such visits have bee
Source: BBC
October 15, 2009
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will go on trial at The Hague on Monday 26 October, the court says.
It is the second time in a week that the trial - originally due to start on 19 October - has been put back.
But Mr Karadzic's attempts to have the start delayed by 10 months have been rejected by the court.
Mr Karadzic is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, dating back to the Bosnian war.
Source: LA Times
October 15, 2009
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History plans to open a hall next year dedicated to the story of human evolution over 6 million years, officials announced Wednesday.
The nearly $21-million Hall of Human Origins will follow milestones in history -- when humans started walking upright and started speaking, for example -- as well as the effect of climate change and extinction of ancient species. It's scheduled to open on March 17, 2010, marking the museum's 100th anniversa
Source: LA Times
October 15, 2009
The paintings are big, bold and unsigned -- each one newly hung on the walls of the recently opened courthouse as a testament to Orange County's history and promise.
The largest is a mural depicting Westminster vs. Mendez, the 1947 ruling originating in Orange County that put an end to segregated schools for Mexican children. It was painted by students from Otto A. Fischer School, which serves residents of juvenile hall.
The collaborative art at the new 4th District Cou
Source: Politico
October 14, 2009
For Republicans looking forward to the first Bush-free election in a decade, the book publishing schedule is the bearer of bad news: Between New Year’s Day and next November, as many as five Bush administration officials — including the former president himself — will rehash history in hardback.
The literary luge ride down memory lane shoves off with a return to the economic collapse via former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s “On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of
Source: Yahoo News
October 14, 2009
PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88.
Lawrence Oliver said his father died at the Northern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System Hospital in Prescott, Ariz. He had been declining health for the past two years.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. ordered flags on the Navajo Nation to be flow
Source: McClatchy
October 14, 2009
WASHINGTON -- One evening near Christmas in 1955, Harry Truman walked into his Independence, Mo., home to find his wife tossing stacks of old letters into the blazing hearth.
He looked stricken.
A chronicle of the 33rd president's courtship, marriage and daily life in the first half of the 20th century was going up in smoke.
"Bess!" said Truman, who saved every scrap of paper, including 1,300 letters that he had written her. "God! What are y
Source: Medieval News
October 15, 2009
Archaeologists have discovered two Crusader-era murals depicting heaven and hell in a medieval church near Syria's coast — a rare find that could reveal new information about the Christian knights who battled Muslims for control of the Holy Land hundreds of years ago.
Experts are now renovating the 12th century paintings, which were discovered last year by a joint Syrian-Hungarian team excavating an old Crusader fortress on a hilltop near the Mediterranean Sea in the western provinc
Source: China View
October 13, 2009
The friendship between the Chinese and Jewish peoples, which boasts a history of more than 1,000 years, would be reflected in an exhibition of photos depicting relations between China and Israel, a leading Chinese historian told Xinhua Tuesday.
Pan Guang, head of the Center for Jewish Studies Shanghai, said the "Experience China in Israel" event in Tel Aviv, which ends on Oct. 25, would remind both Chinese and Jewish people of their shared experiences.
Source: Digital Journal
October 13, 2009
The Hungarian historian who was reported to have ‘discovered’ a house belonging to the real “Dracula,” says the claims were inaccurate. Dr Tamás Fedeles says the cellar can indeed be linked to Wallachian Duke Vlad III, but not with any certainty.
Dr. Fedeles, of the Medieval and Early Modern Department at Pécs University’s Historical Studies Institute, said in an interview with Digital Journal that there was no definite proof that Duke Vlad III ”Tepes” (The Impaler) of Wallachia own
Source: BBC
October 15, 2009
Archaeologists believe they have traced a mass grave of soldiers who fought in a 17th Century battle in Germany under a modern-day supermarket.
Scots - many of them Highlanders - were among the ranks of Protestant soldiers fighting Catholic forces at Lutzen, a key clash during the 30 Years War.
Culloden expert Dr Tony Pollard has been involved in an international team's investigations at Lutzen.
He said another mass grave on another part of the battlefiel
Source: BBC
October 15, 2009
A new exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's work is set to open in the Vatican.
The Catholic Church once labelled Galileo, now regarded as modern astronomy's founding father, a heretic.
Now a selection of Galileo's instruments - along with those of other key figures in astronomy - are being put on display in the Vatican.
There will also be some of Galileo's original documents in which he excitedly recorded his first discoveries.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 15, 2009
Michael Broadbent, the former director of Christie's wine department, accepted a public apology on Thursday over claims that he behaved unprofessionally in the auction a bottle of Lafite said to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the American president.
The 1787 bottle sold at Christie's in London 24 years ago for £105,000, which remains a record sum. The dusty - and likely undrinkable - bottle of wine derives its value from the etched initials "Th.J" on its side, which s
Source: AP
October 14, 2009
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush said Wednesday he has no regrets and would carry out his brazen protest again, even if it cost him his life.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi told Swiss television station Leman Bleu that, after being mistreated in Iraqi custody for two days following his outburst last Dec. 14, a judge asked him whether he regretted the gesture.
After his release last month he obtained a tourist visa for Switzerland with the help of
Source: Times (UK)
October 15, 2009
The Queen attended an unpublicised special service at Westminster Abbey yesterday to celebrate the centenary of MI5 and MI6.
The heads of the security and intelligence services were present for the unique ceremony in the cloisters of the Abbey.
The Queen unveiled a plaque which acknowledged the service of the staff of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the signals intelligence centre, in the defence of the realm.
Source: BBC
October 15, 2009
The black leather daybed had deteriorated badly and conservators at the Leather Conservation Centre (LCC) took 65 hours to carry out the work.
It will now go on display at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth.
The piece of furniture was handed down by generations of Nelson's family and given to the museum last year.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 14, 2009
The controversial works are part of a wider exhibition of 60 pieces that are being shown for two weeks from Wednesday at the former Holy Trinity Church, now known as One Marylebone, in central London.
The exhibition featuring 16 artists, called The Age of Marvellous, coincides with the Frieze Art Fair in nearby Regent's Park.
Organisers say the exhibition is designed to “integrate areas of human knowledge that exist outside the boundaries of traditional art making”.
Source: Times (UK)
October 15, 2009
The former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic is to go on trial in The Hague later this month for his alleged role in directing war crimes during the Bosnian war.
Dr Karadzic, who was captured in Belgrade last year after more than a decade on the run, faces 11 charges including two counts of genocide for allegedly masterminding Serb atrocities throughout the conflict from 1992 to 1995.
The trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugosla
Source: NYT
October 13, 2009
The National Park Service found the original deed from 1695 for the homestead in Virginia where George Washington was born and copies of John Peter Zenger’s New-York Weekly Journal from 1735 reporting on his landmark trial affirming freedom of the press. The Center for Jewish History discovered the 1944 document in which Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide. The Morgan Library turned up a 1913 letter from the sister of Virginia Woolf saying that “Virginia was very much depressed yesterday” an
