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: Yahoo News
September 28, 2009
OKLAHOMA CITY – Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into th
Source: Politico
September 28, 2009
Sarah Palin’s publisher plans to announce Tuesday that the title of her eagerly awaited memoir will be “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
Publication is being moved up from spring to Nov. 17 in order to catch the holiday book-buying season. The former Alaska governor has been in huge demand as a speaker, and continues to harvest a bounty of media attention.
A mammoth first printing of 1.5 million copies has been ordered — the same first run as “True Compass,” the memoir o
Source: Times (UK)
September 28, 2009
The sister of an American soldier who was killed in the Lockerbie bombing said that she had met Colonel Muammar Gaddafi during his visit to New York to offer him forgiveness.
Lisa Gibson, 39, and another Lockerbie family met the Libyan leader after his rambling speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
“I did not know what to expect. He was quite friendly to us, quite cordial. He welcomed us,” Ms Gibson, a lawyer, told The Times yesterday.
Ms Gibso
Source: Times (UK)
September 28, 2009
Neglected churches and crumbling castles would receive millions of pounds of extra funding if the Conservatives win power at the next election, a Shadow minister has suggested.
Endangered historic buildings such as cathedrals and abbeys in need of urgent repair would benefit from additional funding from the National Lottery under a Tory plan to allocate more cash to traditional projects and the preservation of the nation’s heritage.
Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Sec
Source: Times (UK)
September 28, 2009
A prize-winning essay by a ten-year-old Paul McCartney sheds new light on the thoughts of a budding superstar.
The handwritten piece about the Queen’s Coronation was found among records at Liverpool’s Central Library by Kevin Roach while he researched a book on the Beatles bass player.
It had been stored away for more than 50 years in the library’s record office.
Source: AP
September 27, 2009
The FBI has released long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the fertilizer bomb went off. They don't show the actual explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
The tapes were obtained by an attorney and provided to The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Source: BBC
September 27, 2009
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will sign a deal to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia on 10 October.
Mr Erdogan said the deal would still need parliamentary approval in Turkey and Armenia after being signed by their foreign ministers.
The two countries remain deeply divided over the fate Armenians suffered under Turkish Ottoman rule. Turkey has resisted widespread calls for it to recognise the
Source: CNN
September 25, 2009
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Two sentences inscribed above the refurbished entrance hall of Moscow's Kurskaya metro station are causing great agitation for survivors of Russian labor camps.Yuri Fidelgoldsh, who had five ribs removed after imprisonment six decades ago, is one of the offended survivors.
"Stalin reared us on loyalty to the people," says the inscription above the pristine marble floors of the metro station. "He inspired us to labor and to heroism."
Source: The Boston Channel
September 24, 2009
New Hampshire officials have banned the sale of human remains and items buried with a person after an auction house put the skeletal remains of a Civil War soldier up for sale.
Earlier this month, Granite State officials changed the law that allowed human remains and grave goods to be sold on the open market in the state.
Human remains include not only the remains of the person, but also jewelry, clothing, memorabilia and other personal items that were buried with a per
Source: Science Daily
September 22, 2009
The archaeological excavations at the royal palace in the ancient city of Qatna, north east of the Syrian city of Homs, have once again unfolded a remarkable archaeological discovery. The summer excavations, due to end September 25, located a rock tomb-cellar underneath the palace containing hundreds of artifacts as well as human bones from the period 1600-1400 BC.
In 2002, excavations at this site found a tomb with accessibility from the central palace rooms. The present excavation
Source: Yahoo News
September 25, 2009
HONOLULU – Most need wheelchairs. Their average age is 80.
Neither fact is stopping 11 elderly Hawaii leprosy patients from traveling 12,000 miles to the Vatican next month to watch as the Catholic Church canonizes Father Damien — a priest who cared for leprosy patients throughout the islands more than a century ago before dying of the disease himself.
Damien, who was born in Belgium as Joseph de Veuster, remains a beloved figure among many in Hawaii. In the 1870s, the
Source: Fox News
September 26, 2009
WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Saturday resumed his push to overhaul the health care system, telling a Congressional Black Caucus conference that there comes a time when "the cup of endurance runs over."
"We have been waiting for health reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. We've been waiting since the days of Harry Truman," he said in remarks at the caucus foundation's annual dinner. "We've been waiting since Johnson and Nixon and Clinton."
Source: The Washington Post
September 27, 2009
The visits had a ritual quality. Three times a year, a coalition of Chicago community groups met with the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators to warn about the growing prevalence of abusive mortgage lending.
They began to present research in 1999 showing that large banking companies including Wells Fargo and Citigroup had created subprime businesses wholly focused on making loans at high interest rates, largely in the black and Hispanic neighborhoods to the south and west
Source: The Washington Post
September 25, 2009
There is the ongoing review of the death of a man beaten by four white teenagers in a park in Shenandoah, Pa. The kids, all high school football players, shouted, "Go back to Mexico," before one punched him repeatedly with a metal shank balled up in his fist, according to witnesses. Then, another kicked him on the left side of his head so hard that the Mexican man's brain began to swell. He died two days later, his fiancee weeping at his side...
... Their issues are wrappe
Source: Time
September 27, 2009
At the height of the civil war in Iraq, a tidal wave of refugees crossed the border into Syria, changing the face of the capital, Damascus, with their clothing, accents and shell-shocked appearances. Years later, many of the 1.5 million Iraqis remaining in Syria have become a part of the fabric of life. Many own homes or businesses and have children who speak Arabic with a Syrian accent. But one sector of the immigrant population still feels ill at ease: the 400,000 or so Iraqis with ties to the
Source: AP
September 23, 2009
Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered a ritual bath in Jerusalem that was likely used by Jewish pilgrims coming to the temple two millenia ago.
The bath is located next to the Temple Mount, the compound in Jerusalem's Old City where two Biblical Temples stood. The second was destroyed by Roman legions in 70 A.D.
The Israel Antiquities Authority says the stone bath was likely used for ritual purification by pilgrims who came to the Temple three times a year.
Source: AFP
September 24, 2009
French archaeologists have discovered the oldest known place of worship dedicated to the dugong, or sea cow, on an island just north of Dubai, two research centres said Thursday.
The sanctuary believed to date back to 3,500 to 3,200 years BC was discovered on Akab island in the United Arab Emirates, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Dubai.
The French archaeological mission in the Emirates and the Umm al-Quwain museum there said in the specialist magazine Antiquity that
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 26, 2009
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was "hugely upset" by the criticism her daughter, the Queen, faced after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Friends of Queen Elizabeth have also revealed her shock at the public outpouring of grief over the Princess' death.
Sir Michael Oswald and his wife Lady Angela Oswald said Queen Elizabeth felt angry and defensive that her elder daughter was so widely criticised for her actions in the aftermath of the Princess's fata
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 26, 2009
Fidel Castro, Cuba's long-standing dictator, has fathered at least 10 children by a string of women, according to a new book.
Fidel Castro is renowned in Cuba for his verbosity and longevity. But his long-suffering compatriots know little about another sphere where El Commandante has proved prolific - his private life.
Discussing his womanising ways is strictly taboo on the Caribbean communist outpost, even on an island where the gossip grapevine flourishes in the abs
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 27, 2009
China is preparing to mark 60 years of Communist Party rule this week with the largest celebration the country has ever witnessed.
Millions of Communist Party officials, students and workers are feverishly fine-tuning parades and firework displays on a scale that will dwarf the Beijing Olympics.
Special “parade villages” have been set up at military airfields outside the capital to drill the tens of thousands of marching soldiers, with officers on hand to measure the
