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: Honolulu Advertiser
June 20, 2009
Dive bomber will be put on display at Pearl Harbor
The Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor currently displays a full-size fiberglass model of a type of dive bomber that played a crucial role in World War II. Now that museum officials helped bring about the recovery of one of those historic planes from the bottom of Lake Michigan, the model will be replaced with the real thing.
A Douglas SBD Dauntless, one of several types of aircraft the U.S. Navy used to defeat the
Source: BBC
June 22, 2009
In his own mind, retired 87-year-old Colonel Howard Richardson is a hero responsible for one of the most extraordinary displays of aeronautic skill in the history of the US Air Force.
His view carries a lot of weight and he has a large number of supporters - including the Air Force itself which honoured his feat with a Distinguished Flying Cross.
But to others, he is little short of a villain: the man who 50 years ago dropped a nuclear bomb in US waters, a bomb nobody
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 22, 2009
Dresden's is likely to have its UNESCO World Heritage title revoked, after city planners decided to go ahead with a disputed bridge-building project that conservationists say will ruin the skyline.
The drawn-out saga of Dresden's UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status seems to be coming to an end. Observers expect the UNESCO committee to strike a stretch of the Elbe Valley in Dresden off its list this week.
The move would make Dresden just the second site to lose its sta
Source: BBC
June 22, 2009
The Scottish Parliament has been asked to support a campaign to clear the name of a captain who was hanged for piracy more than three centuries ago.
Captain William Kidd had been appointed by the Crown to tackle piracy and capture enemy French ships.
In 1698, he looted the Armenian ship the Quedagh Merchant, which was apparently sailing under a French pass.
A parliamentary motion has been lodged by SNP MSP Bill Kidd, who is not related to the pirate, urgi
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
June 22, 2009
A litter prevention program in the United States got an unusual ally last year when a neo-Nazi group adopted a section of highway in Springfield, Kansas, and picked up the trash.
The state said it had no way to reject the group's application, saying membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program can't be denied because of a group's political beliefs.
Lawmakers responded with an amendment to a large transportation bill that would rename that section of road after Abraham Josh
Source: AFP
June 22, 2009
Seventy years after the eruption of World War II, Poland is paying homage to Polish victims of the 1939-1945 Nazi occupation by posting their names on a vast historical list in cyberspace.
The project aims to bring to light the names of victims -- both those who perished and those who were persecuted but survived -- who were never registered, as well as to gather death records dispersed across Poland, Germany, Ukraine, and Israel in one place accessible to all.
People k
Source: BBC
June 22, 2009
More than 50 years after a 7,600lb (3,500kg) nuclear bomb was dropped in US waters following a mid-air military collision, the question of whether the missing weapon still poses a threat remains.
Immediately after the crash, a search was set up to find the unexploded nuclear weapon, buried somewhere too close for comfort to the US's second-largest seaport and one of its most beautiful cities.
Numerous other searches have followed, both official and unofficial, and each
Source: Foxnews
June 22, 2009
The high court decides not to take a case dismissed by lower court that the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame caused suffering for Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson.
The decision is a victory for Cheney and his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. They and nine unnamed co-defendants were sued by Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband Joseph after her CIA cover was
Source: AP
June 22, 2009
The towering tree is believed to have been Adolf Hitler's gift to the occupied town of Jaslo — planted to the sound of a Nazi band during World War II.
Town authorities now want it cut down and burned to make way for a new roundabout. But some residents have become attached to the 40-foot oak and are lobbying to save it.
But Mayor Maria Kurowska said it was a reminder of Jaslo's connection to Hitler, whose Nazi troops razed the town in late 1944 as the Soviet Army advan
Source: Independent (UK)
June 22, 2009
A UN court trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide today gave a 30-year jail sentence to a former interior minister accused of tricking thousands of people to hide on a hill before they were killed.
The Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said Callixte Kalimanzira, a close ally to the president and prime minister during the killing spree, was guilty of genocide and complicity to commit genocide.
"Yes, it is 30 years," Bocar
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 22, 2009
The drawing, which dates from the late 1600s, offers a rare insight into the appearance of the flightless bird that was the first recorded casualty of human interference in the habitat of other creatures.
Dodos were the main predators on Mauritius until settlers introduced bigger animals to Indian Ocean island, including pigs. Many were shipped to Europe as curiosities or had their nesting areas destroyed and the species was extinct by 1700.
The 350-year-old drawing,
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 22, 2009
Napoleon's great army threatened the peace of Europe once more at the weekend, although the turn out was a little short of the 74,000 French who battled an allied force of 67,000 in 1815.
On the Belgian battlefield, the 1,200 uniformed "soldiers" who had come from all over Europe prepared to meet their fates.
About 100 cavalry went galloping off, sabres drawn; the gunfire started and the infantry advanced, howling horribly.
The outcome was of cour
Source: Tehran Times
June 22, 2009
“We witnessed an influx of people (from Britain) before the election. Elements linked to the British secret service were flying in in droves,” Mottaki told a group of foreign diplomats.
He called on Britain to stop interfering in Iran’s internal affairs, saying its officials must realize that the expression “the sun never sets on the British Empire” is no longer true.
Mottaki also said the world’s nations, particularly those in the Middle East, know that Britain helpe
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 20, 2009
Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in the camp in southern Poland during World War II.
The foundation was set up after the Auschwitz museum made clear it was short of funds and called on the international community for help.
Tens of thousands of people visit the site of the Auschwitz Birkenau camp each year to find out more about the Nazi killing machine.
Source: Sky News
June 21, 2009
According to reports, the former Prime Minister who took Britain into the conflict warned that the long-awaited hearings would become a "show trial" if they were held in public.
He is said to have communicated his view to his successor, Mr Brown, via the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell. He feared that a direct conversation would be leaked, The Observer claimed.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said: "This is a decision for the current Prime Minister, not the
Source: BBC
June 22, 2009
The descendants want to rebury Geronimo, who was buried in Oklahoma in 1909, in his native land in New Mexico.
They are also seeking the return of body parts they say were stolen in 1918 or 1919 by a secret society at Yale University known as Skull and Bones.
But justice officials say the law cited by the plaintiffs is not applicable.
Source: Bradley Graham in the WaPo
June 21, 2009
Since leaving the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld has purposefully assumed a low
profile, giving few public speeches and granting few interviews. The
former defense secretary maintains an office in Washington that allows him
ready access to his Pentagon files and has facilitated his work with the
Library of Congress to archive his personal papers. But he spends large
chunks of his time at two other homes outside Washington - an old manor in
St. Michaels, Md., and a farm in Taos, N.M.
In m
Source: AP
June 19, 2009
The Vatican has condemned as "unjustified and inopportune" a claim by a church official that pressure from Jewish organizations is delaying the beatification of Pope Pius XII, the wartime pontiff who critics say didn't do enough to stop the Holocaust.
The Rev. Peter Gumpel, a German Jesuit who is spearheading Pius' cause, said at a conference in Rome that Pope Benedict XVI was "impressed" by warnings that relations with Jews would be ruined if he put the World Wa
Source: Reuters
June 21, 2009
Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday they had discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls.
The 4,000-square-meter (yard) cavern, buried 10 meters beneath the desert near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho, was dug about 2,000 years ago and was in use for about half a millennium, archaeologist Adam Zertal said.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
June 21, 2009
For decades the shadow of Nazism has hung over the descendants of Richard Wagner.
His monumental music was embraced by Hitler while, 50 years after his death, the composer's family were favourites of the dictator and his cronies.
Now Wagner's 31-year-old great granddaughter Katharina says she wants to establish the truth about her ancestors' links to the Nazis - most particularly whether her grandmother was the Fuhrer's secret lover.
Her decision has h
