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: Telegraph (UK)
June 4, 2009
President Barack Obama has arrived in Dresden, the former East German city which was left a smoking ruin by British and American bombers in the Second World War.
The President was greeted by American flags, banners and unofficial posters depicting his beaming face beneath the words 'Ich bin ein Dresdner' – an echo of President John F. Kennedy's famous declaration in West Berlin in 1963 during the Cold War.
"Welcome to Dresden Mr President!" ran the front page
Source: Wife of James Fallows at his blog at the Atlantic
June 4, 2009
I went to the square at noontime, expecting to see pretty much what we saw last night: the square off limits, people walking along the roadside or staring at the flag and Mao's giant portrait.
I was really shocked to see the square itself open to the public during the day. Or, as I realized later, open to the "public." There were thousands of people on the square, but there was something odd about the scene. I realized by the end of the afternoon that this crowd
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 4, 2009
More than 150,000 people gathered in Hong Kong last night to sing and chant in memory of the students killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre 20 years ago.
The gathering was larger than it was on the first anniversary of the bloodshed in 1990. An area the size of six football pitches was marked out for the event, but proved to be insufficient, leaving hundreds of people queuing at the entrances of Victoria Park.
Protesters said they had turned out in force to remind t
Source: Columbus Dispatch
June 2, 2009
A state program that left its mark historically on Ohio for 50 years might fall by the wayside because of budget cuts proposed by the state Senate.
Other budget casualties could include a state office that for two decades has worked to resolve disputes and avoid costly litigation, and another serving Ohio's fast-growing Latino population.
Since its creation in 1959, the Ohio Historical Marker program has erected nearly 1,300 markers where history happened. Examples incl
Source: Evening Sun
May 27, 2009
With a budget that rarely saw increases from year to year, Gettysburg park officials struggled for years to keep up with a backlog of necessary maintenance projects.
In August 2006, Pratt told USA Today that time and a tight budget were taking a toll on the battlefield's historic structures and monuments.
"You start to look around, and there's work everywhere that needs to be done. We just don't have the money or people to do those things," Pratt said at the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 4, 2009
Veterans of the D-Day landings say they fear being "shoved" aside amid the clamour for dignitaries at the 65th anniversary commemorations in.
As hundreds of survivors of the 1944 campaign made their way to France for a series of events on Friday and Saturday, the Normandy Veterans Association (NVA) warned that the anniversary was in danger of ecoming a "jamboree" for politicians on a "jolly".
Peter Hodge, Honorary General Secretary of the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 4, 2009
Two decades after his defiance made him the the second most-wanted ringleader of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Wuer Kaixi is fighting deportation from Macau and insisting he wants to return to his homeland.
Wuer marked the 20th anniversary of the crackdown in a holding cell in the Chinese territory after immigration officials denied him entry to turn himself in.
Denied permission to enter Macau at the airport on Wednesday, authorities in the special administrat
Source: AP
June 4, 2009
Florida deep-sea explorers who raised an estimated $500 million treasure from the 200-year-old wreck of a Spanish galleon should give all the loot back to Spain, a federal magistrate judge said.
But the two-year tug-of-war over the 17 tons of silver coins and other artifacts from what is believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas is likely far from over.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said it will oppose Wednesday's written recommendation by U.S. Magistr
Source: CNN
June 3, 2009
Twenty years after China's bloody crackdown on demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the United States is urging the government to come to terms with its violent actions.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement saying the 20th anniversary of the "violent suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square by Chinese authorities" should be a time for reflection on the loss of hundreds of innocent lives and the meaning of events that preceded that fateful
Source: NYT
June 3, 2009
Senior Israeli officials accused President Obama on Wednesday of failing to acknowledge what they called clear understandings with the Bush administration that allowed Israel to build West Bank settlement housing within certain guidelines while still publicly claiming to honor a settlement “freeze.”
The complaint was the latest in a growing rift between the Obama administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to move forward to achieve peace in the M
Source: AP
June 4, 2009
The Organization of American States cleared the way for Cuba's possible return to the group by lifting a 47-year ban on the communist-run country, a move backed by Washington despite initial objections.
The vote by acclamation Wednesday to revoke a 1962 measure suspending the island from the body not only toppled a Cold War landmark but was the latest sign of the end of Cuba's isolation in a region increasingly governed by leftist leaders.
Even traditional U.S. ally El
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 4, 2009
The Spanish government has won a two-year legal battle against commercial marine archaeologist firm Odyssey, which Spain accused of plundering its national heritage.
The Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered 17 tons of gold and silver from a sunken vessel they code-named the"Black Swan" in March 2007. The Nasdaq-listed company refused to reveal the location of the wreck insisting that it had been found in international waters and therefore beyond the legal jurisdiction of any one c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 4, 2009
Around 200 witch bottles have been found in the past but this is thought to be the first time one with its contents intact has been discovered.
Scientists have analysed the contents of the former wine jug after it was discovered by builders redeveloping a site in Greenwich, south east London.
Source: Slate
June 3, 2009
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Western media characterize the incident as a brutal government crackdown on peaceful protesters. What does the Chinese government say about it?
Very little. Neither the 1989 protests nor the ensuing massacre is included in Chinese textbooks, and many students today have never heard of these events. For the most part, the government avoids discussing the issue at all. The government does acknowledge that the
Source: AP
June 3, 2009
Connecticut became the second northern state to apologize for slavery, segregation and other racist policies its lawmakers once condoned after an unanimous vote late Wednesday by the state Senate.
The resolution expresses "profound contrition" for the General Assembly's role in perpetuating slavery and other practices. The House approved it last week.
New Jersey last year became the first northern state to apologize for slavery. Five other states—Alabama, Flor
Source: AP
June 4, 2009
As the Kremlin presses a campaign to recast Russia's 20th century history in a more favorable light, a research paper published Thursday on the Defense Ministry's Web site blamed Poland for starting World War II.
The unorthodox reading of history appears to be the latest effort by Russian historians to defend the Soviet Union and its leaders, especially their role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
Russia has angrily rejected claims that a Stalin-era famine
Source: Wired
June 4, 2009
It didn’t have a TV special, book deal or media-friendly pimping from the mayor of New York City, but a 12 million-year-old skull recently unearthed in Spain just might end up actually deserving the label of “missing link.”
The skull possesses a combination of primitive features previously unseen in a primate, along with a flat, anatomically modern face — the earliest such face in the fossil record. These characteristics qualified it as the founding member of a new genus and species
Source: WaPo
June 3, 2009
The large house at 619 D St. SE dates to 1795; its windows are boarded up, moss grows on its bricks. The Maples, also known as Friendship House, is one of six locales announced yesterday on the D.C. Preservation League's annual list of "Most Endangered Places."
Since 1996, the league has compiled a list of sites it considers to be of historic, cultural and architectural significance that are threatened by neglect, demolition or other pressures. Some of the previous listing
Source: Christopher L. Eisgruber in Forbes
June 3, 2009
Presidents have submitted just over 150 Supreme Court nominations to the Senate, and about 80% of the nominees have been confirmed. A closer look at the numbers shows that the odds of confirmation depend on some basic political facts. Not surprisingly, fewer nominees--less than 60%--get confirmed when the president's party does not control a majority in the Senate. By contrast, when the same party controls the White House and the Senate, the confirmation rate rises to over 85%.
Two
Source: newscientist.com
June 2, 2009
THE builders of the ancient Mayan temples at Tikal in Guatemala switched to inferior wood a few decades before they suddenly abandoned the city in the 9th century AD. The shift is the strongest evidence yet that Mayan civilisation collapsed because they ran out of resources, rather than, say, disease or warfare.
Researchers led by David Lentz, a palaeoethnobotanist at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, sampled wooden beams and lintels from all six major temples and two palaces wi
