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
May 29, 2009
Fifty years ago, Dr Dorian Paskowitz dropped out of society and embarked on a 14-year global surfing safari, raising nine children in a 24ft camper van, and catching every wave he could. He dreamt that they could all live untainted by money, school and fatty foods, and never imagined the wipeout that followed.
Source: NYT
May 31, 2009
It is a company that helped lift hundreds of thousands of American workers into the middle class. It transformed Detroit into the Silicon Valley of its day, a symbol of America’s talent for innovation. It built celebrated cars, like Cadillacs, that became synonymous with luxury.
And now it is filing for bankruptcy, something that would have been unfathomable even a few years ago, much less decades ago, when it was a dominant force in the American economy.
Rarely has a
Source: Spiegel Online
May 29, 2009
In spring 1989, Hungary began dismantling its fortified border with Austria. A few months later, the first crack in the Iron Curtain opened when hundreds of East Germans fled across the Austrian-Hungarian border. Now new details about the quiet heroes of that historic event are coming to light.
Source: Salon
May 30, 2009
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba denied reports that he has seen the prisoner-abuse photos that President Obama is fighting to keep secret, in an exclusive interview with Salon Friday night.
On Thursday an article in the Daily Telegraph reported that Taguba, the lead investigator into Abu Ghraib abuse, had seen images Obama wanted suppressed, and supported the president's decision to fight their release. The paper quoted Taguba as saying, "These pictures show torture, abus
Source: http://www.fredericksburg.com
May 21, 2009
Virginia officials want "to set the record straight" about a proposed Wal-Mart's impact on the Wilderness battlefield.
Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, wrote the Orange County Planning Commission yesterday after learning that the county's planning staff "appears to suggest" that the Wal-Mart site "is not historically significant."
The Orange Planning Commission will hold a public hearing tonigh
Source: BBC
May 31, 2009
Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the liner sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 on its maiden voyage from Southampton after hitting an iceberg.
The disaster resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people in the north Atlantic, largely due to a lack of lifeboats.
The 97-year-old, who remembered nothing of the fateful journey, passed away on Sunday at the care home in Hampshire where she lived, a friend told the BBC.
Source: AP
May 29, 2009
A drastic plan to slash California's budget could mean closing down 220 state parks, including scenic attractions that draw millions of visitors.
Parks on the list include Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay, Will Rogers' Southern California ranch and Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which boasts the world's tallest tree. The Governor's Mansion in Sacramento is on the list, and so is Bodie State Historic Park, one of the best-preserved Old West ghost towns.
A parks spokesman calls t
Source: AP
May 31, 2009
Japan's ambassador to the United States apologized Saturday on behalf of his country for the 65-mile forced walk of U.S. troops and allies during World War II that left some 11,000 prisoners of war dead.
"As former prime ministers of Japan have repeatedly stated: The Japanese people should bear in mind that we must look into the past and to learn from the lessons of history," Ichiro Fujisaki said at the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, the San Antonio Express-N
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 1, 2009
Japanese archaeologists believe they have identified the final resting place of the legendary Queen Himiko, who ruled the Yamatai kingdom in the third century, but are unlikely to ever have conclusive proof as the palace has forbidden further excavation of the site.
Researchers from the National Museum of Japanese History presented a paper to the 75th annual meeting of the Japanese Archaeological Association on Sunday, claiming that evidence points to a burial mound in the town of S
Source: NYT
June 1, 2009
Once a symbol of American innovation, General Motors is now bankrupt.
Source: BBC
May 1, 2009
Finland has charged a former preacher at a Baptist church in Rwanda with genocide for his alleged role in the killings in the African nation in 1994.
Francois Bazaramba has been held in detention in Finland for more than two years after seeking asylum in 2003.
On Monday, Finland's prosecutor-general said a pre-trial investigation had found evidence that Mr Bazaramba, a Hutu, had "committed a crime of genocide in the municipality of Nyakizu in April and May 1994 wi
Source: BBC
June 1, 2009
Vandals have splashed red and green paint onto the back wall of the controversial modern museum, the Ara Pacis, in Rome.
They also left a toilet outside and several rolls of toilet paper.
The museum, designed by the American architect Richard Meier, was opened in 2006 to house a 2,000-year-old carved marble altar of the Emperor Augustus.
Many criticised the building, in Rome's historic centre, as too modern, too large, and out of character.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 31, 2009
Veterans of the D-Day landings are to hold their last official commemorations on the beaches of Normandy as they prepare to disband their association.
About 800 servicemen who took part in the 1944 landings will return to northern France next week to mark the 65th anniversary of the invasion which unlocked the liberation of occupied western Europe.
Another 1,000 British veterans will be forced to mark the milestone at home because of increasingly frail health.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 1, 2009
A couple who love the 1940s have turned their home into a Second World War replica even cultivating their own vegetables in a Dig For Victory-style plot.
Ad Hickley and his partner Pam McMillan have decorated Rushmere Cottage in totally authentic wartime style - as they grow their own veg and rear farm animals.
Their unique home has everything as it would have been more than 60 years ago.
The rural property, near Attleborough, had scarcely changed over the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 1, 2009
The remains of a Loch Ness-style creature that lived in the English Channel 200 million years ago have been found on a beach.
Archaeologists have spent months piecing together dozens of old bones found encased in limestone on Britain's Jurassic Coast by a fossil hunter.
After nearly completing the jigsaw-like puzzle they have disclosed that the skeleton, which is 70 per cent complete, is that of a 12ft long plesiosaur.
Plesiosaurs existed during the Jurass
Source: AP
May 31, 2009
Japan's ambassador to the United States apologized Saturday on behalf of his country for the 65-mile forced walk of U.S. troops and allies during World War II that left some 11,000 prisoners of war dead.
He said his country was extending a heartfelt apology for "having caused tremendous damage and suffering to many people, including prisoners of war, those who have undergone tragic experiences."
Former POW Hershel C. Boushey told the ambassador that he did not
Source: AP
May 30, 2009
The official manual of South Carolina's Legislature continues to label some of the state's former politicians as "Negro" or "scalawag" — apparent remnants of disgruntlement over Reconstruction that are drawing fresh scrutiny.
A spokesman for the state's lieutenant governor, who is eyeing a run for the top office, has sent a letter asking for an update. But civil rights leaders don't seem too bothered by the listings, which even led to portraits of the state's two
Source: San Franciso Chronicle
May 31, 2009
Each year, Peter Fischer drives from his Berlin home to this small rural town 75 miles away to keep alive what he says is a flame of truth.
Fischer, who is an expert on aging, long believed East Germans were above the anti-Semitism that had gripped the nation a generation earlier. But two things - the taunts of the son of a former SS member who told him that it was time to turn the ovens back on at Auschwitz, and a tour of the infamous Polish camp in 1987 - persuaded him to dedicat
Source: BBC
May 31, 2009
Wartime hero and double amputee Sir Douglas Bader has been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque.
Sir Douglas played a key role as a pilot during the Battle of Britain in World War II despite losing both legs in a flying accident in 1931.
Subsequently, he raised money for the disabled and worked to change attitudes towards those who suffered amputations.
The plaque was unveiled on Sunday at the pilot's former home in Petersham Mews, Kensington
Source: BBC
May 29, 2009
Serb nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj is to go on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for contempt of court.
Mr Seselj is accused of disclosing the names and details of three protected witnesses at his war crimes trial.
He went on trial in 2007 for alleged crimes committed in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia between 1991 and 1994.
The 54-year-old denies contempt as well as the three counts of crimes against humanity and
