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)
April 27, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI named five new saints on Sunday, including Portugal's 14th century independence leader and a priest who ministered to factory workers at the dawn of the industrial era.
Speaking in a packed St Peter's Square, the Pope praised each of the five as a model for the faithful, saying their lives and works were as relevant today as when they were alive.
The Pontiff singled out the Rev Arcangelo Tadini, who lived at the turn of the last century and founded an
Source: BBC
April 27, 2009
Pupils at Gordonstoun boarding school in Moray are stepping back in time to the 1930s to celebrate the school's 75th anniversary.
Students are following the original timetable, including the strict outdoors regime for which the school was known.
Gordonstoun was founded in 1933 by Kurt Hahn, who also founded the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and Outward Bound.
The school is famous for its connections to the Royal Family, with Prince Charles, Prince Andre
Source: WSJ
April 28, 2009
The Obama administration and senior national-security officials are reviewing whether to release additional Central Intelligence Agency memos on interrogation methods, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has requested that the administration declassify additional CIA memos that he said would show the tactics worked.
Mr. Gibbs said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the review process would take about three weeks.
Source: WaPo
April 26, 2009
The Post asked former officials, strategists and others for their thoughts on the next phase of the Obama administration. Below are contributions from Allan J. Lichtman, Thomas A. Daschle, Alan S. Blinder, Meghan O'Sullivan, Martin Neil Baily, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paul Wolfowitz, Kathleen Dalton, Elaine L. Chao, Robert Shrum, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Ed Rogers and Paula J. Dobriansky.
###
ALLAN J. LICHTMAN
Author of "The Keys to the White House" and &
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
April 27, 2009
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) last week reintroduced several bills that he said were needed to limit presidential power and to restore the proper constitutional balance among the three branches of government.
The first bill (S.875) would instruct courts not to rely on a presidential signing statement when interpreting the meaning of any statute. (Similar legislation was introduced in previous sessions of Congress, but was not passed.) President Bush used signing statements "in
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 29, 2009
Barack Obama's election as president produced a surge in the number of students applying for degree courses in American studies, an academic has said.
George Lewis, director of the Centre for American Studies and a reader in American History at the University of Leicester, said there had been an "Obama bounce" in applications for the subject in Britain this year.
A 22 per cent rise in the number of applicants nationally and a 60 per cent increase at Leicester
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 27, 2009
A replica 17th Century junk built to prove that China's ancient mariners could have reached America before Columbus or Magellan has sunk off the coast of Taiwan just a day's sailing short of completing a 17,000-mile return crossing of the Pacific.
The Princess Taiping - meaning "peace" in Chinese - was within sight of shore off Su Ao harbour in northeast Taiwan when it was sliced in two after a collision with a Liberian-registered cargo vessel.
The 53ft, thre
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 27, 2009
A pagan protester named King Arthur has been evicted from Stonehenge after staging a 10 month live-in protest about access rights to the ancient stone circle.
King Arthur Pendragon, a druid formerly known as John Rothwell, set up camp on the edge of the site last June, believing that people should be allowed to walk around and touch the stones, which have been roped off since 1977.
Pendragon, 55, who changed his name by deed poll in 1976, has been living in a caravan o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 27, 2009
Visitors to a collection of tree clumps planted near Stonehenge to commemorate the Battle of the Nile are able to pinpoint the location of each ship for the first time.
The National Trust has erected information boards to explain the positions of the clumps of beech, maple and hawthorn in the Wiltshire Countryside, each of which represents a British or French ship.
The Nile Clumps, as they are called, were thought to have been planted nearly 200 years ago to mark Nelso
Source: Foxnews
April 27, 2009
The note, written in pencil then rolled up and inserted in a bottle, contains the names of seven young people who probably thought they were doomed to die in the notorious Auschwitz death camp.
Dated Sept. 9, 1944, the note bears the names, camp numbers and hometowns of the seven prisoners — six from Poland and one from France.
Workmen were tearing out a wall in the basement of a college building in the town of Oswiecim — which was called Auschwitz by the Nazis during W
Source: Foxnews
April 26, 2009
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and poet laureate Sam Cornish are dedicating a square near Boston Common in honor of master of the macabre Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe was born in Boston on Jan. 19, 1809. But the author of "The Raven" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" had an often bitter relationship with his hometown. He sometimes lied about his birthplace and voiced his distaste for its literary elite.
But Boston has tried recently to show more love for Poe.
Source: AP
April 27, 2009
LONDON –- The Obama administration says it won't look backward in the debate over harsh interrogations. On Attorney General Eric Holder's first stop in Europe this week, he looked back centuries, visiting a historic torture site...
The attorney general and his staff took a tour of the Tower of London, home of The Bloody Tower, and also the site where Guy Fawkes was put on the rack in 1605 to name those plotting with him to blow up Parliament.
The tower visit is standard
Source: AFP
April 25, 2009
Ukraine paid homage to victims of the Chernobyl catastrophe 23 years after the worst nuclear accident in history.
"Today we remember with profound sadness those heroes who fought against the nuclear storm and sacrificed themselves for us and our children," President Viktor Yushchenko said in an address published by his press service.
Some 100 Ukrainians, including Yushchenko and other top officials, laid wreaths overnight before the monument to Chernobyl's vic
Source: NYT
April 25, 2009
A battle is raging over the Astor fortune.
The main beneficiary is accused of scheming with others to drain the estate. The deceased, it is alleged, did not have the mental capacity to execute the will. Document experts have been asked to examine the authenticity of the will, the credibility of the witnesses to its signing has been questioned and the court fight has been a headline-grabbing sensation.
Sound familiar?
It might. But this probably is not the c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 25, 2009
President Barack Obama is to release up to 2,000 photographs of alleged abuse at American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan in a move which will reignite the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib prison in 2004.
The decision to make public the images sought in a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union comes amid a political firestorm over alleged torture of detainees under President George W. Bush.
Some of the photographs, which will be released before May 28, are s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 25, 2009
Meet the Second World War veterans who felt compelled to fight against their homeland.
There is that wonderful line in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove when the American president admonishes the Soviet ambassador and one of his Air Force generals for wrestling over a spy camera: "Gentlemen! You can't fight in here – this is the War Room."
It was Ken Adam who came up with the design for that simple but unforgettable set: a dark, oppressive, cavernous chamber dominated
Source: Reuters
April 25, 2009
The police expelled David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, from the Czech Republic on Saturday, his lawyer said.
Mr. Duke was detained Friday on suspicion of denying the Holocaust, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison if a violator is convicted under Czech law.
Source: NYT
April 25, 2009
For three months, five presidential historians have been writing online columns comparing Barack Obama's initial 100 days in office with those of some of his modern predecessors. These are their final installments. The full series, along with an interactive timeline of presidential history can be found in the 100 Days blog.
In Reagan’s Debt
By LOU CANNON
Obama, too, is misunderstood by critics as an ideologue.
Think Big, Even in Defeat
By ROBERT DAL
Source: NYT
April 25, 2009
Every boom time is remembered for its symbols of overindulgence. Here are some nominees for the first decade of this century.
Source: NYT
April 25, 2009
Given Mr. Obama’s particular fondness for Lincolnesque oratory, it’s surprising that he hasn’t adopted one of Lincoln’s favorite habits: quoting Shakespeare.
Lincoln was a lifelong Bardolater and serial Shakespeare-quoter, as Mr. Obama noted in remarks at the recent reopening of Ford’s Theater. Lincoln regarded Shakespeare, whose 445th birthday was last week, as many things: an oracle to be consulted for wisdom; a pastor with whom to share confidences and from whom to seek comfort,
