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: BBC
March 4, 2009
In a peaceful graveyard in a Denbighshire village, five soldiers' graves have for decades attracted interest from both locals and historians.
They lie amongst 85 of their Canadian comrades who were buried at St Margaret's church in Bodelwyddan during World War I.
But these five soldiers were not killed battling the enemy or by the flu pandemic that claimed the lives of many of their fellow troops.
They were killed during riots in the town's Kinmel Camp i
Source: BBC
March 13, 2009
A retired doctor has built a replica of a Spitfire fighter in the front garden of his home.
Former GP Hamish MacLeod had the model delivered in sections to his house in Moffat, in Dumfries and Galloway.
Dr Macleod, who has had a life-long passion for the iconic World War II fighter, then put it together with the help of friends.
He said he was delighted to have "the most fabulous looking aircraft ever" taking pride of place on his lawn.
Source: BBC
March 14, 2009
The names of people who were killed in the German blitz of Clydebank during World War II have been inscribed on a memorial in the town.
Bronze castings, carrying the names, were unveiled at the Blitz Memorial in Old Dalnottar Cemetery.
Hundreds of Luftwaffe bombers took part in waves of attacks on local shipyards and munitions factories on the evenings of 13 and 14 March, 1941.
When the blitz was over, 528 people were dead and the town lay in ruins.
Source: AP
March 14, 2009
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip a "holocaust" and lashed out at Arab governments that he said failed to stop the bloodshed in an audio recording broadcast Saturday.
Bin Laden, whose message was released in excerpts on Al-Jazeera TV, called Arab leaders hypocrites and accused them of sacrificing the Palestinians in Gaza and collaborating with Israel. The three-week offensive, which ended on Jan. 18, killed about 1,300 Palestinians
Source: IHT
March 14, 2009
The Obama administration said Friday that it would abandon the Bush administration's term "enemy combatant" as it argues in court for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in a move that seemed intended to symbolically separate the new administration from Bush detention policies.
But in a much-anticipated court filing, the Justice Department argued that the president has the authority to detain terror suspects there without criminal charges, much as
Source: BBC
March 12, 2009
The Taleban have confirmed that a former Guantanamo detainee has become their senior military commander in southern Afghanistan.
Taleban sources told the BBC that Mullah Abdullah Zakir had led the fight against British forces stationed in Helmand province.
They say he now leads the insurgency in that province and across the south.
Mullah Abdullah was held in Guantanamo until December 2007. He was then handed over to the Afghans and later released.
Source: CNN
March 13, 2009
Elisa Schindler says she is relieved her father, the late Rabbi Alexander Schindler, didn't live to see the destruction caused by Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff.
Rabbi Schindler, who died in 2000, was a prominent clergyman who was a leader of Reform Judaism in the U.S. His eldest of five children, Elisa, says he invested his life savings with Madoff in 1996 but never met him.
With everything wiped out, Schindler's widow, Rhea, now must sell their family home in Con
Source: Art Daily
March 10, 2009
A fragment of a pottery vessel of Persian provenance that dates to the Middle Ages (12th-13th centuries CE) was discovered in an archaeological excavation directed by Dr. Rina Avner, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the Old City of Jerusalem, prior to construction by a private contractor.
The fragment is treated with a turquoise glaze and is adorned with floral patterns and a black inscription. While studying the artifact prior to publication, Rivka Cohen-Amin of t
Source: Bloomberg News
March 13, 2009
China will use “all necessary means” to repatriate the two Qing Dynasty bronze heads that were auctioned last month in Paris, state-run China Daily reported, citing Deputy Culture Minister Ouyang Jian.
Ouyang didn’t specify the measures China would take. Ouyang said the sale has violated international conventions and will affect the development of Christie’s International, which hosted the Paris auction, the English-language daily reported.
The dragon head, from the s
Source: VOV News (Vietnam)
March 13, 2009
Archaeologists from the Hoa Binh Museum and the Southeast Asia Prehisory Centre have found more than 4,000 ancient artifacts of stone and bone at the Xom Trai archaeological site in Tan Lap commune, Lac Son district in northern Hoa Binh province since 2001.
At a press briefing in Lac Son district on March 11, scientists said Xom Trai Cave, recognised as a national archaeological site in 2001, is believed to be a tool workshop as well as a habitat for people of the Hoa Binh civilisa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 13, 2009
Barcelona's famous cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudí is finally ready to host its first service – nearly 130 years after building work began.
Architects labouring to finish the city's most famous landmark, the church of the Sagrada Familia, have said the monumental basilica will hold its first service next summer.
Gaudí began work on his most ambitious project in 1882 but his death in 1926 beneath the wheels of a tram in the Catalan capital meant completion of his op
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 13, 2009
A collection of rare and historic cars is to be auctioned after being hidden for more than 50 years in overgrown wilderness.
It is thought that more than 30 cars, including a rare 1930s Morris Minor convertible, are among the collection discovered in Long Stratton, Norfolk.
They were found outside a rural cottage, whose owner, Jimmy Blanche, an eccentric former mechanic and bodywork repairer, died aged 80 in January.
Among the marques found were Austins, R
Source: AP
March 13, 2009
A Boston real estate investor believes so strongly that his grandfather was a famous Chicago gangster that he legally changed his last name to Capone six months ago.
Christopher Capone on Thursday laid the legal groundwork to get DNA samples that he hopes will prove Al Capone is his grandfather.
Capone, formerly Christopher Knight, has tried without success to obtain DNA samples from known male descendants of the man known as "Scarface."
But the 3
Source: Huffington Post (Blog)
March 13, 2009
[By Ryan Grim, the senior congressional correspondent for the Huffington Post.]
When President Obama ventured to Capitol Hill to meet with House Republicans shortly after Inauguration, he was met by a barrage of questions about the deficit and out of control spending.
Obama's response reached back to the Great Depression. According to several Republicans in the room, Obama raised the specter of 1937, the year President Franklin Roosevelt succumbed to conservative press
Source: AP
February 25, 2009
Former western Kentucky landowners and their families are not entitled to compensation for their property the U.S. government used to build a military camp at the start of World War II, a federal court said in 2-1 ruling Wednesday, ending a 15-year legal battle in the case.
Landowners and their families claim the government promised to sell back farmland used to build Camp Breckinridge near Henderson after the war in the 1940s. Instead, the government sold it and the mineral rights withou
Source: http://www.sbindependent.org
February 21, 2009
Special Collections and University Archives at Stony Brook University recently acquired a letter written by George Washington to his Setauket-based spy ring during the Revolutionary War. Kristen Nyitray, head of Special Collections, placed the winning bid of $48,000 for the letter. The letter had been projected by Christie’s, a Manhattan auction house, to go for a price of $25,000 - $35,000.
The letter, dated Sept. 26, 1780, was sent from the famed American general and president to
Source: St. Petersburg Times -- politifact.com
March 13, 2009
At the halfway point in President Obama's first 100 days, here's the score on our Obameter:He's got 17 Promises Kept, 7 Compromises and 2 Promises Broken.We've rated 2 as
Source: http://www.mgwashington.com
March 5, 2009
Endangered Revolutionary War and War of 1812 battle sites, including locations throughout the South, could get federal preservation grants under a bill passed this week by the House.
“There’s a fundamental misconception that the American Revolution and War of 1812 took place only in the Northeast,” explained the bill’s sponsor, New Jersey Democratic Rep. Rush Holt.
“In truth, the story of the American Revolution and the War of 1812 crisscrosses 33 states, from New York
Source: DCExaminer
March 13, 2009
For many Irish-Americans, John F. Kennedy’s election in 1960 was the defining moment in their history.
“The election of Kennedy was a deeply satisfying accomplishment in which every Irishman could take vicarious pleasure,” wrote historian William V. Shannon.
“It removed any lingering sense of social inferiority and insecurity.”
But the Irish put their mark on Washington from the very beginning.
Source: TheDailyBeast.com
March 13, 2009
The stock market may be in a rally this week, but the recession still stings like no other in generations. In one of the clearest illustrations yet of how badly the bubble has burst, the Federal Reserve released data yesterday documenting an 18 percent loss of wealth in the U.S. last year. The net worth of U.S. households dropped $11 trillion, "a decline in a single year that equals the combined annual output of Germany, Japan and the U.K," the Wall Street Journal reports. The losses r
