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: http://www.thestar.com
February 11, 2009
Controversy over a planned re-enactment of France's historic defeat on the Plains of Abraham is prompting the federal government to consider scrapping the event.
Political commentators have called the event an insult, sovereigntists are expressing outrage, and even some federalist politicians like Premier Jean Charest are promising to stay away.
Now the government says it might back away from plans to re-enact the 250th anniversary of the Quebec City battle that set the
Source: IHT
February 12, 2009
Barack Obama is not the first president to feel a kinship with Abraham Lincoln. Nixon made at least one midnight visit to the Lincoln Memorial for a talk with the great man's statue. Teddy Roosevelt wore a ring that was made from a lock of Lincoln's hair. Franklin Roosevelt hired Robert Sherwood, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his play, "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," as his speechwriter.
But Obama has taken the identification with the 16th president to a new level. He began his
Source: IHT
February 12, 2009
PASSAU, Germany: The stabbing of the police chief here in December provoked a nationwide furor because the victim, Alois Mannichl, was known as a staunch opponent of neo-Nazis, who were immediately blamed for the attack.
What had become an instant symbol of out-of-control right-wing violence quickly turned into an investigation under the microscope. Here in this ancient city, which traces its history back to Roman times and earlier, the case and its aftermath have dredged up a reput
Source: ABC News
February 10, 2009
Mexico City mass grave may hold remains of Aztec fighters who resisted Cortes to the end.
Archaeologists digging in a ruined pyramid in downtown Mexico City said Tuesday they found a mass grave that may hold the skeletal remains of the Aztec holdouts who fought conquistador Hernan Cortes.
The unusual burial holds the carefully arrayed skeletons of at least 49 adult Indians who were buried in the remains of a pyramid razed by the Spaniards during the 1521 conquest of the
Source: Muscatine Journal
February 12, 2009
What’s left of a ring-shaped American Indian village discovered in Oakville has been labeled as a rare site in pristine condition by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Oak Village site, located off County Road H22, was discovered because the Two Rivers Levee was scheduled to be realigned after it was topped in the June 2008 flood. The flooding destroyed portions of the levee.
During a study required by the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental
Source: IHT
February 12, 2009
Divided for 60 years by war and political turbulence, the imperial art collection of China is now the focus of negotiations that could lead to at least a few of the works being exhibited together again in a historic moment.
The director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the repository of the cream of the 1,000-year-old collection, plans to travel on Saturday to Beijing.
Chou Kung-shin will hold talks at the Palace Museum in Beijing. Chou said in an interview that
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 12, 2009
The International Criminal Court will issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir over alleged genocide in Darfur, the first time the tribunal has sought the detention of a sitting head of state in its seven years of operating.
According to a report in the New York Times, citing court lawyers and diplomats, judges in the Hague will formally announce the decision over the next few days.
It said precise charges cited by the judges against Bashir had no
Source: AP
February 12, 2009
In a message aimed at easing the rancor over a bishop's denial of the Holocaust, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called the slaughter of 6 million Jews a crime against God, and the Vatican said he would make his first visit to Israel in May.
The pope met with about 60 American Jewish leaders on Thursday and assured them the Catholic Church was "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism," issuing his strongest condemnation yet of Holocaust denial.
Source: CNN
February 12, 2009
From Capitol Hill to Springfield, Illinois, President Obama and Congress paid tribute Thursday to Abraham Lincoln on the bicentennial of his birth.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield also opened its doors Thursday for a special celebration, featuring original documents including the Gettysburg Address.
Meanwhile, the Library of Congress marks the bicentennial Thursday by opening a special exhibit featuring Lincoln's handwritten speeches
Source: University of Liverpool (UK)
January 28, 2009
A researcher at the University of Liverpool has produced the first modern, comprehensive handbook on Manx Gaelic a language thought to have died out in the mid 19th Century.
As records detailing the grammatical construction of the language are rare, expert Jennifer Kewley Draskau, at the University’s Centre for Manx Studies, used texts dating back to the 15th Century as well as unstructured, informal conversations between fluent native speakers on the Isle on Man. She also studied t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 12, 2009
From a childhood as an avid beetle collector, Darwin went on to become one of the heavyweights of the scientific world.
His masterpiece On The Origin of Species, published in 1859, transformed the way science was understood, with his theories on evolution forming the basis of modern biology.
Darwin's theory, proposing that life evolves by natural selection over millions of years, caused uproar in the worlds of science, religion and art and is viewed as one of the most i
Source: BBC
February 12, 2009
Ford's Theatre in Washington, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, has reopened after a $50m (£34.7m) restoration project.
Almost nothing of the original interior remains, but the building has been painstakingly restored using crime scene pictures taken at the time by the famous Civil War photographer Mathew Brady.
The theatre is as much a shrine as a place of entertainment and has drawn about a million visitors a year.
The refurbish
Source: Deutsche Welle
February 12, 2009
The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded Wednesday, Feb. 11, that the German Foreign Ministry "fully investigate the failure of its representatives" to report the whereabouts in Egypt of wanted Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim "and thereby facilitate his capture."
A statement released by the center's Jerusalem office said findings by The New York Times and German public broadcaster ZDF proved that Heim, known as "Dr. Death," submitted an application to extend
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 12, 2009
The 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth made a radio address on October 13 1940 to the children of the Commonwealth, many of whom had been evacuated.
Buckingham Palace has also released from the Royal Archive film footage of a dashing young Duke of Edinburgh in a cinema advertisement for the Playing Fields Association in 1951. The Duke makes a guest appearance as "the boss" in a short film in which group of children, who have been banned from playing cricket in the streets and
Source: The Cutting Edge
February 11, 2009
A charismatic religious Jewish group is in an international legal battle against the Russian Federation, literally fighting for its spiritual soul. At stake is the right to possess the precious archive and library of the orthodox Jewish group known as Chabad.
The books and papers were plundered and fell from the movement’s control in Europe during the war-torn decades of the last century. The story of how Russia came to control the historic collections is nothing less than a chronicle of
Source: AP
February 10, 2009
A German court ruled Tuesday that a Jewish man from Florida is the rightful owner of a rare poster the Gestapo seized from his father in 1938.
The ruling set the stage for the return of the entire collection of thousands of posters taken by the Nazis, which are now worth at least euro4.5 million ($5.85 million).
The Berlin administrative court ruled that Hans Sachs never gave up ownership of the collection of 12,500 posters taken from his home on the orders of Nazi Prop
Source: AP
February 10, 2009
Neighbors of a proposed Wake County high school say they have more evidence that a slave cemetery is on the land.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday that residents living near the site in Raleigh said they found property records that show it was once owned by a family that operated a plantation.
They said headstones on the land indicate more graves are on the site and plan to present their findings to Wake County school officials this week.
Source: AP
February 10, 2009
In an era when America traveled by train, one of the best jobs an African-American man could land was working as a Pullman porter. It also was one of the worst.
The hours were grueling - 16 hours a day, seven days a week. The pay was poor and the work menial at best. Porters cleaned toilets, made beds and satisfied the whims of passengers who sometimes called them "boy" or worse.
Still, Pullman porters saw the country, met famous people and supported families.
Source: Tehran Times
February 11, 2009
Prior to start of the ceremony, children attired in school dresses presented national anthems of the two brotherly Muslim countries, Iran and Pakistan.
Chief guest, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Labor and Manpower Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah along with ambassador of Iran Mashaallah Shakeri cut the cake to begin the celebrations.
A number of diplomats attended the function.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 11, 2009
The sandals were given to a British army officer in 1931 prior to the Round Table talks in London that were held to discuss Indian self rule.
Gandhi gave his metal rimmed, circular lensed glasses to an army colonel with the words: "These gave me the vision to free India."
His Zenith pocket watch was given to his grand niece, Abha Gandhi, his assistant of six years, in whose arms he died after being shot in 1948.
As Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, comm
