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
June 7, 2010
A Scot who is believed to be the last survivor of the "Great Escape" from a German prisoner of war camp has died, at the age of 97.
Jack Harrison took part in the famous breakout from Stalag Luft III in 1944, an event later immortalised on film.
He missed his chance to flee the camp when the German guards discovered the escape plot.
Of those who broke out of the camp only three reached safety and of the 73 recaptured, 50 were shot.
Source: BBC
June 7, 2010
A row has broken out over claims by Polish investigators that credit cards were stolen from one of the passengers killed when President Lech Kaczynski's plane crashed in Russia in April.
About 6,000 Polish zloty (£2,000) was withdrawn on the cards, investigators say.
Polish officials say several Russian policemen or soldiers have been arrested.
But Russia has denied that both the theft and the arrests took place.
On Monday Monika Lewandowsk
Source: BBC
June 4, 2010
A diary which publishers claim is that of the man many blame for the Tiananmen massacre is to be published in Hong Kong.
It gives details on events immediately before and after the killing of workers and students in Beijing in June 1989.
Publishers say the author is Li Peng, the man who announced martial law in Beijing shortly before troops moved in.
In the diary Mr Li declared that he was willing to die to stop the pro-democracy protests.
T
Source: BBC
June 7, 2010
Scientists in Argentina have begun DNA tests on the adopted heirs to a media empire to see who their natural parents are.
A judge ordered the tests to see if Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera were taken from people killed during military rule in the 1970s and 80s.
Human rights groups say the children were then given up for adoption.
The siblings say their privacy is being violated and there is no evidence against their adoptive mother.
Source: Fox News
June 7, 2010
President Obama's been called a lot of things, but Rep. Charles Rangel's dig at the president might just tread new ground.
The New York Democrat likened Obama to former Vice President Dick Cheney in an interview over the weekend with The New York Daily News. He criticized Obama for staying in the Iraq war and for not leveling with the American people that the desire for oil, in his opinion, was driving the U.S. presence there.
Rangel, who is facing a congressional eth
Source: Fox News
June 7, 2010
A British politician sparked controversy Monday when he made a quip about going back in time to assassinate the former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the Guardian reported.
John McDonnell, a staunch left-winger and contender for the Labour party leadership race, later insisted the remark was a joke.
The Member of Parliament made the comment as he spoke to trade unionists in Southport in northwest England.
McDonnell described how he had clashed with That
Source: AP
June 7, 2010
Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of rare, 35-century-old religious artifacts once used in pagan rituals, Israeli officials said Monday.
The items were found during an excavation ordered by the Israel Antiquities Authority along the route of a new gas line in the country's north. Excavating a rock hollow, archeologists found more than 100 intact artifacts, including a vessel for burning incense and the sculpted face of a woman that was part of a cup used in a pagan religious cer
Source: CNN
June 7, 2010
During the Great Depression, the United States government sent Danish-born photographer Peter Sekaer on a mission through America's back roads to chronicle the lives of ordinary Americans as they struggled through one of the most challenging periods in U.S. history.
Now, for the first time, Sekaer's telling odyssey through America is available to the public after years in obscurity. The 87 vintage gelatin silver prints are in an Atlanta High Museum exhibit called "Signs of Life
Source: CNN
June 7, 2010
Protesters gathered in lower Manhattan mid-day Sunday to demonstrate against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.
Geller said the NYPD and security at the rally told her about 5,000 demonstrators were there. But NYPD spokesman Sgt. Kevin Hayes said the police department's policy is to not provide crowd estimates and that he could not confirm Geller's number.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 5, 2010
More than a million Second World War documents are to be made available to the public for the first time, it was announced today.
Files from Bletchley Park, the UK's wartime code-breaking headquarters, are to be digitised and put online in a large-scale project expected to take up to five years to complete.
Undercover mathematicians and military operatives produced high-level intelligence at the Milton Keynes base during the war, providing crucial assistance to the All
Source: Preservation Magazine
June 2, 2010
It was July 12, 1864, and Confederate troops were advancing on Washington, D.C. "Get down, you fool!" Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. reportedly yelled as bullets whizzed by. President Lincoln watched from D.C.'s Fort Stevens, and Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's soldiers were taking aim.
Lincoln remained safe (for the time being), but the battle at Fort Stevens was the closest the Confederate Army ever came to conquering the city. It was also one of only two times a
Source: Telegraph (UK
June 4, 2010
Life in Medieval Britain may not have been comfortable but its inhabitants had a dedication to debt-free living that we could learn from today, a think-tank has claimed.
Health care and a terrifyingly low life expectancy were some of the downsides to 12th century life, but medieval Britons could at least claim to have a "healthy scepticism about money."
The harshness of life in the 1100s was mitigated by endless holidays and parties and a healthy attitude towa
Source: AP
June 3, 2010
The Hawaii Tourism Authority has launched the new Heritage Sites of Hawaii program to promote some of the state's special places.
HTA said Wednesday that 20 "must see" historical, cultural and environmental places of interest will be marked with a Heritage Site of Hawaii sign, acknowledging their significance to the islands....
Source: LA Times
June 2, 2010
November 25, 1963. As I slowly climbed the familiar, winding steps to the elevated pulpit in the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, D.C., I felt as numb and emotionally exhausted as every other American struggling to make sense of the stunningly brutal murder of the 43rd president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
My own grieving, however, would have to wait. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy had asked that I deliver the eulogy for her husband -- and my friend. Having
Source: CHE
June 7, 2010
The Cambridge University Library plans to digitize some of the most significant rare books and manuscripts in its vast collection thanks to a gift of more than $2.1-million from a British philanthropist.
The institution said it wants to become a "digital library to the world" by allowing students and scholars Internet access to valuable items in its seven-million-volume collection....
Source: CNN
July 6, 2010
Longtime White House reporter Helen Thomas has retired effective immediately, Hearst Corporation said Monday.
The media conglomerate had employed Thomas, age 89, as a syndicated columnist for its newspaper chain.
Thomas, who was considered the dean of the White House press corps, had come under fire since late last week when a YouTube video surfaced showing her saying that Israel should “get the hell out of Palestine,” and that the Jewish people should go home to “Polan
Source: Irish Times
June 5, 2010
...The stars and stripes are a ubiquitous symbol in American life, but the flag-waving reaches its paroxysm on Memorial Day, May 31st, which honours those killed in war, and on July 4th....
“In most European countries,” notes Prof Philip Golub of the University of Paris, “extreme, overt displays of nationalism tend to be confined to the far right.”
Dr Golub, who is American, has just published Power, Profit Prestige; A History of American Imperial Expansion, which exami
Source: AP
July 6, 2010
The Danish cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Muhammad says he is quitting because he is getting old.
Kurt Westergaard says "one has to stop at some point." He says he has been working since the age of 23, first as a teacher and then as an artist. He turns 75 on July 13.
Westergaard says he hopes his retirement might help "lower the terror threat" against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper where he has been working for the past 27 years.
Source: CNN
June 7, 2010
David Weiss sat down on his therapist's couch on Thursday troubled by moments of emptiness that made him ask himself, "Is this it?" After talking it through with her, however, he realized that such experiences could be peaceful, and even welcome, if he viewed them with a different mind-set.
Weiss has been in psychoanalysis for three years, but his experience has many distinctions from the theories that the field's founder, Sigmund Freud, outlined in the early 1900s. No tal
Source: BBC News
June 6, 2010
At the end of each month, BBC World News business presenter Jamie Robertson looks at the world's major stock markets. This month he considers the eurozone's struggle with low growth.
Quite a month: Greece, and the rest of the eurozone, gets a $1tn rescue package, the euro hits four-year lows, BP has a third of its market value wiped out by the worst oil spill in US history, and the world's biggest stock markets lose all their gains since the beginning of the year.
There
