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: NYT
November 15, 2007
In December 1968, Mitt Romney returned home from a Mormon mission in France to find a changed country.
While assassinations, race riots, sit-ins and marches transformed his generation, Mr. Romney spent more than two years cloistered in a strict regimen of prayer and proselytizing.
The missionaries were discouraged from indulging in newspapers, radio, television or phone calls home. They spent twelve hours a day knocking on doors, often ending up defending the Vietnam Wa
Source: Fox News
November 16, 2007
Seven decades was not enough time to separate an 88-year-old Chicago man from his past.
The Justice Department announced Thursday plans to deport Osyp "Joe" Firishchak, who they claim lied about his role in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II to win passage to the United States.
The government claims Firishchak was a member of the Nazi-controlled Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, which helped kill 100,000 people in a Jewish ghetto. It also claims Firishchak gua
Source: Weekly Standard
November 14, 2007
A NEW DISCOVERY in the archives at the United Nations has drastically altered the historical narrative of the exile of Jews from Arab countries.
Conventional wisdom had long held that the exile was the result of isolated incidents of anti-Semitism. But the newly discovered document reveals that it was, in fact, the result of concerted efforts by Arab countries, amounting to what is essentially a standard multinational policy of discrimination.
The document was released
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 16, 2007
One of the Cold War's most baffling mysteries has been solved after an elderly Russian man admitted to slitting the throat of British frogman fifty years ago.
Commander Lionel "Buster" Crabb disappeared while spying on a Soviet warship in 1956.
The vessel was en route to Portsmouth Harbour, bringing Soviet leaders to Britain for talks.
At the time, the Navy feared that Cdr Crabb had drowned in the nearby Stokes Bay.
But several month
Source: BBC
November 16, 2007
The 40th anniversary of a visit by one of the world's best-known civil rights leaders to Tyneside is being marked a special ceremony.
In 1967, Newcastle University became the only UK university to honour Dr Martin Luther King Jnr in his lifetime.
Dr King travelled to Tyneside in November that year to receive an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree.
A memorial lecture will be delivered to mark the historic event, which was captured on film at the time.
Source: AP
November 16, 2007
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.
Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.
"Punish the person, not the whiskey," said an outraged Kyle M
Source: http://www.womensenews.org
November 15, 2007
More than 600 people gathered in New York a few days ago to mark the 30th anniversary of a landmark women's activism event that left a long, unfinished agenda. A 10-point plan for the 2008 election campaigns looks to restart the momentum.
The Freedom on Our Terms conference at Hunter College in New York this past weekend drew about 600 people from 21 states and offered a glimpse at what a difference three decades can make.
Sponsored by more than 60 women's organizations
Source: AP
November 16, 2007
The City of Harrisburg collected $1.35 million last weekend from an auction of more than 750 Western history collectibles. Mayor Stephen R. Reed said in a statement Wednesday that results of the two-day auction in Dallas met expectations. The items were intended for an Old West Museum envisioned by Mr. Reed. But with the city in debt, the City Council scratched the idea. Officials are trying to pay off a $7.2 million loan taken out to fill a budget shortfall last year.
Source: AP
November 11, 2007
DZERZHINSK, Belarus: Among the splinters of a memory shattered by the Holocaust is Alex Kurzem's image of himself as a jolly little boy who liked to climb an apple tree in the family garden, pretending to be a sailor scanning the horizon from the crow's nest.
Then, at about age 6 or 8, a carefree childhood ends and life becomes a story of horror and deliverance. ...
Now gray-haired and in his 70s (he is still unsure of his age), he tells his story in a book, "The M
Source: AP
November 14, 2007
Poland's parliament on Wednesday established an annual day of remembrance for more than 14,000 Polish officers who were captured at the start of World War II and killed by Soviet secret police.
Members of the 460-member lower house, or Sejm, agreed to make April 13 an annual "Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Katyn Crime," one of the most painful episodes in Poland's history.
Lawmakers stood and applauded, approving the resolution by acclamation.
Source: AP
November 14, 2007
Austria's Cabinet on Wednesday backed plans for a Vienna institute to house the archives of late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
But ministers disappointed organizers with few details on funding for the proposed Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, which would house about 8,000 original files left by Wiesenthal.
Wiesenthal, who died in September 2005 at age 96 in his Vienna home, helped find hundreds of war criminals, including one-time SS leader Adolf Eichm
Source: AP
November 15, 2007
Hiding from the Nazis in a cramped Amsterdam apartment, Anne Frank often gazed at a majestic chestnut tree visible through an attic skylight — her only window to the outside world — and dreamed of freedom.
Now a group of tree conservationists and local activists are fighting a last-ditch effort to prevent the badly diseased tree from being cut down, saying it is a living link to the memory of the teenage diarist, who died in a concentration camp aged 15.
"It's a mo
Source: BBC
November 15, 2007
For the first time in more than 60 years a Colossus computer is cracking codes at Bletchley Park.
The machine is being put through its paces to mark the end of a project to rebuild the pioneering computer.
It is being used to crack messages enciphered using the same system employed by the German high command during World War II.
The Colossus is pitted against modern PC technology which will also try to read the scrambled messages.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 15, 2007
Whatever you do, don't tell Walter Roberts you admire his mock Tudor house.
The former architect has spent nearly four years fulfilling his lifelong dream by painstakingly designing and hand crafting the only faithful recreation of a Tudor home in Britain.
"Even my wife thinks I am slightly mad but I love the Tudor period of our history and can't think of anything better than living like a Tudor gentleman," said the 69-year-old, who started out as a carpenter.
Source: The Hill
November 14, 2007
The House on Tuesday approved renaming the Capitol Visitor Center’s (CVC) main hall Emancipation Hall.
Supporters said the name would memorialize the country’s struggle against slavery and honor slaves who helped build the Capitol.
“It is really the right thing to do and the right time in history,” said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), the bill's sponsor. “It really speaks to freedom. When slaves were emancipated it was a defining moment in our history. It also honors slaves
Source: AFP
November 14, 2007
A SIGNED copy of Adolf Hitler's book and a rare Nazi bravery award are expected to fetch thousands of dollars at a charity auction in Brisbane this weekend.
The 1935 copy of Mein Kampf (My Struggle), personally signed by Hitler, is expected to fetch more than $2500 at the Brisbane Legacy Military Memorabilia Auction on Sunday.
However, the auction's showpiece is the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves and Swords, one of Nazi Germany's highest military honours.
Source: Daily Mail
November 14, 2007
A globe that once belonged to Adolf Hitler has sold at auction in San Francisco for £50,000 - more than five times its estimate.
An American soldier found the globe among the ruins of Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" in the Bavarian Alps in May 1945.
John Barsamian took it home and kept it for more than 60 years - along with all the military paperwork that allowed him to take the globe to the U.S.
Source: AP
November 14, 2007
Sixty-five years after it ran out of gas and crash-landed on a beach in Wales, an American P-38 fighter plane has emerged from the surf and sand where it lay buried — a World War II relic long forgotten by the U.S. government and unknown to the British public.
Source: http://www.topnews.in
November 13, 2007
Athens | A wrestling school said to have been a part of Greek philosopher Aristotle's famous Lyceum, has fallen victim to the ravages of time and official apathy.
Unearthed in 1996, the wrestling school and other institutions in the Lyceum was a significant centre of study and research in diverse fields.
Opened in 335 BC, the school promoted the development of Western science and philosophy and was named for its sanctuary to Apollo Lykeios. Alongside these intellectual
Source: http://www.topnews.in
November 14, 2007
Archaeologists have found ruins of a late-Roman-era fortress during an excavation in Svalenik village, nowadays Northern Bulgaria.
The ruin, which was a part of the defence system of the Romans, had been raised in the IV Century as a watch fortification, controlling the road in the River Valley of Malki Lom River.
