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: AP
April 22, 2011
Workers began pulling down the largest statue of Vladimir Lenin in ex-Soviet Central Asia from its place of honor on Friday, earning outrage from die-hard communists celebrating the Russian revolutionary's 141st birthday.
A significant but waning number of people in former Soviet countries remain faithful to the iconic founder of the Soviet state even twenty years after the collapse of Communism.
Source: AP
April 22, 2011
A commemoration committee is asking thousands of Amsterdam homeowners to mark their houses if a former Jewish resident was arrested or deported to Nazi death camps during World War II.
The May 4-5 Committee, named for the date of the Netherlands' liberation from German occupation in 1945, made posters available Friday for display in windows of the former Jewish homes.
Residents can look on the committee's website to see
Source: 4-22-11
AP
Former chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei suggests in a new memoir that Bush administration officials should face international criminal investigation for the "shame of a needless war" in Iraq.
Freer to speak now than he was as an international civil servant, the Nobel-winning Egyptian accuses U.S. leaders of "grotesque distortion" in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, when then-President George W.
Source: NBC
April 21, 2011
Letters written by Jacqueline Bouvier to a high school sweetheart reveal that the future first lady always had a biting sense of humor. (video)
Source: Military Times (UK)
April 19, 2011
When it was announced in the March issue of Military Times that the decommissioned light-cruiser HMS Caroline was going to be scrapped and turned into razorblades, there was an understandable call to arms. Read Dominic Tweedle’s original article here
Source: WaPo
April 19, 2011
So you want to open sealed envelopes without getting caught?Here’s the secret, according to one of the six oldest classified documents in possession of the Central Intelligence Agency:“Mix 5 drams copper acetol arsenate. 3 ounces acetone and add 1 pint amyl alcohol (fusil-oil). Heat in water bath — steam rising will dissolve the sealing material of its mucilage, wax or oil.”But there’s a warning for the intrepid spy: “Do not inhale fumes.”
Source: NYT
April 19, 2011
Seven years after opening its National Museum of the American Indian, and four years before the scheduled unveiling of its museum of African-American history, the Smithsonian Institution is being urged to create another ethnic museum on the National Mall, this one to recognize the history and contributions of Latino Americans.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 19, 2011
The German government tried to influence the Adolf Eichmann trial, fearful that his testimony would implicate former Nazis who held high office in post war Germany, new research has disclosed.Konrad Adenauer, Germany's chancellor at the time of the 1961 trial, personally dispatched one secret agent to Israel as part of a sensitive and classified operation to influence Eichmann's Jerusalem trial and suppress any embarrassment for the West German state.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 17, 2011
Professor Colin Humphreys, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, has now concluded that the final meal took place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion, a day earlier than previously accepted.He believes his findings, which are likely to cause ripples among millions of Christians, could present a case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter.They also present a solution to apparent contradictions in the Gospels and logistical issues relating to the hours before the crucifixion.
Source: Reuters
April 16, 2011
HOPE, Arkansas (Reuters) – Former President Bill Clinton returned to his childhood home on Saturday to celebrate its dedication as a national historical site.Clinton was born in Hope's Julia Chester Hospital in 1946 and lived the first four years of his life in the two-story wood frame house with his grandparents, who owned the house, and his mother, the late Virginia Kelley. His father, William Blythe, died before Clinton was born.
Source: AP
April 18, 2011
SANDS POINT, N.Y. – A 25-room Long Island mansion that some believe inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrayal of lavish lifestyles in his Jazz Age classic "The Great Gatsby" is being razed, the latest in a long cadence of estates disappearing from what's known as the Gold Coast.Known as "Land's End" and sitting on a 13-acre lot on Long Island Sound, the 24,000-square foot house is being torn down to accommodate five $10 million custom homes.
Source: AP
April 14, 2011
ROME – Every morning during the 40 days of Lent, a band of worshippers walk literally in the footsteps of early, persecuted Christians, visiting some of the world's oldest churches in preparation for the most solemn week on the church calendar.On Thursday as the sun rose over the cupolas and rooftops of Rome, fresh-faced American seminarians made their pilgrimage over the Tiber river and through the alleyways of Rome's historic center to revive this ancient tradition that today draws ambassadors, college kids and ordinary folk alike.
Source: AP
April 17, 2011
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The gravesite of a Union Army major general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the Massachusetts Turnpike.A piece of the coat worn by President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated rests quietly in a library attic in a Boston suburb. It's shown upon request, a rare occurrence.A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and workers who pass by each day.
Source: Pittsburg Morning Sun
19 April 2011
by Nikki Patrick
PITTSBURG —A courageous German spoke out against the Nazis and, after Hitler came into power, kept a 10-volume diary recording Nazi atrocities that he witnessed and heard about. Decades later, Dr. Robert Scott Kellner, American-born grandson of Friedrich Kellner, is waging a campaign to take his grandfather’s message to the world. He spoke Monday at Pittsburg State University. “On every page of that diary my grandfather said something nasty about the Nazis that would have automatically gotten him shot,” Kellner said.
Source: NYT
April 18, 2011
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s longtime chief antiquities official, has been criticized in recent months for many things: his closeness to former President Hosni Mubarak, some inconsistent reports on the safety of archaeological sites during the uprising and for his role in a dispute over an Egyptian museum bookstore, for which he now possibly faces jail time.
Source: AP
April 17, 2011
by Russell Contreras
The gravesite of a Union Army major general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the Massachusetts Turnpike.A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and workers who pass by each day.
Source: Guardian(UK)
April 18, 2011
by Martin Wainwright
Gruesome discoveries in Peak District dig challenge accepted wisdom about 'peaceful' life in ancient Britain.Fond hopes that ancient Britain enjoyed a golden age of peace before Roman and other invasions have been shaken by a gruesome discovery in a Derbyshire hill fort's defensive ditch.For the first time in the UK, archaeologists have found carelessly-buried iron age skeletons which suggest a selective massacre of women and children.
Source: AP
April 18, 2011
A 2,500-year-old Babylonian artifact sometimes described as the world's first human rights charter was returning to the British Museum Monday after a seven-month loan to Iran.Hundreds of thousands of people viewed the Cyrus Cylinder while it was on display at Iran's National Museum.The cylinder caused a spat between the two nations when Iran's government threatened to cut ties with the British Museum if it did not lend the object. A four-month loan was eventually agreed, and extended because the exhibition was so popular....
Source: Discovery News
April 18, 2011
by Rossella Lorenzi
Egypt’s antiquity minister Zahi Hawass will not serve any jail time and will remain in his position, according to the leading Egyptologist’s blog.The Egyptian court sentenced Hawass to a year in jail and ordered him removed from his job.
Source: BBC
April 17, 2011
by Christine Finn
Tutankhamun's trumpet was one of the rare artefacts stolen from the Cairo Museum during the recent uprising. The 3,000-year-old instrument is rarely played, but a 1939 BBC radio recording captured its haunting sound.Among the "wonderful things" Howard Carter described as he peered by candlelight into the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 were two trumpets, one silver and one bronze.
