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: Spiegel Online
Apr 14, 2010
A woman born in the former East Germany claims she was discriminated against on the basis of her ethnic identity when a company wrote "Ossi" on her rejected application. A labor court in Stuttgart will rule on this thorny issue of German identity on Thursday.
Twenty years may have passed since German reunification, but a certain amount of prejudice and suspicion persists between those who lived on either side of the Berlin Wall. But does being an eastern or western German
Source: AP
Apr 14, 2010
The head of the World Bank says it is time to stop using the term "Third World" to refer to developing countries and recognize they are an essential part of a new, fast evolving international economy.
Robert Zoellick said the global economic crisis of 2009 showed that the categorizations of First and Third Worlds, donor and supplicant, leader and led, no longer fit.
He said Wednesday that big international issues cannot be solved without the involvement of dev
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 14, 2010
A doctor who is accused of organising the mass murder of at least 1,200 tops an updated list of the ten most wanted war criminal suspects wanted by an international Nazi hunting group.
"Operation Last Chance" was launched eight years ago by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the international Jewish rights group, to put pressure on governments to bring remaining suspected Nazi war criminals to justice before they die.
As the world marked the annual Holocaust memoria
Source: CNN
Apr 14, 2010
A Roman-era mummy was recently unearthed in a Bahariya Oasis cemetery, about 190 miles southwest of Cairo.
The 3-foot-tall female mummy was discovered by Egyptian archaeologists. The figure was found covered with plaster decorated to resemble Roman dress and jewelry, said Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities in a press release Monday.
In addition to the female mummy, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said archaeologists found clay and glass vessels, coins, anthropoi
Source: BBC
Apr 13, 2010
With a nod towards the public gallery, Radovan Karadzic looked distinctly businesslike as he entered courtroom one in The Hague.
His grey and white hair was longer than when he appeared here last year. It was more as he wore it during the Bosnian War in the early 1990s.
Mr Karadzic exchanged a few smiles with one of the security guards deployed to stand over him.
While the judges readied themselves for the appearance of the first prosecution witness, the
Source: USA Today
Apr 13, 2010
Before he died at Pearl Harbor less than a month after turning 18, Gerald Lehman sent letters home to his mother in Michigan — letters that she treasured and saved.
Unknowingly, Lehman was also sending home something that wouldn't be useful until decades later — his own DNA.
DNA lifted from the envelopes he licked has helped the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command positively identify Lehman's remains more than 68 years after he was killed on Dec. 7, 1941.
Leh
Source: AP
Apr 13, 2010
A western Pennsylvania historic site will reopen for tours starting this week after being shuttered due to cuts in the state budget.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the volunteer nonprofit group Friends of Old Economy Village completed a revised licensing agreement that will allow the volunteers to operate tours at Old Economy Village in Ambridge. The site has been closed for a few months....
Source: Chicago Breaking News Center
Apr 13, 2010
In a tale celebrating the romance of movies, a contractor cleaning out an old New Hampshire barn destined for demolition found seven reels of nitrate film inside, including the only known copy of a 1913 silent film about Abraham Lincoln.
"When Lincoln Paid," a 30-minute film about the mother of a dead Union solider asking Lincoln to pardon a Confederate soldier whom she had initially turned in, stars the brother of John Ford, director of "The Grapes of Wrath," ''
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 13, 2010
A sheet from the flight plan of the Apollo 11 Moon landing signed by astronaut Neil Armstrong and inscribed with the words "One small step for a man... one giant leap for mankind" sold for $152,000 (£99,000) at auction Tuesday.
The emergency check list from Apollo 13 and a flight emblem worn by Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins which sold for $85,400
The page, sold at Bonhams auction house, is inscribed with the words Armstrong says he uttered after he becam
Source: CNN
Apr 13, 2010
Newt Gingrich called President Obama "the most radical president in American history" at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference last week.
The leader of the 1994 Republican Revolution is a smart man and a historian, so he must know better. But he's also exploring a run for president, an action that frequently suspends good judgment in pursuit of sound bites. Perspective is the first thing abandoned in hyper-partisan attacks.
So here is a look at five pr
Source: LA Times
Apr 13, 2010
Colorado researchers have discovered and partially mapped a major urban center once occupied by the Purépecha of Mexico, a little-known people who fought the Aztecs to a standstill and who controlled much of western Mexico until diseases brought by the Spanish decimated them.
The "proto-urban center," which researchers have not yet named, sat on volcanic rock on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro in the central Mexican state of Michoacan, now a tourist destination. It supported
Source: BBC
Apr 13, 2010
A former Bosnian president facing extradition over war crime allegations has accused the British government of volunteering to "rewrite history".
Speaking outside an extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Ejup Ganic said he was "not happy" with his treatment by the UK authorities.
Mr Ganic was detained at Heathrow on 1 March at the request of Serbia.
A Home Office spokeswoman said the "legal process" was valid
Source: Fox News
Apr 13, 2010
A school superintendent in New Jersey says a "misunderstanding" led an elementary school teacher to mandate that all students -- including young boys -- dress as women in a now-canceled fashion show to honor Women's History Month.
Maple Shade Township School Superintendent Michael Livengood said the show, which had been scheduled for Friday at Maude Wilkins Elementary School, has been canceled.
In a 16-page packet sent home with students, teacher Tonya Uibel
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Apr 13, 2010
The Vatican has forgiven The Beatles on the 40th anniversary of their break-up - as sex scandals continue to rock the Catholic Church.
Absolving the British group of their excesses involving 'drugs and blasphemy', the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano hailed them as a 'precious jewel'.
In a front-page article, it said: 'It's true they took drugs, lived life to excess because of their success, even said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages,
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Apr 13, 2010
An independent film is bringing to light a well-kept secret: Soviet Dictator Josef Stalin's only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, has been living incognito in the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
It is unclear whether the 84-year-old who fiercely guards her privacy still lives here today, but Lana Peters has lived at several addresses in southern Wisconsin in the last 20 years.
And in the summer of 2007, a determined film maker tracked her down at an apartment at a retirement ho
Source: BBC Magazine
Apr 13, 2010
Five years ago Downfall's release saw the German film acclaimed for its portrayal of Hitler's last days. But since then it has become almost as famous for a wave of internet parodies of its climactic scene.
Hitler is angry.
Very angry indeed. Angry enough to order all but his most senior generals out of the room so he can vent his rage.
He is angry because Cristiano Ronaldo has been sold to Real Madrid. Or because the ending of Watchmen has been changed. Or
Source: BBC News
Apr 13, 2010
John Demjanjuk, accused of helping to murder nearly 28,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp, has told a German court he is "one of Hitler's victims".
Mr Demjanjuk was "forcibly deported to Germany" and used as "slave labour" he said in a statement read out in court.
The family of the Ukrainian-born former US carworker says he is in poor health and is unlikely to survive the trial.
Mr Demjanjuk, who is 89, denies being a camp guard at
Source: BBC News
Apr 13, 2010
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is facing the first prosecution witnesses as his trial for genocide resumes at The Hague.
The first witness is Ahmet Zulic, who was a prisoner in a Serb detention camp in north-western Bosnia.
Mr Karadzic, who has been conducting his own defence, is expected to cross-examine him.
Mr Karadzic denies 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
All charges relate to the conflict in Bos
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 13, 2010
No distress signal was sent from the Titanic for three quarters of an hour after it struck ice, a new book claimed.
Time was spent assessing the damage from the iceberg when nearby ships could have been steaming to the rescue, research from author Tim Maltin said.
His work - 101 Things You Thought You Knew About The Titanic... But Didn't - is published on Thursday and claims no alert was sent from the ailing vessel for 47 minutes because the ships' officers wanted to ke
Source: NYT
Apr 13, 2010
Nearly seven hours of previously unreleased interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy, recorded just months after the death of President John F. Kennedy and intended for deposit in a future presidential library, will be released as a book, the publisher Hyperion said on Tuesday. The original interviews with Mrs. Kennedy were conducted in the spring of 1964 with the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. as part of an oral history project meant to preserve memories of Kennedy and his administration. In the
