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
Feb 3, 2010
John Demjanjuk's trial in Germany was postponed Wednesday after doctors reported that the 89-year-old defendant was experiencing medical problems.
Presiding Judge Ralph Alt said the doctors at the prison hospital where Demjanjuk is being held reported he was suffering from dangerously low hemoglobin levels and needed treatment.
However, doctors thought the proceedings would be able to resume Thursday as scheduled, Alt said.
Source: AP
Feb 3, 2010
An Iraqi appeals court Wednesday suspended a ban imposed on hundreds of candidates for suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing them to run in next month's election, an official said.
The move could temporarily defuse a major source of tension ahead of key March elections, but leaves the ultimate issue of a political blacklist unresolved.
The list — which has more than 450 names — was widely criticized by Sunni political leaders who claimed it was being used
Source: CNN
Feb 3, 2010
Newburgh, New York, was a main military headquarters for George Washington during the American Revolution. More recently, authorities say, it was the birthplace of a foiled terrorist plot.
If Mayor Nick Valentine gets his way, the town of 30,000 will host the terror trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices.
About 60 miles up the Hudson River from New York City, Newburgh struggles with poverty, unemployment and crime. In 2004,
Source: Charlotte Observer
Feb 3, 2010
BOSTIC, N.C. -- Note to aspiring saints and office-holders: You'll know you've achieved "legendary" status when whispered tales are attached to your life story with question marks. The higher you rise, the more there are.
Consider Abraham Lincoln. There are tales about him in Washington, where the 16th president saved the Union and was assassinated. Likewise in Springfield, Ill., the closest to a normal "home" the self-made Lincoln had.
Likewise in t
Source: Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA)
Feb 3, 2010
An Orange County Circuit Court judge will hear preliminary arguments today from national groups and local residents who oppose the planned 240,000-square-foot commercial development featuring a new Walmart on the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange....
The proposal is for a 140,000-square-foot Walmart and an additional 100,000-square-feet for commercial development. The site proposals are adjacent to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, established by Congress in
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
Feb 2, 2010
[For a full report of individual agencies and departments, go to the historycoalition.org.
On February 1, President Obama asked Congress for $161.3 million to fund the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for FY 2011, a $6.2 million cut from the FY 10 appropriated level of $167.5 million.
The President’s request includes $80,250,000 to enable the Endowment to fund grants in the study, preservation, public programming, an
Source: AP
Feb 2, 2010
Candidates for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize include a Russian human rights group, a Chinese dissident and an inanimate object: the Internet, people who made the nominations said Tuesday....
Erna Solberg, the head of Norway's Conservative Party, put forth Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and Memorial, a prominent rights group she works with.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, president of the PEN American Center and a Princeton philosophy professor, said in a statemen
Source: CNS News
Feb 2, 2010
Pope Pius XII wanted to speak out against Nazi atrocities, but was advised not to for fear of worsening the wartime situation, said the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
"If the pope was silent, it was not out of fright or self-interest, but concern for worsening the situation of those oppressed" by the Nazi regime, it said.
With continuing criticism of Pope Pius' wartime activities, especially given the advancement of his sainthood cause, the newspaper
Source: CNN.com
Feb 2, 2010
...[O]pposition to smoking has been around almost as long as smoking itself, and some of the historical measures to curb lighting up might surprise you.
1. The Pope cracks down on smoke
Pope Urban VII's papacy began on September 15, 1590. It ended with his death from malaria less than two weeks later.
Although he didn't spend much time as the head of the Catholic Church, Urban VII was around long enough to make his feelings on tobacco known. He banned all t
Source: Missoulian
Feb 2, 2010
After nearly 40 years serving as silent sentinel at the Montana National Guard Armory on Reserve Street in Missoula, the World War II vintage M7 howitzer is finally able to stand down.
But moving the 26-ton artillery piece to its new home at Fort Missoula was no easy task.
Scott Wolff, owner of Iron Horse Towing and Repair in Missoula, tried to move the tank with a 50-ton tow truck, but couldn't muster the needed traction to budge the monster. Plan B was to bring in ano
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 2, 2010
Ten Ugandans are suing the British government for £300 billion in damages for crimes committed by colonial officers in the late 1800s.
The group are seeking damages for crimes committed during the 1893-1899 war in the northwestern Bunyoro region.
Their lawyer Crispus Ayena Odongo said: "Before this war the population of Bunyoro was stated to be 2.5 million. But by the end of the war there were only 150,000 Bunyoro that could be accounted for.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Feb 2, 2010
Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler was intrigued by the centuries-old document at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: "We The People. . . ."
They had been scribbled upside down by one of the Constitution's framers, James Wilson, in the summer of 1787. The cursive continued, then abruptly stopped, as if pages were missing.
Source: NYT
Feb 2, 2010
The building bears little resemblance to the extravagantly sumptuous “wonder theater” that wowed audiences in 1929.
The rusting, dirt-caked marquee that hangs outside the Loew’s Kings Theater over a bustling commercial stretch of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn last promoted a film in 1977. Years of neglect have left the interior rotted by time, stripped by thieves and desecrated by vandals and pigeons.
New York City, which seized the building decades ago in lieu of back ta
Source: NYT
Feb 2, 2010
When President Obama signed a law on Monday to clear the way for the largest privately held archive of papers relating to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be donated to Roosevelt’s presidential library, it was to be the culmination of a five-year effort to finally make the documents available to the public....
The documents, which belonged to Roosevelt’s last personal secretary, Grace Tully, have been in legal limbo for years because of an ownership dispute involving the National
Source: Coventry Telegraph (UK)
Feb 2, 2010
I’m standing in the middle of a derelict wasteland that was once the place where hundreds of Coventry folk flocked to work.
Armed with just a torch I jump over fences, dodge barbed wire and wade through mud just to observe a part of the city’s heritage that will soon be levelled by developers.
I’m joined by a young man, probably in his early 20s, who I know very little about.
There’s a reason for that. This man – known to some by his online name “Dweeb” – i
Source: Science Daily
Feb 2, 2010
Researchers excavating an ancient Roman cemetery made a surprising discovery when they extracted ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one of the skeletons buried at the site: the 2,000-year-old bones revealed a maternal East Asian ancestry.
The results will be presented at the Roman Archeology Conference at Oxford, England, in March, and published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
According to Tracy Prowse, assistant professor of Anthropology, and the lead author o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 2, 2010
Tony Blair 'lied' to his Cabinet and misled Parliament over the war in Iraq, Clare Short, the former international development secretary has said.
Giving evidence before the Chilcot Committee into the war, she repeatedly accused the former prime minister of personally “misleading” and “conning” her, and of being “deceitful” with Cabinet, Parliament, and the public.
Miss Short claimed that Mr Blair broke the ministerial code by misleading Parliament, and accused Lord G
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 2, 2010
A Picasso masterpiece unseen in public for 43 years fetched more than twice its expected price at auction when it sold for £8.1 million.
Tete de Femme (Jacqueline), a 1963 portrait of the artist's second wife, had not been seen in public since 1967 and was expected to fetch £3 million to £4 million, Christie's said.
The portrait had never been offered at auction and had remained in the same collection since 1981.
It was the the most talked-about lot of a
Source: CNN
Feb 2, 2010
Several senators announced legislation Tuesday that would cut off funding for the federal trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accused accomplices, saying the five should be tried in a military court.
The bill would withhold funding from the Department of Justice to prosecute the five in civilian court, a plan that has recently been criticized.
President Obama believes the trial should take place in a criminal court instead of before a milita
Source: CNN
Feb 2, 2010
Mir Hossein Moussavi, the Iranian opposition leader and symbol of anti-government fervor, lashed out against Iran's Islamic Republic Tuesday, saying remnants of the "tyranny" and "dictatorship" that prevailed under the toppled Shah of Iran's regime persist today.
The regime is marking the anniversary of the shah's overthrow with a series of events that began this week and culminate on February 11. Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, another Iranian opposition leader, hav
