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: AFP
Jan 26, 2010
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu honoured Holocaust victims at a war memorial in the Polish capital, on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp's liberation.
The Israeli leader bowed his head in front of the imposing grey marble "Umschlagplatz" memorial in the centre of Warsaw, laying a wreath draped in a banner in the blue and white colours of the Israeli flag.
It was from the infamous "Umschlagplatz" site that in 1942 W
Source: BBC
Jan 26, 2010
For 30 years Stephen De Mowbray has maintained a self-imposed silence on a career that once took him to the heart of one of British intelligence's most controversial episodes.
In 1979 he quit his job with the Secret Service because he believed officials had failed to take seriously the claim that British intelligence had been further penetrated by its enemy - the Soviet Union's KGB.
A number of spies had been discovered in the 1960s but De Mowbray believed there were m
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 26, 2010
A 90-year-old Second World War veteran grabbed a woman carer around the neck after being asked to leave a nursing home room while his wife of 63 years was being changed, a court heard.
Dennis Woodward refused to step outside the room while three assistants tended to his 88-year-old Dutch born wife Hiltje, it was alleged.
After protesting he stood up and grabbed one of the carers, Sandra Allen, so tightly around the neck that she found it hard to breath, Bournemouth ma
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 26, 2010
Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie is threatening legal action against the makers of a biographical film about her starring Jennifer Hudson.
The film is likely to detail the fraud, kidnapping and murder controversies that have surrounded the anti-apartheid leader's former wife.
Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, as she has been known since her divorce from Mr Mandela in 1996, is one of South Africa's most controversial and divisive figures.She is revered
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 26, 2010
Tony Blair and his ministers went to war in Iraq despite repeated warnings from senior Government advisers that they had “no leg to stand on” legally.
During evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry into the war against Saddam, it emerged that Foreign Office lawyers were “unanimous” in their view that going to war without a United Nations mandate would be a “crime of aggression” likely to damage Britain’s standing in the world.
Sir Michael Wood, chief legal adviser at the Fore
Source: Fox News
Jan 26, 2010
A bipartisan group of six senators urged Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday to pull the plug on his decision to send suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks to federal court, marking the second day in a row that senators from both sides of the aisle have accused the Obama administration of treating terror suspects like common criminals.
The senators on Tuesday urged the Department of Justice to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in military commissions
Source: AP
Jan 26, 2010
Pope John Paul II decided to forgive his would-be assassin while he was in the ambulance on his way to the hospital moments after being shot in St. Peter's Square, according to a new book by the Polish prelate spearheading his sainthood case.
The revelation is contained in one of the many previously unpublished speeches and memos drafted by John Paul that are contained in the book, including two documents in which he outlined the criteria for which he would resign if he became incap
Source: AP
Jan 26, 2010
Esther Bejarano says music helped keep her alive as a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz and in the years that followed.
Now, 65 years after the liberation of the Nazi death camp, the 85-year-old has teamed up with a hip-hop band to spread her anti-racism message to German youth.
The daughter of a Jewish cantor from Saarbruecken in western Germany, Bejarano grew up in a musical home studying piano until the Nazis came to power and tore her family apart. Bejarano was deported
Source: AP
Jan 26, 2010
Madame Tussauds' in New York has unveiled a wax figure of Michelle Obama in a one-shouldered white gown inspired by the one she wore to the inaugural ball.
The first lady's likeness joined a wax tuxedo-clad President Barack Obama on Tuesday. His figure was unveiled at the museum last year.
In about two weeks, the Obama wax figures will exchange their formal wear for everyday wear.
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jan 26, 2010
Adolf Hitler was aided in his rise to power by western bankers who appreciated his tough line on communist agitators and worker power, Oliver Stone told reporters in Bangkok yesterday.
Following on from the comments he made to TV critics in Pasadena earlier this month about his upcoming 10-hour TV documentary on The Secret History of the United States, the film-maker said the German dictator had seduced the nation's military industrial complex with his ambitious promises.
Source: NBC
Jan 26, 2010
Former first lady Laura Bush has a new title to add to her resume. She's the newest member of the advisory board for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The board is working to raise money for the yet-to-be-built museum.
Congress has pledged to provide half of the museum's $500 million cost, if private fundraising covers the rest. Various other celebrities have been helping to raise private funds for the museum, including Oprah Winfrey and Qui
Source: IANS/AKI
Jan 26, 2010
Italian police have sealed off an illegal archaeological dig and recovered 108 stolen artefacts dating back more than 2,000 years.
The artefacts were excavated from tombs dating to the Daunian era, which preceded the Roman empire, in the southern region of Puglia.
The pieces were expected to be trafficked on the illegal antiquities market.
Several sites were sealed off by police near the town of Rodi Garganico, in the province of Foggia on the Adriatic coas
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 26, 2010
The communists who took over after World War II imposed a wall of silence on a century of Jewish life here, but this has steadily crumbled since the regime's collapse in 1989.
Today, cultural festivals, cemetery restoration programmes across Poland, school Jewish history classes, national commemorations and burgeoning academic research are reclaiming the past.
The communists who took over after World War II imposed a wall of silence on a century of Jewish life here, bu
Source: Polskie Radio (Poland)
Jan 26, 2010
A biography of Witold Pilecki, one of the unsung heroes of World War Two, has been published in Italy.
Entitled A Volunteer, it was written by Marco Patricelli, a lecturer in modern history at the University in Chieti. The ANSA Agency stresses in its review of the book that Pilecki’s war-time exploits and his tragic post-war plight remain virtually unknown in the West.
In 1940 Witold Pilecki allowed himself to be arrested by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz, where h
Source: MSNBC
Jan 26, 2010
When you visit the National Archives in D.C. after Feb. 23, it will still be OK to bring your still cameras, cell phone cameras and video cameras. Just don't use them.
Starting Feb. 24, visitors will be banned from taking photographs or video in the Archives main exhibit hall where the original Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights are displayed.
Source: National Parks Traveler
Jan 26, 2010
Ever wonder what lies beneath the water of those big man-made lakes in the West? Before the Yellowtail Dam was completed on the Bighorn River in Montana, an expedition took a last look at the river and canyon. A member of that group will share historic film footage and stories at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area on January 28.
The Bighorn River carved an impressive canyon through the high desert of northern Wyoming and Southern Montana, and the names of local features such as
Source: BBC News
Jan 26, 2010
Peru's authorities have begun the airlift rescue of some of nearly 2,000 tourists stranded by heavy rains near its top attraction, Machu Picchu.
The government declared an emergency in the area on Monday and has evacuated 20 tourists from the village of Machu Picchu Pueblo near the famous ruins.
Days of heavy rains triggered up to 40 landslides, one of which blocked the railway between Machu Picchu and Cuzco.
Two people are reported to have died when a mudslide d
Source: Artdaily.org
Jan 26, 2010
In a difficult and risky mission, a committee formed by the persons responsible of the European and American museums worked together to save Spanish Works of art during that country’s Civil War.
Works of art from the Prado Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando, the Escorial, the Royal Palace, National Library and those owned by the Church as well as those from prívate collections, started a journey that took them through different Spanish cities and ended up in Geneva, w
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 26, 2010
Sir Michael said he had considered resigning on the eve of the invasion in March 2003 in protest at the decision to join the US-led attack.
He described how he was sidelined after he made clear his objections to military action.
His evidence intensifies the pressure on Tony Blair, who is due to give evidence to the Iraq Inquiry on Friday.
Sir Michael rejected the Government's argument that United Nations Security Council resolution 1441 - passed in Novem
Source: St. Catharines Standard
Jan 25, 2010
Niagara-on-the-Lake's most recognizable War of 1812 site is getting a major $2.75-million facelift.
Extensive restoration work of the 80-year-old replica of Fort George started about three weeks ago.
The project, the biggest in the national historic site's history, will stabilize the crumbling structure.
Six large bastions, or cannon platforms, and sections of decaying palisade, or wooden fence, are being replaced to strengthen the outer walls of the fort.
