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: BBC
Dec 27, 2009
The bicentenary of the birth of the 19th Century prime minister William Gladstone is to be celebrated with an exhibition about his life in Liverpool.
The four-times Liberal prime minister was born at 62 Rodney Street in the city on 29 December 1809.
An exhibition at St George's Hall, which is less than a mile from his birthplace, will begin on Tuesday.
Records, books and diaries from his career and other memorabilia will be on show until the end of March.
Source: BBC
Dec 27, 2009
Thirty years ago, on 24 December 1979, the Soviet Union started deploying troops in Afghanistan. But some of those who were sent had no military training at all, as Katia Moskvitch from the BBC's Russian Service found out.
Just days before the invasion, eight mountaineers from what was then the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan were getting ready to fly to neighbouring Tajikistan for a routine rescue operation in the Pamir Mountains.
They were further surprised when the pi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 27, 2009
Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a large third-century tomb which they say could be that of Cao Cao, the politician and general infamous in East Asia for his Machiavellian tactics.
The tomb, discovered in Xigaoxue village near the ancient city of Anyang in Henan Province, has an epitaph and inscription that appear to refer to Cao Cao, Central China Television said on Sunday.
The tomb contains the remains of a man in his 60s, corresponding to Cao Cao's age at his d
Source: The Times (UK)
Dec 27, 2009
The mystery behind the most famous mutilation in art history may finally have been solved, the Times of London reported.
A scholar has found evidence that a distraught Vincent van Gogh slashed his ear after learning that his brother, Theo, on whom he depended financially and emotionally, was about to get married.
Martin Bailey, who has written a book on van Gogh and curated two exhibitions of his work, devised his theory after meticulous detective work on a letter in a
Source: BBC
Dec 26, 2009
Knut Haugland - the last of the six Norwegian crewmen who crossed the Pacific Ocean on the Kon-Tiki balsa wood raft in 1947 - has died aged 92.
The explorer died of natural causes in Oslo's hospital, the Kon-Tiki museum director said.
The expedition was launched from Peru by anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl to demonstrate that South Americans could have settled Polynesia. During World War II, Mr Haugland was member of the Norwegian resista
Source: NYT
Dec 26, 2009
With Democrats having worked feverishly to pass sweeping Senate and House health care bills before year’s end, it is worth remembering that legislative success can be short-lived.
Few people outside health policy circles may recall it, but two decades ago, after Congress congratulated itself on the passage of another health care bill, a public uproar forced its repeal a mere 16 months later.
That legislation was the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, which President Ro
Source: NYT
Dec 26, 2009
For many Czechs, it is a historical reckoning that is 20 years too late.
Two decades after the Velvet Revolution overthrew Communist rule here in 1989, a group of Czech senators is pressing to ban the Communist Party, the only surviving one in the former Soviet bloc in Europe and, to its many critics, a national embarrassment and aberration.
“The Communists ruined this country and oppressed freedom and yet here they are 20 years later in our Parliament,” said David Cer
Source: CNN
Dec 26, 2009
Each Christmas, Christians tell stories about the poor baby Jesus born in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.
But the Rev. C. Thomas Anderson, senior pastor of the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona, preaches a version of the Christmas story that says baby Jesus wasn't so poor after all.
Anderson says Jesus couldn't have been poor because he received lucrative gifts -- gold, frankincense and myrrh -- at birth. Jesus had to be wealthy because the
Source: BBC News
Dec 26, 2009
Countries across the Indian Ocean are marking the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic tsunami that killed almost 250,000 people.
In Indonesia's Aceh province, where 170,000 died, thousands held prayers in public mosques and private homes.
On Thai beaches, Buddhist monks chanted prayers as mourners held pictures of loved ones lost five years ago.
Hundreds of tourists also returned to Phuket island to mark one of the worst natural disasters of modern time
Source: AP
Dec 25, 2009
Ruins that archeologists call one of the last links to the original ranches and cowboys that shaped Texas have been kept behind a gate, literally buried, for more than two decades - awaiting the funding that would allow people to see them.
The 18th-century Rancho de las Cabras complex, with its stone building remains, was a birthplace of the large commercial ranching operations that would help define the state. Preservationists have long hoped it could be fully excavated and opened
Source: New York Times
Dec 25, 2009
The Polish Cultural Ministry, in an effort to save face after the embarrassing theft eight days ago of the infamous “Arbeit macht frei” metal banner that hung over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp, has said it will help pay for more security at the site.
Bogdan Zdrojewski, the culture minister, said late Wednesday that the government would contribute about $138,000 after a furor over the lack of security at the camp, which covers over 500 acres.
The thi
Source: AP
Dec 25, 2009
George Washington brought along a tourist for his Christmas Day ride across the Delaware River this year, and technology manufacturer Lockheed Martin brought its checkbook.
After months of financial uncertainty, the 57th annual re-enactment of Washington's daring Christmas 1776 crossing of the river -- the trek that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War -- took place without problems Friday.
Thousands of spectators came out to hear Washington's stand-in deliver stirr
Source: AFP
Dec 25, 2009
In the tiny synagogue of Masada, a ruined desert fortress steeped in myth, symbolism and controversy, a Torah scribe sits motionless but for the slow, deliberate strokes of his right hand.
A master in the art of writing Hebrew Bible scrolls, Shai Abramovich seems oblivious to the outside world as he traces the characters onto cow-leather parchment, his bespectacled face just centimetres (inches) from his desk.
He insists his composure belies the excitement he feels work
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Dec 25, 2009
The opening of the President's House on Independence Mall will be pushed back to next fall, to allow further revision of interpretive materials so that they better portray the place of slavery in the nation's early days.
The announcement came from Mayor Nutter's administration, which is managing the $8.5 million project, and Independence National Historical Park, which ultimately will run the site.
The house had been scheduled for a July 4, 2010, grand opening, and it w
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 25, 2009
Major-General Miloslav Kaspar, who has died aged 95, fought with Czechoslovak forces in eastern Europe and France during the Second World War, and was responsible for choosing the team which assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, the SS governor of Prague in 1942; after the war he served as an intelligence officer with Deuxième Bureau and MI5.
In March 1939 Kaspar was with his first regiment in the Slovak capital of Bratislava when the Wehrmacht marched in to proclaim the Czech provinces
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 25, 2009
A fight is on to save the historic Bastogne military barracks in the Belgian Ardennes from closure.
The campaign follows the Belgian government's decision to close 23 barracks across the country by 2011, including the so-called 'Heinz' barracks at Bastogne where US General Anthony McAuliffe had his headquarters during famous Battle of the Bulge in 1944.
The announcement by defence minister Pieter de Crem has caused a storm of protest among US and British war veterans a
Source: BBC
Dec 25, 2009
There has been widespread condemnation of the jailing by China of leading dissident, Liu Xiaobo, for subversion.
The US, UN and EU were joined by human rights groups in a chorus of anger over Mr Liu's 11-year sentence.
The UN human rights commissioner said it was "extremely harsh", and cast an ominous shadow over China's commitments to protect human rights.
Mr Liu, 53, helped draft Charter 08, a petition urging political change in China. His wife
Source: NYT
Dec 24, 2009
ELEANOR, WVA: ... The economic fallout of this annus horribilis, now drawing to a close, continues: 10 percent unemployment ; tens of millions without steady access to adequate food; wholesale industry shakeouts. It takes the collective American mind to another time, an even harder time, when federal stimulus programs meant more than just bridge repairs and weatherization; when the government jump-started the economy by building highways, schools, post offices — entire towns.
Dozens
Source: The Times (UK)
Dec 24, 2009
The Nazi gang that ordered the theft of the infamous 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign from the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland planned to sell it to fund violent attacks against the Swedish Prime Minister and Parliament, it was claimed today.
A spokesman for the Swedish security police confirmed that the authorities were taking seriously a threat by a militant Nazi group to disrupt national elections next year.
Allegations concerning who ordered the theft, and
Source: AP
Dec 24, 2009
Two-time President Rafael Antonio Caldera, considered one of the founders of Venezuelan democracy after decades of dictatorship, has died. He was 93.
Caldera died around 2 a.m. in the capital of Caracas, his son Andres Caldera told Globovision news channel.
Andres Caldera did not give a cause of death, but the former president suffered from Parkinson's disease for several years.
