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: NYT
Nov 16, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether it is too late for an Alabama man to argue that the murder that sent him to death row was not a capital crime when he committed it.
The inmate, Billy Joe Magwood, shot and killed Sheriff Neil Grantham in 1979 in front of the Coffee County jail. At the time, Alabama law imposed two requirements before the state’s judges could sentence defendants to death: the commission of one of 14 listed offenses and the existence of ce
Source: NYT
Nov 16, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — They don’t know it, but people who use Google’s online maps may be getting directions from Richard Hintz...
... Mr. Hintz is a foot soldier in an army of volunteer cartographers who are logging every detail of neighborhoods near and far into online atlases. From Petaluma to Peshawar, these amateurs are arming themselves with GPS devices and easy-to-use software to create digital maps where none were available before, or fixing mistakes and adding information to exist
Source: Google News
Nov 16, 2009
WASHINGTON — Rose Percy has a long history with the American Red Cross. Complete with an extensive wardrobe and her own Tiffany jewelry, this 23-inch wax doll was first sold for $1,200 back in 1864 to benefit the U.S. Sanitary Commission — the precursor to one of best-known U.S. charities.
Now, Rose Percy, is on the auction block again.
On Tuesday, Percy will be sold in one of the first rounds of an extensive sale of treasures the American Red Cross has amassed over the
Source: UPI
Nov 16, 2009
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told sailors in Singapore Monday that perceived attempts to rewrite the history of World War II should be rejected.
Medvedev told the crew of the Russian cruiser Varyag that historians will always debate the past; however, there was no doubt that the eventual outcome of the war had been agreed upon by the allied powers at the time.
"We should keep an eye on such things -- not fighting different points of view, but protecting our in
Source: NYT
Nov 16, 2009
Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, who is already the longest-serving senator in United States history, is set to cross yet another milestone of longevity in the legislative branch. On Wednesday, he’ll surpass Carl Hayden as the longest-serving member of Congress in history, combining terms in both the House and Senate.
Mr. Hayden, an Arizona Democrat, served in the House from 1912 to 1927 and in the Senate from 1927 to 1969 for a total of 56 years 319
Source: Google News
Nov 16, 2009
NEW YORK — CBS News is planning an ambitious turn-of-decade look at America's position in the world that's also designed as an opening competitive shot at Diane Sawyer.
Called "CBS Reports: Where America Stands," the series will look at issues such as health care, the military, the economy and crime. Reporters will show what was happening 10 years ago and compare it to now, with predictions about how things will be like at the start of the 2020s.
The "CBS
Source: Guardian (UK)
Nov 16, 2009
Relatives of soldiers who were killed in one of the world's first major tank battles will make a pilgrimage to France this week to celebrate the men's bravery.
Historians have traced families of the crew of the MkIV D51 tank, better known as "Deborah", who died during the battle of Cambrai in the first world war.
Five of its eight crew died during the battle, and the tank itself was abandoned and buried before it was pinpointed by historians beneath a field ne
Source: The Washington Times
Nov 16, 2009
The New Black Panther Party catapulted itself to national attention during the November 2008 presidential election when two of its members, one brandishing a nightstick, were captured on videotape intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place.
But the original Black Panther Party, which famously advocated black power and preached self-defense through confrontation in the 1960s and 1970s, is not happy with the new upstart. It has condemned the New Black Panther Party and its ta
Source: Times Online
Nov 16, 2009
“King David and King Solomon lived merry, merry lives,
With many, many concubines and many, many wives.
But when old age crept after them, with many, many qualms,
King Solomon wrote the Proverbs and King David wrote the Psalms.”
There are several versions of this anonymous rhyme, but the problem, some biblical archaeologists argue, is that there is little evidence that either king existed: archaeological remains have been assigned to their reig
Source: BBC
Nov 16, 2009
Barbara Cherish is a child of the SS, and the burden lies heavily upon her.
She knew early in her life that her German father, Arthur Liebehenschel, was involved in something terrible, something the family did not discuss.
Only later, as an adult, did she discover he had run part of the Auschwitz concentration camp for five months during World War II.
The knowledge gnawed at her, but it took a life crisis - her divorce and the death of her sister - to spur
Source: WSJ
Nov 16, 2009
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has said he was ready to confess to orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks, a move that would make his case relatively easy for prosecutors. But if Mr. Mohammed decides to work with his American lawyers to stall the case, he has plenty of tools at his disposal, criminal lawyers say.
When Mr. Mohammed appeared before a U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in December, he said he and his four co-defendants wanted the proceedings over quickly. "We don
Source: CNN
Nov 16, 2009
John McCain asked former campaign staffers Friday to avoid engaging in a back-and-forth over claims made by former running mate Sarah Palin in her new book, CNN has confirmed.
On a conference call with senior campaign advisers, the former Republican presidential candidate asked them to hold back from responding – telling them, in effect, that "this too shall pass," according to sources familiar with the call.
On Friday, McCain conceded to the reality of the me
Source: History Today
Nov 16, 2009
Last Thursday, Sir John Soane’s Museum in London announced that a gold mourning-ring belonging to Soane and containing a lock of Napoleon’s hair had been returned to the museum. The museum had previously tried to acquire the ring at an auction held by Christie’s in June. At the time, however, the museum was the under-bidder. With the support of The Art Fund and private donors the museum has now successfully purchased the ring for £41,000.
The ring originally belonged to Sir John Soa
Source: BBC
Nov 16, 2009
A previously undiscovered letter written by one of India's best known female rebels against British colonial rule has been found by academics.
The letter was written by Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi, shortly before the Indian mutiny - or first war of independence - in 1857.
It has been found in London in the archives of the British Library. The letter is written by the Rani of Jhansi to the governor-general of the East India Company (EIC), Lord Dalhous
Source: BBC
Nov 16, 2009
The UN tribunal hearing cases from the 1994 Rwandan genocide has freed a man who had been sentenced to 22 years.
Protais Zigiranyirazo, the brother-in-law of ex-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, had been found guilty of organising a massacre of 1,000 people.
But the appeals court judge said there had been serious errors in his trial and his conviction in 2008 violated "the most basic principles of justice".
Reporters say Mr Zigiranyirazo look
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 16, 2009
When Hemnecher Amen, a student, joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took any notice.
With the US military several years into two faraway wars, American students like Amen are taking to the streets less often - and to less effect - than their Vietnam-era predecessors who were the vanguard of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The economic and acade
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 16, 2009
Benito Mussolini regarded Adolf Hitler as a teary-eyed "sentimentalist" but was jealous of the Nazi dictator's power and fame, diaries written by the Italian leader's mistress reveal.
Claretta Petacci's journals, which will be published this week, describe a meeting he had with the German leader in 1938 after British prime minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland.
The diaries also show Mussolini was irritated by being reg
Source: Fox News
Nov 16, 2009
Sarah Palin said she thinks the Republican ticket lost the 2008 presidential election because Americans were looking for change, and not because she undermined the campaign or was unprepared for the vice presidential seat.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired Monday, Palin said the economy tanked under a Republican administration and people wanted to try a different path.
As for her daughter's pregnancy, Palin described to Oprah the handling of the news that
Source: CNN
Nov 16, 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized on Monday to thousands of adults who, as impoverished British children, were brought to Australia with the promise of a better life but found abuse and forced labor.
The so-called Forgotten Australians -- children who came from British families struggling with severe poverty or from institutions in the UK -- were brought to Australia in a program that ended 40 years ago.
The program scarred generations of children
Source: Newsweek
Nov 16, 2009
Stanley Karnow is the author of Vietnam: A History, generally regarded as the standard popular account of the Vietnam War. This past summer, Karnow, 84, picked up the phone to hear the voice of an old friend, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. The two men had first met when Holbrooke was a young Foreign Service officer in Vietnam in the mid-1960s and Karnow was a reporter covering the war. Holbrooke, who is now the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, was calling from Kabul. The
