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: WSJ
Nov 3, 2009
BERLIN -- Chancellor Angela Merkel will mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in a speech Tuesday to the U.S. Congress, a rare honor for a German leader, but political observers say she is expected to face tough questions from the U.S. about Germany's contributions to the economic recovery, Iran and Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama could make uncomfortable demands on Ms. Merkel now that September's German elections are out of the way, analysts say. The U.S. exp
Source: Slate
Nov 3, 2009
More than 20 years ago, in July 1989, the National Security Archive filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the CIA, seeking documents related to an Iranian-born businessman implicated in the Iran-Contra affair. This summer, the CIA finally sent the files, 15 documents in all, according to the archive, a nongovernmental research institute. "In the last 20 years, the CIA sent status updates about this request intermittently: in August 1989, in October 1992, and in November 2003,"
Source: Yahoo News
Nov 3, 2009
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin could have started World War Three in 1989 had it used troops to crush the demonstrations that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Tuesday.
Gorbachev is hailed in the West for ignoring hardliners who advised him to guarantee the Soviet Union's future by crushing a growing wave of dissent in Eastern Bloc countries which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
When asked by a r
Source: BBC
Nov 3, 2009
A Russian businessman who was convicted in Israel as a KGB spy has been shot dead in Moscow, police say.
Investigators said Shabattai Kalmanovich, 60, was killed by gunmen who fired at his Mercedes from a passing car, Russian media reported.
His driver was seriously wounded in the attack but tried to chase the killers, reports said.
Mr Kalmanovich was well known in Russia as a music concert promoter and as a basketball sponsor.
His killing appe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 3, 2009
The Bomber Command Association hopes the memorial to the 55,573 airmen who died in the Second World War will be in place by 2011, with work beginning next year if sufficient funds can be raised by then.
Since The Daily Telegraph launched the Forgotten Heroes appeal a year ago, more than £1.5million has been raised following an overwhelming response from readers, but the appeal needs to raise another £1m before the project can go ahead.
Details of how you can donate to
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 3, 2009
A former Prisoner of War camp in County Durham which was advertised for sale online failed to attract any bids.
Tourist attraction Harperley camp, near Crook, was put on auction site eBay for £900,000 by its current owners who can no longer afford its restoration.
James and Lisa McLeod now hope a public body, charity or heritage organisation will step in to save the camp.
The camp housed German and Italian prisoners in World War II and won ancient monumen
Source: BBC
Nov 3, 2009
A small selection of the most important Anglo-Saxon find since the discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial site has gone on display at the British Museum.
A total of 18 items, all taken from the Staffordshire Hoard, can be viewed by the public in London.
The hoard, made up of more than 1,500 objects, was first discovered in early July in a field in south Staffordshire by a man using a metal detector.
It is being examined by experts who will report to a valuati
Source: BBC
Nov 3, 2009
Dinosaur bones which have been entombed in rock for more than 210 million years are to finally be extracted and constructed into a complete skeleton.
The rocks containing the fossilised remains of the Thecondontosaurus Antiquus were found in a quarry in South Gloucestershire in the 1970s.
Scientists at the University of Bristol are planning to remove the rock to reveal the bones within.
The project was made possible by a £295,000 Heritage Lottery Fund gra
Source: BBC
Nov 3, 2009
The trial has begun of Argentina's last military ruler, Reynaldo Bignone, and five other retired generals.
The men are charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping, torture and disappearance of 56 opponents of the military government in the late 1970s.
The abuses are alleged to have taken place at the Campo de Mayo base on the outskirts of the capital, Buenos Aires.
Human rights groups say up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared in Argentina b
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 3, 2009
The former French president Jacques Chirac has expressed his grudging admiration for Margaret Thatcher despite their bitter clashes over Europe.
In his memoirs, to be published on Thursday, the 76-year-old Mr Chirac recounts what he decribes as his country’s “conflictual” relations with Britain.
While he is critical of Lady Thatcher, in particular over her handling of the 1981 hunger strike of IRA prisoners, he is clearly impressed by her statesmanship.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 3, 2009
An enormous new statue of a young Mao Tse-tung has shocked China by portraying him with a long mane of windswept hair.
The statue, which has emerged from scaffolding in the central city of Changsha, will eventually stand more than 100ft tall.
The new statue, however, is both seated and of a young Mao, aged 32, when he composed a poem about Changsha.
On the Chinese internet, opinion was divided. Some web users praised the "far-sightedness" of th
Source: AP
Nov 3, 2009
Claude Levi-Strauss, widely considered the father of modern anthropology for work that included theories about commonalities between tribal and industrial societies, has died. He was 100.
The French intellectual was regarded as having reshaped the field of anthropology, introducing structuralism — concepts about common patterns of behavior and thought, especially myths, in a wide range of human societies. Defined as the search for the underlying patterns of thought in all forms of h
Source: CNN
Nov 3, 2009
Bosnian war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic launched a full-throated attack on the International War Crimes Tribunal Tuesday, as he appeared at a hearing to discuss his refusal to appear for trial.
Karadzic, who is accused of responsibility for the worst massacre in Europe since World War II, says he has had insufficient time to prepare his defense. He is representing himself.
But Judge O-Gon Kwon told Karadzic it was the court, not the defendant, who decides when the c
Source: Dutch News
Nov 2, 2009
Archaeologists have found the Iron Age burial mound of a wealthy man in Noord Brabant, the second major find within a cluster of earthworks and other remains near the town of Oss.
The first mound was identified in 1933 and is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the country.
Source: The Local (Sweden)
Nov 2, 2009
Five hundred Viking era silver artifacts have been plundered from a site of archaeological interest on the Baltic island of Gotland.
Two archaeologists employed by Gotland county were dismayed to discover the valuables had vanished when they arrived at a field in Alva in Gotland to follow up on a recent find.
"It's just as saddening every time it happens because it's our heritage that disappears," said Majvor Östergren at the Gotland County Administrative Board.
Source: Digital Journal
Nov 2, 2009
A Hungarian Bishop, Zoltán Meszlényi, has been recognised as a martyr for his faith by the Catholic Church. Meszlényi is the first of the Hungarian victims of the Stalin-era anti-church persecution to be beatified.
The mass marking the Beatification of the one-time Bishop of Esztergom, Zoltan Meszlenyi, was celebrated by Hungary’s Cardinal Péter Erdő at the Esztergom Baszilica at the weekend, according to the Caboodle.hu website. Esztergom is Hungary’s historical religious capita
Source: BBC
Nov 2, 2009
An epic movie about Islam's Prophet Muhammad is in the pipeline, backed by a producer of the Lord of the Rings.
American Barrie Osborne, who also produced The Matrix, told Reuters the film would be an "international epic" aimed at "bridging cultures".
In accordance with Islamic rules, the Prophet cannot be depicted on screen. Images of the Prophet are considered blasphemous by Muslims.
Source: BBC
Nov 2, 2009
A Chinese stamp pulled from circulation the day it was issued because it failed to show Taiwan as part of China has fetched a record price in Hong Kong.
The rare 1968 stamp was picked up at an auction by an unidentified buyer, for HK$3.68m (US$475,000, £290,000).
It features a worker holding a book filled with Mao Zedong's quotations and a red map of China in the background.
However, self-ruled Taiwan was left uncoloured. China sees the island as a renega
Source: Examiner.com
Nov 2, 2009
The USS New York Battleship took a tour around New York City this morning and went under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, paused at the World Trade Center site, then up and back the Upper West Side before docking in Midtown Manhattan. The USS New York is an Landing Platform Deck (LPD 21) and is a "mobility triad uniquely adaptable to a variety of modern day combat situations," according to the USS New York.org website.
The USS New York completed a five-day voyage from Norfol
Source: BBC
Nov 2, 2009
A former member of the Nazi SS has been read murder charges in a German court relating to the wartime deaths of three Dutch civilians.
Heinrich Boere, 88, is charged with shooting the three in 1944. He has previously acknowledged the killings, as reprisals against the resistance.
Mr Boere also heard a written plea from a relative of one the deceased, asking him to openly admit responsibility.
Reports say throughout the hearing, the accused sat motionless
