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: Fox News
Oct 2, 2009
Florida Rep. Alan Grayson vowed not to use the term again in a letter he sent Friday to the Andrew Rosenkranz, Florida regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish organization that fights anti-Semitism.
Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, who has drawn fire for saying Republicans want Americans to "die quickly" if they get sick, expressed regret Friday for comparing the health care crisis to a "holocaust."
Grayson added that he is a &
Source: Live Science
Oct 2, 2009
Some 85 million years ago in a shallow ocean, a handful of miniature great white sharks were pigging out on the carcass of a giant marine reptile called a plesiosaur, a new study suggests.
During this apparent feeding frenzy, some shark teeth got stuck in the plesiosaur's bones, which were subsequently buried and remained undiscovered until a high-school student in Japan found them in 1968. Other shark tooth fossils were found near the bones. Only recently did paleontologists examin
Source: CNN
Oct 2, 2009
The man who ran John McCain's presidential campaign warned Friday that Sarah Palin could lead to a 'catastrophic' election result for the GOP in 2012 if the former Alaska governor captures the party's presidential nomination.
The comments came during The Atlantic Magazine's First Draft of History Conferece, held at the Newseum in Washington, DC.
Looking ahead to Palin's upcoming book — entitled "Going Rogue" — Schmidt predicted he would be portrayed as "a
Source: Guardian (UK)
Oct 2, 2009
The Ministry of Defence was accused today by three high court judges of "lamentable" behaviour and "serious breaches" of its duty of candour over the failure to disclose crucial information about allegations of murder and ill-treatment by British soldiers in Iraq in 2004.
In a withering attack, they damned the ministry's chief witness – the deputy head of the military police – as lacking all credibility. They described his evidence to the court as "seriously
Source: Guardian (UK)
Oct 2, 2009
Two key figures in the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber were secretly given rewards of up to $3m (£1.9m) in a deal discussed by Scottish detectives and the US government, according to legal papers released today.
The claims about the payments were revealed in a dossier of evidence that was intended to be used in an appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of murdering 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988.
Megrahi abandoned his appeal las
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 2, 2009
Around 300 people were also wounded in the attack that leveled the seven-floor Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires. No one has ever been convicted for the bombing.
Federal Judge Ariel Lijo charged Menem, 79, with "instigating" several crimes, including concealing evidence and abuse of authority.
As part of his investigation of irregularities that took place during the first government inquiry into the bombing Judge Lijo also c
Source: Spiegel Online
Oct 2, 2009
Helmut Preller is wearing the kind of white overalls typically worn by housepainters as he sits in room number 3 on the second floor of a former guesthouse that was once called Stadt Lübeck. His laptop lies open on the table, on the window sill stands a monitor connected to a video camera. He is keeping watch on the wall next to his house night and day.
Preller winds back the video recording on his laptop. "He must be on here," he hisses. Someone has been attacking his wa
Source: Deutsche Welle
Oct 2, 2009
The Freedom Train was the beginning of East Germany's peaceful revolution, paving the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall and subsequently the fall of communism. On October 1, 1989, the train left Prague, then the capital of Czechoslovakia, and travelled to the town of Hof in what was then West Germany.
After the East German government closed the border to Hungary, the last chance for people to leave the country was via Czechoslovakia. The West German embassy was the most easily acc
Source: BBC
Oct 2, 2009
The uprising - triggered by the Nazis' decision to send residents to concentration camps - lasted three weeks before it was crushed.
Mr Edelman, then 23, was one of 200 young Jews who fought German troops.
His friend, Paula Sawicka, told the Associated Press that he died "at home, among friends".
Former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski paid tribute to him.
Source: NYT
Oct 2, 2009
Starting next month, the American Red Cross will auction off items squirreled away over many years in a warehouse in Lorton, Va., outside Washington.
Among more than 150 treasures going on the block, to help address a $50 million budget deficit, are a four-faced Cartier clock lamp; a Sèvres compote dish that was a gift from Albert Lebrun, president of France from 1932 to 1940; original Christmas Seals; international stamps; and archival materials.
One of the more unusua
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Oct 2, 2009
CHICAGO - By all appearances, the four finalists for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games desperately want to win. The question is why.
The 1976 Olympics left Montreal with a $1 billion debt, which the province of Quebec fully paid off only in 2006. Australian taxpayers pay $32 million a year to maintain Sydney Olympic venues that now go largely unused. The projected budget for London 2012 was $3.9 billion; it's now $15.1 billion and climbing.
The bid cities of Chicago, Rio de
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 2, 2009
Gandhi’s birthday, or Gandhi Jayanti, is celebrated every year as the International Day of Non-Violence. The Mahatma, who was born on 2 October 1869, would have turned 140 this year.
Mr Obama said: "Gandhi's teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement.
"The America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent social action mo
Source: Fox News
Oct 2, 2009
Trial dates haven't yet been set for the ailing, retired Ohio autoworker, who was deported in May to Germany. At issue was whether he was medically fit to stand trial.
Demjanjuk, 89, is accused of serving as a guard at a death camp where approximately 29,000 Jews and others were killed. He is charged with being an accessory to their murders.
The Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk says he was a Red Army soldier who was captured by the Nazis, spent the rest of the war as their pris
Source: boston.com
Oct 2, 2009
The mural graced the old Verizon building in the Financial District for more than a half-century, a towering illustration that paid homage to the men and women who toiled as telephone operators, connecting distant relatives and dear, old friends.
But Verizon sold the building last year and quietly took the mural down over the summer as part of the sales agreement. The removal has triggered a storm of protest among local preservationists, who worry about the loss of a significant pie
Source: New York Post
Oct 2, 2009
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A federal judge says the defense may not introduce any specific mention of the 9/11 terrorist attack during the corruption trial of former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
Kerik received heavy publicity, much of it glowing, for his actions as commissioner after the attack that brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Judge Stephen Robinson said Tuesday the attack had no relevance to the case. Kerik’s accused of acceptin
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Oct 2, 2009
BEIJING -- When Qiu Zhijie organized a show of fellow young artists in the basement of a suburban Beijing apartment complex a decade ago, police burst in and closed it after just one day. Contemporary art was taboo, and Mr. Qiu was especially provocative, with installations that mocked China's rising consumerism.
Today, Mr. Qiu is as active as ever. His current project looks at the costs of China's 60 years of communism by contrasting the official, heroic history of a giant bridge o
Source: National Geographic
Oct 1, 2009
The big news from the journal Science today is the discovery of the oldest human skeleton—a small-brained, 110-pound (50-kilogram) female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi." She lived in what is now Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago, which makes her over a million years older than the famous Lucy fossil, found in the same region 35 years ago.
Buried among the slew of papers about the new find is one about the creature's sex life. It makes fascinating read
Source: Spiegel Online
Oct 1, 2009
Officially, history began for Porsche in 1950. But the company existed
before that as a supplier for Hitler's war machine. New research
suggests that the company benefited much more from its Nazi ties than
it has admitted to.
Pass the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and continue across Porsche
Square, you'll come to a factory gate. Behind it stands a barrack, its
wooden slats still bearing the faded lettering "Reutter" -- a company
which once provided Porsche with its fi
Source: BBC
Oct 1, 2009
An Argentine judge has indicted ex-President Carlos Menem for allegedly trying to cover up evidence related to a deadly 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires.
A car bomb hit a Jewish community centre, known as the AMIA, killing 85.
In a written statement, the judge said Mr Menem covered up what was called at the time "the Syrian connection". He has previously denied any wrongdoing.
At the start of the investigation, the spotlight had turned on an Argentine
Source: Independent.ie
Oct 1, 2009
THE 5,000-year-old Poulnabrone dolmen is an impressive sight, one of the most recognisable megalithic tombs in the country and a highlight of any trip to the world-famous Burren.
It is understandable that visitors might want to create their own version of the ancient portal tomb.
But those tourists were yesterday accused of unwittingly engaging in vandalism by erecting hundreds of mini-dolmens across the protected landscape. The trend began a decade ago but has recently
