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: Times (UK)
Sep 28, 2009
Neglected churches and crumbling castles would receive millions of pounds of extra funding if the Conservatives win power at the next election, a Shadow minister has suggested.
Endangered historic buildings such as cathedrals and abbeys in need of urgent repair would benefit from additional funding from the National Lottery under a Tory plan to allocate more cash to traditional projects and the preservation of the nation’s heritage.
Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Sec
Source: Times (UK)
Sep 28, 2009
A prize-winning essay by a ten-year-old Paul McCartney sheds new light on the thoughts of a budding superstar.
The handwritten piece about the Queen’s Coronation was found among records at Liverpool’s Central Library by Kevin Roach while he researched a book on the Beatles bass player.
It had been stored away for more than 50 years in the library’s record office.
Source: BBC
Sep 28, 2009
The approval of plans to build near a monument to victims of the Babi Yar massacre, where 34,000 Jews were killed in 1941, had been widely criticised.
Proponents had said the Ukrainian capital needed more hotels for the 2012 European Football Championships.
Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky's decision was welcomed by the Israeli government.
President Shimon Peres praised him for "having taken this just and important decision which preserves the memory of th
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Sep 28, 2009
He was a soldier in one of the most fanatical divisions in Hitler's war machine.
As a member of the SS, Heinrich Steinmeyer expected little mercy as he surrendered to British troops towards the end of the Second World War.
But instead, he says he was treated with humanity by both the troops who captured him and the guards at the Scottish prison camp where he was kept until the end of the war.
Sixty-five years later, Mr Steinmeyer has pledged to leave his
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Sep 28, 2009
Adolf Hitler may not have shot himself dead and perhaps did not even die in his bunker, it emerged yesterday.
A skull fragment believed for decades to be the Nazi leader’s has turned out to be that of a woman under 40 after DNA analysis.
Scientists and historians had long thought it to be conclusive proof that Hitler shot himself in the head after taking a cyanide pill on 30 April 1945 rather than face the ignominy of capture.
Source: Azstarnet.com
Sep 27, 2009
The discovery of a prehistoric irrigation system in the Marana desert is giving archaeologists a deeper glimpse into one of the first groups of people to farm in the Tucson basin.
"What we're looking at is, perhaps, the earliest sedentary village life in the Southwest with people depending on agriculture as a primary food source," said project director Jim Vint.
For more than 3,000 years, an elaborate ancient irrigation system has remained hidden deep beneath
Source: ThisisHampshire.net
Sep 27, 2009
DIVING almost blind in the Solent’s murky waters, the team of maritime detectives could just make out the shape of a wooden plank protruding from the muddy seabed.
While it might have been dismissed as underwater junk by the untrained eye, the archaeologists soon realised they had discovered a vital clue to a lost civilisation.
The timber was not isolated. In fact they found another 23 pieces of all shapes and sizes intersecting throughout the underwater cliff off Boul
Source: Newsletter of the New York American Revolution Roundtable
Sep 27, 2009
The news from this enterprise is nothing less than revolutionary. After nine years of trying to build the Center in Valley Forge, first on a site inside the national park, then on land they purchased for seven million dollars on the north side of the Schuylkill River, the new ARC president, Bruce Cole, and his board decided there was no hope of a solution to their differences with the officials of Valley Forge National Park. Cole announced they were moving to Philadelphia to build the Center on
Source: Associated Press
Sep 27, 2009
FORT EDWARD, N.Y. — A mistake made along the Hudson River is offering archaeologists a rare glimpse into how colonial military engineers built wooden forts, including the key stronghold constructed here by the British during the French and Indian War.
A formal excavation of the original Fort Edward was called after crews dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Hudson River last month accidentally ripped out wooden beams thought to have been part of the original fort, which was b
Source: The Washington Post
Sep 27, 2009
The visits had a ritual quality. Three times a year, a coalition of Chicago community groups met with the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators to warn about the growing prevalence of abusive mortgage lending.
They began to present research in 1999 showing that large banking companies including Wells Fargo and Citigroup had created subprime businesses wholly focused on making loans at high interest rates, largely in the black and Hispanic neighborhoods to the south and west
Source: Time
Sep 27, 2009
At the height of the civil war in Iraq, a tidal wave of refugees crossed the border into Syria, changing the face of the capital, Damascus, with their clothing, accents and shell-shocked appearances. Years later, many of the 1.5 million Iraqis remaining in Syria have become a part of the fabric of life. Many own homes or businesses and have children who speak Arabic with a Syrian accent. But one sector of the immigrant population still feels ill at ease: the 400,000 or so Iraqis with ties to the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 27, 2009
China is preparing to mark 60 years of Communist Party rule this week with the largest celebration the country has ever witnessed.
Millions of Communist Party officials, students and workers are feverishly fine-tuning parades and firework displays on a scale that will dwarf the Beijing Olympics.
Special “parade villages” have been set up at military airfields outside the capital to drill the tens of thousands of marching soldiers, with officers on hand to measure the
Source: Politico
Sep 27, 2009
In his new book based on a series of interviews with Bill Clinton, Taylor Branch provides a remarkable account of a conversation between Clinton and Al Gore late in 2000, after Gore’s presidential campaign had finally ended in perhaps the most painful defeat imaginable.
Clinton told Gore, Branch writes, that he was disappointed that he wasn’t used more in the campaign’s final days and that Gore had not developed any overarching theme. Gore countered that Clinton had never personall
Source: BBC
Sep 27, 2009
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will sign a deal to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia on 10 October.
Mr Erdogan said the deal would still need parliamentary approval in Turkey and Armenia after being signed by their foreign ministers.
The two countries remain deeply divided over the fate Armenians suffered under Turkish Ottoman rule. Turkey has resisted widespread calls for it to recognise the
Source: BBC
Sep 27, 2009
An essay written by Sir Paul McCartney as a 10-year-old has been found after lying undiscovered in Liverpool's Central Library for more than 50 years.
Years before the Beatles received their MBEs, he beat hundreds of other school children to win a prize for his 1953 essay marking the Queen's coronation.
In 2013, the library will display the essay - found in a scrapbook - to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation.
Source: AP
Sep 27, 2009
The FBI has released long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the fertilizer bomb went off. They don't show the actual explosion outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
The tapes were obtained by an attorney and provided to The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Source: AP
Sep 26, 2009
A mistake made along the Hudson River is offering archaeologists a rare glimpse into how colonial military engineers built wooden forts, including the key stronghold constructed here by the British during the French and Indian War.
A formal excavation of the original Fort Edward was called after crews dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Hudson River last month accidentally ripped out wooden beams thought to have been part of the original fort, which was built in the 1750s. R
Source: NYT
Sep 26, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea — After first applying for a reunion with his North Korean family more than two decades ago, Kim Ki-sung, an 82-year-old South Korean, never gave up. This month, he applied again and beat the long odds to win one of only 100 slots available for a three-day family reunion that began in a North Korean resort on Saturday.
For Mr. Kim, the reunion brought some sad news. On Saturday, he learned that his wife, whom he last saw in January 1951 during the Korean War, died
Source: Yahoo News
Sep 26, 2009
LIMA, Peru – Former President Alberto Fujimori, who already faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison, pleaded guilty on Monday to authorizing illegal wiretaps and bribes of politicians, journalists and businessmen.
Fujimori, 71 and ailing, appeared to sleep during chief prosecutor Jose Pelaez's accusation, but stirred at the close of the session to say three words to the presiding judge: "Sir, I agree."
Pelaez requested an eight-year sente
Source: Fox News
Sep 26, 2009
WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Saturday resumed his push to overhaul the health care system, telling a Congressional Black Caucus conference that there comes a time when "the cup of endurance runs over."
"We have been waiting for health reform since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. We've been waiting since the days of Harry Truman," he said in remarks at the caucus foundation's annual dinner. "We've been waiting since Johnson and Nixon and Clinton."
