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
Sep 4, 2009
The Brooklyn Navy Yard, a historical gem on Flushing Avenue known for its shipbuilding, offers a glimpse of life and work in our nation during times of conflict.
On Thursday afternoon about 30 people gathered in Fort Greene for a bus tour of the Navy Yard, going past its gates and back in time to learn its place in American history — and hear plans for its future.
Sponsored by the Fort Greene Park Conservancy, the expedition was a two-part event: a tour of the Navy Yard
Source: NYT
Sep 4, 2009
The victim: John Colman.
Not much is known about him, much less about his murder. His body was hastily buried and has never been found. A weapon was recovered, but it vanished. The only account of the crime is secondhand, pieced together from a few witnesses, some of whom might have harbored a grudge. The chief suspects were singled out because of racial profiling but were never questioned. No one was ever prosecuted.
It was on Sept. 6, 1609 — 400 years ago Sunday — whe
Source: MailOnline (Daily Mail UK)
Sep 4, 2009
Take a stroll along the bank of the Thames by the City of London at low tide and, chances are, you'll see a man prodding around in the mud with an old garden fork and a spade.
Occasionally, you'll see him scoop out a gunge-covered scrap and gently lay it in his bucket.
Harmless eccentric, you might think, but you'd be wrong. Sometimes, the Thames reveals some extraordinary oddities.
Most recently, it was a 17th century prisoner's ball and chain, discovered
Source: NYT
Sep 4, 2009
In a demonstration of the complex layer cake that is the body politic of California, one of the most contentious pieces of legislation before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would set aside a day of recognition for Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco politician assassinated in 1978.
The bill, which would designate Milk’s birthday, May 22, a day of “special significance,” was passed by both houses of the Democratic-controlled Legislature this week and immediately drew a news confere
Source: Rasmussen Reports
Sep 4, 2009
Sixty-one percent (61%) of Americans say President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963 after nearly three years in the White House, had the most positive and lasting impact on the nation of all of the political Kennedy brothers.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 20% say the same of Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, who died of cancer on August 25 after serving for nearly 47 years in the U.S. Senate.
Only four percent (4%)
Source: Spiegel Online
Sep 4, 2009
Many of the tens of thousands of valuable artworks stolen by the Nazis are still missing today. Police are now investigating one painting that recently surfaced on Germany's version of "The Antiques Roadshow," but the show is refusing to identify the painting's owner.
It is the moment that anyone who has ever watched "Antiques Roadshow," or one of it's many imitators around the world, has dreamed of. The moment you present the old painting you found behind some s
Source: MSNBC
Sep 4, 2009
LONDON - A vintage train carrying Holocaust survivors pulled into London on Friday, ending a three-day trip across Europe that marked the 70th anniversary of their extraordinary rescue by a young British stockbroker.
Waiting to greet them at London's Liverpool Street Station was Sir Nicholas Winton, 100, who organized the rail"kindertransports" that carried hundreds of mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to safety in 1939.
The steam train carried 17
Source: Time
Sep 4, 2009
As ancient as Herodotus' Histories, the fast-flowing waters of the Aras river today trace the Turkish-Armenian border, a messy 20th century creation of broken bridges and shuttered rail tracks. In the shadow of snow-topped Mount Ararat, the river splits and narrows until it divides the verdant villages of Halikisla, on the Turkish side, and Bagaran, in Armenia. Once one, the villages are now separated by a stretch of water little wider than a double bed. Residents never meet, except to cast for
Source: CNN
Sep 4, 2009
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is not immune from being sued by a man who claims he was illegally detained under Justice Department policies implemented after the September 11 terror attacks, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
The man, a native-born U.S. citizen who was once a college football star, was held and interrogated by the FBI for 16 days in 2003 and his travel was limited for another year, court documents said.
Abdullah al-Kidd's lawyers claimed
Source: BBC
Sep 4, 2009
A 13th Century copy of a medieval travel writer's book has returned to Wales for the first time in 20 years to form part of an exhibition.
Gerald of Wales trekked more than 500 miles (804.5km) in 1188, primarily to recruit soldiers for the third crusade in the Middle East.
A copy of his "Journey through Wales" has been lent to The National Museum in Cardiff by The British Library.
The exhibition is about Wales' links to the Holy Land during the
Source: BBC
Sep 4, 2009
A train carrying evacuees who escaped the Holocaust has been met in the UK by the man who arranged their rescue ahead of the outbreak of World War II.
Sir Nicholas Winton, 100, was at London's Liverpool Street station to welcome passengers at the end of their steam train journey from Prague.
It marks the 70th anniversary of trains organised by Sir Nicholas that carried 669 mostly Jewish children to the UK.
Twenty-two of the original evacuees took part in
Source: BBC
Sep 4, 2009
That is because Brigitta's father, Rochus Misch, was part of Adolf Hitler's inner circle. He worked in the Fuehrer's SS protection unit as a bodyguard, a courier and a telephone operator.
He was in Hitler's Berlin bunker when the Fuehrer committed suicide.
Brigitta only has one photograph of her father cradling her as a baby. Then, rather abruptly, his face disappears from the family album and from her childhood.
On escaping from Hitler's bunker he was c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 4, 2009
A leading German historian said Mahatma Gandhi was "one of the greatest friends of Nazi Germany" because the Indian activist and the Third Reich shared a shared a common enemy in Britain.
Götz Aly, the popular historian, accused black Allied soldiers of the systematic rape of German women during the Second World War.
He also dismissed their contribution to defeating the Nazis on the grounds that they were forced to fight.
Mr Aly, the author of th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 4, 2009
Bronia Snow remembers the journey from Prague as being "an unreal experience".
Her parents had given her a gold pocket watch, golden bracelet, and a set of three silver knives, forks and spoons from her grandmother " so as to not send me out empty-handed".
Back in Prague her father lost his business, they were forced to wear the yellow star of St David and were eventually deported to Terezin, a concentration camp outside the city.
Aft
Source: CNN
Sep 4, 2009
Could George W. Bush or some of his top aides end up behind bars?
It's extremely unlikely, but the Obama administration is taking its first steps along a path that could lead in that direction, with the investigation of Central Intelligence Agency interrogators involved in the war on terror.
The probe will focus on whether interrogators exceeded their instructions and broke the law when, for example, they choked a prisoner until he lost consciousness or threatened anoth
Source: CNN
Sep 4, 2009
The U.S. Treasury announced it has changed its regulations to lift restrictions on the ability of Cuban Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send them money.
A Treasury Department statement on Thursday said the Office of Foreign Assets Control amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations to implement President Barack Obama's April 13 initiative.
The change was made to "reach out to the Cuban people in support of their desire to freely determine their country's
Source: CNN
Sep 4, 2009
An archaeological dig in Jerusalem has turned up a 3,700-year-old wall that is the largest and oldest of its kind found in the region, experts say.
Standing 8 meters (26 feet) high, the wall of huge cut stones is a marvel to archaeologists.
It was found inside the City of David, an archaeological excavation site outside the Old City of East Jerusalem on a slope of the Silwan Valley.
The wall is believed to have been built by the Canaanites, an ancient pagan
Source: Pew Research Center
Sep 4, 2009
In April, 62% of the public approved of Barack Obama's performance as president and 26% disapproved. In August, just four months later, 52% approved of Obama's job performance while 37% disapproved.
Obama's approval rating has declined across nearly all major demographic and political groups: It has fallen 11 points among women and nine points among men; by 12 points among Republicans, 10 points among Democrats and nine points among independents.
Source: NPR
Sep 4, 2009
For war journalist Scott Anderson, the most confounding part of his recent assignment for GQ magazine to explore the root of terrorist acts in Russia a decade ago wasn't the suggestion of treachery and subterfuge he found.
It was the reception his story ultimately received in the United States. "It was quite mysterious to me," Anderson says."All of a sudden, it became clear that they were going to run the article but they were going to try to bury it under a rock as much
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 4, 2009
The provocative commercial, which ends with the tag-line "AIDS is a mass murder", aims to young scare people into using condoms by associating the deadly disease with the German dictator.
In the highly-sexualised clip, a couple undress and begin to make love in a dimly-lit bedroom.
But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man's face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be
