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: Deutsche Welle
Aug 12, 2009
Long before the Americans declared independence, centuries before Columbus
discovered the new world and before Guttenberg invented movable type, Germans were already perfecting the art of making beer. Even from a distance, the Weihenstephan brewery dominates the area. Perched atop Naehrberg Hill in Freising, a small town just north of Munich, the brewery was originally a Benedictine monastery founded in 740 AD by a monk named Korbinian.
It wasn't until the year 1040, when Abb
Source: CNSNews.com
Aug 12, 2009
Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends.
The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2009
Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, has been serving his jail sentence at Greenock Prison.
Scottish ministers described the development as "complete speculation".
The Libyan had launched an appeal against his conviction for the murder of 270 people when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2009
Eight medals awarded to the last British survivor of World War I have gone on show in Cornwall.
Harry Patch, who died in Somerset last month at the age of 111, fought with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
Mr Patch said upon his death he wanted his medals to go on permanent display at the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Regimental Museum in Bodmin.
The medals, which included the British War Medal, the Allied Victory Medal and two French Legion d'Ho
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2009
An art collector claims he has uncovered a rare portrait of the Bronte sisters painted by one of Britain's most famous Victorian artists.
James Gorin von Grozny, from Devon, paid £150 for the work which he believes was painted by Sir Edwin Landseer in 1838.
But art experts say Landseer would have had no call to paint the sisters who were not famous at that date.
The only known portrait of the sisters was painted by their brother, Branwell.
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2009
A man accused of planning the massacre of Rwandans during the 1994 genocide has been arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say.
A government statement named the suspect as Gregoire Ndahimana, who is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
He was detained by Congolese soldiers in the eastern province of North Kivu. According to his ICTR indictment, Mr Ndahimana is responsible for the deaths of a
Source: AP
Aug 12, 2009
John Demjanjuk's attorney filed a motion Wednesday calling for the Nazi death-camp case against his client to be closed, saying the charges against him violate German legal precedent.
Attorney Ulrich Busch said in a filing faxed to the Munich state court that even if it could be proved that Demjanjuk trained as a death camp guard at the SS's Trawniki camp and served at Sobibor in Nazi-occupied Poland, he shouldn't have been charged.
Busch argued that previous German cou
Source: AP
Aug 12, 2009
A federal judge threw out a former Tennessee student's free-speech lawsuit against a school dress code that banned Confederate flag clothing.
Nearly a year after a jury failed to reach a verdict in Tommy Defoe's case, U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan ruled against a retrial.
The judge said there was undisputed evidence of racial threats against minorities at Anderson County High School and school officials "reasonably forecasted" that clothing such as Defoe's Co
Source: CNN
Aug 12, 2009
A pioneer, a preacher, an activist and an athlete were among 16 people who President Obama honored Wednesday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, an annual award, was created after World War II when President Truman wanted to honor civilian service during the war.
Source: Liverpool Daily Post
Aug 12, 2009
Liverpool should mark the Civil War anniversary by securing Confederate paymaster Charles Prioleau’s former home, according to one US Civil War expert.
“This amazing house at 19 Abercromby Square should be given English Heritage Grade-I listing,” says Tom Sebrell, American Civil War historian.
“There is so much symbolism in that house to do with South Carolina, introduced by Charles Prioleau and his wife, Mary Elizabeth.”
Source: The Times (UK)
Aug 12, 2009
Archaeologists have uncovered the 4,000-year-old grave of a “Bronze Age hero” in a Perthshire field. The find was made at the Scottish Royal Centre, near the village of Forteviot, ten miles south of Perth, after a crane lifted up a four-tonne stone to reveal an intact burial chamber.
The carved capstone had sealed the grave so well that organic materials including wood, bark and leather survived intact as well as various metal objects. The man, who is believed to have been an import
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2009
The Geneva Conventions are 60 years old on Wednesday, but the anniversary comes amid concern that respect for the rules of war is small.
The three existing Geneva Conventions, which relate to the immunity of medical personnel on the battlefield and the treatment of prisoners of war, were extensively revised in 1949.
The fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates that warring parties have an obligation to protect civilians, was added.
Unfortunately, signat
Source: AFP
Aug 11, 2009
The train ticket was found tucked in a gas mask pouch near the Australian soldier's remains and told the story of a journey home that was never made.
The folded piece of paper for travel by rail from Fremantle to Perth is one of the most telling items recovered alongside skeletal remains from a mass grave of World War I soldiers in northern France.
Working under a white marquee in a muddy field, a team of 30 archeologists and forensics experts have been unearthing remai
Source: Discovery News
Aug 11, 2009
The remains of a 9,000-year-old hunter-gatherers' house, uncovered during construction at an airport, have been unearthed in Great Britain's Isle of Man. The house was surrounded by buried mounds of burnt hazelnut shells and stocked with stone tools, according to archaeologists working on the project and a report in the latest British Archaeology.
It is the earliest known complete house on the Isle of Man and one of Britain's oldest and best-preserved houses, according to the report
Source: Salon
Aug 11, 2009
Former White House political adviser Karl Rove was deeply involved in the firing of a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, according to White House e-mails and transcripts of closed-door testimony released Tuesday.
The House Judiciary Committee released more than 5,400 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers.
The documents show that staffers in Rove's off
Source: NYT
Aug 11, 2009
Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were military retirees and psychologists, on the lookout for business opportunities. They found an excellent customer in the Central Intelligence Agency, where in 2002 they became the architects of the most important interrogation program in the history of American counterterrorism.
They had never carried out a real interrogation, only mock sessions in the military training they had overseen. They had no relevant scholarship; their Ph.D. dissertations
Source: NYT
Aug 11, 2009
Immigration files containing a wealth of information collected by American border agents, some of it dating from the late 19th century, will be opened to the public soon and permanently preserved, providing intriguing nuggets about such famous immigrants or visitors as Alfred Hitchcock and Salvador Dalí.
But to millions of Americans, the real treasure will be clues about their own families’ histories in the photographs, letters, interrogation transcripts and recordings that reflect
Source: BBC
Aug 11, 2009
India has abandoned plans to reopen a World War Two road that could connect its remote north-eastern states to China's Yunnan province through Burma.
Lawmakers from India's Assam state have been informed of the Indian decision by its ministry for the development of the north-eastern region.
This comes days after the 13th round of talks between India and China to resolve their border dispute. The 1,079-mile-long Stillwell Road was built
Source: BBC
Aug 11, 2009
A parliamentary committee says an "impunity gap" is allowing some war criminals to avoid prosecution.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights said international law on atrocities is being applied inconsistently.
It also says victims of torture abroad should be allowed to use the British courts to pursue states responsible for their injuries.
Source: BBC
Aug 11, 2009
The trial of a former German infantry commander for Nazi war crimes took 11 months, and ended in what is nowadays a rare conviction.
The passage of time since the war and the patchy record of governments in pursuing Nazis and their collaborators mean that, while many Nazis have faced justice and been convicted, far more have slipped through the net.
In the 1950s and 1960s, German judge and prosecutor Fritz Bauer estimated there were 100,000 Germans responsible in one w
