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: Honolulu Advertiser
Jul 12, 2009
Sixty-eight years ago today, the United States entered one of the bloodiest struggles of its history, the war in the Pacific.
About 200 people gathered yesterday at a cracked, potholed, weedy strip of concrete at 'Ewa Field, where part of the opening salvo in that long, brutal fight was fired.
'Ewa Field has a history that time has obscured. When the carrier-launched warplanes of the Japanese Empire roared in to attack Pearl Harbor, they also hit the Marine Corps Air St
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Jul 12, 2009
Two bands of Algonquins have filed competing claims for a cache of 2,000-year-old aboriginal artifacts discovered beside the Rideau River in November by a team of archeologists working for the City of Ottawa.
Gilbert Whiteduck, chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishniabeg in Maniwaki, 130 kilometres north of Ottawa, said the National Capital Commission should have consulted Quebec Algonquins about the dig in Ottawa that uncovered aboriginal artifacts dating from 300 BC to 700 BC.
Source: AFP
Jul 12, 2009
MOSCOW (AFP) – An officer with the Russian intelligence service the FSB on Monday dismissed a US report suggesting a fragment of Hitler's skull held in Moscow is actually from a woman, insisting their relic is genuine.
"The FSB archives hold the jaw of Hitler and the state archives a fragment of Hitler's skull," said Vassili Khristoforov, head of the FSB archives, told Interfax.
"With the exception of these remains, seized on May 5, 1945, there exist no o
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Jul 12, 2009
Edward Low knew he wasn't supposed to play there, high up on a sandy hill in Parkersburg, W.Va., overlooking the silver ribbon of the Ohio River.
But the 12-year-old and two friends, armed with boyish curiosity and a World War II trench shovel, had sneaked away from home to explore.
While digging a foxhole to play soldier, Low hit something hard about 15 inches deep in the soil. The thin piece of sandstone, about 5 inches by 3 inches, was engraved with Indian markings o
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Jul 12, 2009
On Pearl Harbor Day 2009, here is a look at lingering questions such as: How did the Japanese fleet get so close to Hawaii without being spotted?
How did the Japanese do it? That question remains 68 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a day that spawned some of the greatest unanswered questions of US military history.
The completeness of the surprise, as well as the enormity of the attack's destruction, have led conspiracy theorists to surmise that President Frankli
Source: BBC News
Jul 12, 2009
Wines from one of the world's most famous cellars, belonging to La Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris, are to go under the hammer.
A total of 18,000 bottles - including wine from Cognac, Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux - will be auctioned.
The sale is intended to raise 1m euros (£0.9m) to renew the cellar's contents and ensure the restaurant keeps its multiple Michelin stars.
Its wine list is 400 pages long, with no fewer than 15,000 tipples.
Source: WAFF
Jul 12, 2009
Private Amos McKinney fought against segregation many years ago and now, historians have fought for a memorial in his honor.
Amos McKinney was a soldier and a slave. He fought for the union during the Civil War in an integrated company.
Now, decades after his service to our country, Private amos mckinney was recognized for his inner and outward bravery with a military grave marker.
"It means that finally my grandfather is getting recognition for what
Source: NYT
Jul 12, 2009
President Obama is facing new pressure to reverse himself and to ramp up investigations into the Bush-era security programs, despite the political risks.
Leading Democrats on Sunday demanded investigations of how a highly classified counterterrorism program was kept secret from the Congressional leadership on the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, who is the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Fox News
Source: Independent (UK)
Jul 12, 2009
Spanish bishops broke decades of silence at the weekend to apologise for the killing of 14 priests by Francisco Franco’s troops during the civil war, asking forgiveness for the church’s collusion with the dictator’s cause
The bishop of Vitoria celebrated a memorial service in the cathedral of the Basque regional capital yesterday to mark the execution 73 years ago by Francoist troops of 14 priests who had never received a funeral, and whose deaths were never officially recorded.
Source: BBC
Jul 12, 2009
The existence of the programme, set up after 9/11, was hidden for eight years and even now its nature is not known.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein confirmed CIA chief Leon Panetta told Congressional committees he had abandoned the project on hearing of it.
He said that Mr Cheney was behind the secrecy, Sen Feinstein said.
Source: WaPo
Jul 12, 2009
In the beginning, the purpose of the nation's oldest civil rights organization was well defined: to achieve equal justice under the law for black Americans.
One hundred years later, as 5,000 members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gather here to set an agenda, little is so clear-cut.
The NAACP faces a slew of questions: Has the election of the first black U.S. president marked the end of the civil rights agenda? Must an organization tra
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 12, 2009
Bishops in the Basque Country have urged the Roman Catholic Church to apologise for its silence over the killing of priests by General Francisco Franco's Right-wing forces during the Spanish Civil War.
Spain's Catholic Church supported Franco's uprising against the elected Left-wing Republican government. While the Church has always honoured the thousands of clergy who died at the hands of the Republicans, those who were killed by Franco have been officially ignored.
Source: NYT
Jul 12, 2009
How far can a major political party fall?
It’s a question Republicans seem determined to test these days. The party is shut out of power in the White House. In Congress, the Democrats now have enough votes to block a filibuster. Approval ratings for the Republican Party are at near-record lows. Worse still, at a time when Republicans are yearning for someone to lead them back to power, the party’s next generation of stars is drawing precisely the wrong kind of attention — from Sarah
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Jul 12, 2009
The outbreak of swine flu, which has already claimed 429 lives around the world, will undoubtedly damage the already fragile global economy. Although it is impossible at this stage to make an accurate assessment of the likely impact of the disease, some economists have suggested a full-scale pandemic could cost more than $3 trillion (£1.9 trillion). As a guide, we can consider what happened to the economy during past pandemics.
Black Death
Probably the most destructive pandem
Source: BBC
Jul 12, 2009
The 100th anniversary of the first all-British aeroplane has been marked with an exact replica in east London.
Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe built the Roe I Triplane in a workshop under railway arches at Walthamstow Marshes. He went on to build thousands of RAF aircraft.
His grandson, Eric Verdon-Roe, unveiled "as exact a replica as possible" at the same location.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 12, 2009
Errol Flynn, the Hollywood actor, was a Nazi spy who met Adolf Hitler shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, it has been alleged.
The Australian-born star, who was known for his anti-Semitic views, worked undercover for the Germans during the Spanish Civil War, according to a controversial biography.
Charles Higham alleges that Flynn was employed to gather information on German socialists who fought against General Franco, helping contribute to the death
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 12, 2009
An emergency aboard Barack Obama's campaign plane last July nearly had catastrophic effects after an evacuation slide inflated in mid flight, it has emerged.
It was just over a year ago that the pilot of "Obama One", as the presidential candidate's aircraft was dubbed, went through an extraordinary drama high above the clouds shortly after takeoff.
After leaving Chicago, an evacuation slide mysteriously inflated in the plane's tail section, preventing the fl
Source: Foxnews
Jul 12, 2009
Some Democratic senators say they want to know whether former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered Congress out of the loop on a covert CIA counterterrorism program.
CIA Director Leon Panetta briefed Congress about the still classified program on June 24, a day after learning about it and immediately canceling it. Intelligence sources noted that the program never got off the ground and wasn't instituted.
The news of Cheney's potential involvement in withholding informati
Source: CNN
Jul 12, 2009
Federal agents found much of the information produced by the Bush administration's top-secret warrantless surveillance program vague and difficult to use, a sweeping review of the program found.
Then-President George Bush and other top administration officials have said the program was a critical tool in preventing terrorist attacks. However, a report Friday by the inspectors general of the CIA, the Justice Department, the Pentagon and other agencies found that some FBI and CIA agen
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 11, 2009
[A] rare colour photograph of Jewish boys huddled together outside a ghetto soup kitchen brings the horror of the Holocaust into sharp focus.
The picture was taken in the Łódz ghetto in central Poland, which was set up by the Nazis in 1939-40. Tens of thousands of Jews and Roma gypsies were sent from Łódz to their deaths. Many of the boys in the photograph did not survive the war.
It is one of many harrowing images taken from The Holocaust: A New History, by Doris Berg
