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: AP
Jul 7, 2009
A judge refused Tuesday to reinstate a University of Colorado professor who was fired on plagiarism charges after he likened some Sept. 11 terrorist attack victims to a Nazi leader.
If it stands, the ruling means Ward Churchill cannot return to the classroom even though a jury ruled in April that his firing was politically motivated.
Churchill wrote an essay after the 2001 terrorist attacks calling the World Trade Center victims "little Eichmanns," a reference
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 7, 2009
Germany has awarded the first medals for bravery in combat since the Second World War in a move to rally public support for its military missions abroad.
The military has had no medal for bravery since it stopped awarding the Iron Cross, which was first issued in 1813 but bestowed so frequently under the Nazis that it become associated with Hitler's regime.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, honoured four soldiers who aided injured soldiers and civilians after a sui
Source: Times (UK)
Jul 7, 2009
A fresh investigation is to be launched into allegations made in 2004 that British troops killed twenty Iraqi prisoners and tortured nine other detainees after a battle with insurgents.
The High Court has been hearing evidence in a judicial review case, brought by families of the alleged victims, and yesterday lawyers acting for the Defence Secretary conceded that there was a case for the new inquiry.
The Royal Military Police investigated the alleged mistreatment and
Source: Spiegel Online
Jul 7, 2009
Getting permission to chop down a tree for the building of an intersection is not unusual. What is slightly rarer is the discovery that that tree was bequeathed to the city by the most famous dictator of the last century. An oak tree that had been growing in the Polish city of Jaslo for almost 70 years now faces the chop as its links with Hitler are revealed.
Jaslo's mayor, Maria Kurovska, has reacted to the discovery with vehement demands that the tree be cut down and burnt publicl
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 7, 2009
The former first lady was so in love with Mr Kennedy, that when he was shot during his presidential campaign in 1968 it was her - not his wife Ethel - who instructed doctors to turn off his life support machine.
Ethel was aware of the affair but chose to ignore it, according to Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, by C.David Heymann.
Several political insiders and celebrities are quoted in the book, which will be published in the US next week.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 7, 2009
Saba Mozakka, 28, said she still feels a sense of loss and described the new memorial as a reminder of "52 very much loved and missed people".
Her mother Behnaz Mozakka, a 47-year-old, biomedical officer, was commuting to work at London's Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital on the morning of July 7, when she was killed while travelling on a Piccadilly line tube.
A bomb carried by Germaine Lindsay detonated as her train travelled from King's Cross to Russe
Source: St. Louis Today
Jul 6, 2009
While he’s busy poring over potential statutes passed by state
lawmakers, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has found time to make some changes
to statues as well.
Nixon’s office has sent a request to the Architect of the Capitol in
Washington to replace the state’s official representation in the
national statue collection.
Out is Francis Preston Blair Jr., a former Civil War Union General and
U.S. Senator from Missouri. In, if Nixon has his way, will be — who
else? — Harry S Truman, t
Source: BBC
Jul 6, 2009
A memorial to one of the youngest British service casualties of the World War II has been unveiled by his former friend and shipmate.
Reginald Earnshaw was "about 15" when he died under enemy fire aboard the SS North Devon exactly 68 years ago.
It is widely believed he lied about his age in order to serve his country - and evidence suggests he may been just 14.
Source: Culture24
Jul 6, 2009
A £250,000 project to restore a half-mile section of Hadrian's Wall, a Site of Specific Scientific Interest, and remove it from the English Heritage 'At Risk' Register has now been completed.
The project, begun in April 2008, has included urgent restoration work to Hadrian's Wall to protect the Roman remains from both wandering farm animals and the harsh effects of the weather.
Dry stone walls that were originally built in the 1890s on top of and alongside parts of th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 6, 2009
A quarter of all pilgrims who travelled to the New World returned to
Britain after just a few years, a new report shows.
Disease, an unforgiving climate and a stagnant economy in
Massachusetts, forced thousands to make the dangerous three-month boat
journey back to the UK, their dreams of a new life unfulfilled.
Dr Susan Hardman Moore, of the University of Edinburgh's School of
Divinity, has researched the immigration records of ordinary people
who fled religious persecution b
Source: http://www.thesunnews.com
Jul 6, 2009
The Confederate battle flag flying at the soldiers monument on the Statehouse grounds stirs passions nearly a decade after its move there from atop the Statehouse dome, and it remains the focus of a nine-year NAACP economic boycott.
Supporters of the compromise say history cannot be rewritten and the flag deserves to fly as long as the memorial to Confederate soldiers remains. Critics concede the importance of honoring history but say the flag at the Statehouse represents the denigr
Source: AFP
Jul 6, 2009
Geneva, once nicknamed the "Protestant Rome", is marking this month the 500th anniversary of John Calvin, an influential figure in the historic schism of Christianity who left his mark on this city.
But local authorities have struggled to find the best way to celebrate the birth of the controversial French theologian and leader in the Protestant Reformation.
He is being celebrated because he turned a "provincial town into a European intellectual capital t
Source: BBC
Jul 6, 2009
A memorial to one of the youngest British service casualties of the World War II has been unveiled by his former friend and shipmate.
Reginald Earnshaw was "about 15" when he died under enemy fire aboard the SS North Devon exactly 68 years ago.
It is widely believed he lied about his age in order to serve his country - and evidence suggests he may been just 14.
The location of Mr Earnshaw's grave was never reported to the Commonwealth War Graves
Source: AP
Jul 6, 2009
Iraq's government has banned all organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave in the village of Ouja, the dictator's birth place north of Baghdad.
A cabinet statement says instructions have been sent to the Education Ministry and local authorities in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit to take the necessary steps to stop such visits.
Since he was hanged in December 2006, thousands of Saddam's supporters, including school children, have been visiting his grave to mark the annivers
Source: AP
Jul 6, 2009
Britain's defense ministry ordered an inquiry Monday into allegations that Iraqi civilians were tortured and killed by British troops following a fierce gunbattle in Iraq in 2004.
Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell said in a statement the study will examine events that followed clashes near the southern Iraqi town of Majar al-Kabir.
Six Iraqi civilians are suing the British military and have demanded a full public inquiry into claims that about 20 detainees were killed
Source: AP
Jul 6, 2009
A trove of letters to one of baseball's founding fathers has been removed from an upcoming auction. The FBI is investigating whether they were among items stolen from the New York Public Library.
The 19th century letters were written to Harry Wright. He built the country's first professional baseball team in Cincinnati.
Sports memorabilia dealer Hunt Auctions said Monday that it was removing the letters from the July 14 auction in St. Louis because "many questions
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jul 6, 2009
On October 20, 2008 in the northern Afghan region of Kunduz a suicide bomber blew himself up near a vehicle carrying Henry Lukacz, Jan Berges, Alexander Dietzen and Markus Geist. The explosion killed two German paratroopers as well as five Afghan children. At the risk of their lives the four soldiers, between 28-33 years of age, rescued a seriously wounded soldier and stood by another one trapped inside the burning vehicle.
An appropriate honor
The new Cross of Honour f
Source: BBC
Jul 6, 2009
Despite a distinguished career which saw him at the centre of power or influence at some of the most troubled times of the 20th Century, it was Errol Morris's 2003 film, The Fog of War, subtitled Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara, which singled out this former defence secretary.
In the film, McNamara spoke frankly about the Vietnam war, the Cuban missile crisis and World War II, giving a behind-the-scenes account of the context in which important decisions were taken,
Source: NYT
Jul 6, 2009
Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington, the Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Diana. He was 93, and according to the news agency, had been in failing health for some time.
Serving Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, Mr.
Source: NYT
Jul 5, 2009
Many American presidents have kept prized possessions within reach during their White House years. Franklin D. Roosevelt cherished a 19th century ship model of the U.S.S. Constitution. One of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s favorite gifts was an engraved Steuben glass bowl from his cabinet. And sitting on John F. Kennedy’s desk in the Oval Office was a paperweight made from a coconut shell he had carved with a distress message after his PT-109 was sunk during World War II.
The objects have b
