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
Jun 5, 2009
On Saturday afternoon, veterans will attend a National World War II Museum ceremony in New Orleans recognizing soldiers, sailors and airmen who made that invasion a turning point for Allied forces. However, organizers acknowledge few members of an already dwindling population are hardy enough to make the trip.
The Department of Veterans Affairs says about 2.6 million World War II veterans are still alive, but more than 300,000 are expected to die this year. California has the most w
Source: ABC (The Pittsburgh Channel)
Jun 5, 2009
The U.S. government will not use eminent domain to seize people's land for a permanent Flight 93 memorial and instead will renew negotiations with landowners near the terrorist crash site in Somerset County, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.
Until Friday, the National Park Service had planned to seize the remaining land that's needed for a $58 million, 2,200-acre memorial and national park at the crash site -- an extremely rural area 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Source: CNN
Jun 5, 2009
President Barack Obama made an emotional visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, Friday, saying that the camp should serve as a reminder of humanity's duty to fight the spread of evil.
The visit had personal significance for the president, whose great-uncle helped liberate prisoners from the camp during World War II.
Obama told reporters earlier in the day that his great-uncle, Charles Payne, had a "very difficult time re-adjusting to ci
Source: CNN
Jun 5, 2009
Samuel Fahrer and Sidney Lipson shake hands and smile. It's the first time the men have seen each other in 64 years. They were U.S. soldiers back on a forced death march in Nazi Germany in April 1945.
It's a subdued moment for the two men. There are no tears, no pats on the back. The men have endured years of contained emotions from what happened six decades ago when they were prisoners of war and held as slaves inside Germany.
They have come to a hotel in Orlando to be
Source: Columbia Journalism Review
Jun 5, 2009
The Observer, a Sunday paper in England, confessed to a series of geographical blunders:Crossed consonants: the accidental substitution of an"r" for an"x" led to the incorrect labelling of Paros and Antiparos as"Paxos" and"Antipaxos" in our map of"Greece's Hidden Corners" (Escape, 10 May), thus relocating the latter from the Ionian to the Aegean sea.
And, furthermore, the capital of Turkey is Ankara, not Istanbul, as we said in"'Free holiday' scams abroad will catch
Source: Crosby [UK] Herald
Jun 5, 2009
A school in the Liverpool suburb of Crosby has axed history and geography from its curriculum. St Michael's Church of England High will stop teaching history from September, with geography dropped one year later. An integrated humanities GCSE will combine elements of both subjects with aspects of sociology and economics.
The school, which has 819 pupils on its books, has denied it ditched the traditional subjects as a means of improving its GCSE pass rate. The school said a decline
Source: Tom Brokaw reports for NBC News
Jun 5, 2009
Visit msnbc.com for
Source: Vox
Jun 4, 2009
World industrial production, trade, and stock markets are diving faster now than during 1929-30. Fortunately, the policy response to date is much better. The update shows that trade and stock markets have shown some improvement without reversing the overall conclusion -- today's crisis is at least as bad as the Great Depression.Editor’s note: The 6 April 2009 Vox column by Barry Eichengreen and Kevin O’Rourke shattered all Vox readership records, with 30,000 views in less than 48
Source: Max Boot at his Commentary blog
Jun 4, 2009
Obama ... twisted history when, for example, he mentioned how “Islam has
always been a part of America’s story.” He said: “In signing the Treaty of
Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, ‘The United States
has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or
tranquility of Muslims.’ ” That made the treaty sound like a celebration of
American-Muslim partnership when in reality it was a treaty whereby the
U.S. paid substantial bribes to the ruler of Tripoli in
Source: Press Release--http://www.solvethemystery.org/
Jun 4, 2009
HOHENWALD, Tenn.—Collateral descendants of Meriwether Lewis have unveiled a Web site as part of their campaign to exhume and examine the American explorer’s remains in hopes of determining conclusively how he died.
The Web site, www.SolvetheMystery.org, explains the Lewis family’s more than decade-long quest to gain federal permission for the exhumation as well as a Christian reburial. Since Lewis’ death in 1809, speculation has churned a
Source: AP
Jun 4, 2009
A diplomatic tiff over Queen Elizabeth II's omission from the guest list for this week's D-Day commemorations has reopened a divide over who should share credit for the World War II defeat of Nazi Germany.
Britons are grumbling that the nation does not get its due — either from its wartime ally, the United States, or from the French whom it helped to liberate.
The French insisted no slight was meant, and said Saturday's ceremony is intended primarily as a U.S.-French ev
Source: BBC
Jun 4, 2009
A tour company has said it is still trying to make arrangements to get D-Day veterans from Scotland to commemorations in France this weekend.
At least three veterans had been due to travel in a party of about 18 people organised by European Battlefield Tours Limited of Glasgow.
But the firm swapped the bus it was using at the last minute because it feared the driver may have swine flu.
The replacement bus it booked then broke down.
The compa
Source: BBC
Jun 4, 2009
Poland is marking the 20th anniversary of the elections that led to the formation of the first non-communist government in the former Soviet bloc.
Ceremonies began with a service at Krakow cathedral attended by PM Donald Tusk and the former leader of the Solidarity union movement, Lech Walesa.
In 1989, Solidarity won an overwhelming victory in the first, partially-free elections in communist Eastern Europe.
The vote paved the way for the gradual end of co
Source: BBC
Jun 4, 2009
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has strongly criticised the US as Iran marks 20 years since the death of the founder of the Islamic republic.
He said the US remained "deeply hated" in the region and "beautiful and sweet" words would not change that.
He told the huge crowd at the mausoleum of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomenei, that action was needed not words.
He also demanded calmer exchanges between presidential candi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
President Barack Obama has arrived in Dresden, the former East German city which was left a smoking ruin by British and American bombers in the Second World War.
The President was greeted by American flags, banners and unofficial posters depicting his beaming face beneath the words 'Ich bin ein Dresdner' – an echo of President John F. Kennedy's famous declaration in West Berlin in 1963 during the Cold War.
"Welcome to Dresden Mr President!" ran the front page
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
Veterans of the D-Day landings say they fear being "shoved" aside amid the clamour for dignitaries at the 65th anniversary commemorations in.
As hundreds of survivors of the 1944 campaign made their way to France for a series of events on Friday and Saturday, the Normandy Veterans Association (NVA) warned that the anniversary was in danger of ecoming a "jamboree" for politicians on a "jolly".
With the Prince of Wales and Gordon Brown due to
Source: Wife of James Fallows at his blog at the Atlantic
Jun 4, 2009
I went to the square at noontime, expecting to see pretty much what we saw last night: the square off limits, people walking along the roadside or staring at the flag and Mao's giant portrait.
I was really shocked to see the square itself open to the public during the day. Or, as I realized later, open to the "public." There were thousands of people on the square, but there was something odd about the scene. I realized by the end of the afternoon that this crowd
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
More than 150,000 people gathered in Hong Kong last night to sing and chant in memory of the students killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre 20 years ago.
The gathering was larger than it was on the first anniversary of the bloodshed in 1990. An area the size of six football pitches was marked out for the event, but proved to be insufficient, leaving hundreds of people queuing at the entrances of Victoria Park.
Protesters said they had turned out in force to remind t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
Veterans of the D-Day landings say they fear being "shoved" aside amid the clamour for dignitaries at the 65th anniversary commemorations in.
As hundreds of survivors of the 1944 campaign made their way to France for a series of events on Friday and Saturday, the Normandy Veterans Association (NVA) warned that the anniversary was in danger of ecoming a "jamboree" for politicians on a "jolly".
Peter Hodge, Honorary General Secretary of the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
Two decades after his defiance made him the the second most-wanted ringleader of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Wuer Kaixi is fighting deportation from Macau and insisting he wants to return to his homeland.
Wuer marked the 20th anniversary of the crackdown in a holding cell in the Chinese territory after immigration officials denied him entry to turn himself in.
Denied permission to enter Macau at the airport on Wednesday, authorities in the special administrat
