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: Telegraph (UK)
May 8, 2009
The Israeli government demanded that Pope Benedict XVI explicitly condemn Catholics who deny the Holocaust, as he arrived in Jordan on the first leg of his tour of the Holy Land billed as an act of 'reconciliation'.
The intervention came despite repeated concessions in the lead-up to the tour by the Vatican, which is desperate to smooth difficult relations with both the Jewish and Muslim worlds.
The Pope insists his eight-day trip is a "pilgrimage" to Holy La
Source: AFP
May 8, 2009
Every spring, when the ground thaws, searchers fan out across Russia's vast swamps and forests armed with metal detectors, shovels and long metal probes, scouring for bones.
Most are are barely teenagers, their nails caked in the dirt of this valley west of Moscow, where up to 30,000 soldiers died before Adolf Hitler's advancing Nazi army in 1941.
The fields, about 140 kilometres (90 miles) west of Moscow, where the Red Army's 32nd Rifle Division held Nazi troops for 15
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 8, 2009
Historians have uncovered a list of the names of 17 British soldiers in an Auschwitz bunker.
The details, which were found during routine preservation work at the concentration camp, has puzzled researchers who have no clue how it came to be there.
Experts are divided over the list with some claiming the names belong to former Jewish prisoners of war who were sent to die at the camp.Others say they could have belonged to a British SS Division
Source: AP
May 8, 2009
The son of John Demjanjuk says immigration agents have served the suspected Nazi guard with a notice to surrender at an immigration office in Cleveland.
The notice was served Friday, one day after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the 89-year-old suspect's appeal to stop the deportation.
Lawyers for the retired autoworker said he's in poor health and too frail to be sent overseas.
Source: AP
May 8, 2009
Col. Harold E. Fischer, an ace fighter pilot whose high-profile captivity became a symbol of heightened tensions between the U.S. and China at the end of the Korean War, has died. He was 83.
Fischer died April 30 after suffering complications from back surgery, his companion Tsai Lan Gerth said.
He received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Cross, among many other decorations
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 8, 2009
Memorials of Air Chief Marshal Park will be placed at Trafalgar Square and Waterloo Place in London.
Westminster City Council officials decided it was right to recognise the contribution of Sir Keith in defending London during World War Two.
The New Zealander took charge of RAF 11 Group Fighter Command, which bore the brunt of the Battle of Britain.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 8, 2009
The wild fruit tree cousins of Britain's favourite domestic apples are teetering on the brink of global extinction, according to a new report.
Scientists have drawn up a 'Red List' of 44 species of Central Asian fruit trees that could soon disappear unless drastic action is taken.
Around 90 per cent of the fruit and nut forests in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have been destroyed over the past 50 years.
Source: CNN
May 8, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI arrived Friday in Amman, Jordan, for a weeklong visit to the Middle East that he hopes will help "foster good relations between Christians and Muslims."
It will be the first papal visit to some of Christianity's most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000. The pope will also meet with Muslim scholars and visit Jordan's King Hussein Mosque.
"My visit to Jordan gives me a welcome opportunity to speak of my deep res
Source: Hilzoy at the Washington Monthly blog
May 8, 2009
As Steve and others have reported, the Georgia State Senate has adopted a resolution allowing the state to nullify any
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 8, 2009
Napoleon Bonaparte may be known as one of the greatest military leaders of history, but another talent has been unveiled as his romantic novel is set to be released in English.
The first English version of his romantic novella Clisson et Eugénie, is due out this autumn, according to the Bookseller magazine.
When Napoleon died in exile on St Helena, aged 51, his possessions included the manuscript of his novella, the pages of which were scattered as souvenirs. But the f
Source: BBC
May 8, 2009
The Amelia Earhart centre in Ballyarnet Country Park in Derry marks the spot where the American flier - the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic - touched down in Europe after her record-breaking flight in 1932.
The museum has been earmarked for closure by Derry City Council as part of a package of cost-cutting measures to save £1.5m from the city's rates bill.
Derry City Council have said they had to make "difficult decisions" in order to minimise th
Source: BBC
May 8, 2009
One of Russia's most important war memorials, a huge statue towering over the southern city of Volgograd, is in danger of collapsing, an official says.
The Motherland statue is leaning at such a precarious angle that many people are scared of going near it.
Rising water levels are causing the foundations of the memorial to subside.
It commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad, when the Soviet army eventually managed to defeat the invading German forces in wh
Source: CNN
May 8, 2009
The crown of the Statue of Liberty will re-open to tourists on July 4, spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff of the U.S. Interior Department said Friday.
The crown has been closed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The National Park Service closed the crown amid worries that it would be difficult for visitors to evacuate quickly in the event of an emergency.
Source: CNN
May 8, 2009
That issue is at the heart of attempts by a Dallas, Texas, attorney to have social-networking site Facebook remove pages for Holocaust deniers.
Attorney Brian Cuban, brother of Dallas Mavericks team owner Mark Cuban, has been trying since last year to have the pages of groups with such names as "Holocaust: A Series of Lies," and "Holocaust is a Holohoax" removed from Facebook.
He pointed out that Facebook has removed groups based on complaints befor
Source: Press Release
May 8, 2009
All people of goodwill are invited to attend the 45th Annual Mississippi Civil Rights Martyrs Memorial Service and Conference and March for Justice. We will remember and honor slain civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and all other Mississippi civil rights martyrs. Over fifty victims have been identified thus far.
The weekend’s events begin on Saturday, June 20, with a March for Justice commemorating the march that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led in
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
Barack Obama is a history buff. When he makes a political point he instinctively reaches for the historical parallel: the Lincolnesque “team of rivals” making up his Cabinet, Winston Churchill’s attitude to torture or his own family’s experience of the Second World War.
The only problem is that he sometimes gets history wrong.
His plan to visit Buchenwald is in part a tribute to his great-uncle, Charlie Payne, who participated in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a satellite
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
President Obama is preparing to follow in the footsteps of his great-uncle, Charlie, with a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany when he returns to Europe this summer.
The site is laden with historic and personal significance for the President. More than 50,000 people died at the camp before its liberation in April, 1945 by American soldiers, including Charlie Payne, the uncle of Mr Obama’s mother.
For the soldiers that stumbled over the corpses it wa
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
A flight of Royal Navy aircraft flew over London yesterday, circling the Houses of Parliament in an air show to mark 100 years of naval aviation.
The Duke of York, who saw active service as a naval pilot during the Falklands conflict, joined war veterans on board the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, moored at Greenwich, southeast London. Merlin, Sea King and Lynx helicopters as well as Hawk and Jetstream aircraft took part. Prince Andrew said: “Aviation is a very challenging busin
Source: Times (UK)
May 8, 2009
An honour established by the Queen has been declared unlawful after Muslims and Hindus complained that its Christian name and cross insignia were offensive.
The Trinity Cross of the Order of Trinity was established by the Queen 40 years ago to recognise distinguished service and gallantry in the former colony of Trinidad and Tobago. It has been received by 62 people including the cricketers Garfield Sobers and Brian Lara, the novelist V. S. Naipaul and many of the islands’ leading
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 8, 2009
The government has released figures stating that 5,335 school children died when the 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit the south-western province. Most perished when their schools collapsed.
Anger over the number of children killed and the government's failure to hold an inquiry into the reason why almost 12,000 schools were destroyed or damaged has been rising ahead of the sensitive first anniversary of the earthquake, which left 70,000 dead and another 18,000 missing.
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