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: Jerusalem Post
Apr 27, 2009
Yad L'Achim, a haredi anti-missionary organization, called Monday on Pope Benedict XVI to help find thousands of European Jews who as young children were saved from the Holocaust by Catholic clergy and laymen and were never told of their Jewish origins.
"During his visit here, we want the pope to call on all members of the Catholic Church to reveal the identities of thousands of Jews saved by the church from the Nazis," said Rabbi Shalom Dov Lipshitz, who heads the organiz
Source: AFP
Apr 27, 2009
The ultra-modern Acropolis museum, situated below the ancient landmark that defines the Greek capital Athens, will belatedly open in June, Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Sunday.
The three-level museum, with a total area of 25,000 square metres (270,000 square feet), includes a section reserved for the disputed Parthenon Marbles, currently at the British Museum in London.
Greece is pursuing a campaign for the return of the priceless friezes, removed in 1806
Source: KC Johnson at HNN blog Cliopatria
Apr 27, 2009
In light of the seemingly endless Coleman-Franken battle in Minnesota (the Supreme Court announced last week it wouldn’t hear oral arguments on former Sen. Coleman’s appeal until June 1), U.S. Senate Historical Office has put together a most useful page listing the contested Senate elections in U.S. history.The basics: since the advent of popular elections, there have been 26 contested Senate elec
Source: The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University
Apr 27, 2009
The media have given President Obama more coverage than George W. Bush and Bill Clinton combined and more positive coverage than either received at this point in their presidencies, according to a new study by researchers at George Mason and Chapman Universities. But the study also finds that Mr. Obama’s positive media image hasn’t precluded heavy criticism of his policies.
During his first 50 days in office, the three broadcast network evening news shows devoted 1021 stories lastin
Source: Arkansas News Bureau
Apr 27, 2009
The sinking of the Titanic was not the worst maritime disaster in American history, U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, told fellow U.S. House members Monday.
That distinction belongs to the sinking of the paddle-wheeled steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River near Memphis on April 27, 1865, Snyder said. His speech, posted on YouTube, was in support of a resolution he introduced to recognize the anniversary of the Sultana’s sinking.
The House voted 393-0 to approve the re
Source: NYT
Apr 27, 2009
That Barack Obama is now president is not directly relevant to any issue in the case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, No. 08-322, which will be argued on Wednesday and is widely considered the most important of the term.
Yet as they consider whether to cut off one of the great legal legacies of the civil rights era, the justices may be asking themselves the inevitable question: Is a law rooted in the age of Jim Crow still needed in the Obama era?
Source: Time
Apr 27, 2009
In February 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, killing a 19-year-old private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a devastating epidemic, President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost of $135 million (some $500 million in today's money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the vaccine. By April, more t
Source: Macedonian International News Agency
Apr 27, 2009
Total 4,300 mediaeval coins dating back to the second half of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries have been unearthed at the Carevi Kuli archaeological site overlooking Strumica.
The coins contained in two ceramic bowls have made one of the largest and most important mediaeval findings so far, according to Archaeologist Zoran Rujak, the head of the ongoing archaeological excavations.
Coins dating from different historical periods have been found at the site
Source: Independent (UK)
Apr 27, 2009
Gerry Adams has sparked surprise after admitting that his religious beliefs are more compatible with Protestantism than Catholicism.
The Sinn Fein president has revealed that he has not gone to confession “in years”, preferring to speak directly to God.
In an interview with Gay Byrne for his new Meaning of Life show on Ireland's RTE1, which aired last night, the republican leader also told how he had to run from his own wedding, spent most of his time living in other
Source: BBC
Apr 27, 2009
Lawyers for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, said judges at his trial heard insufficient evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt.
Megrahi, 57, will not be present at the appeal in Edinburgh, which is expected to last at least four weeks.
A total of 270 people died when the plane exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.
Source: BBC
Apr 27, 2009
The message, written in pencil and dated 9 September 1944, bears names, camp numbers and home towns of seven young inmates from Poland and France.
At least two survived the Nazi camp, an Auschwitz museum official said.
The bottle was buried in a concrete wall in a school that prisoners had been compelled to reinforce.
The school's buildings, a few hundred metres from the camp, were used as warehouses by the Nazis, who wanted them protected against air ra
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI named five new saints on Sunday, including Portugal's 14th century independence leader and a priest who ministered to factory workers at the dawn of the industrial era.
Speaking in a packed St Peter's Square, the Pope praised each of the five as a model for the faithful, saying their lives and works were as relevant today as when they were alive.
The Pontiff singled out the Rev Arcangelo Tadini, who lived at the turn of the last century and founded an
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2009
Egyptian archaeologists have unveiled mummies, brightly painted sarcophagi and dozens of ancient tombs carved into a rocky hill in a desert oasis south of Cairo.
The 53 tombs - some as old as 4,000 years - were discovered recently on a sandy plateau overlooking farming fields in the village Illahun, located in the Fayoum oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of the Egyptian capital.
Archaeologists gave journalists a rare tour of the ancient burial site, which
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Apr 27, 2009
Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) last week reintroduced several bills that he said were needed to limit presidential power and to restore the proper constitutional balance among the three branches of government.
The first bill (S.875) would instruct courts not to rely on a presidential signing statement when interpreting the meaning of any statute. (Similar legislation was introduced in previous sessions of Congress, but was not passed.) President Bush used signing statements "in
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2009
A replica 17th Century junk built to prove that China's ancient mariners could have reached America before Columbus or Magellan has sunk off the coast of Taiwan just a day's sailing short of completing a 17,000-mile return crossing of the Pacific.
The Princess Taiping - meaning "peace" in Chinese - was within sight of shore off Su Ao harbour in northeast Taiwan when it was sliced in two after a collision with a Liberian-registered cargo vessel.
The 53ft, thre
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2009
A pagan protester named King Arthur has been evicted from Stonehenge after staging a 10 month live-in protest about access rights to the ancient stone circle.
King Arthur Pendragon, a druid formerly known as John Rothwell, set up camp on the edge of the site last June, believing that people should be allowed to walk around and touch the stones, which have been roped off since 1977.
Pendragon, 55, who changed his name by deed poll in 1976, has been living in a caravan o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 27, 2009
Visitors to a collection of tree clumps planted near Stonehenge to commemorate the Battle of the Nile are able to pinpoint the location of each ship for the first time.
The National Trust has erected information boards to explain the positions of the clumps of beech, maple and hawthorn in the Wiltshire Countryside, each of which represents a British or French ship.
The Nile Clumps, as they are called, were thought to have been planted nearly 200 years ago to mark Nelso
Source: BBC
Apr 27, 2009
Pupils at Gordonstoun boarding school in Moray are stepping back in time to the 1930s to celebrate the school's 75th anniversary.
Students are following the original timetable, including the strict outdoors regime for which the school was known.
Gordonstoun was founded in 1933 by Kurt Hahn, who also founded the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and Outward Bound.
The school is famous for its connections to the Royal Family, with Prince Charles, Prince Andre
Source: Foxnews
Apr 27, 2009
The note, written in pencil then rolled up and inserted in a bottle, contains the names of seven young people who probably thought they were doomed to die in the notorious Auschwitz death camp.
Dated Sept. 9, 1944, the note bears the names, camp numbers and hometowns of the seven prisoners — six from Poland and one from France.
Workmen were tearing out a wall in the basement of a college building in the town of Oswiecim — which was called Auschwitz by the Nazis during W
Source: AP
Apr 27, 2009
LONDON –- The Obama administration says it won't look backward in the debate over harsh interrogations. On Attorney General Eric Holder's first stop in Europe this week, he looked back centuries, visiting a historic torture site...
The attorney general and his staff took a tour of the Tower of London, home of The Bloody Tower, and also the site where Guy Fawkes was put on the rack in 1605 to name those plotting with him to blow up Parliament.
The tower visit is standard
