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: Foxnews
Apr 24, 2009
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wasn't the first to discover the book he gave to President Obama last week in an attempt to ease diplomatic tensions — college students in the U.S. have been turning its pages for years.
The 317-page "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent" has been identified on the syllabi of at least 20 U.S. colleges and universities since 2003, and it's been taught for decades on American campuses.
The vir
Source: LAT
Apr 24, 2009
The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuses at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush White House.
The decision will make public for the first time photos obtained in military investigations at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Forty-four photos that the American Civil Liberties Union was seeking in a court case, plus a "substantial number" of other images, will be released by May
Source: Politico.com
Apr 24, 2009
The president retains — but doesn’t depend on — his global star power. He is like Nike: Kids still love him; foreigners still love him. Obama remains a powerful brand that commands constant media coverage, much of it fawning, and that moves markets.
But emphasis on personality and style obscures one of the biggest things that look different now than three months ago: the familiar categories that had classified Democrats for a generation. When Obama took office, a raft of stories ta
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Apr 24, 2009
Just weeks ago, suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk was pictured being carried out of his Cleverland home too frail to even walk or face trial.
But as these pictures claim to show, the 89-year-old is fit to be extradited to Germany where is he accused of more than 29,000 counts of accessory to murder.
Demjanjuk's lawyers claimed earlier this month the extradition amounted to torture because of his ill health.
Source: BBC News
Apr 24, 2009
Barack Obama has refrained from calling the killing of Armenians by Turks in World War I "genocide" despite using the term during his election campaign.
However, the US president did describe the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians as "one of the great atrocities of the 20th century".
He appealed for Turks and Armenians to "address the facts of the past as a part of their efforts to move forward".
The two countries ag
Source: Foxnews
Apr 24, 2009
Referring to the killings as genocide could upend recent pledges of a closer partnership with Turkey, a vital U.S. ally in a critical region.
President Obama faces a dilemma as he prepares to issue an annual presidential statement Friday on the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
Referring to the killings as genocide could upend recent pledges of a closer partnership with Turkey, a vital U.S. ally in a critical region. Steering around the word woul
Source: Foxnews
Apr 24, 2009
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., makes the dubious claim that Sept. 11 hijackers entered the United States through Canada -- just days after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came under fire for saying the same thing.
Napolitano retracted her claim on Thursday after Canadian officials chided her for the remark, calling it an unfortunate misconception. Napolitano admitted Thursday that she made a mistake -- since the 9/11 Commission concluded that the hijackers entered the U.S
Source: AP
Apr 24, 2009
Tens of thousands of Armenians marched through the capital on Friday to commemorate the 94th anniversary of the start of mass killings by Ottoman Turks, many calling on Turkey to recognize the slayings as genocide.
Armenia and Turkey said Thursday they are close to restoring full relations and reopening their border after 15 years. But neither side has indicated how they might resolve the dispute over the killings.
Friday's procession began with a burning of Turkish fla
Source: AP
Apr 24, 2009
What a British auction house claims are a set of paintings and sketches by a young Adolf Hitler sold at auction Thursday for $143,358.
Among the 15 pictures is a portrait of solitary figure dressed in brown peering into wine-colored waters. The date is 1910, the signature reads "A. Hitler" and scribbled just over the mysterious figure are the letters: "A.H."
Westwood-Brookes acknowledged that the pieces were "hardly Picasso," but — concerns
Source: Times (UK)
Apr 23, 2009
Tony Blair has said he does not regret leading Britain to war in Iraq when he was Prime Minister and has called on the world to take on and defeat Islamic extremists. He believes that, without intervention, the problem will continue to grow in countries such as Afghanistan.
He called for a battle to be waged against militant Islam similar to that fought against revolutionary communism.
In an address last night to a forum on religion and politics in Chicago, Mr Blair s
Source: BBC
Apr 23, 2009
As national security adviser, Ms Rice consented to the harsh interrogation of al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, the Senate Intelligence Committee found.
Memos released last week show that he and another key detainee were subjected to waterboarding 266 times.
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney has said the techniques produced results.
The latest details were revealed in a timeline of the CIA's interrogation programme produced by the US Senate Intelligence Com
Source: United Press International
Apr 23, 2009
An Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities spokesman says 30 rare Christian archaeological artifacts have been found in Tekrit.
Ministry spokesman Abdulzahra al-Talaqani said the artifacts were located by municipal workers laying down pipes in the city, which had a large Christian population until the late 12th century, the Iraqi newspaper Azzaman reported Thursday.
Saood al-Azzawi, the city's Antiquities Department representative, said among the discovered items are
Source: BBC
Apr 23, 2009
The authorities in Germany have begun excavating a site they believe contains one of the last undiscovered mass graves of Jews killed by the Nazis.
The work on the site of the former Nazi labour camp of Lieberose, near Jamlitz in Brandenburg state, follows a decade-long battle with the former landowner.
More than 750 sick Jewish men and women are believed to have been killed there by the Waffen SS on 2 February 1945.
The remains of 589 victims shot the n
Source: Gold Coast Mail (Australia)
Apr 23, 2009
AN Australian school teacher who pinpointed the spot where nearly 200 World War I diggers lie in a mass grave in France has been effectively banned from helping to recover and rebury their bodies.
Lambis Englezos led Australian army officials to the spot of the mass grave on the outskirts of the rural town of Fromelles, near Lille in northern France, after years of painstaking research.
A team of archaeologists uncovered what were believed to be the remains of about 400
Source: ABC News
Apr 23, 2009
From the Bodies of the Heroes of the American Revolution to Common Bostonians, Basement Contains Over 1,100 Bodies.
The Old North Church is best known for the pivotal role it played in the American Revolution. It's the site of the famous "One if by land and two if by sea" warning: On April 18, 1775, after Paul Revere's ride, two lanterns hung in the church steeple signaled the advancement of the British troops to Lexington.
But the church also has a few skelet
Source: WaPo
Apr 23, 2009
WaPo video series.
Source: AP
Apr 23, 2009
Of all Barry H. Landau's anecdotes about his friendships with presidential dogs - and trust us, he has lots of 'em - perhaps the best is the one about the time the Clinton White House called to postpone his play date with Buddy.
Yes, Landau is both human and an adult - a 60-year-old author, presidential historian, former White House protocol officer and memorabilia collector. But so enamored is he of dogs, and so well connected to a succession of presidents, that he had an appointme
Source: Wired
Apr 23, 2009
An ancient script that's defied generations of archaeologists has yielded some of its secrets to artificially intelligent computers.
Computational analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a long-lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. Some frustrated linguists thought the symbols were merely pretty pictures.
"The underlying grammatical structure seems similar to what's found in many languages," said University of Washington
Source: NYT
Apr 23, 2009
Turkey and Armenia have agreed to a framework for improving their strained relations, the two countries said in a statement this week, apparently in the first breakthrough in diplomacy in more than a decade...
The statement’s timing seemed calculated to dampen enthusiasm in the United States for passing a resolution in Congress to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. In a trip to Turkey this month, President Obama praised the two countries’ efforts to overcome their differe
Source: NYT
Apr 23, 2009
In the three months since leaving office, Mr. Cheney has upended the old Washington script for former presidents and vice presidents, using a series of interviews — the first just two weeks after leaving office — to kick off one last campaign, not for elective office, but on behalf of his own legacy. In the process, he has become a vocal leader of the opposition to President Obama, rallying conservatives as they search for leadership and heartening Democrats who see him as the ideal political fo
