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: BBC
Mar 26, 2009
Mikhail Gorbachev introduced many changes with his perestroika policy when he became Soviet leader in 1985 and one of the most important went under the banner of "democratisation".
This began in earnest in January 1987, but there was still no discussion of transition to a Western-style democracy.
The authorities considered that the USSR had no problems with its version of democracy, it just needed to be "widened and deepened", to use Mikhail Gorbac
Source: BBC
Mar 26, 2009
Arthur West scrambled down the rope of a rescue boat to give his wife and two daughters a flask of hot milk before returning to the deck, and his fate.
The 36-year-old's act of bravery was revealed in an account written by his wife, Ada, which is being auctioned next month with the flask and letters.
The items could fetch up to £60,000 at the sale in Devizes, Wiltshire.
The luxury liner struck an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912, killing 1,517 people.
Source: Elizabeth Drew in the New York Review of Books
Mar 26, 2009
As carefully as Barack Obama prepared for it, the presidency has held some surprises for him—some foreseeable, some not, and some of his own making. Seeking to avoid the mistakes of the early Clinton era, Obama concluded that, unlike Clinton, he didn't want to hold the numerous meetings that can chew up so much of the president's time. Instead, according to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, Obama's style is to drop by an aide's office—a restless man, he roams the White House corridors—or stop a
Source: NYT
Mar 25, 2009
If you’re interested in studying left-wing social movements like organized labor, civil rights or feminism, there are dozens of universities and colleges that have created special programs and research centers devoted to the subject. But hardly any similar institutions exist in academia for those looking for a place to study the right wing in America and abroad.
Now, with backing from an anonymous donor, the University of California, Berkeley, where ’60s-era students stood atop a po
Source: http://www.wtvr.com
Mar 25, 2009
Virginia's Civil War Battlefields are one of the state's biggest tourist attractions. And if you're lucky, you can find actual Civil War relics. Sometimes those relics can be dangerous for you and everyone around.
"Thousands and thousands of shells were fired during the siege of Petersburg," says Jimmy Blankenship, Historian-Curator of Petersburg National Battlefield.
More than 140 years later.
"I would easily say, probably hundreds if not th
Source: Fredericksburg.com
Mar 25, 2009
Virginia is leading the nation's efforts to save Civil War battlefields, Gov. Tim Kaine made plain during a visit in Spotsylvania County yesterday.
Speaking at Slaughter Pen Farm--epicenter of the Fredericksburg battlefield--Kaine praised the public-private work that is protecting some of these unique historic resources.
In terms of sheer dollars, Virginia leads the United States in its battlefield preservation efforts, according to the national, nonprofit Civil War Pre
Source: http://www.cathnews.com
Mar 25, 2009
International expert on church unity, Rev Günther Gassmann, a German Lutheran theologian, has urged the Catholic Church to declare officially that its excommunication of Martin Luther no longer applies.
Such a statement, "in these ecumenically less exciting times ... would be a remarkable step and a sign of hope and encouragement," said Rev Günther Gassmann, who was director of the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Commission from 1984 to 1995, according to an Ekk
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 25, 2009
MEPs have moved to prevent the 80-year-old French National Front leader from presiding over the opening of the first session of the new European Parliament on July 14 as the doyen of the house.
Officials have also indicated that he could face disciplinary action for "bringing the parliament into disrepute" by using his immunity as an MEP to avoid criminal prosecution for Holocaust denial.
Mr Le Pen on Wednesday caused a storm in the parliament by defiantly hit
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Mar 25, 2009
In 12 months between 1940 and 1941, the plucky mutt combined all the inherited skills of uncertain parentage to rescue more than 100 victims of the Blitz from the air-raid ruins of London.
Then he carried on the good work for another four years until the end of the war.
But what made this tale of a shaggy dog so remarkable was that Rip was never trained for search and rescue - he simply attached himself to a Civil Defence team after being bombed out of his home. T
Source: Deutsche Welle
Mar 25, 2009
A Munich court ruled on Wednesday that a British publisher's popular history series called Zeitungszeugen, or Witness Reports would be allowed to reprint old Nazi newspapers printed before 1939. The court based its decision on a copyright law, which says that reproduction rights can be exercised after a seventy year period.
Germany's state of Bavaria controls the copyright to most Nazi era newspapers as well as Adolf Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf and forbids their reproduction.
Source: AP
Mar 25, 2009
A book coming this fall will offer one of the ultimate inside takes on the economic crisis — from former Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
"I didn't come to Washington thinking I was going to leave and write a book, but this period was so significant and there are so many insights and so many lessons learned that I think an understanding of this extraordinary period is important," Paulson told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Wednesday from h
Source: AP
Mar 25, 2009
JERUSALEM –- The Israel Antiquities Authority says archaeologists have discovered a Byzantine-era bathhouse in the south of the country dating back more than 1,500 years.
Archaeologist Gregory Serai headed the excavation and says the impressive size of bathhouse, 20 by 20 yards (meters), showed the area between Beersheba and Gaza was more heavily populated in the Byzantine era then previously thought.
Serai added in Wednesday's statement that the evidence found at the s
Source: Factcheck.org (Annenberg)
Mar 25, 2009
[President Obama] said he is reducing “nondefense discretionary spending” to less than it was under the past four presidents. Not true. His own forecast for the final budget of his four-year term puts this figure higher than in many years under Reagan, Clinton or either Bush.
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In 2006, we criticized President Bush for bragging about reducing "nondefense discretionary spending" without mentioning that overall spending had increased dramatically. Obama is ad
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Mar 25, 2009
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), along with co-sponsors Senators Kennedy (D-MA) and Byrd (D-WV), recently introduced a bill (S. 659) called the “Improving the Teaching and Learning of American History and Civics Act of 2009.”The bill would do the following.Authorize 100 summer academies for outstanding students and teacher
Source: The Daily Beast
Mar 25, 2009
Is the new administration turning out to love secrets as much as the last one? The Justice Department is attempting to dismiss an Oregon civil lawsuit under the "state secrets" privilege, claiming that some of the information will jeopardize national security. The al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which was suspected of funding terrorism, is suing White House officials, the National Security Agency, Treasury Department and the FBI, regarding warrantless wiretaps they claim were placed on
Source: WaPo
Mar 25, 2009
The latest budget cut in the District: a four-year-old holiday for city workers called Emancipation Day.
Under Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's proposed fiscal 2010 spending plan, the April 16 holiday, which commemorates the day in 1862 when President Lincoln freed the District's 3,000 slaves, would be discontinued next year. The reason? Not having to pay workers who work that day holiday rates would save the city about $1.3 million, the mayor's office said.
Emancipation Day was
Source: AP
Mar 25, 2009
John Hope Franklin, a revered Duke University historian and scholar of life in the South and the African-American experience in the United States, died Wednesday. He was 94.
Duke spokesman David Jarmul said Franklin died of congestive heart failure at the university's hospital in Durham.
Born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma where he was often subjected to humiliating incidents of racism, he was later instrumental in bringing down the legal and historic
Source: AP
Mar 25, 2009
NORFOLK, Va. –- Nearly a century after the Titanic struck ice in the North Atlantic, a federal judge in Virginia is poised to preserve the largest collection of artifacts from the opulent oceanliner and protect the ship's resting place.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, a maritime jurist who considers the wreck an "international treasure," is expected to rule within weeks that the salvaged items must remain together and accessible to the public. That would ensure th
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Mar 25, 2009
Children will no longer study the Second World War and Queen Victoria, but instead learn about Twitter and blogging under radical plans to overhaul primary school teaching.
The new draft curriculum commissioned by the Government claims that pupils can do without learning about the battle against Nazism and the rise and fall of the British Empire.
In a move which will horrify many parents, it would see children focus on internet tools such as Wikipedia and podcasting, as
Source: Deutsche Welle
Mar 25, 2009
The March, 25, 1949 deportations saw people seized from their homes without warning and transported, literally like cattle, to the frozen ends of the earth, marking one of the lowest points even by the standards of the Soviet Union's oppressive history.
In a short period of time, around 100,000 Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians were sent to Siberia in cattle trucks to scratch a living from the permafrost in labor camps. Some died on the way, some died as the years passed - and a few
