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
Feb 12, 2009
In a message aimed at easing the rancor over a bishop's denial of the Holocaust, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called the slaughter of 6 million Jews a crime against God, and the Vatican said he would make his first visit to Israel in May.
The pope met with about 60 American Jewish leaders on Thursday and assured them the Catholic Church was "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism," issuing his strongest condemnation yet of Holocaust denial.
Source: CNN
Feb 12, 2009
From Capitol Hill to Springfield, Illinois, President Obama and Congress paid tribute Thursday to Abraham Lincoln on the bicentennial of his birth.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield also opened its doors Thursday for a special celebration, featuring original documents including the Gettysburg Address.
Meanwhile, the Library of Congress marks the bicentennial Thursday by opening a special exhibit featuring Lincoln's handwritten speeches
Source: Deutsche Welle
Feb 12, 2009
The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded Wednesday, Feb. 11, that the German Foreign Ministry "fully investigate the failure of its representatives" to report the whereabouts in Egypt of wanted Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim "and thereby facilitate his capture."
A statement released by the center's Jerusalem office said findings by The New York Times and German public broadcaster ZDF proved that Heim, known as "Dr. Death," submitted an application to extend
Source: BBC
Feb 12, 2009
Ford's Theatre in Washington, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, has reopened after a $50m (£34.7m) restoration project.
Almost nothing of the original interior remains, but the building has been painstakingly restored using crime scene pictures taken at the time by the famous Civil War photographer Mathew Brady.
The theatre is as much a shrine as a place of entertainment and has drawn about a million visitors a year.
The refurbish
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 12, 2009
From a childhood as an avid beetle collector, Darwin went on to become one of the heavyweights of the scientific world.
His masterpiece On The Origin of Species, published in 1859, transformed the way science was understood, with his theories on evolution forming the basis of modern biology.
Darwin's theory, proposing that life evolves by natural selection over millions of years, caused uproar in the worlds of science, religion and art and is viewed as one of the most i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 12, 2009
The 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth made a radio address on October 13 1940 to the children of the Commonwealth, many of whom had been evacuated.
Buckingham Palace has also released from the Royal Archive film footage of a dashing young Duke of Edinburgh in a cinema advertisement for the Playing Fields Association in 1951. The Duke makes a guest appearance as "the boss" in a short film in which group of children, who have been banned from playing cricket in the streets and
Source: BBC
Feb 11, 2009
Newly published documents show how a German archaeologist used trickery to smuggle home a fabulous sculpture of the Egyptian queen, Nefertiti.
The archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt, listed the bust of Queen Nefertiti among his finds in Egypt in 1913.
But he described it as a worthless piece of gypsum and hid it in a box.
It is now regarded as a supreme artefact of the Pharaonic era and attracts half a million visitors per year to Berlin's Egyptian Museum.
Source: WaPo
Feb 11, 2009
Open government groups scored a small but potentially decisive victory this week in a long-running battle to win publication of thousands of secret reports that Congress uses to fashion new laws.
Each year, with the help of more than $100 million in funding from Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) produces thousands of reports on legislative policy issues ranging from farm subsidies to weapons sales. While the reports are neither copyrighted nor classified, their release ha
Source: NYT
Feb 11, 2009
Nearly four years after New York State passed a law creating a commission to promote the teaching of black history in public schools, the commission has never met, and 5 of its 19 seats have yet to be filled. For many educators and parents, the Amistad Commission, named after a slave ship seized by its captives, has become a modern-day symbol of bureaucratic inertia.
“New York, a pivotal state in African-American history, has not taken the lead here and we’re languishing,” said Mann
Source: CNN
Feb 11, 2009
Sarah Palin once accused Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists,” a catchphrase intended to highlight Obama’s connection to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers.
Now that the campaign rhetoric has subsided, Ayers has an idea for a new show starring his Alaskan nemesis.
“I did send her a note after the election,” he says of Palin in the upcoming issue of the New York Times magazine. “I suggested that we have a talk show together called ‘Pallin’ Around Wi
Source: Reuters
Feb 11, 2009
For a site whose historical importance ranks with Egypt's Pyramids, the
ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon has suffered some rough treatment.
In recent times, U.S. troops and allied armies have parked tanks and weapons on the site in southern
Iraq and used earth containing ancient fragments to fill their sandbags.
Looters ransacked its treasures, and before that Saddam Hussein"restored" parts of it using new
bricks bearing his name and built a kitsch palace overlooking it.
Source: AP
Feb 11, 2009
The bookends of the NAACP's century testify to the change it has wrought.
In 1908, a race riot in Springfield, Ill., left at least seven people dead and led to the birth of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 2008, Barack Obama, who had launched his campaign just blocks from where Springfield's blood once spilled, became the first African-American president.
In between, wielding legal arguments and moral suasion in equal measure, the NAACP
Source: http://www.thestar.com
Feb 11, 2009
Controversy over a planned re-enactment of France's historic defeat on the Plains of Abraham is prompting the federal government to consider scrapping the event.
Political commentators have called the event an insult, sovereigntists are expressing outrage, and even some federalist politicians like Premier Jean Charest are promising to stay away.
Now the government says it might back away from plans to re-enact the 250th anniversary of the Quebec City battle that set the
Source: The Cutting Edge
Feb 11, 2009
A charismatic religious Jewish group is in an international legal battle against the Russian Federation, literally fighting for its spiritual soul. At stake is the right to possess the precious archive and library of the orthodox Jewish group known as Chabad.
The books and papers were plundered and fell from the movement’s control in Europe during the war-torn decades of the last century. The story of how Russia came to control the historic collections is nothing less than a chronicle of
Source: Tehran Times
Feb 11, 2009
Prior to start of the ceremony, children attired in school dresses presented national anthems of the two brotherly Muslim countries, Iran and Pakistan.
Chief guest, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Labor and Manpower Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah along with ambassador of Iran Mashaallah Shakeri cut the cake to begin the celebrations.
A number of diplomats attended the function.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 11, 2009
The sandals were given to a British army officer in 1931 prior to the Round Table talks in London that were held to discuss Indian self rule.
Gandhi gave his metal rimmed, circular lensed glasses to an army colonel with the words: "These gave me the vision to free India."
His Zenith pocket watch was given to his grand niece, Abha Gandhi, his assistant of six years, in whose arms he died after being shot in 1948.
As Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, comm
Source: ABC News
Feb 10, 2009
Mexico City mass grave may hold remains of Aztec fighters who resisted Cortes to the end.
Archaeologists digging in a ruined pyramid in downtown Mexico City said Tuesday they found a mass grave that may hold the skeletal remains of the Aztec holdouts who fought conquistador Hernan Cortes.
The unusual burial holds the carefully arrayed skeletons of at least 49 adult Indians who were buried in the remains of a pyramid razed by the Spaniards during the 1521 conquest of the
Source: AP
Feb 10, 2009
A German court ruled Tuesday that a Jewish man from Florida is the rightful owner of a rare poster the Gestapo seized from his father in 1938.
The ruling set the stage for the return of the entire collection of thousands of posters taken by the Nazis, which are now worth at least euro4.5 million ($5.85 million).
The Berlin administrative court ruled that Hans Sachs never gave up ownership of the collection of 12,500 posters taken from his home on the orders of Nazi Prop
Source: AP
Feb 10, 2009
Neighbors of a proposed Wake County high school say they have more evidence that a slave cemetery is on the land.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday that residents living near the site in Raleigh said they found property records that show it was once owned by a family that operated a plantation.
They said headstones on the land indicate more graves are on the site and plan to present their findings to Wake County school officials this week.
Source: AP
Feb 10, 2009
In an era when America traveled by train, one of the best jobs an African-American man could land was working as a Pullman porter. It also was one of the worst.
The hours were grueling - 16 hours a day, seven days a week. The pay was poor and the work menial at best. Porters cleaned toilets, made beds and satisfied the whims of passengers who sometimes called them "boy" or worse.
Still, Pullman porters saw the country, met famous people and supported families.
