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Makeover Planned for Hitler's Baltic Sea Hotel Colossus

The windows are either broken or boarded up, the roof is leaking and the plaster is crumbling from the walls. But the monumental steel and concrete structure planned as a Nazi-era holiday complex has survived otherwise unscathed. The gigantic building in the Baltic Sea resort of Prora on the island of Ruegen was part of Hitler's so-called "Strength Through Joy" program to keep Germans fit and healthy. Never used by vacationers It was to house 20,0

NY: In 1968, as Today, Filling a Senate Seat Was a Complex Chore

Here’s some advice for a New York governor who must fill a vacant United States Senate seat: The replacement senator should be “an alert, modern, creative intellectual leader — a rare commodity in this party of ours” — whose appointment would “help you with the national party” and “validate your own regularity and discrimination where it would count most — and at the same time do no violence to your philosophy.” It also wouldn’t hurt to hail from upstate, be loyal and share the depa

Iraq willing to return stolen Iraqi antiquities

Iraq says it is ready to return any stolen Iraqi antiquities in its possession, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement. The statement was issued following a visit Tourism and Antiquities Minister Qahtan al-Jibouri made to Tehran early this month during which he met Iranian President Ahmadi-Najad.

Obama studying Lincoln, but which one will he pick?

President-elect Barack Obama's personal identification with Lincoln, his embrace of him as a political model and his habit of quoting him have sent journalists flocking to Lincoln scholars in search of meaning. Just what does his attraction to Lincoln say about Obama? What does Lincoln offer as a model? How relevant is that model today? "I don't think you can really imitate Lincoln," historian Douglas L. Wilson said. But like other students of Lincoln, Wilson

JFK anniversary marked at Dallas shooting site

About 500 people crowded Saturday into the plaza where John F. Kennedy was shot 45 years ago, all agreeing it was right to remember a pivotal moment in American history, even if they didn't all believe the official line. People stood shoulder to shoulder and bowed their heads during a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. Some hawked JFK memorabilia or pitched conspiracy theories to visitors. Others offered firsthand accounts of their memories of the killing.

Hadrian's wall boosted economy for ancient Britons, archaeologists discover

Far from being a hated symbol of military occupation, Hadrian's Wall was the business opportunity of a lifetime for ancient Britons, archaeologists have discovered. The 73-mile long Roman wall, built in AD 122 to defend the Roman Empire from hostile Celtic tribes, created a thriving economy to serve the occupying army, according to aerial surveys. Farmers, traders, craftsmen, labourers and prostitutes seized the occasion to make money from the presence of hundreds of Ro

Vatican 'forgives' John Lennon for Jesus boast

A Vatican newspaper has forgiven the late English singer John Lennon for saying four decades ago that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. In an article praising The Beatles, L'Osservatore Romano said Lennon had just been showing off. Lennon told a British newspaper in 1966 - at the height of Beatlemania - that he did not know which would die out first, Christianity or rock and roll. At the time, the comparison sparked controversy in the US.

A Rewired Bully Pulpit: Big, Bold and Unproven

It is one thing to run a movement, filled with passion and an army of true believers set on a single goal, and another to run a country, where competing agendas are often fueled by deep divisions. And while the communications stars do seem to be aligned for Mr. Obama, historians, political scientists and strategists say that being the first Internet president poses its own challenges. The Internet, after all, is a two-way medium, and the bully pulpit is inherently one-way. “I don’t

Ukraine marks anniversary of great famine

KIEV, Ukraine: Church bells tolled, candles flickered under falling snow and national flags, adorned with black ribbons, flew in the Ukrainian capital Kiev Saturday as the country marked the anniversary of the start of a Soviet-era famine that killed millions. But the solemn events were overshadowed by fierce opposition from Russia. The Kremlin is resisting Ukraine's campaign to win international recognition of the 1932-33 tragedy as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation,

Russian who shot down John McCain should be given a medal, say Communists

They have hailed as a hero Yury Trushyochkin, 70, a former Soviet officer who claimed last week to have fired the missile which brought down Mr McCain's plane as it flew over a bridge near Hanoi in 1967. Mr Trushyochkin served in a mixed Soviet-North Vietnamese missile unit during the Vietnam war, which was guarding the bridge near a power plant under attack from a 20-strong strike force whose pilots included Mr McCain. The Soviet-made missile blew off a part of one wing of Mr McCa

Seldom seen JFK tape broadcast by NBC: His thoughts on the presidency

Americans remember Kennedy assassination, 45 years later

Americans reflected Saturday on the presidency of John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated 45 years ago, as once again a young, inspiring president is headed to the White House. President-elect Barack Obama has often been compared for his lofty ideals and charisma to the late JFK, who was shot dead in Dallas, Texas in 1963. But Obama's appeal and his historic election as the first African-American US president have many people worried about potential threats to his life.

Will Clinton be close enough to Obama to become an effective secretary of state?

The thaw in the resentful relationship between the most powerful woman in the Democratic Party and her younger male rival began at the party’s convention this summer, when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton gave such a passionate speech supporting Senator Barack Obama that his top aides leapt out of their chairs backstage to give her a standing ovation as she swept past.... Few are predicting that this new relationship born of mutual respect and self-interest will grow into a tight bond betwe

German Historians Compile List of Nazi Euthanasia Victims

Hitler first outlined his Nazi euthanasia campaign, which would later be called Operation T4, in his book "Mein Kampf." Believed to have claimed 70,000 victims between January 1940 and August 1941 alone, the idea behind Operation T4 was disseminated through Nazi propaganda films depicting the mentally or terminally ill as "useless mouths to feed." Financed by the German lottery, the university in Berlin and the state of Brandenburg's memorial trust, which is loca

"David and Goliath" City Found in Israel?

The remains of an ancient gate have pinpointed the location of the biblical city Sha'arayim, say archaeologists working in Israel. In the Bible young David, a future king, is described as battling Goliath in the Elah Valley near Sha'arayim. The fortified gate at the Elah Fortress—the second to be found at the site—proves the existence of Sha'arayim, which means "two gates" in Hebrew, said Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel. "All

Reviving a Novel-Worthy Tale of War and Religion

For more than 40 years he was a world figure, his renown stretching from the American Midwest to Moscow to the Middle East. As he neared death in 1883, The New York Times wrote that he “deserves to be ranked among the foremost of the few great men of the century.” Earlier, he had received accolades and awards from France, Britain, Russia, the Ottoman sultan, the papacy and President Abraham Lincoln, who sent him not a medal but, in quintessentially American fashion, a matched pair o

Massive Prehistoric Fort Emerges From Welsh Woods

Cloaked by time's leafy shroud, the prehistoric settlement of Gaer Fawr lies all but invisible beneath a forest in the lush Welsh countryside. Commanded by warrior chiefs who loomed over the everyday lives of their people, the massive Iron Age fortress once dominated the landscape. Now the 2,900-year-old structure lives again, thanks to a digital recreation following a painstaking survey by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. The Iron

Lessons of Survival, From the Dot-Com Attic

IN 2002, after the dot-com bubble burst, most people were trying hard to forget the preceding years of seemingly irrational entrepreneurial exuberance. But not David Kirsch. Mr. Kirsch, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, saw a way to ensure that the next generation of entrepreneurs could avoid the problems of that bubble, or “at least make new mistakes”: He would document what did and didn’t work during the flurry of business activity around

U. S. troops stand guard over 1,400-year-old monastery

With Iraqi Christians a threatened and dwindling minority, U. S. forces are safeguarding a 1,400- year-old monastery -- Iraq's most ancient -- for a time when peace, reconciliation and archeological detective work can occur. St. Elijah's Monastery, with its main fortress-like structure looming atop a barren hillside, sits inside a sprawling U. S. military base. Its bloody history makes clear why the monastery needs protection. In 2003, it was damaged during the U. S.-led invasion of

U.N. Urges China to Apologize for Tiananmen Massacre

A U.N. panel has urged the Chinese government to apologize to the victims of its 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. The Geneva-based Committee against Torture says China should also conduct an investigation into what happened around the Tiananmen Square protests and release any dissidents still being held. In a 15-page report published Friday, the panel says torture and other forms of ill-treatment are still practiced by police and that othe