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
Oct 22, 2008
Italy's top court has ordered the German government to pay compensation to the families of Italian civilians killed by Nazi soldiers in 1944.
The Cassation Court said Berlin must pay one million euros (£787,000) to the relatives of nine victims of the massacre in the town of Civitella.
In all, 203 civilians were shot in revenge for an Italian partisan attack.
Germany argued it had immunity from being held financially responsible for Nazi crimes during Wo
Source: BBC
Oct 22, 2008
Exiles of the Chagos Islands will not be able to return to their homeland, the House of Lords has ruled.
The government won its appeal against a previous court decision that had ruled in favour of 2,000 former residents of the British Indian Ocean territory.
They were evicted in the 1960s when the colony was leased to the US to build an airbase on the atoll of Diego Garcia.
Their solicitor Richard Gifford said they are in a "state of shock" at
Source: USA Today
Oct 22, 2008
The Tower of David isn't Jerusalem's most celebrated, sacred or coveted site, but perhaps no place better illustrates the city's contentious history: Over the millennia, myriad conquerors have used it as a fortress, military barracks and cannon emplacement.
These days, the Tower serves a more benign purpose. Tucked inside the walls of the picturesque Old City, the compound is now a museum that welcomes tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Though overshadowed by its world-
Source: http://www.jacksonville.com
Oct 21, 2008
The lingering controversy over whether to drop the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, which celebrates a former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader, should come to an end early next month.
The Duval County School Board decided Tuesday to vote on the issue at its monthly board meeting on Nov. 3. The meeting is open to the public and will have a public comment period.
"The board will discuss it and vote on it - the same night," Chairwoman
Source: AP
Oct 21, 2008
MILAN, Italy – Curators of Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus said Tuesday that fears the collection of drawings and writings had been infiltrated by mold are groundless.
The Biblioteca Ambrosiana commissioned a microbiological analysis of the document after some scholars warned last year that the Codex had sprouted mold. The library said Tuesday that the study found black stains that seemed to be mold were in fact caused by mercury salts that had been added to protect the Codex f
Source: Time Mag.
Oct 21, 2008
Barack Obama has said that his biggest mistake was not being at his mother's side when she died of cancer in Hawaii in 1995 at the age of 52. His first book, Dreams from My Father, had come out only four months before, and he was starting his first campaign, for the Illinois state senate. Her death came quickly, and he didn't make it back in time.
So it makes sense that now he would do things differently. Just two weeks before Election Day, Obama has decided to leave his campaign to
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
Thirty years after China began its post-Mao reforms, and with almost all of the Chairman's decisions reversed, nostalgia for the dictator is surging.
Mao Xinyu, the 38-year-old sole grandson of the Great Helmsman, is set to become the dean of China's first undergraduate university department dedicated to the study of Mao Zedong thought.
Songtian University, a private college in Guangdong, has applied for permission to the Ministry of Education to found the new departmen
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
Adolf Hitler marched his henchmen onto the streets of Munich to perpetrate the atrocity that became known as Kristallnact, newly deciphered passages from the diaries of Josef Goebbels show.
It had never been in doubt that the Nazi propaganda machine fuelled the Night of Broken Glass but now a German scholar has uncovered strong evidence that on the night of Nov 9 the Fuhrer led Nazis to destroy an important synagogue, deliberately throwing a match into a tinderbox.
On N
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
Republicans are facing their biggest electoral disaster since the Watergate scandal with even the party's Senate leader in grave danger of losing his seat.
The party's leaders are bracing themselves for heavy losses in Congress, with Democrats aiming to seize a commanding majority.
Standing on the steps of the local courthouse in Jamestown, in staunchly Republican rural southern Kentucky, Senator Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader, admitted: "This race is goin
Source: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Oct 21, 2008
International excavation project discovers hitherto undisturbed cremation sites
Within the scope of an international rescue excavation project, a team of four archaeologists specialized in Middle Eastern affairs headed by Dr. Dirk Wicke (Institute of Egyptology and Ancient Oriental Studies) have unearthed parts of a Neo-Assyrian governor's palace dating back to 900-700 B.C. in a two-month excavation program amongst the ruins on Ziyaret Tepe Hill. The discoveries were extraordinary. The site in
Source: AP
Oct 21, 2008
SOCORRO — Civil War buffs say a rocky patch of vacant land likely holds hundreds of human remains in a long-abandoned cemetery, including the unmarked graves of 27 Confederate soldiers.
Ken Garrison, an officer with the New Mexico Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said if the abandoned cemetery can't be preserved, soldiers' remains should be exhumed and reburied "in a respectable location."
The land is owned by Mary Silva, who said it's among the f
Source: NYT
Oct 21, 2008
Mr. Obama, who was campaigning in Florida on Tuesday, will make an appearance in Indianapolis on Thursday, but he canceled stops planned for Wisconsin and Iowa after that so that he can fly to Honolulu. His wife, Michelle Obama, will attend rallies in Akron and Columbus in his place.
Though Mr. Obama is leading in the polls, “there are still so many uncertainties, and 36 hours is a lot of time in two weeks,” said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at the Woodrow
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Oct 21, 2008
Jean Bartik, 83, one of six women selected to program the Eniac computer in 1945. The computer was designed by the Army to compute firing tables in World War II and weighed 30 tons. The women taught themselves how the machine operated by studying logical and electrical block diagrams. Bartik went on to contribute to other computers and has received several awards, including membership in the Hall of Fame Women in Technology International.
Robert Metcalfe, 62, who invented Ethernet,
Source: http://www.buffalonews.com
Oct 21, 2008
Catholics have been moving south from Western New York for decades. A vacant church on Buffalo’s East Side soon might join them.
A parish in the Archdiocese of Atlanta wants to buy St. Gerard Church at Bailey and East Delavan avenues, dismantle the basilica-style structure and ship it to Norcross, Ga., where it would be reassembled.
Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo expressed optimism about the unusual plan, which they call “preservation by relocation.” They
Source: Times (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
This is going to sound strange - unbelievable, probably - but I have just returned from a visit to the only royal palace on US soil, where angry Americans are demanding that the Queen be returned to power. I'm completely serious. As far as these neo-monarchists are concerned, the choice offered by November 4's election isn't good enough.
They want blue blood and a crown.
Now I know what you're thinking: it took them long enough to come to their senses. It's been - wha
Source: Times (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
Scottish ministers could release the former Libyan intelligence agent convicted of the Lockerbie bombing because he is suffering from “advanced stage” cancer.
The SNP Administration at Holyrood confirmed today that it would consider a request for early release on the grounds of his deteriorating health.
Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, 56, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer following hospital tests last month, his lawyer revealed today. Tony Kelly added that the disea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
Historians from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), the body charged with investigating communist crimes, have found documents that suggest that the Soviet Union was involved in the kidnap, torture and murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko in 1984.
The IPN says new evidence indicated that Father Popieluszko, an unflinching and brazen critic of communist rule in Poland, may have been held at a Soviet military base near Kazun, 30 miles to the north of Warsaw, and murdered a
Source: Tehran Times
Oct 21, 2008
Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also held talks with Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba in which he pointed out that the Iranian nation was also a victim of weapons of mass destruction.
“What you have experienced in the bombardment of your city, we have also experienced… and (we) have suffered the consequences of weapons of mass destruction,” the Tehran mayor told Akiba.
Qalibaf said there are about 100,000 Iranians who are still suffering from the injuries they rece
Source: Tehran Times
Oct 21, 2008
People who constructed the Sassanid fortress may have received bad news or were informed of a forthcoming invasion, the director of the team that recently completed a season of excavation at the fortress told the Persian service of CHN on Monday.
“Consequently, they had to cover all towers of the fortress with earth and left it in the hopes of coming back again but most likely they didn’t return to the site,” Mohammadreza Nemati added.
“Twelve excavations have been ca
Source: http://politiken.dk
Oct 20, 2008
A young couple walking along Horsens Fjord in August this year made a sensational discovery – a 5-7,000 year old stone with a scratched motif.
The 13x10x4 cm. limestone shows a man with an erect phallus and two fish. Archaeologists at Horsens museum were taken aback, and immediately passed the stone on the National Museum to determine whether the motif was indeed from the Stone Age or simply a later work of art using an ancient style.
