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: International Herald Tribune
Apr 14, 2008
Dr. Johnson declared a tavern seat "the throne of human felicity." The Frenchman Hilaire Belloc, who spent his life in England, said: "When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves. For you will have lost the last of England."...
Some say the pub is in crisis. A few years ago, The Guardian reported that for the first time since the Norman Conquest fewer than half the villages of England have a pub. Chains of horrendous corporate-owned "vertical drink
Source: AP
Apr 14, 2008
Donald H. Rumsfeld, the powerful defense secretary and architect of the Iraq War who left office two years ago as he faced ever-rising criticism, is working on a memoir to be published by Penguin Group (USA) in 2010.
"This will be a story that will span my lifetime," Rumsfeld, 75, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday from his office in Washington, D.C. "It will be something that I will try hard to have be very fair and honest and useful. I hope i
Source: National Geographic News
Apr 14, 2008
He supposedly preferred to remain behind the scenes, but after 1,800 years one of Rome's most reclusive emperors has been thrust into the limelight.
A statue of Lucius Verus, who ruled ancient Rome alongside his more famous adopted brother Marcus Aurelius, was recently recovered among a cache of looted artifacts, Italian officials say.
Investigators found the intricately carved marble head in a boathouse near Rome, saying the find was particularly significant because Lu
Source: WaPo
Apr 14, 2008
With the opening today of a new, $103 million visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park, Cemetery Ridge is undergoing the most radical change to its look and feel in a generation. The new visitor center, hidden in a hollow behind the ridge, has made both the old visitor center and the Cyclorama Building -- designed by the renowned architect Richard Neutra in the 1960s -- obsolete. And so, in an effort to return the battlefield to its original state, the National Park Service is about t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 14, 2008
Spanish archaeologists collaborated with the Nazis in their attempts to prove the theory of Aryan supremacy and justify their claims of racial superiority over the Jews, according to a new book.
Spain wanted to promote the idea that the Aryan race could be traced to the Canary Islands, amid claims they were all that remained of the lost continent of Atlantis.
Scientists from the Ahnenerbe, an institute set up by Heinrich Himmler and funded by the SS, planned to travel t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 14, 2008
Thousands of Germans have queued for hours to see a mobile exhibition on the Holocaust that was barred from Berlin's central station.
Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company, refused to allow the "Train of Remembrance", which documents deportations by rail during the Second World War, to use the station and instead shunted it to the east of the capital.
Thousands still queued for up to four hours. "These masses demonstrate that they are ready to confron
Source: Newsweek
Apr 14, 2008
Conventional wisdom says that the longer the Democrats fight over their party's presidential nominee, the greater the chance of a GOP victory in the fall. But an analysis of the races since 1968 shows that in many contests, at least one of the nominations wasn't decided until June; one was fought until August. So is the CW right? Check out our examination of electoral history for the answer. Hint: Bill Clinton's 1992 experience was an anomaly.
Source: Evan Thomas & Pat Wingert in Newsweek
Apr 14, 2008
It's a good bet that whoever wins in November will be greener than George W. Bush. The next president is likely to launch the nation on the path toward reducing dangerous CO2 emissions. But any legislation emerging from Congress will probably be no more than a directional signal, a declaration of intent or a down payment—a start, but at best a modest beginning. To go further, to truly tackle the greenhouse effect, will require the one thing from voters that few politicians dare to ask for and fe
Source: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com
Apr 13, 2008
More than a century ago, thousands of Scrantonians gathered on Courthouse Square to dedicate the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, honoring those who lost their lives in the Civil War.
On Saturday, a crowd again gathered in front of the 104-foot-tall structure, this time for a rededication ceremony following $500,000 in restoration work.
Source: http://www.polskieradio.pl
Apr 13, 2008
Poland today marks the 65th anniversary of the disclosure by the Nazis of the Katyn massacre in which over 20,000 Polish officers were murdered by the Soviets.
The main commemorations will take place in Warsaw. At noon, Sunday, before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, an official change of the guard and a military parade will take place.
The Katyn Victims Memorial Day was established in 2007.
Source: AP
Apr 13, 2008
Mayor Jean-Pierre Leger was married and baptized his children at Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens church in this village in western France. Not without sadness, he is now planning to bulldoze the 19th century building.
The dilemma of what to do with churches that have fallen out of favor — and into disrepair — is facing towns and villages across France and other European countries. Some communities have dynamited churches deemed too expensive to maintain. Others have taken a
Source: AP
Apr 13, 2008
Gen. Andrew Jackson's early 19th century hunt for Angola ended with the Florida settlement's destruction. Documentarian Vickie Oldham is now trying to find remains of the town, the Southeast's last major outpost for free blacks and fugitive slaves.
Since 2002, Oldham has worked to bring the story of Angola to life. A former television reporter in Sarasota, she has recruited historians, archaeologists and educators to produce a documentary, Web site and educational materials about An
Source: Sunday Herald Sun
Apr 13, 2008
AN acclaimed Melbourne restaurant has sparked multi-ethnic outrage for paying homage to a fascist warlord and mass murderer.
The plush Katarina Zrinski restaurant attached to Footscray's Croatian Club has been branded "disgusting" for its celebration of genocidal World War II Croatian leader Ante Pavelic.
Pavelic, who historians say was responsible for the deaths of up to 500,000 Jews, Serbs, Muslims and gypsies, has been described as the Heinrich Himmler of t
Source: LAT
Apr 13, 2008
In Mexico, the story of the country's black population has been largely ignored in favor of an ideology that declares that all Mexicans are "mixed race." But it's the mixture of indigenous and European heritage that most Mexicans embrace; the African legacy is overlooked.
"They are saying we are all the same and therefore there is no reason to distinguish yourself," said Padre Glyn Jemmott, a Roman Catholic priest from Trinidad and Tobago who has had a parish of
Source: NYT
Apr 13, 2008
In 1662, the colonists of Hartford accused 39-year-old Mary Sanford of witchcraft. Based on evidence — drinking wine and dancing around a bonfire — the court pronounced her guilty “for not having the feare of God before thyne eyes.” Sanford was hanged, leaving behind five children and a shaken husband who was later acquitted of similar charges.
More than three centuries later, Sanford’s descendants, 14-year-old Addie Avery and her mother, Debra, of New Milford, Conn., have petitione
Source: NYT
Apr 13, 2008
Running into Desi Bouterse is not easy to do. He does not frequent this capital’s outdoor cafes. He keeps to his riverfront villa. He grants few interviews.
Still, he is one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in this tiny former Dutch colony on South America’s northeast shoulder, and in his story is a lesson — perhaps — for the rest of the continent in the virtues, and downsides, of patience.
Suriname’s 470,000 people know Mr. Bouterse well. At 62, he is a former m
Source: NYT
Apr 13, 2008
Joblessness is growing. Millions of homes are sliding into foreclosure. The financial system continues to choke on the toxic leftovers of the mortgage crisis. The downward spiral of the economy is challenging a notion that has underpinned American economic policy for a quarter-century — the idea that prosperity springs from markets left free of government interference.
The modern-day godfather of that credo was Milton Friedman, who attributed the worst economic unraveling in America
Source: Fox News
Apr 13, 2008
Rev. Jeremiah Wright told a congregation in Norfolk, Va., on Sunday that reporters sneaked into a private funeral service a day before, in which he blasted America’s founding fathers for slavery and white supremacy and received standing ovations for attacking FOX News for covering his anti-American sermons.
Barack Obama’s retiring pastor delivered a sermon at Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church, where his late uncle had been the pastor, about overcoming trouble. The public appearanc
Source: http://www.int.iol.co.za
Apr 12, 2008
Beneath the surface of the dry, red sand covering a farm just outside Kimberley, the remains of an untold story have been uncovered, revealing the establishment of a black Boer War concentration camp, dating back more than 100 years.
About 1 200 refugees were moved from locations in Jacobsdal, Boshof and Petrusburg to a farm 30km outside Kimberley in the then Orange Free State, after the British forces had occupied the towns.
Local archaeologists had been searching in
Source: AP
Apr 12, 2008
Workers rebuilding a sports stadium on the site of an 18th century Jewish cemetery in Belarus say they have no choice but to consign the bones to city dumps.
"It's impossible to pack an entire cemetery into sacks," said worker Mikhail Gubets, adding that he stopped counting the skulls when the number went over 100.
But critics say it's part of a pattern of callous indifference toward Belarus' Jewish heritage that was prevalent when the country was a Soviet rep
