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: Deutsche Welle (Germany)
May 9, 2011
Germany has commemorated the anniversary of the surrender of the Nazis with a choral symphony in Berlin and the opening of a historic submarine yard in Bremen. Germans across the country commemorated the 66th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on Sunday, with a pan-European performance of a choral symphony in Berlin.
Source: BBC News
May 9, 2011
Documents revealing the torture of Mau Mau Kenyans directed by the British authorities were a "sort of guilty secret," a report says.Foreign Secretary William Hague said the papers should now be made public.The internal review found some Foreign Office officials had chosen to ignore the documents' existence.It comes as the High Court is due to rule on a compensation case brought by four Kenyans over alleged human rights abuses in the 1950s and 1960s.
Source: BBC News
May 9, 2011
John Walker, one of the founders of 1960s group The Walker Brothers, has died at the age of 67.His spokeswoman said Mr Walker died on Saturday at his Los Angeles home after a six-month battle with liver cancer.The band was formed when three unrelated US musicians - Scott Engel, John Maus and Gary Leeds - adopted the Walker Brothers name in 1964.Their biggest hits included the songs Make It Easy On Yourself and The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Any More).
Source: BBC News
May 9, 2011
London's National Gallery is to limit visitor numbers to a major exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci works in an attempt to prevent large crowds detracting from the viewing experience.Admissions will be fixed at 180 every half hour - 50 fewer people than the gallery is legally allowed to let in."We've looked hard at the problems caused by very popular exhibitions... and decided to take action," gallery director Nicholas Penny told The Times.Advance booking opens on Tuesday.
Source: Bloomberg
May 8, 2011
A team of underwater explorers in Greece examined the shipwreck of the Mentor, which sunk in 1802 as it transported marbles from the Parthenon to London.
The sculptures, part of the Parthenon collection taken and sent to England by Lord Elgin, were recovered after the ship sunk and no additional pieces were found in last month’s or in three previous explorations, the Athens-based Culture and Tourism Ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.
Three ancient coins, two silver and a bronze, were found on the wreck as well as two pistols and navigation tools used by the 10-member crew, according to the e-mail. French sea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau investigated the vessel with a team in 1975, the ministry said.
The Mentor, which lies near the island of Kythira in the Mediterranean sea, was explored from July 6 to July 15 and the team was funded by Kytherian Research Group, an Australian foundation, according to the e-mail....
Source: NYT
May 8, 2011
WICHITA, Kan. — The faces in the jury box are a cross-section of southern Kansas. The judge has a white beard, wears a bow tie and speaks in the straightforward language of the Great Plains. One defense lawyer favors cowboy boots and sometimes dons bolo ties. But they are listening to testimony about a place and time in a village half a world away. On the stand, a diminutive Rwandan man with gold-rimmed glasses talks in his native language about how he participated in the murder of his neighbors during the ethnic massacres in Rwanda 17 years ago.
Source: Independent (UK)
May 8, 2011
Unidentified ship that sank off the Dorset coast around 1600 is most important discovery since the 'Mary Rose'
The remains of the ship, known simply as the Swash Channel Wreck, were preserved for centuries under the seabed in six metres of water off the Dorset coast.
Source: NYT
May 8, 2011
Germany is famous for confronting its Nazi past. But confronting the years after the war is another matter.
Source: BBC
May 8, 2011
An archaeology group has called for the site of a 3,500-year-old settlement in the Vale of Glamorgan to be protected.
The remains of a Bronze Age village at Bendrick were first uncovered near the Atlantic Trading Estate near Barry in the 1980s.
Archaeology Cymru says the site is rapidly deteriorating due to off-road biking and other activities by people who may be unaware of what is there.
The county council, which owns the land, said it would investigate.
Archaeology Cymru director Karl-James Langford said he first bec
Source: BBC
May 8, 2011
The mummified, tattooed head of an ancient Maori warrior is to be returned to New Zealand after spending decades in a French museum.
Monday's handover of the "toi moko" follows years of campaigning by New Zealand officials and Maori elders.
It has been held at the Museum of Rouen in northern France since 1875.
More than 300 such heads have been returned from several countries since New Zealand began requesting their return.
French museum officials say they have no idea how the "toi moko" - which is intricately tattooed
Source: CNN
May 7, 2011
Three German torpedoes ripped through the icy waters of the Atlantic off the coast of Greenland. On February 2, 1943, the USS Dorchester was transporting 902 U.S. servicemen to war. Only one torpedo hit, but it struck a deathblow - killing scores instantly and resetting the ship's course to the bottom of the ocean.
Source: NBC
May 6, 2011
[Tom Brokaw tells the story of Gerald Ford's friendship for a black football player in the thirties when both played for Michigan and how this friendship led to Ford's getting a statue in the Capitol.]
Source: BBC
May 6, 2011
Bosnia is facing its worst crisis since the war ended in 1995, a leading international think tank has warned.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) said political crises were threatening to tear the state apart.
But it urged the international community not to try to block a forthcoming Bosnian Serb referendum.
The referendum aims to gauge support for the presence of an international high representative, imposed under the Dayton Accords after the war. ...
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 6, 2011
Spain's government has dropped plans to exhume remains of victims of the Civil War that are buried alongside General Francisco Franco at his mausoleum in the hills near Madrid.
Source: BBC
May 5, 2011
North Korea has handed over the remains of a British pilot who died in the Korean War nearly 60 years ago.
The remains are believed to be those of RAF Flight Lieutenant Desmond Hinton whose plane was shot down.
British ambassador Peter Hughes received the fighter pilot's remains at a ceremony in the demilitarised zone.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office confirmed that the remains had been handed over but was able to add few further details. ...
Following the e
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 5, 2011
Before devoting his time to defeating the British in the Revolutionary War and being the first president of the United States, George Washington enjoyed brewing his own beer.
Source: BBC News
May 5, 2011
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of medieval industry on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds town centre.The clay ovens and leather tanneries appear to date from the 12th-16th Centuries.Housing developers called county historians after they found mortar and flint footings for wooden buildings.Andrew Tester, project officer for Suffolk County Council, said: "We know a lot about the centre of the town, but not about this part."The precise location of the site is not being publicised to protect the dig.
Source: Guardian (UK)
May 5, 2011
Catalogue launched to help historians and families trace art looted during Hitler era.Despite a reputation for reaching for their revolvers at the merest mention of culture, the Nazis were among the most ruthless, avaricious and methodical art collectors ever to cast a greedy eye and thieving hand over other people's property.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 5, 2011
France is only belatedly accepting the extent to which Britain masterminded its wartime resistance operations, according to one of Winston Churchill's last remaining French secret agents.Captain Robert (Bob) Maloubier was an agent of the French section of the Special Operations Executive, or SOE. Churchill's "secret army" was created to "set Europe ablaze" by encouraging and facilitating espionage and sabotage behind enemy lines during the Second World War.
Source: Life
May 5, 2011
On May 5, 1961, 37-year-old Alan Shepard blasted off from Cape Canaveral on a historic flight that marked the moment the U.S. caught up to Russia in the Space Race. Here, rare and never-seen photographs from LIFE of that amazing era.President John Kennedy pins NASA's Distinguished Service Medal on Shepard's chest, May 8, 1961. Two weeks later, JFK famously declared: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."...
