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: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 26, 2011
An era of clattering keys and inky ribbons is coming to an end, as the world's last mechanical typewriter manufacturer has revealed it has only 500 left in stock.
Godrej and Boyce, of India, ceased production in 2009 and has now almost cleared its remaining inventory, according to the Business Standard.
Source: AP
Apr 26, 2011
Blood taken from Pope John Paul II during his final hospitalization will be used as the official relic for veneration after he is beatified.
Source: AP
Apr 26, 2011
Classified military files obtained by the WikiLeaks website reveal a range of potential Al Qaeda plots against the United States, including post-9/11 aircraft attacks on the West Coast, The New York Times reported Monday.
Source: BBC News
Apr 26, 2011
A US federal court has
ordered a new sentencing hearing for an ex-Black Panther activist on
death row for the 1981 killing of a white policeman.
A Philadelphia appeals court said Mumia Abu-Jamal, 57, must have a hearing within six months.
He has been on death row since 1983 after his conviction in the killing of Philadelphia Officer Daniel Faulkner.
He has maintained his innocence, and death penalty opponents across the world have rallied around his case.
Source: BBC News
Apr 26, 2011
The demolition of a huge
Turkish statue devoted to reconciliation with Armenia has begun, months
after the prime minister described it as a "freak".
The 30m-high statue - depicting two human figures facing each
other - was erected on a mountain in the Turkish city of Kars, near the
Armenian border.
Local authorities commissioned it several years ago to symbolise an end to decades of enmity and suspicion.
Artists had tried to save the statue, which could take 10 days to dismantle.
Source: BBC News
Apr 26, 2011
Next month, Barack Obama
will visit an Irish village where his great-great-great-great
grandfather made shoes. He is thought to be the 22nd US president to
have or claim Irish family, and most recent presidents have visited the
Republic or Northern Ireland. Why?
A small village of fewer than 300 residents in County Offaly is about to welcome its most famous son.
Source: BBC News
Apr 26, 2011
Punk singer Poly Styrene, former singer with the X-Ray Spex, has died at the age of 53 after suffering from cancer.
She was one of the first female punk icons, whose unorthodox yet infectious style was highly influential.
Real name Marianne Elliot-Said, she had cancer of the spine and breast.
A statement on her official Twitter feed said: "We can
confirm that the beautiful Poly Styrene, who has been a true fighter,
won her battle on Monday evening to go to higher places."
Source: UPI
Apr 25, 2011
FREDERICK, Md., April 25 (UPI) -- A waste-to-energy plant will loom
over a Civil War battlefield in Maryland already cut in two by an
interstate highway, a National Parks Service official says.
The battle of Monocacy was fought near Frederick, Md., in July 1864
as Union troops tried to stop a Confederate advance on Washington. The
Union lost the battle but delayed the enemy long enough for
reinforcements to be sent to the capital....
Source: AP
Apr 25, 2011
FAIRFAX, Va. – A years-long dispute between the Episcopal Church and
several breakaway congregations over homosexuality and important tenets
of Christian doctrine was back in a Virginia courtroom on Monday, where
the fight will likely be decided on mundane aspects of real estate and
contract law.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 25, 2011
A Chinese property billionaire who is accused breaking the hearts of a British couple by failing to pay for a £53 million Qing-dynasty vase that was found in the house of a deceased relative had "absolutely nothing" to do with the 'sale', his connections said on Monday.
Wang Jianlin, the chairman of the Dalian Wanda Group, has been named by several publications, including the Antiques Trade Gazette, as the man behind the record-breaking bid for the vase which fetched more than 65 times its £800,000 estimate.
Source: BBC
Apr 25, 2011
Ukraine is marking the 25th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident - at the Chernobyl power plant.
An explosion at one of the plant's reactors sent a plume of radiation across Europe and killed at least 30 people in its immediate aftermath.
A donors conference in Kiev, Ukraine, last week raised 550m euros (£486m; $798m) of the 740m euros needed to build a new shelter and a storage facility for spent fuel.
A donors conference in Kiev, Ukraine, last week raised 550m euros (£486m; $798m) of the 740m euros needed to buil
Source: BBC
Apr 25, 2011
Australians and New Zealanders are marking Anzac Day to remember those who died fighting for their country.
The Anzacs were the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who suffered huge losses at Gallipoli in Turkey in a failed allied assault in 1915.
New Zealand PM John Key has made an address in the UK, while his Australian counterpart, Julia Gillard, is taking part in a ceremony in South Korea.
Anzac Day has become one of the most revered occasions in both countries.....
Source: BBC
Apr 25, 2011
A hand grenade from World War II which was found on a beach in North Yorkshire has been removed.
The device was found on Filey Beach near Royal Parade at about 1100 BST by a member of the public who was using a metal detector.
North Yorkshire Police said the south side of the beach was evacuated until about 1430 BST.
The Army Bomb Disposal Team attended the incident but said the device did not need to be detonated....
Source: National Parks Traveler
Apr 25, 2011
Driving my VW Bug along
Interstate 70 in early January 1973, I was bound for the Golden West,
crossing the wide Missouri and on to Denver to report for work as a
historian with the National Park Service. With both a degree and
employment in hand, and aware that the academic job market for
historians had crashed, I felt extremely lucky. Yet the Park Service
had offered me only a temporary position, and no guarantee of a
permanent appointment.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 25, 2011
From conqueror to clown, a mixed review for the variety act of Prince
William’s namesake.
With the lamentable exception of William Rufus, King Williams have on the
whole served England and the monarchy pretty well. Our Prince
William can take some pride in, or at least not be too ashamed
about, his predecessors of that ilk.
Source: AP
Apr 25, 2011
Book dealer Ken Sanders has seen a lot of
nothing in his decades appraising "rare" finds pulled from attics and
basements, storage sheds and closets.
Sanders, who occasionally appraises items
for PBS's Antiques Roadshow, often employs "the fine art of letting
people down gently."
But on a recent Saturday while volunteering
at a fundraiser for the small town museum in Sandy, Utah, just south of
Salt Lake, Sanders got the surprise of a lifetime.
Source: BBC News
Apr 25, 2011
New Zealand's prime
minister has taken part in UK services to mark Anzac Day, in memory of
the New Zealanders and Australians who died at war.
The date marks the ill-fated landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915.
John Key laid a wreath at the Australian War Memorial at a dawn service in London's Hyde Park.
Events are also taking place at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and in Edinburgh.
Source: BBC News
Apr 25, 2011
Files obtained by the website Wikileaks have revealed that the US believed many of those held at Guantanamo Bay were innocent or only low-level operatives.The files, published in US and European newspapers, are assessments of all 780 people ever held at the facility.They show that about 220 were classed as dangerous terrorists, but 150 were innocent Afghans and Pakistanis.The Pentagon said the files' release could damage anti-terrorism efforts.
Source: Fox News
Apr 24, 2011
Strange hammerlike teeth seen in two newfound species of ancient marsupials -- teeth unknown in any other mammal -- were the weapons they once used to smash open snail shells.
Source: WaPo
Apr 24, 2011
PARIS — From blanket health insurance to long vacations and early retirement, the cozy social benefits that have been a way of life in Western Europe since World War II increasingly appear to be luxuries the continent can no longer afford.
