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: CNN
Oct 10, 2010
Despite being allowed to tell her husband he won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, the wife of Liu Xiaobo was detained in her apartment in Beijing, China, according to a human rights group and her attorney.
Liu Xia has not been charged with a crime, but "appears to be under a de facto house arrest," said Beth Schwanke, legislative counsel for the U.S.-based group Freedom Now.
But upon return to Beijing, Liu Xia was not allowed to leave her apartment, Schwanke said.
Source: AP
Oct 10, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed solidarity with China's government Sunday over the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed Chinese dissident.
He suggested the prize should not have gone to Liu Xiaobo, who has drawn praise from Western governments as an advocate of gradual political change without any violent confrontation with Chinese leaders.
The Venezuelan leader criticized last year's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, saying the U.S. pr
Source: WaPo
Oct 9, 2010
A GOP nominee for the House of Representatives drew sharp criticism from Holocaust survivors Saturday for having participated in a Nazi reenactment group devoted to a Waffen SS division, and Democrats seized on the Ohio businessman's activities as the latest indication that the Republican Party is backing fringe candidates.
The Atlantic magazine reported Friday that Rich Iott, a member of the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" program, participated
Source: NYT
Oct 9, 2010
HANOI, Vietnam — A musical refrain blared from a loudspeaker as this weekend began — “Hanoi, Hanoi, Hanoi” — and on the sidewalk below, Nguyen Thi Thuy was selling red heart-shaped decals printed with the gold star of Vietnam’s flag....
With parades and concerts and flamboyant propaganda kitsch, Hanoi is celebrating its 1,000th anniversary on Sunday, and much of city life has stopped to make way for it....
A target of American bombing in the 1960s and 1970s, then a mori
Source: Hokumburg Goombah (Blog)
Oct 8, 2010
This is a Daguerreotype taken by the inventor of the process, Louis Daguerre, in 1838. It is a view of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. To achieve this image (one of his earliest attempts), he exposed a chemically treated metal plate for ten minutes. Others were walking or riding in carriages down that busy street that day, but because they moved, they didn't show up. Only this guy stood still long enough—maybe to have his boots shined—to leave an image.
Other primitive forms of photogra
Source: Discovery News
Oct 8, 2010
The bacteria wiped out a third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages.
Anthropologists said on Friday they had confirmed long-running suspicions that a germ called Yersinia pestis caused the plague that wiped out an estimated third of Europe's population in the Middle Ages.
Teeth and bones sampled from 76 skeletons found in "plague pits" in France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands and sequenced for DNA intrusion are conclusive evidence that Y. pestis was
Source: Discovery News
Oct 8, 2010
A rare, first-person account of the ordeal of one of the survivors of the Titanic disaster will soon hit the auction block.
The letter is a signed affidavit from Laura Francatelli (second from the right in the above photo), a passenger aboard the Titanic as well as the secretary to two controversial figures in the oceanliner's saga, Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon.
Following the disaster, Sir Cosmo is thought to have paid crewmen for access to a lifeboat. When the ship w
Source: WRAL
Oct 8, 2010
Five Union Army soldiers who died 145 years ago now have grave markers.
The Charlotte Observer reported Friday the graves had been marked only with large stones since they were killed by Confederate soldiers while scouting for supplies....
Source: Civil War Interactive
Oct 8, 2010
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011, NOAA has assembled a special historical collection of maps, charts, and documents prepared by the U.S. Coast Survey during the war years. The collection, “Charting a More Perfect Union,” contains over 400 documents, available free from NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey website.
“People are planning now for their visits to Civil War sites next year, and we want to give them an opportunity to visualize the terrain, ports, and coa
Source: Haaretz
Oct 8, 2010
Almost unnoticed within the confines of the large Hietaniemi area is the Helsinki Jewish cemetery. Surrounded by old moss-covered stone walls, it is separated from the predominant Christian Lutheran graves there, as are the graves of other minority religious denominations in Hietaniemi.
Passing through a gate into the Jewish cemetery, one immediately notices on the right-hand side a small area demarcated by a low fence made of heavy iron chains. Here lie Finnish-Jewish war heroes -
Source: KSMU (AR)
Oct 8, 2010
The schoolchildren in Boyd Elementary School file in and take their seats on the auditorium floor. Many have been looking forward to meeting this special guest—they’ve been studying world history and conflict resolution.
The visitor is a pilot from World War II. Her name is Millicent Peterson Young, and she is one of the few surviving Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
She and over 1,000 other women flew military aircraft within the US during the war—often ferryin
Source: BBC
Oct 8, 2010
The lives of women in Highlands high society in the 18th and 19th centuries are to be explored in a lecture by historian Dr Stana Nenadic.
Her talk, in Dornoch, draws on research of letters, memoirs and poetry written by the wives and daughters of lairds and noblemen.
The lecture will be dedicated to the late historian and feminist Sue Innes.
It forms part of the 10th annual Women's History Scotland event, hosted by Dornoch's UHI Centre for History....
Source: BBC
Oct 8, 2010
The International Criminal Court's appeals chamber has ruled that a trial of a Congolese warlord should resume after a three-month suspension.
In July, judges halted Thomas Lubanga's trial on war crimes charges and ordered his release when prosecutors refused to hand information to the defence.
Friday's ruling reversed the decision, but also rebuked Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo for flouting court orders.
Mr Lubanga has denied using child soldiers in easter
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 8, 2010
Decision Points – the memoirs of George W Bush, former US president – is out next month and will have a print run of 1.5 million copies, the same as Bill Clinton's My Life, which went on to sell 2 million copies.
The huge first printing run would be accompanied by an e-book and multimedia extras, Crown Publishers said in a statement.
Crown, an imprint of Random House, also said there would be video highlights of Mr Bush's presidency, photographs not included in the har
Source: AP
Oct 8, 2010
Filipino World War II veterans and widows of those who already have died are suing the federal government over benefit payments that they say are inadequate and discriminatory.
The suit was filed against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in San Francisco federal court Friday.
It claims one-time payments of either $9,000 or $15,000 given to the Filipino soldiers or their survivors are a pittance compared with what other veterans receive....
Source: CNN
Oct 8, 2010
Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national poll.
And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also indicates in the battle for Congress, Republicans hold large advantages over the Democrats among independents, men and blue-collar whites. The poll also indicates that Republicans are much more enthusiastic than Democrats to vote.
By 47 to 45 percent, Ame
Source: CNN
Oct 8, 2010
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident who is serving an 11-year prison term after repeatedly calling for human rights and democratization, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced.
Liu was sentenced in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power. He is the co-author of Charter 08, a call for political reform and human rights, and was an adviser to the student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Liu's wife, Liu Xia, t
Source: NYT
Oct 8, 2010
Many New Yorkers were suspicious of the newcomers’ plans to build a house of worship in Manhattan. Some feared the project was being underwritten by foreigners. Others said the strangers’ beliefs were incompatible with democratic principles.
Concerned residents staged demonstrations, some of which turned bitter.
But cooler heads eventually prevailed; the project proceeded to completion. And this week, St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in Lower Manhattan — the locus of a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 8, 2010
A set of John Lennon’s fingerprints being auctioned for at least $100,000 (£63,000) has been seized by the FBI, 30 years after the singer’s death.
The 1976 signed application for Lennon’s US citizenship was one of the hallmarks of about 850 celebrity items in an online sale timed around Lennon’s birthday on Saturday.
The fingerprint card was being shown to media at a midtown New York shop early on Wednesday in an auction preview of more than 90 Beatles items when the
Source: BBC News
Oct 7, 2010
A bid by a Cumbrian museum to buy a rare Roman helmet and keep it in the county has failed after an anonymous phone bidder bought it for £2m.
The helmet was unearthed by a metal detector enthusiast in Crosby Garrett, near Kirkby Stephen, in May.
The piece, thought to have been worn by soldiers at sports events, was expected to fetch £300,000 when it went under the hammer at Christie's in London.
Carlisle's Tullie House was one of the bidders but was not suc
