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: Die Spiegel (Germany)
February 11, 2010
Germany's Carnival is an expression of anarchic fun and mockery of those in power. Yet the Nazis sought to harness the potential of the festivities for their own ends. Anti-Semitic floats and speeches attacking Germany's enemies were commonplace, and defiance was rare.
It was Rose Monday in the German city of Cologne and the festivities for the 1934 Carnival were well underway. Of the many floats taking part in the traditional parade, one featured a group of men dressed up as orthod
Source: CNN
February 10, 2010
Newly released photographs show what a damaged World Trade Center tower and its collapse looked like from a New York Police Department helicopter as it flew nearby on September 11, 2001, in New York.
The aerial photos were obtained by ABC News after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which had collected the images for its investigation into the towers' collapse.
A couple of the images show one
Source: BBC Radio 4
February 11, 2010
After more than 40 years, the BBC's Paris office is moving to new premises and Emma Jane Kirby, the last correspondent in residence, is finding it an emotional experience.
There is something strangely prurient about wandering round an abandoned television studio.
Spliced cables and cut wires splay inelegantly from walls and skirting boards and the carpet, no longer able to hide its modesty behind the heavy bookcases of the tape library, reveals dark stains and a thick d
Source: BBC News
February 11, 2010
A Swedish man has been arrested in Stockholm over the theft of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign from Auschwitz death camp, officials say.
The arrest came after a Polish court last week issued a European arrest warrant for Anders Hogstrom.
The metal sign was stolen in December from above the entrance to the notorious Nazi death camp. It was later recovered, cut into three pieces.
Five Polish men have already been arrested over the theft.
The sign, whi
Source: BBC News
February 11, 2010
Celebrations are being held to mark 20 years since the release from prison of Nelson Mandela, a key step towards ending apartheid in South Africa.
In Cape Town, prominent figures took part in a commemorative walk at the prison where he spent the final months of his 27-year imprisonment.
Mr Mandela, now a frail 91-year-old, is expected to make a rare public appearance on Thursday evening.
He became the country's first black president in 1994.
Mr
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 10, 2010
The petition asks Britain to review the trials of lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock who were found guilty of the murder of 12 prisoners of war in the dying days of the Boer War.
The Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, sent the petition, written by a military lawyer, Commander James Unkles, last week.
"We don't express a view either way on it," said Mr McClelland's spokesman.
"We sent it because we don't have any
Source: The Hindu
February 10, 2010
The Archaeological Survey of India has taken up preliminary work to restore an intact 17th century palace in south Tamil Nadu, the Thirumalai Naicker Palace, in this temple town. The ASI has also recommended that the palace be included in the tentative list of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.
The Srivilliputhur palace was declared a protected monument in 1921, but since the local district courts were functioning in the palace, it could not be reclaimed till the courts vacated the prem
Source: Fox News
February 10, 2010
As scientists come closer to completing a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome, creating a living person from an ancient DNA sequence is becoming a real possibility, according to Archaeology Magazine.
In 2005, 454 Life Sciences began a project with the Max Planck Institute to sequence the genetic code of a 30,000 year old Neanderthal woman. Now nearly complete, the sequence will let scientists look at the genetic blueprint of humankind's nearest relative, understand its biology
Source: BBC
February 10, 2010
The reconstructed face of a crew member from the Mary Rose is going on display at the ship's museum in Portsmouth.
The face of the man, thought to have been of a rank known as Bosun, was created by forensic artists from a skull recovered from the wreck.
It was given to the Mary Rose Trust to be displayed along with other objects found on board the fated warship.
The Mary Rose sank on 19 July 1545 with the loss of more than 400 lives, after 34 years of ser
Source: Fox News
February 10, 2010
Ronald Reagan's sons -- who share virtually nothing about their political persuasions -- are in a feud over what the late president would have to say about the Tea Party Movement and Sarah Palin.
Spurred by his younger brother Ron's recent appearance on Joy Behar's Headline News show, Michael Reagan, a Republican strategist, issued a written statement Wednesday saying his father would've supported the movement.
"I believe he would embrace the Tea Party Movement, if
Source: AP
February 9, 2010
Relatives in eastern Cuba claim to have held a 125th birthday party for a woman named Juana Bautista de la Candelaria Rodriguez, but it is not clear if she is really that old.
The agency added that civil registry documents confirm she was born on Feb. 2, 1885, in the village of Santa Rosa, where she continues to live.
The highest fully authenticated age was 122 years, 164 days by Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 in Arles, France.
Source: CNN
February 10, 2010
Civil rights songs were the soundtrack of the movement that helped bring President Obama to the White House. On Tuesday, Obama welcomed an array of artists to celebrate those songs.
An all-star lineup including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, the Blind Boys of Alabama, John Mellencamp, gospel singer Yolanda Adams and others performed some of the best-known numbers from what Obama called the "soundtrack" of the civil rights movement.
The co
Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
February 10, 2010
Archaeological excavation in the heart of the Old City confirms the description on the Madaba Map and reveals Jerusalem's main road from the Byzantine period for the first time.
The Madaba Map – an ancient mosaic map in a church in Jordan from the sixth-seventh century CE, which depicted the Land of Israel in the Byzantine period, explicitly showed: the entrance to Jerusalem from the west was via a very large gate that led to a single, central thoroughfare on that side of the city
Source: BBC News
February 10, 2010
A Swiss art collection that has been under lock and key since thieves stole its most-prized painting two years ago is to be open to the public again.
Four paintings worth $160m (£103m) were stolen from Zurich's Emil Buehrle Collection by an armed gang in February 2008.
Although two paintings were later recovered, two are still missing.
The Kunsthaus Museum will reopen the collection of 180 paintings and sculptures from Friday.
The show will m
Source: BBC News
February 10, 2010
DNA analysis of human hair preserved in Greenland's permafrost has given clues as to what the owner looked like.
A study, published in the journal Nature, says the individual's genome is the oldest to have been sequenced from a modern human.
The researchers say the man, who lived 4,000 years ago, had brown eyes and thick dark hair, although he would have been prone to baldness.
They say the genome also shows that his ancestors migrated from Siberia.
Source: BBC News
February 10, 2010
Nelson Mandela's release from prison 20 years ago opened negotiations which finally ended the racist segregation of the apartheid system. The BBC's diplomatic editor James Robbins, who was in Cape Town to report on the release, has been back to talk to key figures in the country's transformation.
"Nelson Mandela's first steps back to freedom..."
I can vividly remember the excitement of being able to say those words as I reported on the moment that transformed
Source: AP
February 10, 2010
A hospital spokeswoman says former Rep. Charlie Wilson of Texas has died at the age of 76.
The spokeswoman says Wilson died Wednesday of cardiopulmonary arrest.
Wilson represented Texas' 2nd District in the House from 1973 to 1996 and was nicknamed "Good Time Charlie" for his partying ways.
Source: NYT
February 9, 2010
For the debut of his latest weighty title, “On War in Philosophy,” the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy made the glossy spreads of French magazines with his trademark panache: crisp, unbuttoned white Charvet shirts, golden tan and a windswept silvery mane of hair.
But this glamorous literary campaign was suddenly marred by an absolute philosophical truth: Mr. Lévy backed up the book’s theories by citing the thought of a fake philosopher. In fact, the sham philosopher has never been a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 10, 2010
Alexandre Dumas has a special place in France's literary hall of fame as the father of great swashbuckling historical epics.
But a leading academic has cast doubt on how much of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo he actually penned. A new film will also suggest they were largely written by an unsung assistant.
The importance of the author's "nègre" – the French term for ghost writer – is explained by Claude Schopp, France's leading Dumas exper
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 10, 2010
The former Guantanamo Bay detainee says he was tortured in Pakistan while held by the CIA, with the knowledge of the British.
Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones want to disclose summaries of information held by the British security services.
Mr Miliband, branded them "irresponsible" in an unprecedented attack on the judiciary, but today three of the country's highest-ranking judges rejected both the minister's accusations and his appeal.
