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: AP
October 6, 2008
Five state police officers were arrested in southern Mexico on Sunday in connection with a deadly raid to dislodge protesters from a Mayan archaeological site.
The five officers led an operation on Friday to remove hundreds of mostly indigenous villagers who had occupied the entrance to the Chinkultic ruins for nearly a month, the Chiapas state Justice Department said. The officers could face homicide charges.
Protesters fought back with sticks, rocks and machetes, the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 6, 2008
The controversial dolls are on display at the Wizzard shop, part of the Albert Dock complex in Liverpool.
Officials at the International Slavery Museum, also based at the site, said it was "shocking" and called for the dolls to be removed from sale.
Richard Benjamin, head of the International Slavery Museum, said: "These dolls reinforce out-of-date racial stereotypes which are deeply offensive to many people, particularly within the black community.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 6, 2008
The most famous shrine to Holocaust suffering in the world – the attic where Anne Frank hid with her family in Amsterdam – was nearly torn down by the Dutch government after WW2 because it was 'not an historical monument'.
Now the house is visited by millions each year and the foundation that supports it has become central to rebutting the lies of Holocaust deniers wherever they are.
Anne Frank hid with her family in the Amsterdam apartment from 1942 to 1944. Betrayed, the family wer
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 5, 2008
The time capsule labyrinth lies deep below the Normandy city of Caen, which was all but destroyed by British guns around D-Day, June 6th 1944.
Largely undisturbed since, the makeshift bunkers still contain numerous reminders of a terrified population whose only thought at the time was survival.
They include packed suitcases, tins of syrup, decaying maps and official passes, and even lady's make-up bags including nail varnish and lipstick.
There are also
Source: Independent (UK)
October 7, 2008
A controversial novel about the Prophet Mohammad's child bride was rushed to US stores yesterday, nine days ahead of schedule, after the office of the book's British publisher was attacked.
Beaufort Books picked up "The Jewel of Medina" by journalist Sherry Jones after it was dropped by Random House in May because of concerns it could incite violence.
Beaufort said it sent out an initial print run of 40,000 copies.
The novel traces the life of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 7, 2008
She was found shot dead in the lift of her apartment block exactly two years ago on Tuesday. Nobody has been jailed for her murder.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, playwrights Sir Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, the political author Noam Chomsky and Vaclav Havel, the former president of Czechoslovakia, demanded: "We call again on the Russian government to bring to justice both those who killed Anna Politkovskaya and those who ordered
Source: Tim Dickinson in Rolling Stone
October 16, 2008
At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was als
Source: Independent (UK)
October 5, 2008
Arnhem Land, jutting into the Arafura Sea at the top of Australia, has always been a special place for Aboriginal people. Just how special has been reinforced by the discovery of an extraordinary collection of rock art recording life in the area for the past 15,000 years, up until 50 years ago.
Alongside ancient paintings of thylacines, a mammal long extinct on the mainland, are images documenting modern-day inventions – a car, a bicycle wheel, a biplane and a rifle – as well as por
Source: Independent (UK)
October 6, 2008
One of the main streets in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, has been renamed in honour of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former separatist rebel who now pledges allegiance to Moscow and has rebuilt Chechnya using Moscow's money, said: "Today I can say with certainty, that 99 per cent of the population of Chechnya trust Putin and support the Russian leadership," he said. "As a sign of the Chechen people's gratitude Vi
Source: Independent (UK)
October 6, 2008
Hadrian's Wall and the National Maritime Museum have secured £9m funding, the Heritage Lottery Fund announced today.
The funding will be used to transform the sites and improve the facilities for visitors.
Hadrian's Wall, in Northumberland, will use £4m to build an education centre and new galleries for displaying ancient artefacts.
The Vindolanda Trust, the archaeological body in charge of the project, will also release a collection of items which have
Source: BBC
October 6, 2008
A serial sex attacker convicted of killing two mothers whose bodies have never been found, has been jailed for life at the Old Bailey.
Derek Brown, 47, denied murdering Xiao Mei Guo, 29, and Bonnie Barrett, 24, after taking them back to his flat in Rotherhithe, east London.
He picked up his victims in the Whitechapel area, famously stalked by Jack the Ripper in the 1880s.
Brown, who showed "no remorse", was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 year
Source: BBC
October 6, 2008
The world's oldest surviving Bible is in bits.
For 1,500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery, until it was found - or stolen, as the monks say - in 1844 and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain.
Now these different parts are to be united online and, from next July, anyone, anywhere in the world with internet access will be able to view the complete text and read a translation.
For those who believe the Bible is th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 6, 2008
In a speech in London, Mr Bloomberg said that the global economy was "facing the worst confidence crisis in our lifetime", adding that "the pain is going to be spread far and wide".
He told an audience in the City of London: "It is going to affect anyone who wants to borrow money to buy a car or a house or to expand their business or take out a student loan.
"Millions of people are just not going to be able to do those things - and millio
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 6, 2008
The cabinet of Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero announced plans to strengthen legislation designed to "right the wrongs" of the past and heal wounds that still exist in Spain more than seventy years after the start of a conflict that tore the nation apart.
Those who were persecuted, imprisoned, or executed during the 1936-39 conflict and ensuing four decade fascist dictatorship will be officially declared "victims" and their relatives will be able to apply to the co
Source: WaPo
October 5, 2008
The sound of bells rang across Judiciary Square yesterday when the 850-pound bronze of Frederick Douglass was lowered onto its marble base.
The statue of the legendary abolitionist and Washingtonian, shrouded in green blankets and clear plastic wrap, had been wrestled from a flatbed truck by a crew of ironworkers, hoisted with a special gantry and then eased into place in the lobby of One Judiciary Square, at 441 Fourth St. NW.
Okay, so the bells were only tolling the t
Source: S.F. Chronicle
October 5, 2008
YREKA, Siskiyou County, Calif. -- Some folks around here think the economic sky is falling and state lawmakers in Sacramento and Salem are ignoring their constituents in the hinterlands.
Guess the time is ripe to create a whole new state.
That's the thinking up here along the border between California and Oregon, where 12 sparsely populated, thickly forested counties in both states want to break away and generate the 51st star on the nation's flag -- the state of Jeffer
Source: WaPo
October 5, 2008
HANOI The lake into which John McCain parachuted after his Navy plane was shot down is now surrounded by chic restaurants, cellphone stores and motorcycle dealerships. The prison camp where he confessed to being a "black criminal" has been turned into a multiplex cinema showing garish American movies. A five-star hotel occupies the site of the "Hanoi Hilton" jail, where he spent more than three years. The surface-to-air missile sites that once circled Hanoi have been replaced
Source: Politifact.com (St. Petersburg Times)
September 26, 2008
Early in the first presidential debate, Sen. John McCain veered into military history during a discussion of the financial crisis.
To make a point about accountability, he relayed an anecdote about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Only McCain got the story wrong in a way that undermined his point.
After moderator Jim Lehrer pressed McCain on whether he would support the financial bailout package Congress is crafting, McCain said, "I hope so, sure."
Then he s
Source: Guardian (UK)
October 3, 2008
An Australian revisionist historian wanted in Germany for alleged Holocaust denial will remain in British custody for at least another week, it emerged today.
Scotland Yard's extradition unit arrested Dr Fredrick Toben, 64, when he passed through London's Heathrow airport on Wednesday.
The district court in Mannheim, Germany, issued an EU arrest warrant that accuses him of publishing material on the internet "of an anti-Semitic and/or revisionist" nature.
Source: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com
October 2, 2008
The year 1858 was one of turmoil and wonder. One hundred and fifty years ago the world was coming together. The United States signed a commercial treaty with hitherto self-isolated Japan, gold seekers rushed to Pike’s Peak, there was talk of a railroad to California, and the first briefly successful transatlantic telegraph cable was laid.
The world was also coming apart, or at least rearranging itself in unfamiliar ways. The British Crown abolished the East India Company and began
