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)
October 3, 2008
Historian Irving has offered a place at his home in Windsor, Berks, for German-born Australian national Gerald Toben who faces extradition to Germany on a European arrest warrant.
The German authorities claim Toben launched a campaign between 2000 and 2004 in which he posted anti-Semitic claims on the internet that "denies, approves or plays down" the mass murder of the Jews.
Toben's alleged conduct was "evil", City of Westminster Magistrates Court
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 4, 2008
Republican presidential nominee John McCain's son Jimmy, a Marine, could be sent back to Iraq for a second stint while another son Jack may be deployed there after he graduates from the Naval Academy.
Now the only man to have been in this position before says that the unusual family mix of presidential politics and combat service is so dangerous that Pentagon chief Robert Gates should reassign the candidates' children.
"I do not believe that the children of presi
Source: Guardian (UK)
October 4, 2008
A British mine-clearing expert who was murdered in Cambodia and his remains burned to hide the evidence was killed on the orders of the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, a court was told yesterday.
The trial of five former Khmer Rouge cadres accused of the kidnap and murder of Christopher Howes in 1996 heard that the communist leader had a blanket policy of killing foreigners on the grounds that they supported the Cambodian government.
Howes, 37, was shot within days of his
Source: BBC
October 3, 2008
World War II tunnel digger John Fancy whose actions inspired the film the Great Escape, has died.
He was an adventurer, a charmer, above all, a nuisance. Warrant officer John Fancy volunteered for the RAF seeking adventure and he certainly found it.
Just nine months after the beginning of hostilities in the WWII, the young and dashing RAF observer was shot down.
His Blenheim bomber had just successfully hit its target in the Ardennes when he came under h
Source: Liverpool Echo
October 3, 2008
THE Liverpool to Manchester Railway has been proposed as a United Nations World Heritage site.
The line, opened 1830, heralded the beginning of the railway age and saw the first trials of Stephenson’s Rocket.
If it is successful, it will join the city’s waterfront on the list of some of the most important cultural sites in the world.
Now, councillors are calling on the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to award the line the accol
Source: AP
October 3, 2008
The World War II aircraft carrier Intrepid, powered by tugs and accompanied by a festive Hudson River traffic jam, was returned Thursday to the Manhattan pier where it has served for 24 years as a military and space museum.
Onlookers gathered along the riverbanks and in passing pleasure craft as the huge vessel was ceremoniously escorted Thursday on its 5-mile journey from Staten Island.
The Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum had occupied the Manhattan space until late
Source: BBC News
October 3, 2008
Thousands of people in Mexico City have paid tribute to those who died when security forces opened fire on a student demonstration 40 years ago.
The killings took place a few days before the Mexican capital hosted the 1968 Olympic Games.
The number of deaths in the incident is still disputed and no one has ever been jailed for involvement.
There were scuffles between police and demonstrators at the anniversary march, and about 20 people were arrested.
Source: AP
October 3, 2008
The Navy has confirmed the wreckage of a sunken vessel found last year off the Aleutians Islands is that of the USS Grunion, which disappeared during World War II.
Underwater video footage and pictures captured by an expedition hired by sons of the commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele, allowed the Navy to confirm the discovery, Rear Adm. Douglas McAneny said Thursday in a news release.
McAneny said the Navy was very grateful to the Abele family.
&
Source: Politico
October 2, 2008
Hours ahead of the vice presidential debate, Sen John McCain (R-Ariz.) criticized the selection of PBS's Gwen Ifill as moderator because she is writing a book called "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."
“Frankly, I wish they had picked a moderator that isn’t writing a book favorable to Barack Obama — let's face it," McCain said on "Fox & Friends." "But I have to have confidence that Gwen Ifill will handle this as the professio
Source: http://www.murfreesboropost.com
October 2, 2008
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill last week to reauthorize the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program, which has preserved over 15,000 acres of battlefield land from the Civil War.
“Tennessee is steeped in Civil War history – 38 significant battles were fought in our state,” said Congressman Bart Gordon, a longtime supporter of the Preservation Program. “In Rutherford County alone, there are six Civil War battlefields, and with the passage of this bill, each site
Source: http://www.civilwarinteractive.com (date uncertain)
October 1, 2008
A plan to build an expanded visitor center and theater at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana violates both environmental and historic preservation laws, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The suit contends that the National Park Service (NPS) proposed construction will detract from the very historical setting it seeks to present to the public.
Plaintiffs include two former Ch
Source: NYT
October 1, 2008
One third-term mayor contemplated suicide. Another battled cancer while juggling two jobs. A third mayor, after 12 years of service, was nearly drummed out of town by unruly municipal workers. Of the 108 mayors of New York City since 1665, only four have served 12 years — and all four faced significant blows to their reputations, morale and even health toward the end of their administrations, according to historians who have studied the four men.
The past might be useful for Mayor M
Source: http://www.kyivpost.com
October 1, 2008
Russian history now glosses over persecution and hails Soviet-era triumphs
The foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine are not the only soldiers in the ongoing war of words over the countries’ shared Soviet history.
The battle over the past is also being waged in the classrooms of both countries. The stakes are high, as the victor may be able to win over the hearts and minds of future generations.
The Stalin-ordered Great Famine of 1932-1933, which claimed milli
Source: AP
September 30, 2008
Taking off on Rosh Hashana and, a week later, the Jewish day of atonement, Yom Kippur, is a fairly recent practice.
The first Jews weren't elected to the House and Senate until the 1840s, and through most of the 19th century, Congress only met from December through the spring. Because lawmakers could not easily return home in those days, they often met on Christmas Day, according to Senate historian Donald Ritchie.
Even after the schedule changed in the 1930s, Congress genera
Source: FoxNews.com
October 2, 2008
The mayor of a Kansas town issued an apology Thursday for appearing as a drag-queen in blackface last weekend as part of a fundraising event, according to the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Arkansas City Mayor Mel Kuhn participated in and won a drag queen contest held as part of an annual fund raiser sponsored by Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), an agency that supports foster children in the court system, the NAACP s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 2, 2008
A botanist who claimed to have found dozens of rare plants faked his discoveries, according to new evidence.
Professor John Heslop-Harrison won acclaim after finding plant species on islands off the west coast of Scotland 60 years ago but there have long been doubts over the authenticity of his work.
Karl Sabbagh, author of a book about the botanist, has gained access to previous unseen archives which reveal that Heslop-Harrison's own colleagues harboured serious concer
Source: Discovery Channel News
October 1, 2008
A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ.
If the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancie
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
October 2, 2008
A veteran state archivist who stole hundreds of historical state artifacts over a decade and sold some on the Internet apologized today, as a judge sentenced him to 2 to 6 years in prison.
Daniel Lorello, 55, of Rensselaer, pleaded guilty to grand larceny in August,six months after state investigators charged him with swiping items that included two Davy Crockett almanacs.
The since-fired Lorello had once coordinated a three-year plan to renovate storage of state record
Source: AP
October 2, 2008
Heading into the final weekend of the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry was feeling good about his chances of winning the White House.
The Democratic nominee thought he had bested President Bush in their three prime-time debates. He also felt he'd convinced Americans his military and foreign affairs experience left him better equipped to end the Iraqi war.
Then Osama bin Laden weighed in with the most recent "October surprise" to land with a thud on a pr
Source: International Herald Tribune
October 1, 2008
It is one of Europe's most bizarre - and stubborn - international disputes, and certainly the only one that invokes an argument about Asian tribes stretching back to Alexander the Great.
Greece insists that its northern neighbor, which calls itself the Republic of Macedonia, change its name. Ever since the tiny former Yugoslav republic became independent in 1991, the Greeks have argued that the name implies territorial ambitions on Greece, whose northernmost province is Macedonia, a
