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
August 15, 2009
The son of a civil rights leader said that he planned to seek pardons on behalf of his father, who was arrested many times while helping organize the Montgomery bus boycott and protests against segregation in Birmingham, Ala.
Ralph David Abernathy III of Atlanta said Friday that he would apply for the pardons for his father, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, who died in 1990, under a 2006 Alabama law that provided a mechanism for granting them to people arrested in civil rights prote
Source: MSNBC
August 13, 2009
Discovery points to breakthrough occurring earlier in Africa, not Europe.
Early humans crossed a threshold around 75,000 years ago, when they started painting symbols, carving patterns and making jewelry. A new study found they also began to use fire to make tools around that time.
Until now, this complex, multistep process for tool making was only known to occur as recently as 25,000 years ago in Europe. But the new findings show this breakthrough occurred much earlie
Source: Discovery News
August 13, 2009
An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs.
Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the pyramid field at Giza.
Collins, who will detail his findings in the book "Beneath the Pyramids" to be published in September, tracked down the entrance to the mysteri
Source: AFP
August 11, 2009
The train ticket was found tucked in a gas mask pouch near the Australian soldier's remains and told the story of a journey home that was never made.
The folded piece of paper for travel by rail from Fremantle to Perth is one of the most telling items recovered alongside skeletal remains from a mass grave of World War I soldiers in northern France.
Working under a white marquee in a muddy field, a team of 30 archeologists and forensics experts have been unearthing remai
Source: BBC
August 15, 2009
During the last century Poland endured both Nazi and Communist totalitarianism with atrocities on a colossal scale. Many decades later there are still those who remain determined to see compensation paid and in Krakow Nick Higham has been following a baroness's quest for justice.
Poland still has no law covering the restitution of private property seized by the Nazis or nationalised by the communists.
Historian Norman Davies says tens of millions of people in Poland we
Source: BBC
August 14, 2009
The funeral has taken place in Cyprus of one of five Greek Cypriot prisoners of war killed during the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974.
Ioannis Papayiannis was one of five soldiers photographed surrendering to Turkish forces during the invasion.
The soldiers' bodies were identified this week, 35 years after they were killed and thrown down a well.
The remains were recovered from a well in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus in 2006 along with 14 othe
Source: LA Times
August 16, 2009
President Nixon's determination to eliminate the socialist government of Salvador Allende led him to offer financial support to efforts by the Brazilian military to undermine the Chilean leader, according to a newly declassified summary of a White House meeting between Nixon and the president of Brazil.
"The president said that it was very important that Brazil and the United States work closely in this field. . . . If money were required or other discreet aid, we might be able
Source: NYT
August 15, 2009
In 1809, a young boy from a wealthy Virginia estate stepped into President James Madison’s White House and caught the first glimpse of his new home. The East Room was unfinished, he recalled years later in a memoir. Pennsylvania Avenue was unpaved and “always in an awful condition from either mud or dust,” he recounted.
“The city was a dreary place,” he continued.
His name was Paul Jennings, and he was an unlikely chronicler of the Madison presidency. When he first walk
Source: NYT
August 15, 2009
A former militant in the Irish Republican Army who lived in the United States for 25 years before being detained last year by the Border Patrol is scheduled to be deported this week to Ireland.
The former militant, Pol Brennan, 56, has spent 17 months in immigration detention centers while fighting deportation. His lawyers had appealed to the Homeland Security Department in May for a stay of removal and deferred action...
... Mr. Brennan testified at a hearing in Novemb
Source: Global Post
August 12, 2009
"Life and death in the Taliban" provides a rare look and sheds new light on this secretive and formidable enemy. Through compelling video, audio, photography and written reports, GlobalPost tells the story of the Taliban and examines America’s struggle to confront it. Through interviews with former Taliban insiders as well as high-level U.S. military officials, this gripping interactive presentation dissects an extraordinarily complex situation that is key to America’s security.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
August 16, 2009
A century ago this month, between 12 to 26 people died in the Pressed Steel Car strike -- Pittsburgh's second bloodiest next to the railroad strike of 1877. Among the dead were John C. Smith and John L. Williams, the first two state troopers to die in the line of duty. When the anniversary of the conflict's worst bloodshed arrives on Saturday, a state historical marker will be unveiled in Presston, an intact company town of 240 duplexes in Stowe. Located near the plant, Presston was often deride
Source: BBC
August 14, 2009
British documentary makers Robin Forestier-Walker and Oliver Owen have been tracing Nigerians who fought against the Japanese in Burma during World War II.
On VJ Day, the anniversary of victory over Japan, they tell the veterans' story.
The contribution of West Africans was played down in official versions of the Allied war in Asia, and until now, few have had an opportunity to tell their tale.
In fact, only two in 10 of the soldiers who fought in Burma we
Source: BBC
August 14, 2009
The remains of more than 2,000 people discovered in Poland's largest mass grave from World War II have been reburied in a military cemetery.
Polish and German officials presided over the ceremony at a cemetery for German soldiers in north-west Poland, near the border between the countries.
The victims are believed to be German civilians who died in the last months of the conflict, in early 1945.
The mass grave was discovered in the Polish city of Malbork
Source: BBC
August 14, 2009
A rare signed copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf owned by an unnamed Londonderry collector has been sold at auction for £21,000.
The 1925 copy of the Nazi leader's political manifesto went under the hammer at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire on Thursday.
Historical documents expert Richard Westwood-Brookes, from the auctioneers Mullock's, said the volume was "a legendary copy of Mein Kampf".
This particular edition was presented to Johann Maurer a
Source: NYT
August 15, 2009
As the convoy rumbled up the road in Iraq, Specialist Veronica Alfaro was struck by the beauty of fireflies dancing in the night. Then she heard the unmistakable pinging of tracer rounds and, in a Baghdad moment, realized the insects were illuminated bullets.
She jumped from behind the wheel of her gun truck, grabbed her medical bag and sprinted 50 yards to a stalled civilian truck. On the way, bullets kicked up dust near her feet. She pulled the badly wounded driver to the ground a
Source: BBC
August 15, 2009
Two Japanese ex-PMs have visited a controversial shrine honouring Japan's war dead, including war criminals.
The visit by Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe coincides with the anniversary of the end of World War II.
Mr Koizumi's visits to the shrine when in office caused tensions with China and South Korea, which see it as a symbol of past militarism.
Current PM Taro Aso vowed not to go but expressed remorse for Japan's wartime actions at a Tokyo memorial s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 15, 2009
A newly discovered catalogue of artworks stolen by Nazis compiled for Adolf Hitler could help unravel the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of lost materpieces seized during the Second World War.
As they marched through Europe, Adolf Hitler's Nazis pillaged the world's finest art collections. Thousands of art works were stolen for the Führer's personal enjoyment, many of which are still missing.
Now, a newly discovered document could unravel the mystery surrounding t
Source: NYT
August 14, 2009
President Asif Ali Zardari announced Friday that he was lifting a longtime ban on political activities in the restive tribal regions in the northwest, hoping to reduce the influence of the Taliban and Islamic militancy in the areas.
The seven semiautonomous tribal regions have never been fully incorporated into the country’s legal and political system. They are instead still governed by a set of 100-year-old rules, known as Frontier Crimes Regulations, dating from the British empire
Source: NYT
August 14, 2009
For years, there was not much difference between a civilian and a soldier in South Ossetia, which was embroiled in a long struggle to separate from Georgia.
David G. Sanakoyev, for example, wore a tie during the day. As South Ossetia’s ombudsman for human rights, he handled complaints about prison conditions or unlawful firings. Three times a week, after work, he changed into camouflage and took up a position at the territory’s border, rotating in and out of combat duty until mornin
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
August 15, 2009
The finds archaeologists have uncovered in Mikulovice in the Pardubice region (Czech Republic) prove that the local prehistoric people had contacts with the Black Sea area in the 6-5th centuries BCE, archeologist Jan Frolik said. The experts have uncovered remnants of ancient pottery people's settlements including bone decorations and a saddle of Scythian origin, which proves that the people were in contact with the remote Black Sea region, situated some 1000 km away in the southeast direction..
