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: BBC
March 15, 2008
A classic sports car, once owned by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, has been sold for a record price for the model of vehicle.
The 1935 two-seater Pescara Spyder, one of only 60 made, attracted just a few bids when it went under the hammer in Cheltenham in February.
The best offer reached just over half the expected £800,000 and the owner chose not to sell at the time.
A private buyer has now bought it for £550,000, H&H Classic Auctions said.
Source: McClatchy Newspapers
March 18, 2008
... Vice President Dick Cheney gave an upbeat view of conditions in Iraq as he concluded his unannounced trip to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. Cheney also defended the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as part of the struggle against terrorism following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
This month, an exhaustive Pentagon-sponsored review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents captured during the 2003 U.S. invasion found no evid
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
March 18, 2008
It was supposed to be a quick war and a cheap one. Five years later,
160,000 U.S. troops are still in Iraq. And the costs keep piling up - $12
billion every month - putting a strain on an already faltering economy.
The United States has poured more than $500 billion into Iraq, mostly for military operations. But that figure is just a small piece of the much
larger bill that taxpayers will pay in the future.
Because the money for the war is being borrowed, interest payments could add an
Source: CBS News
March 17, 2008
Bill Clinton’s reentry into the political arena appears to have come at some cost to his legacy. New polling now suggests that Clinton’s involvement in the Democratic nomination battle between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama, has significantly tarnished the former president’s image.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Thursday found that more Americans view Bill Clinton negatively than positively, 45 to 42 percent. It marked the first time since January
Source: Boston Globe
March 14, 2008
Hillary Clinton, who has frequently described herself on the campaign trail as playing a pivotal role in forging a children's health insurance plan, had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress, according to several lawmakers, staffers, and healthcare advocates involved in the issue.
In campaign speeches, Clinton describes the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as an initiative "I helped to start." Addressing Iow
Source: AP
March 18, 2008
Thousands of pages of Hillary Rodham Clinton 's schedules as first lady are being released to the public after months of pressure and criticism that the Clintons were delaying the disclosure.
The National Archives, which operates former President Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, announced Tuesday it would release 11,046 pages of Clinton's daily schedules at the Little Rock facility and online Wednesday morning.
Clinton has faced criticism from fellow Democ
Source: Scotsman
March 17, 2008
A RARE piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by storms which swept across the country last week.
Local plumber David Barnes, who found the stone on the beach in Sandwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, said circular markings had shown up in the late-afternoon winter sun, drawing his attention to the piece.
Source: http://indiancountrynews.net
March 18, 2008
To anyone driving over the Miami Bridge, it doesn’t look like much. Blink and you miss the small billboard that announces the Miami Circle sits just below on the river’s edge – a dusty parcel of 2.2 acres surrounded by chain-link fencing in the shadow of the giant Sheraton Hotel and 30-story condos. At its center is a circle of pale limestone, 38 foot in diameter, pitted with what looks like post-holes. But to historians and archaeologists who excavated here furiously for months in the late 1990
Source: LiveScience
March 18, 2008
Long before Homer wrote the Iliad, the real-life progenitors of the epic poem's characters might have visited a small outpost on the Greek coast.
Archaeologists have discovered a spectacularly preserved ancient harbor town of the Mycenaeans, the civilization on which many ancient Greek legends were based. Though the settlement was built 3,500 years ago, hundreds of walls are still standing.
The site, which is partially underwater, lies along a rocky, isolated stretch of
Source: BBC
March 17, 2008
France has given full military honours to its last World War I veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, who died on Wednesday at the age of 110.
President Nicolas Sarkozy led a ceremony in Paris to commemorate him, and eight million other Frenchmen who fought in the conflict.
Mr Sarkozy said it was a national duty to keep their memory alive.
Source: AP
March 17, 2008
YREKA, Calif. - In extreme Northern California, far from the bright lights of Hollywood and the foggy charms of San Francisco, is a place unknown to most people: a handful of counties that once sought to make themselves into a separate state called Jefferson.
The idea lasted only a few days in 1941 before it was quashed by the attack on Pearl Harbor. But for a few who remember its history, the movement embodies the mindset of this sparsely populated country that still longs for more
Source: Fox News
March 17, 2008
The great-granddaughter of a Civil War-era storekeeper in Tampa, Fla. is suing the city for a 147-year-old unpaid promissory note. With interest, the note is now worth over $22 million.
The financially-strapped city of Tampa, in need of ammunition during the Civil War, issued the note to Thomas Pugh Kennedy on June 21, 1861, the St. Petersburg Times reported Sunday. Kennedy's great-granddaughter, Joan Kennedy Biddle and her family are suing to collect the payment, plus 8 percent ann
Source: NYT op ed
March 18, 2008
Since the last big anti-Chinese riots in Tibet two decades ago, Beijing has sought to smother Tibetan separatism by sparking economic development and by inserting itself into the metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism. But an influx of Han Chinese to Tibet, and a growing sense among Tibetans that China is irreparably altering their way of life, produced a backlash when Communist Party leaders most needed stability there, analysts say.
“Why did the unrest take off?” asked Liu Junning, a lib
Source: http://www.aswataliraq.info
March 18, 2008
An ancient archeological city dating back to the neo-Babylonian era was unearthed in Diwaniya, the province's museum curator revealed, noting the ancient wide city comprised buildings of an advanced architectural nature.
"The Babylonian city was discovered in the district of al-Shamiya, (33 km) west of Diwaniya, where 341 archeological pieces were found during the first stage of excavations that lasted for the month of February," Muhammad Yahya Radi told Aswat al-Iraq – V
Source: WaPo
March 18, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama today repudiated what he described as offensive comments by his former pastor, but he refused to "disown" the man who was once his spiritual mentor. The contender for the Democratic presidential nomination sought to explain the anger that persists in the black community over racism and that occasionally makes its way into sermons in black churches.
In what his campaign billed as a major speech in Philadelphia, Obama tried to come to grips with the issue o
Source: National Security Archive
March 16, 2008
Washington, D.C., March 16, 2008 - President Bush's executive order for a "citizen-centered" and "results-oriented" Freedom of Information system did improve customer service at federal agencies, but has failed to make consistent progress on backlogs and has not significantly improved compliance with electronic FOIA requirements, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
"M
Source: AP
March 17, 2008
Israel and Germany strengthened their ties on Monday in one of the highlights of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's three-day visit to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel's creation.
Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert chaired a joint session of members of the two countries' Cabinets, at which both governments signed off on a range of projects, including in education, the environment and defense.
The two sides agreed to hold such meetings once a year, alternat
Source: Deutsche Welle
February 29, 2008
Hidden beneath the vine-covered hills of the Ahr Valley, the enormous nuclear bunker was one of West Germany's best kept secrets during the Cold War. Now, part of the bunker is open to the public.
It's a 20-minute walk from the sleepy tourist town of Ahrweiler up a serpentine path to the entrance to the new Government Bunker Documentation Center. The 9-meter (30-foot) high concrete wall marking the museum's entrance seems completely out of place among the vineyards and woods of the
Source: Times (UK)
March 16, 2008
It is one of the enduring mysteries of the second world war. More than 800 Jews based in this hospital in the middle of Nazi Berlin survived the war, seemingly — and bizarrely — protected by Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Final Solution. So who were they and why were they saved?
Source: Independent (UK)
March 17, 2008
Gordon Brown has promised that the Government will hold a full-scale inquiry into the mistakes made in Iraq before and since the invasion five years ago.
His concession marks a significant break from his predecessor, Tony Blair, who steadfastly refused to hold a wide-ranging inquiry into the war.
Mr Brown, however, insists it is not the right time for an immediate investigation as the situation in Iraq remains "fragile" and British troops are still trying to b
