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: NYT
July 3, 2007
The Constitution gives the president the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” The provision is generally understood to grant complete discretion where federal crimes are involved.
According to Justice Department standards, “requests for commutation generally are not accepted unless and until a person has begun serving that sentence,” and they are generally not granted to those appealing their convictions. Coop
Source: AP
June 30, 2007
Jimmy Carter was fresh out of the White House and contemplating his life after the presidency when he envisioned The Carter Center as a platform to work for peace in troubled places.
Carter had brokered the historic peace accord between Israel and Egypt in 1978 at Camp David, and he wanted a similar venue to further his diplomatic work. But 25 years later, the center's focus has expanded from that initial focus on traditional human rights work to addressing basic human needs.
Source: Boston Herald
July 3, 2007
Japan’s prime minister sternly reprimanded his defense minister yesterday for his controversial comment backing the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and asked him to curb his tongue in future. Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he told Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma to “strictly refrain from making remarks that cause misunderstanding.”
“Japan is the only country that suffered an atomic bombing. We need to always consider and stand in t
Source: LAT
July 3, 2007
Maj. Sean Stinchon has traveled through Europe and Asia looking for the remains of America's fallen troops. More than 78,000 are still missing from World War II alone. An additional 8,100 are MIA from the Korean conflict, and 1,750 from Vietnam.In a 10-day expedition, Stinchon and his seven-member team -- the first U.S.-led search on Iwo Jima in nearly 60 years -- were looking for what wasn't on his map: caves and tunnels that were closed and sealed, then missed when U.S. se
Source: AP
July 3, 2007
Japanese soldiers forced girls as young as 12 into sexual slavery during and after World War II, according to a report by two Chinese legal groups.
The report released late Monday by the All China Lawyers Association and China Legal Aid Foundation, comes as Japan faces increased pressure from the United States to further apologize for sending women to work in wartime brothels.The legal groups said they located 17 women who were forced to work as 'comfort women' _ a eu
Source: AP
July 2, 2007
New sightseeing cruises are sailing the rivers around Manhattan, one focusing on history, one on architecture.
Both are offered by NY Waterway Tours.
The history cruise, developed in collaboration with the New-York Historical Society, takes a "then and now" approach to four centuries of New York's past, mentioning sites like Governors Island, which served until recently as a Coast Guard installation but was named Nut Island in the 1600s for the chestnut and wa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 2, 2007
It's an unsettling experience to see a politician as dapper as David Steel suddenly breaking down and weeping as his face contorts in a losing battle for self-control.
Tears don't become Baron Steel of Aikwood, the former Liberal leader. He has survived a good deal: from the humiliating jibes about him being Dr David Owen's puppet when the SDP amalgamated with his party to form the Liberal Democrats, to early-stage prostate cancer in 2001.
Sir David Steele believes Mau
Source: http://www.asahi.com
July 2, 2007
On June 23, government-appointed scholars from Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo for the first time in two years in an attempt to rekindle talks aimed at bridging the "history gap" between the two countries.
The first round of talks ended in May 2005 with the South Korean and Japanese sides issuing separate statements indicating disagreement on virtually all issues in all the three historical periods covered.
In contrast to the icy atmosphere of the official
Source: Boston Globe
July 1, 2007
Diners at Union Oyster House have probably seen cocktail napkins and placemats advertising the restaurant as America's oldest, "est. 1826." Visitors to Harvard Yard have likely seen a tour guide point to the ivy-covered buildings of America's oldest university. They are icons; their names conjure up images of men in tricornered hats.
But in New England, where families trace their roots to the Mayflower, no place is too minor to stake a claim on history. Basketville in Putn
Source: USA Today
July 1, 2007
More than a century after his death, people are still trying to understand Charles Darwin. And a new report says those who label him anti-religion are wrong. The 19th Century English biologist famous for his theory of evolution supported Christian missionary work his entire adult life, reports a cultural historian.
"The march of improvement, consequent on the introduction of Christianity, through the South Seas, probably stands by itself on the records of the world," Darwi
Source: Anchorage Daily News
July 1, 2007
KENNICOTT (Alaska) -- Sometimes the comparatively few tourists who make their way to the end of the road here in America's largest national park get confused.
hey stare across the nearly 5-mile-wide, rubbled expanse of the Kennicott River valley, say National Park Service officials, and lament the mess left in the wilderness by the Kennecott Copper Corp. some 70 years ago.
The Kennicott valley is, indeed, a barren expanse of rock, gravel and sand that looks like the mot
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
July 2, 2007
A DICTATOR'S LIBRARY: At some point in 1938, Joseph Stalin sat down, alone, and literally rewrote history — marking up a draft of The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which would be published by the party's Central Committee in 1939.
First, the Soviet leader used a gray pencil. Then he switched to quill and indigo ink. He scribbled in the margins and wrote over text, deleting words and entire phrases by drawing lines through them. ....
The marked-up m
Source: Inside Higher Ed (Click on SOURCE for embedded links.)
July 2, 2007
Opposition continues to grow to the push by leaders of Britain’s faculty union to have professors there boycott academics and universities in Israel. The Guardian reported that faculty members at the University of Oxford are demanding a full vote on the issue. Support for the boycott has generally been strongest at smaller conclaves of faculty leaders, and universitywide votes have suggested that a majority of professors oppose the boycott. On the other side of the pond, the Association of Ameri
Source: http://kvoa.com
July 2, 2007
For the world's 13 million Mormons, the ruins of Mexico and Central America are hallowed ground, a place where Old Testament tribes settled after traveling across the ocean and where Jesus came to preach after his Resurrection. Although archaeologists say there is scant evidence to back up such beliefs, a growing number of travelers are paying thousands of dollars to search for connections on Mormon-themed tours and cruises.
"It solidifies the things you read about in the Book
Source: Toledo Blade
July 2, 2007
As Dr. Yasuhiko Kaji shuffled through the boxes of flags, senninbari, diaries, and pictures that he has collected over the past 30 years, he came across a lushly illustrated Japanese flag.
The Buddhist goddess Kannon sat midway up the right side, her features inked into the fabric with the strong black strokes of a sophisticated artist. Daruma rolled across the bottom and up the left side of the flag. Daruma was a sage, explained Dr. Kaji, who meditated for seven years (or nine, according
Source: BBC
July 1, 2007
A number of events have taken place across N[orthern] I[reland] to mark the 91st anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers led a procession of politicians and senior members of the armed forces to lay a wreath at the cenotaph in the city.
The Duke of Gloucester visited the Somme Heritage Centre in Conlig and was given a tour of the simulated trenches.
Source: BBC
July 1, 2007
A Viking ship has set sail for Dublin from the Danish port of Roskilde, in an attempt to recreate the voyages undertaken by early Norsemen.
The 30m (100ft) long replica, called Sea Stallion, is said to be the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel.
It is based on a ship made nearly 1,000 years ago in Ireland, which in 1962 was excavated from the Roskilde fjord.
Source: NYT
July 2, 2007
The Freedom of Information Act requires a federal agency to provide an initial response to a request within 20 days and to provide the documents in a timely manner. But the oldest pending request uncovered in a new survey of 87 agencies and departments has been awaiting a response for 20 years, and 16 requesters have been waiting more than 15 years for results.
The survey, to be released on Monday, is the latest proof of a fact well-known to historians and journalists who regularly
Source: AP
June 30, 2007
he 1.5-mile barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border was designed to keep cars from illegally crossing into the United States. There's just one problem: It was accidentally built on Mexican soil. Now embarrassed border officials say the mistake could cost the federal government more than $3 million to fix.
The barrier was part of more than 15 miles of border fence built in 2000, stretching from the town of Columbus to an onion farm and cattle ranch.
A U.S. Customs and Borde
Source: http://www.javno.com
June 11, 2007
The Ministry of Culture of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina wants to put an end to the funding of the project “Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun.” Opinions on the subject as well as on the pyramid phenomenon are so divided in Bosnia that some public persons, who have denied the existence of pyramids, said that they would set themselves on fire if those were really proven to pyramids.
Numerous politicans have given support to the research in Visoko, formerly a royal town. Experts
