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: International Herald Tribune
May 1, 2007
BANGKOK -- For a moment, it appeared that $2,700 [in legal registration fees] might be enough to save the mass killers of the Khmer Rouge from going on trial...
Last week, the Cambodian Bar Association -- which had claimed an affront to its sovereignty -- lowered the fee to $500, and on Monday the foreign judges at the trial said they were satisfied...
But it remained unclear how long it would then be before the first indictments are brought. And even if all goes smooth
Source: Telegraph
May 2, 2007
He was one of the great blackguards of pre-First World War British society: Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, the man who not only was said to have bought his way off the sinking Titanic, but then stopped his half-empty lifeboat from returning to pick up drowning passengers.
However, the history books might have to be rewritten. A letter discovered in a London attic appears to exonerate the Old Etonian baronet and fencing champion of either cowardice or callousness.
Travelling wit
Source: AP
May 1, 2007
KENT, Ohio -- Survivors of the National Guard shooting that killed four Kent State University students during an anti-war rally released an audio tape Tuesday that they said includes a military order to fire on the demonstrators.
"The evidence speaks for itself," said Alan Canfora, 58, one of nine students wounded during the 1970 shooting.
Canfora released two versions of a 20-second clip -- the original and an amplified version -- in which he says a Guard off
Source: ABC News
May 1, 2007
Two decades after President Reagan left office, we're given a new glimpse at his private thoughts, with the publication of the handwritten diaries he kept during his eight years in the White House.
He kept the diaries diligently, using clear orderly handwriting to take note of his daily events and activities and to shed a human light on the most dramatic chapters of his time in office.
"What the style tells you more than anything that … here is a man who is comfort
Source: CNN
May 1, 2007
President Bush is coming to Jamestown. So is England's Queen Elizabeth II, albeit a week early.
The centerpiece of the 18-month commemoration of the 400th anniversary of America's first permanent English settlement finally is almost here after a decade of planning, and visits by those dignitaries will give organizers two of their biggest wishes.
But the "America's Anniversary Weekend" extravaganza May 11-13 now will be taking place less than a month after a gu
Source: Arab News (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
May 2, 2007
JEDDAH -— Saudi Arabia is replete with archaeological sites dating back to thousands of years, according to Dr. Mohammed Al-Ruwaished, deputy minister of education for antiquities and museums.
''There are nearly 100,000 historical sites in the Kingdom and we have already identified and registered 3,700 main sites. Some of these have 80 to 100 related sites in different localities,'' Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted Ruwaished as saying.
Source: AP
May 1, 2007
LONDON -— Britain's Prince Charles said Tuesday that urgent action is needed to fight climate change, likening the struggle to Britain's battle against Nazi Germany in World War II.
The environmentalist prince told a business conference at his St. James's Palace residence that "the crisis of climate change is far too urgent and discussion simply isn't enough."
"I do not want my children and grandchildren, or anyone for that matter, saying to me, 'Why didn
Source: BBC News
May 1, 2007
Work on the controversial M3 motorway in County Meath near Tara has been halted after the discovery of a highly significant archaeological find.
The project has been bitterly opposed by environmental campaigners.
They are opposed to the route because of its proximity to the historic sites of Tara and Skryne.
The find is thought to be the size of several football fields and is a circular structure used possibly for ceremonies in ancient times.
O
Source: AP
May 1, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Anti-war legislation on the way to President Bush for his promised veto represents a rare rebuke by Congress of a large and ongoing ground conflict, even eclipsing challenges made during the Vietnam War. [The bill was vetoed at 6 p.m. EDT.]
While a bill ordering troops home from an ongoing military mission is not unprecedented -- legislation aimed at conflicts in Somalia and Haiti are other examples -- the Iraq bill is an unusually swift feat by a Congress forcefully
Source: AP
May 1, 2007
ATLANTA -- Georgia's public schools walk a delicate line as they decide whether to offer the nation's first state-funded Bible classes -- measuring the difference between preaching and teaching with the likelihood of costly lawsuits looming for those that miss the mark.
The state school board approved curriculum in March for teaching the Bible in Georgia's high schools, but there hasn't been a rush of schools to start up the classes. Only a handful of the state's 180 school district
Source: New York Times
May 1, 2007
The gripping black-and-white photographs of civil rights protesters in the South reflect the black-and-white morality tale that generally accompanies them. Hateful, jeering white mobs and attack dogs versus peaceful marchers asking to vote and to walk in the front door.
That story line is true, but so are others. A new generation of historians is exploring some of the untold stories of the civil rights movement and its legacies: the experiences not of heroes or murderous villains, b
Source: Guardian
May 1, 2007
HEILIGEDAMM, Germany -- Looking for a cunning business venture after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Neumann had the foresight to go into fencing -- predicting the demand the new free market would create for chic enclosures to cordon off everything from private gardens to sports arenas.
Now, 18 years on, Neumann and his team of workers are putting the finishing touches to their biggest commission yet -- a 7.5 mile long, 2.5-metre (8ft) high steel fence topped with barbed wire, vi
Source: Los Angeles Times
May 1, 2007
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Jamestown, Va., in 1957 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the first British settlement in North America, she was 31 years old and had been on the throne for less than five years.
A lot has happened since, to her and to Jamestown.
On Friday, when the queen returns for the 400th anniversary of the settlement's founding, she will see a much different representation of the colony, complete with Indians and blacks whose fortunes crossed
Source: AFP
May 1, 2007
BERLIN -- One of the world's most renowned orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, said Tuesday it plans an investigation into its role during the Nazi era.
"We've never really come to terms with the history of the Philharmonic Orchestra under National Socialism," general manager Pamela Rosenberg said.
A book is to be published this year by Mischa Aster with the cooperation of the 125-year-old orchestra on the period between 1933 and 1945 and above all on the com
Source: AP
May 1, 2007
NEW YORK -- Arthur Frommer first saw Europe in 1953 from the window of a military transport plane.He'd been drafted and was headed to a U.S. base in Germany. But whenever he had a weekend's leave or a three-day pass, he'd hop a train to Paris or hitch a ride to England on an Air Force flight. Eventually he wrote a guide to Europe for GIs and had 5,000 copies printed. They sold out at 50 cents apiece, and when his Army stint was over, he rewrote the book for civilians, self-publishing "Europ
Source: UPI
May 1, 2007
GRANADA, Spain -- A Spanish study suggests climate changes might have caused the extinction of the Neanderthals on the Iberian Peninsula.
The University of Granada study of Gorham's cave on Gibraltar shows the Neanderthal extinction could have been determined by environmental and climate changes, and not by competitiveness with modern humans.
Professor Miguel Ortega Huertas, who led the research, said the findings of the multi-disciplinary research are an important cont
Source: Toronto Star
April 30, 2007
GIZA, EGYPT -– They have survived sandstorms and desert stillness, the fury of kings and the ravages of time, but the legendary Pyramids of Giza are endangered now – and the agent of their peril is a gloomy Egyptian stable-owner by the name of Hesham el-Ghabri.
Or so you might think.
"They forbid us to ride around the pyramids," grouses the owner of the TWA Stable ("Camel and Horse Riding"), one of countless such tourist-dependent operations clustere
Source: http://www.presstv.ir
April 29, 2007
Excavations at a pre-Bronze Age mound in Iran have led to the discovery of what may be the oldest commercial district in the Middle East.
Archeologist digging at the 7,000 year-old site named the Pardis Mound south of Tehran have unearthed dozens of brick kilns, pottery wheels and hand-made spindles, said Hassan Fazeli Nashli, the head of Iran's Archeology Research Center.
Ceramic jars and necklaces were also among the ancient artifacts discovered, Nashli said.
Source: BBC
April 30, 2007
The Queen's courtiers turned up their noses at souvenir handkerchiefs commemorating her wedding, previously unseen documents have revealed.
But Buckingham Palace officials failed to prevent "tasteless" memorabilia marking her marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947 going on sale.
The Home Office ruled the hankies were acceptable, since buyers were unlikely to blow their noses on them.
Their correspondence has been released by the National Archives in
Source: BBC News
May 1, 2007
If you look at a map in an Israeli school text book you are unlikely to find the Green Line, the ceasefire line which until 1967 separated Israel from the Palestinian territories. Israel stretches to the border with Jordan. It is as if the Palestinians don't exist.
At a girls high school in Ramallah in the West Bank a civics class concentrates on the birth of Palestinian nationalism. Asked what they know about the history of the Jewish people on the other side of the security barrier, few s
