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)
July 29, 2010
An American man has found after a 27-year-search the wreckage of a Second World War bomber in which his air force pilot cousin was killed.
Gerald Landry, 73, spent the best part of three decades looking for the bomber pilot shot down by the Luftwaffe in December 1944.
Now, in a remarkable discovery, artefacts recovered from the bottom of the Adriatic Sea near Croatia could confirm the death of First Lt Russell Landry.
Lt Landry was part of an 800-strong
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 30, 2010
Ancient Greek will be taught in state primary schools to boost children’s language skills, it emerged today.
Some 160 pupils in three schools will be given lessons in the native tongue of Archimedes and Herodotus from September.
The move follows the successful introduction of Latin to dozens of state primaries in England.
The Iris Project, a charity campaigning for the teaching of the Classics, which is leading the latest drive, said the subject had subs
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 30, 2010
A US senator examining the early release of the Lockerbie bomber has said he is considering sending investigators to Britain after British officials and BP executives declined to attend a hearing in Washington.
Robert Menendez, who is to chair the rescheduled congressional inquiry into the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, said that they were pursuing the possibility of sending individuals to England or Scotland to interview witnesses.
The US Senate's forei
Source: AP
July 29, 2010
A man listed as the oldest living male in Tokyo in fact died some 30 years ago, city officials said after his body was found mummified in his bed.
Police visited the home of Sogen Kato at the request of ward officials updating their list of centenarians ahead of Respect for the Elderly Day in September. Kato was born July 22, 1899.
Welfare officials have tried to meet Kato since earlier this year, but his family members repeatedly chased them away, saying Kato was well
Source: AP
July 29, 2010
They knock the noses off statues in a park that was a favorite haunt of poet John Keats and throw dye into the iconic Trevi Fountain.
Vandals are increasingly on the prowl in the Eternal City — and now Italian authorities are fighting back, sending more police, installing cameras and even considering using convicts to protect monuments and artworks.
For the troublemakers nothing is sacred: earlier this month vandals left anti-pope graffiti on the Scala Santa, or Holy S
Source: AP
July 29, 2010
South Africa's president says six of the country's traditional monarchies are being abolished.
The country's 13 black ethnic kingships were used to muster support for white-led rule in the apartheid era before democratic elections in 1994.
Some of the monarchs were appointed by the apartheid government with few legitimate claims to their throne....
Source: AP
July 29, 2010
...Created during World War II as a purely U.S. operation free of the perceived taint of European allies, the Pond existed for 13 years and was shrouded in secrecy for more than 50 years. It used sources that ranged from Nazi officials to Stalinists and, at one point, a French serial killer.
It operated under the cover of multinational corporations, including American Express, Chase National Bank and Philips, the Dutch-based electronic giant. One of its top agents was a female Ameri
Source: CNN
July 29, 2010
A "groundbreaking" new exhibition of rare artifacts from Saudi Arabia's ancient past -- some which have never been shown abroad -- has opened in the Louvre, Paris.
The world-famous museum is hosting Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a traveling exhibition showcasing 300 archeological treasures found in the Gulf country, many pre-dating the birth of Islam.
The exhibition is the result of 40 years of excavation across Saud
Source: NYT
July 28, 2010
The swastika now shows up so often as a generic symbol of hatred that the Anti-Defamation League, in its annual tally of hate crimes against Jews, will no longer automatically count its appearance as an act of anti-Semitism.
“The swastika has morphed into a universal symbol of hate,” said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization. “Today it’s used as an epithet against African-Americans, Hispanics and gays, as well as Jews, b
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 28, 2010
An Italian artist has sparked reactions from fury to bemusement by including Spiderman and Hitler among his subjects the bizarre creation.
Giuseppe Veneziano's show entitled 'The Zeitgeist' opened this month in Pietrasanta, Tuscany, Italy, featuring among others a work featuring Hitler as a child cuddling up to the Virgin Mary.
The picture titled 'The Virgin of the Third Reich' is just one of many paintings featuring famous figures including Jesus Christ and Pope Bened
Source: WaPo
July 28, 2010
A Jewish nonprofit group whose leader was accused of fabricating dramatic stories about rescued Torahs has reached a deal with Maryland investigators forbidding it from publicizing such stories about sacred scrolls unless it can prove them.
The agreement ends an investigation into the Rockville-based Save a Torah and its driving force, Rabbi Menachem Youlus, often described as "The Indiana Jones of Torah Scribes."
The probe followed a January Washington Post
Source: Fox News
July 28, 2010
The recent decoding of a cryptic cup, the excavation of ancient tunnels in Jerusalem, and other archaeological detective work may help solve one of the great biblical mysteries: Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The new clues hint that the scrolls, which include some of the oldest known biblical documents, may have been the textual treasures of several groups, hidden away during wartime -- and may even be "the great treasure from the Jerusalem Temple," which held the Ark of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 29, 2010
The last remaining stocks of original Royal Navy rum were released for sale on Wednesday, almost exactly 40 years after the final rations of the drink were issued to serving sailors.
Some 6,000 bottles of Black Tot Rum were issued for sale at HMS Belfast on the River Thames in London.
On 31st July 1970, known as Black Tot Day, the last rations were given out to serving sailors, calling to a close a tradition going back some 300 years.
Sailors bore black ar
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 28, 2010
The United States has confirmed that the ambassador to Japan will attend a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Hiroshima atom bomb drop for the first time.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US State Department, said it would be the first time a US ambassador will attend the August 6 anniversary.
About 140,000 people were killed or died within months when an American B-29 bombed Hiroshima....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 28, 2010
German prosecutor Christoph Goeke in Dortmund says 90-year-old Samuel Kunz was informed last week that he has been indicted on charges including participation in the murder of 430,000 Jews at the Belzec death camp, where he served as a guard from January 1942 to July 1943....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 29, 2010
The website, which has gone live today, contains every single law ever made in the UK, including all revisions throughout legal history since 1267.
Legislation.gov.uk will allow anyone, from officials to ordinary citizens to scrutinise the laws on which their legal rights and responsibilities are based. There are multiple options for downloading and printing the information across the site....
Source: CNN
July 28, 2010
A University of Florida archaeologist found centuries-old bones this week during a dig in northeastern Florida, authorities said.
The human remains, estimated to be between 500 and 700 years old, were found Monday during a excavation at Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area in Ocala National Forest, about 30 miles south of Palatka, according to Jenifer Lowe with the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Asa Randall, a senior archaeologist with the University of Florida, based h
Source: Penn Live
July 28, 2010
A Civil War-era shell which a man tried to donate to the Army Heritage and Education Center caused a lockdown of the facility for about an hour Monday when employees thought the shell might be live. Jack Giblin, education director, said the man was trying to donate the shell, which he found in the Conodoguinet Creek, but a security guard recognized that it could still be dangerous.
Employees cordoned off the area and called the Carlisle Army Barracks, which notified Pennsylvania Sta
Source: Malvern Gazette (UK)
July 28, 2010
PUPILS from two local schools got more than they bargained for when they unearthed a long-lost Second World War defence site during an archaeological project.
Zoe Timney and Connor Law, both aged 17 and from the Chase High School, Malvern, were joined by Jamie Turner, 14, from John Masefield High School, Ledbury, for a work experience week with Worcestershire County Council’s historic environment and archaeology service .
While conducting archaeological surveys at Leopa
Source: BBC News
July 29, 2010
As many as 6,600 graves at the main US military cemetery were mislabelled or unmarked because of incompetence among cemetery managers, a US senator says.
Senator Claire McCaskill was speaking at a US congressional hearing into contracting problems at Arlington National Cemetery.
US investigators have put the problems down to a poor working relationship between two top administrators.
John Metzler and Thurman Higginbotham have both been called to testify.
