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
Mar 20, 2010
The battle of El Alamein was a turning point in World War II but the unexploded munitions it left behind continue to kill and maim the local population, as Christian Fraser reports from Egypt.
As spectators of desert warfare, Arab Bedouins have always had the front-row seats.
Today however, Egyptian Bedouin are not merely onlookers but reluctant combatants in a battle against death and injury in their ancestral lands.
The Allied and Axis forces are long g
Source: Times Online (UK)
Mar 20, 2010
The German spy service has admitted that it employed about 200 former Nazi criminals for at least 15 years after the end of the Second World War.
Some had been involved in massacres in Poland and Russia, others were Ges-tapo torturers; all found a berth in the West German intelligence service. The cases have been brought to light because the Federal German Intelligence Service (BND) is compiling a history of its espionage activities since 1956 — and so polishing up its image, in the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 20, 2010
The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War could take an explosive new twist after it emerged that leading figures in George Bush's administration have been asked to give evidence to it.
Sources in Washington said the inquiry sent out emails "about three weeks ago" to senior officials in Mr Bush's government including, it is believed, the former president himself.
Other requests are understood to have been made to Dick Cheney, Mr Bush's vice-president, Condoleezz
Source: CNN
Mar 20, 2010
Liz Carpenter, a Texas journalist who became a presidential press aide in the Lyndon Johnson White House, died Saturday at the age of 89, according to the Johnson family.
Carpenter served as an aide and press spokesman to Johnson when he was vice president, but she was named press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson when she became the first lady.
Carpenter died at an Austin, Texas hospital of natural causes Saturday, according to Tom Johnson, the former CNN chairman who s
Source: CNN
Mar 20, 2010
Stewart Udall, the last surviving member of John F. Kennedy's presidential cabinet, died Saturday of natural causes, according to a statement released by the Udall family. He was 90 years old.
Udall served as the Interior Secretary for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961-1969. Before that, he represented Arizona's second congressional district for four terms in the House of Representatives.
Source: BBC
Mar 20, 2010
A military historian has called for a memorial to soldiers who fought the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden.
Trevor Royle said the government army has no equivalent to the markers on the battlefield which recall their foes.
Writing in the National Trust for Scotland's magazine, he said little was known of those who served in the red coat regiments on 16 April 1746.
The site where fallen government soldiers were buried was only recently identified by arc
Source: AP
Mar 20, 2010
Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal's former prime minister who led mass protests that ended the king's authoritarian rule and helped deliver a peace deal to end 10 years of communist revolt, died Saturday. He was 86.
The Maoist former rebel leader called Koirala's death an "irreparable loss" to the ongoing peace process, which has been stalled since political parties have not been able to decide on the fate of the thousands of Maoist former rebel fighters who have been confined
Source: AP
Mar 20, 2010
Tokyo subway workers observed a moment of silence Saturday to mark the 15th anniversary of a nerve gas attack by a religious cult, Japan's deadliest act of domestic terrorism.
About 20 employees at Kasumigaseki station in Tokyo's government district bowed their heads in silent prayer at 8 a.m., when members of the cult released sarin nerve gas in rush-hour trains on March 20, 1995. The five coordinated attacks killed 13 people and sickened 6,300 others.
Japanese Prime M
Source: Ventura County News
Mar 19, 2010
Some of those arrowheads and artifacts you may come across could get you in trouble. In Ventura County, three men were arrested for disturbing an American-Indian burial site.
Beyond the wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, there are treasures in the hills. The most cherished possessions of the Chumash Indians. Ventura County sheriff's deputies seized several items that were taken by suspected looters.
Deputies displayed relics found with three Newbury Park men,
Source: Live Science
Mar 19, 2010
The sensors in your body that make you tear up when you're cutting onions have been around for 500 million years, a new study finds.
Foods like wasabi and onions, as well as substances like tear gas and cigarette smoke, contain tissue-damaging and irritating chemicals. When you get a taste or waft of the substances, a protein found throughout your body is thought to sense these irritating chemicals and send signals to your nervous system. The result is pain, which is why slicing on
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 19, 2010
The retired general who captured legendary revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara was summoned on Friday by Bolivian authorities investigating an alleged plot against President Evo Morales.
Former Gen Gary Prado allegedly exchanged "ultrasecret" encrypted email with Eduardo Rozsa, a Bolivian-born Hungarian who was slain in an April 2009 raid by an elite police unit.
Authorities allege that Rozsa and two other men killed – an Irishman and an ethnic Hung
Source: Discovery News
Mar 19, 2010
Art experts find what they believe is the earliest signature of the master Raphael, hidden within a painting's arabesque decorations.
Hidden beneath arabesque decorations, art experts have found what they believe is the earliest signature placed on a painting by the Renaissance master Raphael (1483-1520), who at the time was a 16-year-old boy.
Featuring the words "RAPHAEL SANT" -- Santi was Raphael's real surname -- the signature has been detected in an obscur
Source: New York Times
Mar 19, 2010
The social studies curriculum recently approved by the Texas Board of Education, which will put a conservative stamp on textbooks, was received less as a pedagogical document than as the latest provocation in America’s seemingly endless culture wars.
“Why Is Texas Afraid of Thomas Jefferson?” the History News Network asked, referring to the board’s recommendation that Jefferson, who coined the expression “separation of church and state,” be struck from the list of world thinkers wh
Source: BBC
Mar 19, 2010
A US judge says a proposed $657m (£437m) deal for people who worked at New York's Ground Zero following the 9/11 terror attacks is too small.
Some 10,000 rescue workers and police officers are suing New York City, saying they suffered health problems working in the dust and debris.
Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that he did not think the agreement represented a sufficient sum of money.
He said further negotiations were needed for a fair deal.
Source: Times Online (UK)
Mar 19, 2010
British soldiers are to march in Red Square with Russian troops for the first time in a Victory Day parade to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
A detachment of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and the Central Band of the Royal Air Force will march past the Kremlin in the military parade on May 9. French and American troops will also join the parade to commemorate the allied alliance with the Soviet Union that defeated Nazi Germany.
A spoke
Source: AP
Mar 19, 2010
A collection of ancient Greek silverware dating to the third century B.C. is going on display in Rome after being returned by the Metropolitan Museum in New York, officials said Friday.
The 16 pieces of silverware with gold detail were returned as part of Italy's aggressive campaign against illegal trafficking in antiquities. They include two large bowls, a cup with two handles, plates and drinking utensils.
Italian art officials said the pieces form one of the most i
Source: Downtown Express
Mar 19, 2010
Over its 200-year history, Castle Williams has been a military fortress, a prison for Confederate soldiers, a pig grazing pen and a teen center.
Now, the National Park Service hopes to turn the red sandstone fort on Governors Island into a museum. The full plans will take 20 years and $60 million to realize, but the N.P.S. recently started cleaning and stabilizing the three-story, doughnut-shaped building using a $6.4 million federal grant.
“Every layer of its use — as
Source: BBC News
Mar 19, 2010
For more than 1,000 years the high crosses at Monasterboice have stood watch over the landscape of County Louth.
Erected in the 10th Century a conservation study has now listed them as being at immense risk.
Their future at the religious site is the subject of public consultation which could result in them being moved.
Weather, vandalism and visitors are cited as the causes for the declining state of the monuments in a report on the future of the site.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 19, 2010
A former American general blamed "open homosexuality" in the Dutch army for the failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.
The Dutch government condemned the comments by Gen John Sheehan, a former Nato commander and senior marine officer, as outrageous.
Gen Sheehan made the remarks at a Senate hearing where he argued against plans by President Barack Obama to end a ban on allowing gays to serve openly in the US military.
Gen Sheehan said
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 19, 2010
Adolf Hitler wanted to use cricket to train troops for war after he was taught the game's rules by British troops, a new book has disclosed.
The future leader of Nazi Germany was taught the basics of the game by First World War POWs, BBC broadcaster John Simpson found.
But according to his new book about 20th century reporting, the corporation’s World Affairs Editor discovered the Fuhrer later became frustrated with the game’s complex rules and tried to rewrite the game
