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: Live Science
Dec 11, 2009
Ancient Greeks living in Sicily built their sacred temples to face the rising sun, new research suggests.
Almost all of the temples constructed on the island of Sicily during its Greek period over 2,500 years ago are oriented toward the eastern horizon, according to a new study by Alun Salt, an archaeoastronomer with the University of Leicester, in England.
Though many temples on mainland Greece also line up with the sunrise, it is less frequent on the mainland than o
Source: BBC
Dec 11, 2009
Five former Khmer Rouge leaders have been charged with crimes against humanity.
A first trial ended with accusations the special courts had shown little interest in the victims' testimony.
This conference is a chance for victims to air their concerns to officials before a second case goes to trial.
As many as two million Cambodians died in the late 1970s because of Khmer Rouge policies.
Source: BBC
Dec 11, 2009
It reported that the raids revealed a greater level of involvement between the spy agency and Blackwater than previously acknowledged by either.
Blackwater said it was "never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Operations".
It was employed to provide security at bases for CIA staff.
In response to the New York Times article, a spokesman for Blackwater - now called Xe Services - said: "Blackwater USA was never
Source: New Scientist
Dec 10, 2009
Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil's border with Bolivia.
The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now def
Source: Jewish Telegraph Agency
Dec 10, 2009
Some 2,200 years after the Maccabees' revolt, historians and archaeologists are uncovering new information about their era.This year's biggest discovery is a correspondence between Seleukes IV, whose brother and heir was Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Chanukah story, and one of Seleukes' chiefs in Judea found on parts of an ancient stele.Professor Dov Gera of Ben-Gurion University, who studied the stone's inscription, said it confirms the account by the Jewish historian Josephus
Source: AP
Dec 10, 2009
Russian news reports say that a court in the capital has upheld a lower court's ruling against Josef Stalin's grandson in a libel suit over a newspaper article that denounced the Soviet dictator's repressions.
The RIA Novosti and ITAR-Tass news said the Moscow City Court on Thursday rejected Yevgeny Dzhugashvili's appeal of October's ruling by a district court.
Its verdict rejected Yevgeny Dzhugashvili's claim that Novaya Gazeta damaged Stalin's honor and dignity in an
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Dec 9, 2009
On December 8, the White House issued an Open Government Directive requiring federal agencies to take immediate, specific steps to open their operations up to the public. In addition to the directive, the Administration released the Open Government Progress Report to the American People – an analysis of the s
Source: The Denver Channel
Dec 9, 2009
Anonymous donors have dropped three rare – and very valuable - gold coins into Salvation Army kettles over the past week, boosting spirits during a sluggish holiday season.
This is the second year gold coins have been dropped throughout the city. Each of the three coins is valued between $1,200 and $1,700.
The first coin, a rare 1902 $20 Liberty gold coin, was dropped in a Salvation Army kettle at the Stapleton Sam’s Club on Dec. 3. On Monday, another gold coin was drop
Source: Politico
Dec 9, 2009
It wasn’t supposed to be this calm for Eric Mogilnicki. Not at this point, with the health care bill in the homestretch.
He came to the Senate to be Ted Kennedy’s chief of staff, expecting to help guide home Kennedy’s careerlong ambition of national health care reform. He ended up being the liberal lion’s last skipper.
Now Mogilnicki finds himself serving Kennedy’s replacement, Sen. Paul Kirk (D-Mass.), the most junior Democrat on the Armed Services and Homeland Securit
Source: National Geographic News
Dec 9, 2009
Meticulous ancient notetakers have given archaeologists a glimpse of what life was like 3,000 years ago in the Assyrian Empire, which controlled much of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, an ancient script once common in the Middle East, were unearthed in summer 2009 in an ancient palace in present-day southeastern Turkey.
Palace scribes jotted down seemingly mundane state affairs on the tablets during
Source: BBC
Dec 9, 2009
Documents suggesting that Boy Scout founder Lord Baden-Powell illegally executed a prisoner-of-war have been sold for £3,740.
Papers relating to the Second Matabele War in 1896 say Baden-Powell, then a Colonel in the British Army, ordered the shooting of an African chief.
The chief, Uwini, had been promised his life would be spared if he surrendered.
The papers reached double their expected price at auction in South Cerney, Gloucestershire.
Source: Fox News
Dec 9, 2009
Former vice president says holding trial in lower Manhattan near ground zero will make self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed "a hero in certain circles."
The former vice president called Attorney General Eric Holder's decision in November to try Mohammed and four other 9/11 suspects in a civilian federal court near ground zero "a huge mistake."
The trial will put Mohammed "on the map," he contended.
The Repu
Source: The Times (UK)
Dec 9, 2009
The 400-year-old freedom of the high seas would be lost under United Nations plans to limit environmental damage.
Military forces of several nations are in discussions with conservationists over pooling surveillance resources to enforce the changes.
The “freedom of the seas” has given mariners legal rights to roam the high seas — a boundary that usually occurs 200 nautical miles from shore — at will. Specialists gathered at a London conference are saying that fisherme
Source: Jaunted
Dec 8, 2009
If the Mayan calendar is correct, the world is going to end in 2012. That's why tourists have been heading to Tikal, Guatemala, ground zero of the conspiracy set. All this week, Jonathan Franklin and Morten Andersen, the guys behind Addict Village will be looking into the madness behind the newest tourism trend, Doomsday Tourism.
Thanks to the buzz from the Mayan calendar prophecies, local tour operators and hotels are upgrading their services. El Camino Real, a luxury hotel near th
Source: NYT
Dec 8, 2009
NONGOMA, South Africa — The bull was badly outnumbered, and while its muscular body, thick black hide and rock-hard horns offered significant advantages, this was not a brawl the animal was likely to win. Forty Zulu warriors were circling about, there to kill it with their bare hands.
Penned up in the royal kraal, the bull trotted around for a while, looking nervously for an escape. Then it hesitated, and the warriors — all in their late teens or early twenties — moved in, their han
Source: NYT
Dec 8, 2009
On that still-quiet Tuesday morning, the sales staff was in a basement room eating breakfast, waiting to open the doors to the first shoppers at 10 a.m.
There was no immediate sign of the fiery cataclysm that erupted overhead starting at 8:46. But out of a baby-blue sky suddenly stained with smoke, a plane’s landing-gear assembly the size of a World War II torpedo crashed through the roof and down through two empty selling floors of the Burlington Coat Factory.
The Sept
Source: The National Security Archives
Dec 8, 2009
Washington, DC - As the case of "Operation Mexico"—death squad murders, disappearances and rendition efforts by the Argentine secret police—is presented to a court in Rosario, Argentina, the National Security Archive today posted a selection of records that corroborate the testimony of the only surviving witness, Jaime Dri. The documents were provided to a tribunal of five judges yesterday by Archive analyst Carlos Osorio who testified that "the records reveal how the Argentine di
Source: BBC
Dec 8, 2009
The US government has settled a long-running case over royalties owed to American Indians.
Under the deal the interior department will share $1.4bn (£859m) among 300,000 tribe members as compensation.
The tribes claim they have been cheated out of billions of dollars worth of natural resources since 1887.
The agreement ends a case which has been running for 13 years. The secretary of the interior department said it would aid reconciliation.
Source: The Japan Times Online
Dec 8, 2009
Document from 1904 indicates Russia wanted to avoid conflict, forge alliance
Before starting the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Japanese government ignored a tip that a Russian politician long considered a key war advocate was trying to avoid the conflict by proposing an alliance with Japan, according to papers uncovered by a University of Tokyo historian.
The finding could lead to a revision of the widely accepted view in Japan that it was goaded by Russia into
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 8, 2009
A remote-controlled dinosaur robot worth about £60,000 has been stolen from Australia's "Walking with Dinosaurs" show in Guadalajara, event organisers said on Monday.
It was the first time an exhibit has been stolen from the show, which has toured worldwide and been seen by more than four million people, she said.
"Walking with Dinosaurs" opened in Guadalajara on Friday, and staff discovered that one of the smaller robots was missing after the show
