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
Nov 26, 2009
Jesus Christ could have come to Britain to further his education, according to a Scottish academic.
Church of Scotland minister Dr Gordon Strachan makes the claim in a new film entitled And Did Those Feet.
The film examines the story of Jesus' supposed visit, which survives in the popular hymn Jerusalem.
Dr Strachan believes it is "plausible" Jesus came to England for his studies, as it was the forefront of learning 2,000 years ago.
Source: National Parks Traveler
Nov 26, 2009
At Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, the Park Service is partnering with the First Colony Foundation to shed light on a mystery that still fascinates us after more than four centuries: What happened to the lost Roanoke Colony? Archeologists working at the settlement site haven’t answered that question yet, but artifacts they’ve dug up tell us interesting things about life on Roanoke Island in the late 1580s.
The first English attempt to create a permanent settlement in the New Wo
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2009
A statue of a politician considered to be one of the main instigators of the man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s, has been demolished.
The authorities tore down the statue of the Communist leader of Ukraine when it was part of the former Soviet Union, Hryhoriy Petrovsky.
It as carried out just days before Ukraine commemorates the victims of the famine, known as the Holodomor, or genocide.
President Viktor Yushchenko issue
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2009
A ruined theatre under the Acropolis, believed to be the birthplace of modern theatre, is to be partially restored.
The restoration of the Theatre of Dionysos will include extending and modernising surviving stone seats, but no new performances are planned there.
Works by playwrights such as Euripides and Sophocles premiered at the open air theatre more than 2,500 years ago.
Theatre first emerged as an artform in Athens in 6th Century BC, at a competition
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2009
Bogomila always suspected that her mother had a secret.
"She always looked frightened," Bogomila tells me. "My husband used to say, "Your mother is afraid of her own shadow."
This summer, her 67-year-old mother Barbara finally revealed her secret. She is a Jewish child of the Holocaust. Suddenly, at the age of 37, Bogomila realised she was Jewish, too.
DEATH CAMP SURVIVOR
On Friday, Steve Rosenberg speaks to a survivor of So
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2009
A CIA manual instructing US agents on the use of magic tricks during the Cold War has gone on sale.
It was written in 1953 by magician John Mulholland for a fee of $3,000 (£1,800) - considerable at the time.
It includes deceptions such as spiking drinks, pocketing small objects and tying shoelaces to communicate in code.
The CIA ordered copies destroyed in the 1970s, but one survived. It has been republished as The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Dece
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
In his prison cell in Concepción, a town 400 miles south of the Chilean capital Santiago, an indigenous leader dreams of recovering his ancestral lands.
The model for the "Mapuche nation" he foresees in the central southern region of Chile is based on the autonomous rule enjoyed by Basques and Catalans in Spain.
But the hurdles he faces are numerous, including governmental opposition that extends to imprisoning him and other militants, and a division among t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
A proposed litmus test of Republicans' conservative credentials has triggered warnings of a "disaster in the making" for the party just as it stands to make major gains from President Barack Obama's falling popularity.
The draft resolution would withhold central party funding for candidates in next year's midterm elections who failed to meet eight out of ten principles that supporters of the idea describe as fundamental to Ronald Reagan's rule.
They include s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found, has been valued at £3.28 million, the British Museum said today.
The independent Treasure Valuation Committee reached the figure after meeting at the museum.
The money will be split equally between the finder Terry Herbert and the landowner Fred Johnson, the museum said.
The two men and the two museums which hope to acquire the hoard, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
Tony Blair and George Bush might have “signed in blood” their agreement to topple Saddam Hussein a year before the Iraq war, according to Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s former ambassador to Washington.
Sir Christopher Meyer told the Iraq Inquiry that the two men spent an afternoon meeting in private at the former president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, which appeared to lead to a shift in the then Prime Minister’s stance on Iraq.
Sir Christopher, who wa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
Mumbai has held tearful memorial events to mark the first anniversary of the attacks that killed 166 people and ratcheted up tensions with Pakistan.
While emotional onlookers waved Indian flags and banners with slogans such as "End The Violence", police commandos with new weapons and armoured cars tracked the route the 10 gunmen took for an attack that stunned the country.
The show of strength was in contrast to more emotional events across India's commercia
Source: AP
Nov 26, 2009
South Korean soldiers and police executed nearly 5,000 citizens during the early months of the 1950-53 Korean War, fearing they could collaborate with invading North Korean troops, a government commission said Thursday.
The victims were members of the National Guidance League, or "Bodo" League, that the then-staunchly anti-communist government created to "re-educate" recanting leftists and others suspected of communist leanings.
Historians say offici
Source: AP
Nov 26, 2009
Haiti's electoral council has banned the influential party of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from running in next year's legislative elections.
Fanmi Lavalas is among the 17 parties barred from February's elections because it submitted improper documents, provisional council spokesman Richardson Dumesle said Thursday.
Aristide, who has been living in exile in South Africa after he was overthrown during a 2004 rebellion, called the decision "an elect
Source: CNN
Nov 26, 2009
Newly released text messages reportedly from the morning of September 11, 2001, show panicked family members trying to contact loved ones and officials frantically trying to grasp what was happening.
More than half a million messages, released by whistleblower site Wikileaks, reveal the panic, horror and pain of what happened that morning in the words of those who experienced it.
Another text message references "a bomb detonation" in the World Trade Center and
Source: Times (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
The British Museum and the BBC are collaborating on one of the most ambitious public history projects ever undertaken, with a programme of events and activities that has the potential to change the way that people all over the world think about the past.
Central to it is an online challenge for people to present heirlooms to museum curators and other experts who will examine how they feed into the story of civilisation. Mark Damazer, controller of Radio 4, described it as “an upmar
Source: Times (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
Baroness Ashton of Upholland’s past came back to haunt her yesterday when the European Union’s new foreign affairs chief was forced to deny taking funds from the Soviet Union during her days as treasurer for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Lady Ashton, a surprise choice for her post, was challenged to deny that she had contact with Russian sources while she was in charge of its accounts at the height of the Cold War.
The Times has learnt that concerns about her
Source: Times (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
A former MI6 chief attacked the Government last night for failing to provide enough money for the war in Afghanistan.
Sir Richard Dearlove, who was head of the Secret Intelligence Service until 2004, also said the Government had had not made the case for the campaign and had failed to explain why thousands of British troops are fighting there.
He is the first former chief of the security and intelligence agencies to speak out about the mission in Afghanistan which has
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
The model for the "Mapuche nation" he foresees in the central southern region of Chile is based on the autonomous rule enjoyed by Basques and Catalans in Spain.
But the hurdles he faces are numerous, including governmental opposition that extends to imprisoning him and other militants, and a division among the Mapuche Indian communities about strategy.
"Recovering our land will cost us sweat, blood and tears," Llaitul said.
The 41-yea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
On Monday the 89-year-old Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk faces charges in Munich that he helped murder 27,900 people in Sobibor, a Nazi death camp, between March and September 1943.
Although Demjanjuk lived in Germany for a short period after the war, he is effectively stateless as he never obtained German nationality and his US citizenship was stripped from him when he was found to have lied on immigration forms.
This makes the trial especially rare in Germany, which has t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 26, 2009
"Red Square is especially beautiful on this holiday morning!" he says. "On such days every Soviet citizen, whether in Moscow or far from the capital, in any corner of our country, has Red Square in his heart and mind."
This was 1974, but the clip from Soviet television can be found on a new Russian website that seeks to bring Communist nostalgia into the internet age with content ranging from anti-Western propaganda to comedy shows and Soviet sports victories.
