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: NYT
Oct 25, 2009
JERUSALEM — Israeli police officers clashed Sunday with stone-throwing Palestinians at a site sacred to Muslims and Jews, in the latest sign of tension in this volatile city.
The police said that their forces had entered the Temple Mount compound twice after Palestinians hurled rocks at officers patrolling there, and that they dispersed rioters with stun grenades...
... The Temple Mount, revered by Jews as the site of two ancient temples and by Muslims as the site of t
Source: NYT
Oct 25, 2009
Given that Wall Street has turned the myths of Sherwood Forest upside down, the timing was perfect over the weekend for the seventh biennial meeting of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies at the University of Rochester.
The current Sheriff of Nottingham, Leon Unczur, who has cycled across the United States and in 2006 celebrated his civil union with his partner, Jonathan, was there for a live interview via Skype. Friday night featured a long-lost 1912 silent film, w
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 25, 2009
Camillo Cibin, the former Vatican police chief who was dubbed the pope's "Guardian Angel" for saving the life of John Paul II, has died aged 83.
Cibin famously leapt across the barriers of St Peter's Square to come to the Pope's aid after he was shot by his Turkish assailant, Mehmet Ali Agca, on May 13, 1981.
One year later, Cibin stopped another would-be assassin, a Spanish fundamentalist priest, who tried to stab the pope at the Roman Catholic shrine of Fa
Source: Yahoo News
Oct 25, 2009
NAJAF, Iraq – The graves stretch some 10 miles into the desert, in what may be the largest cemetery in the world.
Near the center lie the older ones, packed closely together in a jumble of tall clay mounds and blue-domed mausoleums. Here is the final resting ground for those killed during Saddam Hussein's brutal regime or in the war against Iran and other cases and causes that date back centuries.
In the outskirts of the cemetery, the city fades into the background and
Source: BBC
Oct 25, 2009
A plaque has been unveiled to workers who were killed or maimed at a wartime munitions factory in south Wales.
At its height in World War II, 32,000 people, three-quarters of them women, worked with high explosives and detonators at Bridgend, with 27 killed.
A ceremony in Bridgend commemorated the tens of thousands of the people from south Wales who worked in the arsenal, and the plaque lists the 27 killed. It was on a huge complex where the headquarters of South Wales
Source: BBC
Oct 25, 2009
A gold ring found by a metal detector enthusiast in Nottingham is provoking debate among experts.
Paul Hammond unearthed the ring in a field near his Clifton home last summer and handed it over to a local museum for them to investigate its origins.
While the signet ring has been dated to the 17th Century, no-one has been able to identify the elaborate coat of arms it bears.
It has now been declared treasure trove and could go on display in Nottingham.
Source: BBC
Oct 25, 2009
The families of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing have welcomed moves by police in Scotland to pursue "several potential lines of inquiry".
However, they renewed calls for a public inquiry in to the 1988 atrocity.
The Crown Office - Scotland's prosecuting authority - told relatives of British victims, via e-mail, that a police review of the case had started now that "appeal proceedings were at an end".
It said police were following
Source: BBC
Oct 25, 2009
A charity is looking for the original home of a battered war memorial found abandoned in a scrapyard in Greater Manchester.
The World War I memorial carries the names of 60 men from around the Manchester area who were killed.
It has been sitting in a warehouse in Trafford Park for 15 years - but staff do not know where it came from.
The War Memorials Trust hopes to find its original location before deciding whether to restore the tablet.
Source: Science Daily
Oct 25, 2009
It has passed as fact among historians, journalists and politicians, and has been recounted everywhere from tourist guidebooks to the floor of the U.S. Congress: British forces used chemical weapons on Iraqis just after World War I.
But that claim has never been fully squared with the historical record, says R. M. Douglas, a historian at Colgate University. According to Douglas's research, forthcoming in the December issue of The Journal of Modern History, no such incident ever occu
Source: BBC
Oct 25, 2009
Hundreds of British WWII veterans of the D-Day landings have attended what may be their last major gathering, to mark the 65th anniversary of D-Day.
More than 1,000 Normandy Veterans' Association members were at the evensong service in Westminster Abbey to remember the landings.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth joined them.
Source: AP
Oct 25, 2009
The worst terrorist attack on British soil is being reviewed by Scottish detectives as they continue to try to determine who else might have acted with the only person convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, police and prosecutors said Sunday.
After Abdel Baset al-Megrahi dropped an appeal against his conviction earlier this year, a review of the evidence was undertaken, the head of the Dumfries and Galloway Police said in a statement.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliba
Source: China View
Oct 24, 2009
PYONGYANG--The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has unearthed more than 14,000 historical relics and remains dated back to the Old Stone Age, the official KCNA news agency said Saturday.
Two layers of culture were found in the natural limestone Chongphadae Cavern, Huangju County, North Hwanghae Province.
More than 30 pieces of stone tools, including a cutter, a hand-taking axe, a thrusting tool, and a scraper from the middle of the Old Stone Age
Source: Time
Oct 24, 2009
In early October, the Second Maine Militia opened its meeting with the traditional shooting of the televisions. The 50 or so "members" (there are no rolls and no one pays dues) chatted quietly as the blasts rang out. A small cannon was fired into the woods, parting the trees and shaking the windows of the house nearby...
... The purpose of the annual meeting, the same as it has been since the militia started in 1995, was to bring together the politics of left and right ove
Source: NYT
Oct 24, 2009
The last time California elected a governor from Northern California, John F. Kennedy was president, the San Francisco Giants had just won their first National League pennant, and Gavin Newsom, now San Francisco’s mayor, had not been born. It was 1962 when Gov. Edmund G. Brown won a second term by defeating Richard M. Nixon.
Since then, six Southern Californians have filled the state’s top office: two Hollywood actors, three career politicians and Mr. Brown’s son, Jerry, who was li
Source: NYT
Oct 24, 2009
WHEN the Dow Jones industrial average climbed back to 10,000 this month, the achievement was widely noted but barely celebrated, and for good reason.
“Haven’t we done this several times before?” asked Edward Yardeni, the economist and investment strategist.
In fact, we had. The Dow had crossed 10,000 on more than 20 occasions, starting in late March 1999, when the market was so hot that stock-picking seemed to have become the national pastime. In that year, the book “Do
Source: NYT
Oct 24, 2009
MAISONCELLE, France — The heavy clay-laced mud behind the cattle pen on Antoine Renault’s farm looks as treacherous as it must have been nearly 600 years ago, when King Henry V rode from a spot near here to lead a sodden and exhausted English Army against a French force that was said to outnumber his by as much as five to one.
No one can ever take away the shocking victory by Henry and his “band of brothers,” as Shakespeare would famously call them, on St. Crispin’s Day, Oct. 25, 1
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 24, 2009
Ray Browne, the American university professor who coined the phrase "popular culture" and pioneered the study of everything from bumper stickers to cartoons, has died aged 87.
Browne worked for decades to convince academics that much could be learned from studying seemingly insignificant elements of our lives.
He developed the first academic department devoted to studying what he called the "people's culture" at Bowling Green state university, Ohio
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 24, 2009
The first road atlas of its kind in western Europe, a 17th century book showing a highway network in England and Wales of just 73 roads, is to be sold at auction for up to £9,000.
The route atlas, published in 1675, includes 100 double pages of black and white maps laid out in continuous strips depicting the major roads and crossroads across England and Wales.
The work by John Ogilby – Britannia Volume the First, or an Illustration of the Kingdom of England and Domini
Source: BBC
Oct 24, 2009
History enthusiasts in Stockport are marking the 70th anniversary of the town's air raid shelters opening.
The shelters, contained in a network of tunnels carved into the town's hills, could house 6,500 people during World War II bombing raids.
Many people queued for hours to get in to the shelters, which became known as the "Chestergate Hotel" because of the relatively luxurious facilities.
Free tours of the preserved tunnels were being run on
Source: BBC
Oct 24, 2009
Millvina Dean was nine weeks old when the liner sank after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton on 15 April 1912.
Miss Dean died in a care home in Hampshire on 31 May at the age of 97.
Miss Dean's ashes were scattered from a small launch on the water of berth 43/44 at Southampton Docks, the terminal from which the ship set sail.
