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: The National Security Archive
Sep 24, 2009
The United States harbored serious concerns about the potential involvement of Colombian security forces in the February 2000 massacre at El Salado, an attack that occurred while the two countries were hammering out the final details of the massive military aid package known as Plan Colombia, according to declassified documents posted today on the National Security Archive Web site.
Orchestrated and carried out by paramilitaries from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC),
Source: telegraph.co.uk
Sep 24, 2009
Mao Xinyu, the 39-year-old sole grandson of the Great Helmsman, was promoted to the post in June, according to the Chongqing Evening News.
Before his elevation, the younger Mao was a colonel. He works as a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, where he specialises in Mao Tse-tung Thought.
Although his promotion has not been widely publicised, Mao Xinyu was introduced at a recent function as a major-general, and is the youngest person to hold such a hig
Source: Yahoo News
Sep 24, 2009
LONDON – It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers: An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts.
The discovery sent a thrill through Britain's archaeological community, which said Thursday that it offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century until the 1066 Norman invasion and w
Source: Politico, quoting a press release
Sep 24, 2009
A new C-SPAN poll of awareness and knowledge of the U.S. Supreme Court shows that nearly nine in ten American voters (88 percent) say the Court has an impact on their everyday lives -- but only half (49 percent) of respondents could name a specific case heard by the Court. The survey of 801 voters conducted for C-SPAN on Sept. 17 by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, LLC, also indicates the public supports major changes to the Court, most notably revisiting the concept of constitutionally-guar
Source: BBC
Sep 24, 2009
For 96 long minutes, Colonel Gaddafi spoke to UN delegates about Somali pirates, the death of JFK, jet lag and his conspiracy theories about swine flu. Call that a long speech? It's but a tiddler.
After an hour and a half of Mr Gaddafi speaking in person, it is not known how many of those listening logged on for more.
Four hours and 29 minutes is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest speech in front of the General Assembly, given in September 1960 by Fi
Source: BBC
Sep 24, 2009
A World War I train accident in which 10 soldiers from New Zealand were killed is to be remembered in a service in a Devon village.
The men died on 24 September 1917 when they mistakenly got off their train at Bere Ferrers thinking they had arrived at their destination of Exeter.
In fact the train had only stopped for signals and the men were hit by an express train on the other track. The service is the result of a request by the New Z
Source: BBC
Sep 24, 2009
Ertugrul Osman - the would-be sultan known in Turkey as the "last Ottoman" - has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.
Osman would have been sultan of the Ottoman Empire had Turkey's modern republic not been created in the 1920s.
As the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, he would have been known as his Imperial Highness Prince Shehzade Ertugrul Osman Effendi.
Born in Istanbul in 1912, Osman spent most of his years living modestly in
Source: Fox News
Sep 24, 2009
Many would like to forget him but Germany will soon be seeing much more of Hitler - with a new AIDS awareness campaign depicting the Nazi leader having sex.
The confronting advertisement shows blurred clips of a couple having sex before the end reveals the man as Hitler.
The 'AIDS is a mass murderer' campaign will be shown on German TV and in movie theaters ahead of World Aids Day on December 1.
The agency that created the advertisement said there was no be
Source: AP
Sep 23, 2009
Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered a ritual bath in Jerusalem that was likely used by Jewish pilgrims coming to the temple two millenia ago.
The bath is located next to the Temple Mount, the compound in Jerusalem's Old City where two Biblical Temples stood. The second was destroyed by Roman legions in 70 A.D.
The Israel Antiquities Authority says the stone bath was likely used for ritual purification by pilgrims who came to the Temple three times a year.
Source: The National Post
Sep 23, 2009
SHANGHAI -- Beijing is making sure it won't rain on its 60th anniversary parade, but it still won't let anyone come.
Chinese newspapers say even more effort is being made to prevent showers or fog from spoiling the big day on Oct. 1 than was expended to ensure sunshine for the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The air force is sending up 18 aircraft to chemically "disappear" clouds over the capital and 48 "fog-dispersal vehicles" wi
Source: Thaindian News
Sep 23, 2009
esearchers have discovered that many pyramids in Mexico were created by the ancient Mayans to create “raindrop” music to communicate with their rain god.
Take for example, Mexico’s El Castillo pyramid in Chichen Itza. As visitors climb the colossal staircase, their footsteps begin to sound like raindrops falling into a bucket of water as they near the top.
The discovery of the raindrop “music” in another pyramid suggests that at least some of Mexico’s pyramids were deli
Source: Trak.in News
Sep 23, 2009
An archaeological site more than 3330 years old has been found in the Udaranchamadama area in Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka, by a group of local archaeologists.
According to a report in the Daily Mirror Online, the site had been discovered by Professor Raj Somadeva and his team while excavating an area belonging to the Sri Jayabodharama temple in Udaranchamadama.
The ruins of a cemetery had been found earlier in the Pahalaranchamadama school premises and this team believed th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 23, 2009
Authorities in St Petersburg have approved plans for the city's first skyscraper, a needle-shaped structure that will dwarf its 18th century low-rise skyline and imperil its UNESCO world heritage status.
Ignoring a public outcry and warnings from the United Nations cultural body, the authorities gave the green light to the so-called Okhta Centre on Tuesday.
At 1,322 feet, it will be taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris and be visible from St Petersburg's historic cit
Source: BBC
Sep 23, 2009
China says it is going to lend some of its rare cultural artefacts to Taiwan for the first time since the civil war.
It will send about 40 pieces to Taipei's main museum for a joint exhibition on a Qing dynasty emperor, according to the Beijing News.
The whereabouts of China's artefacts have long been a contentious issue.
When the defeated Nationalists retreated to Taiwan at the end the civil war, they took many treasures with them, and Beijing wants them
Source: AP
Sep 23, 2009
A Swedish TV program to be aired Wednesday claims that top Vatican officials knew that an ultraconservative British bishop was a Holocaust-denier when his excommunication was lifted in January.
The program, which was obtained by The Associated Press prior to broadcast, could add new fuel to the controversy over Bishop Richard Williamson.
Jews and Catholics worldwide were outraged after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of Williamson, along with three other u
Source: Media Matters (liberal media watchdog)
Sep 23, 2009
In a chapter in his new book purporting to explain to"idiots" what"our Founding Fathers really intended," Glenn Beck praises an obsolete provision of the U.S. Constitution that prohibited Congress from outlawing the slave trade before 1808 and capped taxes on the slave trade at $10 per slave. In his explanation of the provision, Beck does not mention slavery, saying instead that the provision means that the Founders apparently"felt like there was a value to being able to live here" and lamenting
Source: Times Digest
Sep 23, 2009
The Serbian war crimes court acquitted two former policemen of collaborating in the killing of three Albanian-American brothers in 1999. The officers were accused of torture while handing over the brothers — Illy, Mehmet and Agron Bytyqi — to a Serbian police unit that shot and killed them.
Source: CNSNews.com
Sep 23, 2009
As a candidate for president, Barack Obama decried the financial toll that the Iraq war was taking on the economy, but Obama’s proposed spending on welfare through 2010 will eclipse Bush’s war spending by more than $260 billion.
“Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned,” then-Sen. Barack Obama told a Charleston, W.V., crowd in March 2008. “This is creating problems in our fragile economy. And that kind of debt also places an unfair burden on our children and gran
Source: Taegan Goddard newsletter
Sep 23, 2009
After predictions by Charlie Cook and others that President Obama's falling approval rate could mean a tough midterm election for Democrats, Thomas Holbrook looked at whether approval rates were good indicators of elections 14 months out.
His conclusion: "Taken together, these data show that presidential approval 14 months prior to midterm elections has some predictive capacity, though there is enough error in the predictions that you shouldn't bet the farm. Approval among ind
Source: Taegan Goddard newsletter
Sep 23, 2009
If you're wondering why Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld comes out unscathed in Matt Latimer's just released tell-all, Speech-less, his old Bush White House boss explains in the Wall Street Journal that it's because he's currently working for Rumsfeld as a ghost writer on his memoirs.
Writes William McGurn: "Not that Mr. Rumsfeld need fear. If this book is any guide, an employer will read how stupid Matt really thought he was only after he's no longer being paid."
