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 History Magazine
Sep 9, 2009
In 218 BC Hannibal left the Spanish city of Cartagena with one hundred thousand soldiers and nearly forty elephants. We've just left the same city on three bicycles followed by our BBC television crew. Our aim is to follow Hannibal's path along the coast of Spain, through France, over the Alps, down the length of Italy and back to his home city of Carthage, now a suburb of the city of Tunes, capital of Tunisia.
In the Second Punic War against Rome, after Carthage's defeat in the Fi
Source: National Geographic News
Sep 9, 2009
It didn't look like much at first, just a broken, mud-caked stone mug.
But when archaeologists in Jerusalem cleaned the 2,000-year-old vessel, they discovered ten lines of mysterious script.
"These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households" of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina.
"But this is the first time an inscription has been found on a stone vessel" of this type.
Source: CNN
Sep 9, 2009
Harvard University, one of America's premiere academic institutions, is coming under fire for running an advertisement in its campus newspaper questioning the reality of the Holocaust.
Recently named for the second straight year as the No. 1 school in U.S. News & World Report rankings of American colleges, Harvard is known for its rigorous scholarly standards and prestigious reputation.
On Tuesday, however, The Harvard Crimson, in what it said was an error, ran the
Source: NYT
Sep 9, 2009
MOSCOW (AP) — The book that made the word gulag a synonym for the horrors of Soviet oppression will be taught in Russian high schools, education officials said Wednesday, a generation after the Soviet Union banned it as destructive to the Communist cause and exiled its author.
Excerpts from the book, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago,” which was published in 1973, will now be required reading for students, the Russian Education Ministry said.
Prime Mini
Source: Google News
Sep 9, 2009
NEW YORK — A day before the eighth anniversary of 9/11, officials are launching a Web site asking people worldwide to contribute new images of the terrorist attack.
The photographs, audio and video will appear online as part of the project, called "Make History."
One submitted video is from the evening of Sept. 11, showing the chaotic streets around the trade center. Another clip — of a plane piercing one of the towers — was shot from a Brooklyn street, throug
Source: The Daily Mail UK
Sep 9, 2009
A massive haul of more than 10,000 Roman coins has been unearthed by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast - on his first ever treasure hunt.
The silver and bronze 'nummi' coins, dating from between 240AD and 320AD, were discovered in a farmer's field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, last month.
Finder Nick Davies, 30, was on his first treasure hunt when he discovered the coins, mostly crammed inside a buried 70lb clay pot.
Experts say the coins have spent a
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Sep 9, 2009
The University of Wyoming is facing protests over its decision to name a center for international students after Dick Cheney, the former vice president, who donated $3.2 million that was used for the program, the Associated Press reported. Those circulated petitions and planning a protest for Thursday, when Cheney will be on campus, say that the university's reputation will be hurt by the association with Cheney, given his role in promoting the invasion of Iraq and support for interrogation tech
Source: lep.co.uk
Sep 9, 2009
A collection of ancient documents dating back centuries is being made available by a Lancashire law firm for the first time.
Staff at Napthens, in Winckley Square, Preston, have found documents relating to poor houses established in 1665 while a property deed dating from the 1550s has also been uncovered...
... The poor houses had been established in 1665 by John Osbaldeston, of London, who left £500 in his Will to be invested to help the poor in Leyland. The homes were
Source: Yahoo News
Sep 9, 2009
PANO LEFKARA, Cyprus (Reuters Life!) – An ancient Cypriot craft reputed to feature in Leonardo da Vinci's painting of "The Last Supper" is getting a new lease of life.
Lefkaritiko lacemaking, an intricate form of needlework passed down from generation to generation is expected to be declared a heritage item by UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for the protection and promotion of culture.
"This particular lacemaking is passed on from mother to
Source: The Local
Sep 9, 2009
Germany has inaugurated a new memorial to some 3,100 German soldiers killed in service since 1955, breaking with usual reticence over military pride amid a heated debate about the country's role in Afghanistan."We are aware that in the past the death of soldiers has often been used for propaganda, especially in Germany," said President Horst Köhler, alluding to the Nazi past, during a ceremony in Berlin on Tuesday evening.
The monument located in the center of th
Source: NewKerala.com
Sep 9, 2009
London: A new study has indicated that ancient Egyptian temples were aligned so precisely with astronomical events that people could set their political, economic and religious calendars by them.
According to a report in New Scientist, the study was of 650 temples, some dating back to 3000 BC.
For example, New Year coincided with the moment that the winter-solstice sun hit the central sanctuary of the Karnak temple in present-day Luxor, according to archaeological astro
Source: DNRonline.com
Sep 9, 2009
HARRISONBURG - Funding to preserve 178 acres of the Civil War battlefield at Port Republic is nearly in hand, according to a letter from the national Civil War Preservation Trust.
In a letter received last week, the trust said it is joining forces with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation headquartered at New Market to buy the development rights on the land.
Spokeswomen for the trust and foundation both said Tuesday they would not comment on what property the m
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 9, 2009
Humans may have lived outside Africa hundreds of thousands of years earlier than first thought, fossilised evidence suggests.
A skull found by scientists in Georgia has been dated back 1.8 million years - about 800,000 years before the first humans were thought to have left the region.
The skull was one of five remains of primitive humans found at the Dmanisi archaeological site, south-west of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the British Science Festival heard on Tues
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 9, 2009
More than three quarters of all Europeans support President Barack Obama's foreign policy and America has enjoyed one of the biggest popularity "bounces" in polling history, a survey will disclose today.
The annual "Trans-Atlantic Trends" study found that 77 per cent of European Union citizens back Mr Obama's handling of international affairs, compared with only 19 per cent who thought the same of President George W Bush.
Overall, 75 per cent of Eur
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 9, 2009
A war crimes investigation was launched on Wednesday into the killings of five journalists – including two Britons – during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor more than 30 years ago.
Australian police announced the probe two years after a coroner ruled that the deaths of the five, who included two Australians and a New Zealander, were deliberate and probably ordered by Indonesian commanders to conceal their part in the operation.
Indonesia has long claimed the five wer
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 9, 2009
A new image showing the alleged September 11 mastermind at Guantanamo Bay has surfaced just days before the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Several pictures of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were reportedly taken by Red Cross delegates at the secret Camp 7 inside the detention centre at the US naval base in Cuba.
The first photos of him for more than six years show him looking healthy, heavily bearded and apparently about to pray.
Source: AP
Sep 9, 2009
North Korea, facing international pressure to abandon its nuclear program, marked the communist country's 61st anniversary Wednesday with a vow to "mercilessly annihilate the U.S. imperialists" if they attack.
The anniversary of the country's founding is a major holiday in North Korea, along with the birthdays of the leader and his father, late founder Kim Il Sung.
North Koreans streamed to Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on Wednesday to lay flowers and bow before a t
Source: AP
Sep 9, 2009
Former Army reservist Lynndie England is suing the biographer who wrote the book she hoped would tell her side of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and salvage her image.
England claims writer Gary S. Winkler has seized control of what was intended to be a shared copyright by abruptly resigning in July from A Few Bad Apples LLC, a West Virginia company set up to handle finances, and forming his own Virginia-based publishing company, Bad Apple Books LLC.
Winkler denies any w
Source: CNN
Sep 9, 2009
Amid conservative opposition, a bill that would designate a day of "significance" in California for slain gay politician Harvey Milk is heading to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk.
The legislation would denote May 22 -- Milk's birthday -- as a day of significance across the state.
The governor's office said Tuesday it had received more than 100,000 constituent phone calls about the bill, although it was not immediately clear if most were in favor of it or op
Source: CNN
Sep 9, 2009
Friends and colleagues of legendary CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite gathered Wednesday in New York's Lincoln Center to remember "the most trusted man in America."
Friends and colleagues of legendary CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite gathered Wednesday in New York's Lincoln Center to remember "the most trusted man in America."
The memorial included performances by Jimmy Buffett, Mickey Hart and Wynton Marsalis.
