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: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 8, 2009
After the release of Ronnie Biggs on compassionate grounds, the notorious female followers of Charles Manson could take a similar path out of prison.
Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten were all sentenced to death for their roles in the carnage that claimed the lives of actress Sharon Tate, the heavily pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, and six others in Los Angeles on the nights of August 8 and 9, 1969. The penalties were commuted to life and they are
Source: Independent (UK)
Aug 8, 2009
Unhappy lovers in Cyprus have been taking so much stone from the tomb of Saint Agapitikos to use in love potions that soon there won't be any left.
Dust from the grave in the courtyard of the church in the village of Arodes in Paphos district has been used for centuries by the lovelorn, who are supposed to slip it into the drink of their objet d'amour.
But, in recent years, so many have been filching shards of stone that a quarter of the tomb has disappeared.
Source: Live Science
Aug 8, 2009
Although past research has suggested Tyrannosaurus rex was related to chickens, now findings hint this giant predator might have acted chicken too.
Instead of picking on dinosaurs its own size, researchers now suggest T. rex was a baby killer that liked to swallow defenseless prey whole.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 8, 2009
According to a new study, Hollywood films that take liberties with the past damage people's knowledge of history – even when they once knew the correct facts. But while this is likely true, it's nothing new. Writers from Shakespeare to Walter Scott have fired our imaginations with gross but entertaining fallacies: Cleopatra, Richard the Lionheart and Richard III have never recovered from the extreme makeovers they received according to Elizabethan or Victorian tastes.
Alexandre Dum
Source: NYT
Aug 7, 2009
FOR the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period. The total number of jobs has grown a bit, but that is only because of government hiring.
The accompanying charts show the job performance from July 1999, when the economy was booming and companies were complaining about how hard it was to find workers, through July of this year, when the economy was mired in the deepest and longest recession since Wo
Source: CNN Money
Aug 7, 2009
...In this recession-racked town, the lack of food is a serious problem. It's a theme that comes up again and again in conversations in Detroit. There isn't a single major chain supermarket in the city, forcing residents to buy food from corner stores. Often less healthy and more expensive food.
As the area's economy worsens --unemployment was over 16% in July -- food stamp applications and pantry visits have surged.
Detroiters have responded to this crisis. Huge amount
Source: NYT
Aug 7, 2009
Mamadou Tandja, the president of the vast desert nation of Niger, has secured an additional three years in office and unlimited runs at future terms in a referendum that opposition officials have called a coup d'etat in all but name.
Mr. Tandja, a 71-year-old former army colonel who had promised to step down after the second of his two terms expired in December, thanked voters even before the official results were announced Friday by the country’s electoral commission...
Source: University of Toronto
Aug 7, 2009
Excavations led by a University of Toronto archaeologist at the site of a recently discovered temple in southeastern Turkey have uncovered a cache of cuneiform tablets dating back to the Iron Age period between 1200 and 600 BCE. Found in the temple's cella, or 'holy of holies', the tablets are part of a possible archive. The cella also contained gold, bronze and iron implements, libation vessels and ornately decorated ritual objects.
"The assemblage appears to represent a Neo-A
Source: New York Times
Aug 7, 2009
Every morning Peggy Cooper Cafritz steps outside and confronts the wreckage: the acrid smell of her incinerated walls and furnishings, the police tape clinging to a chain-link fence surrounding her property, the rumbling backhoe hauling away the charred remains of her longtime home.
So, when asked about her loss, Ms. Cafritz hesitates. Her $5.2 million mansion here in the Kent neighborhood of northwest Washington held one of the largest private collections of African-American and Af
Source: BBC
Aug 7, 2009
Archaeologists in Italy say they have unearthed the remains of a sumptuous villa thought to be the birthplace of the Emperor Vespasian.
The ruins were found in the Roman city of Falacrine, about 80 miles (130km) north-east of Rome.
The villa's location and luxury suggest it was probably Vespasian's birthplace, an archaeologist said.
Vespasian lived from AD9-79. He was emperor from AD69-79, restoring peace after a period of civil war.
Source: BBC
Aug 7, 2009
Gen Sir David Richards, who takes over on 28 August, told the Times that "nation-building" would last decades.
Troops will be required for the medium term only, but the UK will continue to play a role in "development, governance [and] security sector reform," he said.
Shadow defence minister Gerald Howarth said the UK had to be there long-term to achieve its objectives.
Gen Richards commanded 35,000 troops from 37 nations when he was
Source: Wall Street Journal
Aug 7, 2009
Seven years ago, more than 50% of the power distributed by North Delhi Power Ltd. wasn't paid for by customers. Today, the company has cut that to 15%, signaling that one of India's biggest infrastructure problems can be solved, if tackled aggressively.
Power theft by rich and poor customers as well as businesses has plagued India for decades, hindering foreign and domestic investment that could spark the increase in generating capacity the nation desperately needs.
The
Source: The American Task Force on Palestine
Aug 7, 2009
King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia summed up the sentiments of the entire Arab and Muslim worlds well when he said that Palestinian divisions constitute a greater danger to the Palestinians and their cause than all the threats and acts of aggression committed by Israel.
In a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas marking Fateh’s first congress in 20 years, the Saudi king stressed that all Palestinian factions need to come together to make an independent Palestinian
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
Aug 7, 2009
The search for a new Ohio statue for the U.S. Capitol is taking a panel of state lawmakers to the birthplace of inventor Thomas Edison.
The committee is looking for a historic figure to replace William Allen, one of two Ohioans representing the state in the National Statuary Hall at the Capitol building in Washington. Allen was a 19th century congressman and Ohio governor who portrayed blacks as savages and supported the rights of Southern slave owners.
Source: Time
Aug 7, 2009
American and Pakistani officials say it looks more and more likely that Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief who had a $5 million bounty on his head, is dead. Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told reporters in Islamabad on Friday Aug. 7 that, "According to my intelligence information, the news is correct. We are trying to get on-the-ground verification to be 100% sure. But according to my information, he has been taken out." Local Pakistani media, citing &quo
Source: Newsay
Aug 7, 2009
Two significant colonial American sites along the upper Hudson River are expected to change hands in an effort to preserve the historic properties, while the state still plans to buy a third 18th-century site that's considered the birthplace of the U.S. Army Rangers.
All three properties are in or adjacent to Fort Edward, a history-rich Washington County village 40 miles north of Albany. The fort the English built here was Britain's largest military outpost in North America during
Source: BBC
Aug 7, 2009
"Egypt is the gift of the Nile," commented the Greek historian Herodotus back in the 5th Century BC.
The world's longest river, which runs through this desert country, produced its ancient civilisation and remains its main source of water.
But now Egypt is defending its historic rights to extract more from the Nile than any other country against calls for change to long-existing agreements.
Source: AP
Aug 7, 2009
Top U.S. officials have reached out to a leading Vietnam war scholar to discuss the similarities of that conflict 40 years ago with American involvement in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is seeking ways to isolate an elusive guerrilla force and win over a skeptical local population.
The overture to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Stanley Karnow, who opposes the Afghan war, comes as the U.S. is evaluating its strategy there.
Among the concerns voiced by historians is the c
Source: NYT
Aug 7, 2009
For the first time since the decade began, Americans are having fewer babies, and some experts are blaming the economy. In 2007, the number of births in the United States
broke a 50-year-old record high, set during the baby boom. But last year, births began to decline nationwide, by nearly 2 percent, according to provisional figures released last week. Those figures, from the National Center for Health Statistics, indicate that births declined in all but 10 states in 2008 (most of them in
Source: Foxnews
Aug 7, 2009
Since Irwin Stovroff was profiled a week ago on FOXNews.com, the decorated WWII veteran has received thousands of positive letters for his non-profit organization, Vets Helping Heroes, which provides service and therapy dogs to wounded veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
As of December 31, 2008, over 45,000 troops have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since the start of operations there. Many of them return with life-altering wounds, lost limbs, spinal cord injuri
