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: Times (UK)
Jul 14, 2009
Screaming obscenities, a British soldier hauls the hooded Iraqi detainee off the floor and forces him to lean, legs bent, against a wall as other captives, sacks over their heads and wrists bound with tape, groan in discomfort.
The damning images, captured on an amateur-style video, were released for the first time yesterday at the opening of a public inquiry into the death of an Iraqi in British military custody in southern Iraq six years ago.
The hearing was also to
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Jul 14, 2009
President Obama has ordered an investigation into an alleged massacre in Afghanistan amid claims that the Bush White House tried to cover up the atrocity.
Up to 2,000 Taliban fighters were reportedly killed after they surrendered to the US-backed warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum and his Northern Alliance troops in the early days of the Afghan War in 2001.
Although allegations first surfaced in 2002 that prisoners were deliberately left to suffocate in overcrowded con
Source: BBC
Jul 14, 2009
He denies 11 counts including terrorism, murder, rape and torture, at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The 61-year-old is accused of having armed and directed rebel groups from Liberia in order to seize control of Sierra Leone's diamond riches.
Mr Taylor is the first African leader to be tried by an international court.
"It is very, very, very unfortunate that the prosecution, because of disinformation, misinformation, lies, rumours would associa
Source: AP
Jul 13, 2009
The way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than ordinary winter flu, a new study in animals finds.
Tests in monkeys, mice and ferrets show that the swine flu thrives in greater numbers all over the respiratory system, including the lungs, and causes lesions, instead of staying in the nose and throat like seasonal flu.
In addition, blood tests show that many people who were born before the 1918 flu pandemic seem to have immunity to the current
Source: John Noble Wilford in the NYT
Jul 13, 2009
In memory, after all this time, Apollo resists relegation to the past tense. It is close to midnight, and the summer air is warm and still, no heavier than usual for Florida. We are driving toward a light in the distance. Its preternatural glow suffuses the sky ahead but, strangely, leaves the land where we are in natural darkness.
After the first checkpoint, miles back, where guards inspected our badges and car pass, the source of the light comes into view. The sight is magnetic, d
Source: NYT
Jul 13, 2009
At the end of the first chapter of John Updike’s “Rabbit Redux,” the title character, a fictional Pennsylvania everyman whose given name is Harry Angstrom, tunes in, like millions of his nonfictional fellow citizens, to watch the Moon landing on television.
Even though the Apollo 11 mission casts a long metaphorical shadow over the book, the second in what would ultimately become a quartet of novels about Rabbit, Rabbit’s experience of the epochal event of July 20, 1969, is curiousl
Source: http://www.fox10tv.com
Jul 13, 2009
It's a day Annie Ruth Owen thought would never come; the day she'd
bury her first husband.
Her husband, Lt. Woodie McVay, has been listed as missing in action
since 1944. The 26 year old Navy fighter pilot was shot down over the
Pacific during World War II."He gave his life willingly. He's a hero, in my book and a lot of
people's," said Owen.
Six decades passed before Lt. McVay's family, many of whom he never
laid eyes on, learned what happened to the young man considered a
Source: BBC
Jul 13, 2009
Most were interpreters, who say they were not given adequate protection from attack by extremist militias.
They claim they were owed a duty of care, and later this week will begin their legal actions in a bid to gain compensation from the UK.
The government says it has helped hundreds of Iraqis settle in the UK through an assistance scheme.
It also says "many thousands" of Iraqis have worked for British forces since 2003.
Source: History Today
Jul 13, 2009
The first part of the State Papers Online Project was completed last November when 200 volumes of papers containing a complete collection of the Domestic State Papers from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I became available online. Last Thursday, July 9th, to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne, State Papers Online Part II was released online by Gale, part of Cengage Learning, in conjunction with The National Archives. The aim of the State Papers Online project is to create
Source: http://www.adnkronos.com
Jul 13, 2009
Archeological treasures including a Greek amphitheatre have been unearthed in the ancient city of Laodicea, which is being excavated in western Turkey. Local businesses have been working with regional leaders in the western province of Denizli on the project, the first of its kind in Turkey.
"Something has taken place here that is unseen in the rest of the country," Celal Simsek, head of the excavation team, told the Anatolia news agency.
"The industriali
Source: http://www.iomtoday.co.im
Jul 13, 2009
A PREHISTORIC dwelling – 3,000 years older than Stonehenge – has been unearthed during construction of the runway extension at Isle of Man Airport.
Dating back an astonishing 8,000 years to the time when the first human settlers returned to the Isle of Man after the end of the Ice Age, it is probably the oldest dwelling ever found in the Island.
Featuring the foundations of a strongly-built shelter, filled and surrounded by thousands of pieces of worked flint, the charred rem
Source: SBS.com
Jul 13, 2009
The head of a team of archaeologists examining 33 mummies found in Peru says the bodies were human sacrifices.
Utah University professor Haagen Klaus is an expert in bio-archaeology and has been analysing and examining the human remains found in 2007 at the Chotuna Huaca, a site located north east of Chiclayo.
"(The) majority of them were sacrificed using a very sharp bladed instrument, probably a copper or bronze tummy knife. And for the majority there are a sever
Source: Art Daily
Jul 13, 2009
Peruvian archaeologists and Spanish technicians have discovered an Inca road unknown until now and apparently held sacred that led to the citadel of Machu Picchu, the Project Ukhupacha team said Friday in Lima.
The discovery was made early this week by archaeologists from the Peru National Culture Institute and technicians from Jaume I University in Castellon, Spain.
The Inca road is made of stone masonry approximately 1 meter (3 1/4 feet) wide, with sustaining walls al
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jul 13, 2009
The first bottle of eau de Cologne was created by Giovanni Maria Farina, an Italian expatriate living in the eastern German city of Cologne. On July 13, 1709, Farina opened a luxury goods shop where the fragrance was sold.
In a letter to his brother dated in 1709, Farina wrote, "I have discovered a scent that reminds me of an Italian spring morning, of daffodils and orange blossoms after the rain." He named it after the city he lived in.
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
Jul 13, 2009
The Festival of British Archaeology 2009 is an annual extravaganza of heritage events coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology. Each year the Festival helps museums, local societies, national and countryside parks, universities and heritage organisations hold hundreds of events showcasing the very best of British archaeology. The Festival aims to give everyone the opportunity to learn about their local heritage, to see archaeology in action, and to get involved. Events ranging from exc
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
Jul 13, 2009
Previous studies have suggested that Indonesia's Toba supervolcano, when it erupted about 74,000 years ago, triggered a 1,000-year episode of ice sheet advance, and also may have produced a short-lived 'volcanic winter,' which drastically reduced the human population at the time. Previous climate model simulations of the eruption have been unable to produce the glaciation, and there are no climate observations to support the volcanic winter.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Jul 13, 2009
Move reflects official efforts to rewrite Stalin's role and to cover up Nazi-Soviet pact.
A group of British academics including the historian Orlando Figes and the poet and translator Robert Chandler have spoken out after authorities in Russia closed down a website dealing with the country's controversial Soviet past.
On 19 June the home affairs ministry in St Petersburg shut down the site www.hrono.info. The website had been Russia'
Source: BBC
Jul 13, 2009
A fraudster who stole hundreds of pounds from a friend has blamed his crime on a Nazi chalice he was given.
Derick Smith, 58, of Stanley, County Durham, forged Lesley Shaw's cheques after promising to use the chalice as a bank guarantee to start a business.
He was fined after admitting fraud at Newcastle Crown Court.
The former show jumper is now blaming the silver cup, which was looted from Herman Goering's mansion in 1945, for a string of misfortunes.
Source: Foxnews
Jul 13, 2009
President Obama's allies are calling for investigations into the Bush administration's prosecution of the War on Terror -- but such developments could prove a distraction to the president's domestic agenda.
Early in the year, the president said he wanted to "look forward" and suggested he was not interested in opening high-profile investigations into the activities of the Bush administration.
But a series of developments halfway through Obama's first year
Source: WSJ
Jul 13, 2009
A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn't clear, and the CIA won't comment on its substance.
According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some trai
