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: History Today
May 19, 2009
On May 13th and 14th, last week, the French Secretary of State for Defence and Veterans, Jean-Marie Bockel, visited Algiers, to discuss the pensions of the Algerian veterans who fought for France during the Second World War. On Thursday, he awarded seven Algerian veterans a military medal in recognition of their contribution to the war effort and inaugurated a ‘Maison des Combattants’ (the French equivalent of a Royal British Legion Club) at the French embassy in Algiers. The centre is designed
Source: Reuters
May 19, 2009
The Kremlin is starting an official drive to try to reverse what it sees as an anti-Russian view of 20th-century history. President Dmitri A. Medvedev issued a decree on Tuesday ordering “the creation of a presidential commission to counter attempts to harm Russian interests by falsifying history.” Russia says its former allies have forgotten the sacrifices made by the Soviet Union during World War II. But critics see the effort as an attempt to whitewash Russia’s imperial past and the crimes co
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 19, 2009
DreamWorks Studios’ announcement Tuesday that it plans a big-screen epic on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. quickly sparked a new battle among his three feuding children.
Dexter King, who lives in California, negotiated the sale of rights by the King estate for what he hopes will be “the definitive film” on his father’s life and legacy, he said in a press release.
But his brother and sister, Atlantans Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, said they only learned of
Source: NYT
May 19, 2009
Federal authorities are investigating the loss of a computer hard drive containing a huge quantity of personal information from Bill Clinton’s presidency in an apparent security breach at a National Archives record center, government officials said Tuesday.
Government officials briefed on the matter said the breach, which was confirmed in April, involved the loss of a drive containing a terabyte of computerized data, which could include millions of individual pieces of information,
Source: Fox News
May 19, 2009
One scientist thinks he know why the Neanderthals went extinct: We ate them.
A team led by Fernando Rozzi, of France's National Center for Scientific Research, re-examined modern human bones found in a cave near Les Rois in southwestern France and found that one jawbone was instead Neanderthal.
Crucially, it was covered in cut marks, indicated it had been butchered. The human bones were untouched.
"For years, people have tried to hide away from the ev
Source: VOA
May 19, 2009
A slump in tourism is aggravating Egypt's economic woes and affecting the lives of those who depend on the industry for a living. About 20 percent of Egypt's foreign currency earnings come from tourism. In 2008, almost 13 million foreign tourists visited Egypt, taking in its pharaonic and Islamic sites along the River Nile. But now, the drop in revenue is hitting the country hard.
Empty tour boats line the River Nile, as boat captains desperately solicit passengers from the meager c
Source: AP
May 19, 2009
It is a forgotten tale from an almost forgotten saga.
Nearly 2 1/2 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military was island hopping through the South Pacific, slowly whittling away at Japan's war-fighting ability.
In an area of the vast naval base known as West Loch, almost three dozen large landing ships brimming with fuel, ammunition and other equipment sat lashed together in preparation for a brutal invasion code-named "Operation Forager."
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 19, 2009
China has released one of the last prisoners described as 'hooligans' who were jailed after the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years ago.
Liu Zhihua was 24 years old when he helped to organise a strike at a factory in Xiangtan to protest at the treatment of students in Tiananmen Square. He was imprisoned for the now-defunct crime of "hooliganism", and is the final trade union leader to be released.
According to Dui Hua, a human rights group, Liu has just been r
Source: Washington Post
May 19, 2009
A federal appeals court ruled this morning that the White House does not have to make public internal documents examining the potential disappearance of e-mails during the Bush administration.
In upholding a ruling last year by a federal judge, the appeals court found that the White House's Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group fil
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 19, 2009
After more than 60 years of self-loathing and shame because of the
Nazis, the Germans have fallen in love with themselves.
A study has shown that increasing numbers of Germans think they should
be proud about their country.
Germany is preparing to celebrate 20 years of the downfall of the
Berlin Wall and the 60 years since the founding of the post-war
Republic that replaced the Third Reich.
A study, carried out by the Identity Foundation in Duesseldorf, showed
twice as
Source: http://www.prnewschannel.com
May 18, 2009
Does the CIA lie to the President and senior members of Congress? The answer is yes, according to publisher and presidential historian Tim Miller. He says there’s no doubt Nancy Pelosi could be telling the truth about not knowing about the water-boarding torture used on suspected terrorists, all while the CIA has been lying.
Miller, who is CEO of FlatSigned Press, refers to at least two examples surrounding the CIA and JFK’s assassination when making his claim that the intelligence
Source: National Geographic
May 18, 2009
The glittering "grills" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says.
Ancient peoples of southern North America went to "dentists"—among the earliest known—to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico's National Insti
Source: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk
May 18, 2009
Letters from the 1940s written by a Bristol schoolboy who discovered the remains of a Roman villa in Lawrence Weston have been uncovered.
The villa in Long Cross Road was unearthed in 1947 during the construction of the Lawrence Weston housing estate.
George Boon took an interest in archaeology at an early age, and helped protect the site from developers.
He would go on to become one of the world's leading figures in Romano-British archaeology for more than
Source: National Geographic
May 18, 2009
Demand for the mercury compound vermilion was strong enough to support a large-scale mercury mining industry in the Andes as far back as 1400 B.C., according to a new study (see pictures from the expedition).
A bright red pigment, vermilion was used in ancient Andean rituals and is frequently found adorning gold and silver ceremonial objects in ancient burials of kings and nobles in South America.
The find extends the record of New World mercury production back by more
Source: San Jose Mercury
May 18, 2009
A man accused of killing a U.S. journalist because of his investigative work admits his role, giving testimony that implicates two more in the slaying. Sound familiar?
Perhaps doubly so. It's the story not only of Oakland Post Editor Chauncey Bailey, shot to death on a downtown Oakland sidewalk in August 2007, but also of Don Bolles, an Arizona Republic reporter killed by a car bomb in Phoenix in June 1976. In the 31 years between, there was no other case in which multiple defendant
Source: Fox News
May 18, 2009
Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.
According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which
Source: Haaretz
May 18, 2009
A horrific page of history unfolded last Monday in Ukraine. It
concerned the gruesome and untold story of a spontaneous pogrom by
local villagers against hundreds of Jews in a town south of Ternopil
in 1941.
Not one, but five independent witnesses recounted the tale, recalling
how they rushed to a German army camp, borrowed weapons and gunned
down 500 Jews inside the town's Christian cemetery. One of them
remembered decapitating bodies in front of the church.
The man heading
Source: UPI
May 18, 2009
A University of Michigan professor says the discovery of a 47 million-year-old fossil may be from a primate species related to humans, apes and monkeys.
Michigan paleontology Professor Philip Gingeric, who also serves as the president-elect of the Paleontological Society of the United States, said the newly discovered fossil also supports the adapid theory of evolution, The Wall Street Journal said Monday.
A major ongoing evolutionary debate is focused on whether humans
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 18, 2009
Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary, provided George W Bush with top secret intelligence briefings on the Iraq war that featured cover pages adorned with Biblical quotes.
According to a report in GQ magazine the religious texts were imposed over pictures of the US armed forces engaged in the war.
Shown to only a small circle of senior advisers, the pages were first used on the eve of the 2003 invasion and were designed to provide support and encouragement
Source: BBC
May 18, 2009
The US Supreme Court says FBI Director Robert Mueller and ex-Attorney General John Aschcroft cannot be sued by a former 9/11 detainee for alleged abuse.
The justices on Monday reversed a lower court ruling that had allowed a lawsuit brought by Javaid Iqbal to go forward.
Mr Iqbal, from Pakistan, argued the two officials were responsible for a policy that saw him singled out for abuse on the basis of his religion and race.
The court ruled that his complain
