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
May 16, 2009
The Arandora Star was a tragedy that was barely talked about in Welsh Italian communities for years - and is still a sensitive topic for those who lost husbands, fathers, sons and brothers.
Dragged from the lives they had made for themselves in Britain, the Italian men were arrested and interned on Winston Churchill's orders after Italy joined World War II.
It is only now - decades after the disaster and after relentless research - that many Welsh Italians have been a
Source: BBC
May 16, 2009
They ruled a vast swathe of Scotland for almost two centuries but their role in helping to forge the nation has been largely forgotten - until now.
On Saturday a new visitor centre celebrating the Lords of the Isles opens on Islay, which also allows people access to the island in Finlaggan Loch which was the seat of their power.
The Ri Innse Gall - Lord of the Isles - held sway over a sea kingdom which encompassed all of the Hebrides and much of the northern mainland.
Source: AP
May 16, 2009
Archaeologists and volunteers armed with special flares will fan out over part of the Four Corners region on Saturday to study how early Navajos could have used smoke signals to warn against invaders.
There are more than 200 pueblitos — usually high on rock outcroppings overlooking the San Juan Basin — that archaeologists believe were built by Navajos three centuries ago to protect against Spanish explorers and neighboring tribes.
"If you hear an enemy approaching
Source: NYT
May 16, 2009
Fossil remains of a 47-million-year-old animal, found years ago in Germany, have been analyzed more thoroughly and determined to be an extremely early primate close to the emergence of the evolutionary branch leading to monkeys, apes and humans, scientists said in interviews this week.
Described as the “most complete fossil primate ever discovered,” the specimen is a juvenile female the size of a small monkey. Only the left lower limb is missing, and the preservation is so remarkabl
Source: NYT
May 16, 2009
Looking across the courtroom where he is on trial for crimes against humanity, the chief Khmer Rouge torturer cannot avoid seeing an artist and a mechanic who sit watching him but mostly avoid his gaze.
One short and forceful, his feet dangling just above the floor, the other melancholy and drooping a bit, they are rare survivors of Tuol Sleng prison, where at least 14,000 people were sent to their deaths three decades ago.
In the weeks ahead, the two survivors will tak
Source: NYT
May 16, 2009
... [The] Vatican seems to assume [Pope] Benedict’s actions and words are self-explanatory, when often they are not. Sometimes the gesture, timing and location count more than the close reading.
This shortcoming was on display at the event that aroused the most criticism during the trip: his speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial on Monday. Many Israelis were upset that the pope never uttered the words German or Nazi, did not speak of his own experience as an unwilling conscrip
Source: NYT
May 16, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI wound up a sometimes fraught trip to
Israel and the West Bank on Friday with a plea that the
Holocaust must "never be forgotten or denied."
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 16, 2009
A poll has found that more than half of Americans now call themselves pro-life rather than pro-choice on abortion.
Gallup said that 51 per cent of Americans now describe themselves as pro-life, the first time a majority gave that answer in the 15 years that the pollsters have asked the question.
The findings, obtained in an annual survey on values and beliefs, marked a significant shift from a year ago, when, 50 per cent said they were pro-choice and 44 per cent were pr
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 16, 2009
Justice Secretary Jack Straw has revealed that his father was imprisoned as a conscientious objector in the Second World War.
Walter Straw’s refusal to fight led to his being jailed in 1939.
The former Home Secretary mentioned his father’s confinement in jails in Wandsworth, South London, and Exeter in a speech to the conference of the Prison Officers Association...
It is not clear how long he spent behind bars but other conscientious objectors were impris
Source: BBC
May 16, 2009
A statue of a sea dog who became an unlikely war hero has been escorted from Scotland by the Norwegian Navy.
Bamse was a mascot on the Norwegian Navy minesweeper the Thorrod, which was stationed in Montrose and Dundee during World War II.
It is claimed the St Bernard saved the lives of two sailors during the war.
The Norwegians are shipping a copy of the statue, which was erected in Montrose in 2006, from Leith Docks to Honningsvag, his original home.
Source: Spiegel Online
May 15, 2009
Was the cradle of civilization also the birthplace of atrocity? Historians have been researching the most extreme forms of torture in the ancient world. Among other things, they have found that, back then, "sitting in the tub" was actually a pretty nasty way to kick the bucket.
In total, Julius Caesar reckoned that he had 1,192,000 enemies killed during his reign. Meanwhile the Emperor Tiberius would have young men's urethras laced shut before force-feeding them wine. And,
Source: Guardian (UK)
May 15, 2009
Hidden in the jungle one mile in on the access road to the village of Sittee River is an important landmark in Belize’s colonial history. It is the remnants of the steam powered Serpon Sugar Mill which was established in 1865 and marked the start of Belize’s industrial era. The mill was bought by William Bowman and it, along with the Regalia, bought and owned by an American, fueled Belize’s economy for about thirty years.
Estimates are that at its peak, the Serpon Sugar Mill was
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 15, 2009
Major Steven Hutchison, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was killed on Sunday when a homemade bomb exploded near his vehicle in Al-Faw.
Maj Hutchison, had wanted to re-enlist immediately after the September 11 attacks but his wife had opposed it.
His brother Richard said that when his wife Candy died of breast cancer, he signed up again in July 2007.
Source: Sky News
May 15, 2009
Sir Paul McCartney has written to the American President to ask him to support an organisation which is working to restore peace in the Middle East. OneVoice has more than 650,000 followers and aims to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Earlier this year the ex-Beatle officially joined OneVoice's international board of advisers, which includes Hollywood star Danny DeVito and ex-boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
McCartney hopes Obama will lend his political weig
Source: BBC
May 15, 2009
One of Europe's most eminent mathematicians and physicists has been honoured at a remote County Tyrone churchyard 200 years after his birth.
James MacCullagh was born in the townland of Landahussy and went on to teach at Trinity College Dublin.
An Ulster History Circle plaque was unveiled at his family tomb at St Patrick's Church, near Plumbridge.
The plaque is part of a programme of events organised by the Glenelly Historical Society to mark his life.
Source: AP
May 15, 2009
Michiko Kiyokawa was a typical freshman in 1942, taking biology and playing field hockey, when she was forced to leave college during the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
This Sunday, more than six decades later, Kiyokawa will return to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma to receive an honorary degree.
"It's an honor," the 85-year-old woman said in a telephone interview Friday from her home in Parkdale, Ore. "The college is being
Source: BBC
May 15, 2009
Scotland's first purpose-built centre for researching ancestral history is due to be opened by the first minister.
It is hoped the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock will make it easier for people to trace their family tree.
The facility has had a £5m facelift and now brings together an archive centre, registration service, local and family history under one roof.
The Homecoming programme aims to attract expatriates back to Scotland to celebrate the coun
Source: AP
May 15, 2009
The state Elections Commission agreed Thursday to hear a case far outside the typical realm of Ohio politics, one involving claims of genocide, Turkish history, U.S. foreign policy and a growing and personal political rivalry.
At issue are comments made by an Armenian-American congressional candidate during the 2008 campaign. A Republican congresswoman from Cincinnati, Jean Schmidt, claims her opponent violated election law when he accused her of being a puppet of Turkish efforts to
Source: Ansa
May 15, 2009
Sardinian scientists believe they've traced the roots of the 'death-defying' sardonic grin to a plant commonly found on the Italian island.
Greek poet Homer first used the word, an adaptation of the ancient word for Sardininan, to describe a defiant smile or laugh in the face of death.
He was believed to have coined it because of the belief that the Punic people who settled Sardinia gave condemned men a potion that made them smile before dying.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 15, 2009
The son and daughter of Sir Edmund Hillary are heading to court in a battle to block public access to the Everest conqueror's personal papers.
Sir Edmund, who died at his Auckland home in January last year aged 88, left boxes full of his writings, private letters, diaries and maps, along with thousands of photographs and colour slides, to the city's museum.
But Peter Hillary, 55, and his sister Sarah, 54, are asking the New Zealand High Court to rule that a clause in t
