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: Reuters
May 8, 2009
British immigration officials told former Nepalese Gurkha soldiers on Thursday that they could not stay in the country despite a government pledge to relax rules limiting how many could retire here.
Gurkha soldiers have fought for Britain since 1815, and they still go into battle with traditional curved Kukri knives. Their advocates say they should have the same settlement rights as other overseas troops.
Opposition politicians said that letters had been sent to five Gu
Source: Reuters
May 7, 2009
BETHANY BEYOND THE JORDAN (Reuters) – When Pope Benedict stops to pray at a pool of still green water here on Sunday, his visit will bolster the case that Jesus was baptized at this spot on the east bank of the Jordan River.
The exact location is unclear and a rival spot across the narrow muddy river has long claimed to be the place where John the Baptist and Jesus met for the cleansing ritual.
But for over a decade now, Jordanian experts have unearthed ruins of ancient
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 7, 2009
A journal from HMS Beagle, the ship that scientist Charles Darwin voyaged on, has sold for 97,250 pounds.
The ship was the vessel that Darwin used during some of his most important journeys that helped him form his ideas on evolution.
The journal was kept by a commanding officer on the ship, detailing the end of its first hydrographic surveying voyage to Patagonia in South America.
Source: NYT
May 7, 2009
A couple of days ago, Fred R. Shapiro, the editor of The Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations, asked constitutional law scholars for memorable quotations from Justice David H. Souter of the Supreme Court.
Mr. Shapiro got only four responses. One was about television coverage of the court (“The day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it’s going to roll over my dead body”). Another concerned the limited pleasures of reading legal briefs rather than serious books (“I fi
Source: Reuters
May 7, 2009
A military garrison of mud-brick and seashells unearthed in Egypt's Sinai desert may be key to finding a web of pharaonic-era defenses at the northeast gateway to ancient Egypt, archaeologists said on Thursday.
Archaeologists who discovered the 3,500-year-old garrison, where up to 50,000 soldiers could be posted in times of heightened tensions, say they hope inscriptions at Luxor's Karnak temple may serve as a guide to finding other outposts.
But knowing the location of
Source: Times (UK)
May 7, 2009
An investigation by the US Justice Department into the authors of Bush-era “torture memos” is unlikely to recommend criminal prosecution — but may suggest that they should be disciplined or even banned from practising as lawyers.
According to reports yesterday, the inquiry has concluded that lawyers such as John Yoo and Jay Bybee committed serious lapses of judgment when they wrote secret memorandums authorising harsh interrogations including waterboarding of terror suspects.
Source: BBC
May 7, 2009
Some people say economic power is shifting towards the East, but is that a new development?
That three of the four largest economies in the world might be Asian suggests that the old world order is re-establishing itself, according to Dr Kishore Mahbuani at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Just as Genghis Khan once established an empire that covered more than one fifth of the Earth's surface, stretching from Japan to Ea
Source: CNN
May 7, 2009
The Supreme Court on Thursday denied a stay of deportation for alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk, who faces a war crimes prosecution in Germany.
Justice John Paul Stevens without comment refused to intervene in the planned transfer from the United States.
Federal courts have all rejected his appeals, and the order from Stevens clears the way for the Justice Department to move ahead with the deportation. No date for the transfer has been set.
Source: HNN Staff
May 7, 2009
Under pressure to limit red ink, the White House announced $17 billion in budget cuts today.
Only one history program is affected: Academies for American History and Civics. The program, which cost $33 million, is being zeroed out.
The explanation:
The Administration proposes to eliminate the following three programs:
Civic Education. Provides several non-competitive grants to organizations that promote civic responsibility
through teacher training and i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 7, 2009
The US president had personally pushed for reconciliation between the two countries.
Yet the budding rapprochement is threatening to undermine the delicate balance of power in the Caucasus with potentially serious consequences for Europe's energy security.
Energy rich Azerbaijan is deeply unhappy that Turkey, a vital ally, is cosying up to Armenia, with whom it fought an unresolved war in the early 1990s over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Fearin
Source: NYT
May 7, 2009
Although the nation has plunged into its deepest recession since the Great Depression, 72 percent of Americans in this nationwide survey said they believed it is possible to start out poor in the United States, work hard and become rich — a classic definition of the American dream.
And yet only 44 percent said they had actually achieved the American dream, although 31 percent said they expect to attain it within their lifetime. Only 20 percent have given up on ever reaching it. Thos
Source: BBC
May 7, 2009
The story of an Aberdeenshire man who became Peter the Great's right-hand man has been told in full for the first time with the publication of his diary.
Patrick Gordon left Ellon as a teenager and later became an army general, helping the man who westernised Russia.
Prof Paul Dukes, who worked with the Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen to publish the diary, said: "Gordon was a truly remarkable man and the diary is an
Source: BBC
May 7, 2009
Two US tourists who chipped off a piece of the Colosseum in Rome 25 years ago have returned it - along with an apology for taking it.
The fragment of stone, small enough to fit into a pocket, arrived in Italy in a package from California.
A note inside read: "We should have done this sooner."
Rome's archaeology officials have accepted the couple's apology and the local tourism officer has invited them to return to the city.
Source: AP
May 7, 2009
The government will begin taking land from seven property owners so that the Flight 93 memorial can be built in time for the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the National Park Service said.
In a a statement obtained by The Associated Press, the park service said it had teamed up with a group representing the victims' families to work with landowners since before 2005 to acquire the land.
In February, government officials and representatives of the 33 pass
Source: Times Online (UK)
May 7, 2009
In a small cemetery on the outskirts of Madrid, the 2,300 British volunteers who risked their lives to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War will finally be remembered in a brief ceremony.
But for almost all those who served with the International Brigades, the granite plaque unveiled in their honour has come too late.
Most of those who travelled to Spain to fight General Franco’s Nationalist uprising are dead. None of the seven frail survivors, now in their 90s, is
Source: Center for Public Integrity
May 6, 2009
The top subprime lenders whose loans are largely blamed for triggering the global economic meltdown were owned or backed by giant banks now collecting billions of dollars in bailout money — including several that have paid huge fines to settle predatory lending charges. The banks that funded the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse, as they have sometimes portrayed themselves, but enablers that bankrolled the type of lending threatening the financial system.
Source: http://www.nbcaugusta.com
May 6, 2009
A major piece of unwritten history may be sitting in a Philadelphia museum and it's been there for decades. A pillowcase used by Abraham Lincoln the night he was shot may contain a sample of his DNA and a secret about the former President's health.
Inside this unassuming northeast Philadelphia Civil War museum, a strip of bloodstained pillowcase may answer a mystery that could change how we view one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln.
Museum Vice President Andy Waskie says"This is
Source: AP
May 6, 2009
For sale soon: a variety of torture devices from the 16th century, including shame masks to enforce silence, a 14-foot table-like rack to stretch the victim's body, and a tongue tearer to punish blasphemers and heretics. Even an executioner's sword.
New York's Guernsey's auction house plans to auction the privately owned collection, with proceeds to go to Amnesty International and other organizations committed to preventing torture in today's world, said Guernsey's president, Arlan
Source: http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/19387482/detail.html
May 6, 2009
LAS VEGAS -- Last week it appeared the Moulin Rouge hotel would be getting a new lease on life. Now, progress at the historic Las Vegas property has taken a monumental step backwards.
A devastating four-alarm fire tore through the building Wednesday afternoon, sending clouds of smoke billowing into the skies just north of downtown Las Vegas....
The Moulin Rouge Development Corp. recently reached a deal with Washington-based Republic Urban Properties to renovate the 54-y
Source: http://www.hurriyet.com
May 6, 2009
A team of 20 rowers will next week aim to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a replica Phoenician-style "bireme" ship from Turkey to France.
The Kybele boat -- named after an Anatolian goddess -- will leave the Turkish village of Foca near Izmir and travel 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) to the ancient port of Marseille in southern France.
Rowers, comprising students and members of the "360 Degrees Association," will sleep on benches in the biremes wooden
