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: China View
Apr 8, 2009
A robot specially designed for underground exploration is opening up a lost world of historic treasures for Chinese archaeologists.
Scientists are planning its second excursion next week when it will go into an ancient tomb in Xi'an, China's ancient capital in the northwestern Shaanxi Province.
The robot completed a successful trial probe in July last year, when it revealed hidden fresco paintings in a narrow shaft inside a 1,300-year old tomb in Xi'an.
The
Source: Press and Journal (UK)
Apr 8, 2009
Skeletons uncovered at Marischal College.
Archaeologists have uncovered seven skeletons and five additional human skulls in the grounds of historic Marischal College in Aberdeen.
The skeletons, all men, are thought to be Franciscan friars.
The excavations are being carried out by Aberdeen City Council archaeologists in advance of the creation of the council’s new £80.4million headquarters.
One of Aberdeen’s major religious houses, the Francisca
Source: BBC
Apr 8, 2009
Four men accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide have won their High Court battle against extradition from Britain.
Two judges ruled that there was "a real risk they would suffer a flagrant denial of justice" if returned to Rwanda to face trial. The news came a day after the 15th anniversary of the genocide in which 800,000 people were killed.
The court's decision makes legal history. It is the first time an English court has blocked an extraditio
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 8, 2009
A forgotten nurse has finally been honoured for her extraordinary heroism during World War Two - 65 years late.
Eileen Driscoll, 90, was part of a team of Women's Royal Air Force who treated injured servicemen while they were being flown home from the front line.
The group - dubbed The Flying Nightingales - risked their own lives to help evacuate more than 100,000 wounded soldiers from the battlefields of Europe.
Despite their bravery, the nurses were paid
Source: AP
Apr 8, 2009
A Danish press freedom group said Wednesday it is selling copies of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage across the Muslim World.
Some 1,000 printed reproductions of a drawing depicting the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban are being sold for 1,400 kroner ($250) each, said Lars Hedegaard, chairman of the Danish Free Press Society.
Hedegaard said Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon in 2005, had given the society permission to produce
Source: AP
Apr 8, 2009
The family of John Demjanjuk said Wednesday they still haven't heard from an immigration appeals panel on a request to block his deportation to Germany, where an arrest warrant alleges the frail 89-year-old was a Nazi death camp guard.
The matter is now before the Board of Immigration Appeals, in Falls Church, Va., which previously upheld his deportation.
John Broadley, a lawyer for Demjanjuk, is seeking to stop the deportation due to Demjanjuk's poor health. The motion
Source: Foxnews.com
Apr 8, 2009
"Fall Weekend" will be taking the place of the holiday formerly known as "Columbus Day" at Brown University this fall.
The faculty of the Ivy League university voted at a meeting Tuesday to establish a new academic and administrative holiday in October called "Fall Weekend" that coincides with Columbus Day, but that doesn't bear the name of the explorer.
Hundreds of Brown students had asked the Providence, R.I. school to stop observing Colu
Source: Press Release--Secular Coalition for America
Apr 8, 2009
Washington, DC – The Secular Coalition for America heartily endorses the words spoken by President Barack Obama during a press conference in Turkey this week: “One of the great strengths of the United States is... we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”
Although the President has previously described America as a nation of not only Christians but Je
Source: BBC
Apr 8, 2009
Sun Wenguang said he had been trying to pay his respects to the late communist leader Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for supporting the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
Mr Sun, 75, had visited Mr Zhao's grave annually, but this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
The Chinese government treats its crushing of pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square as taboo.
Source: BBC
Apr 8, 2009
Bangladesh is set to announce plans to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes during the country's war of independence nearly 40 years ago. The government says those accused of collaborating with the Pakistani army in the killing and rape of thousands of civilians will be put on trial.
The party which fought for independence in 1971, the Awami League, has been returned to power with a majority.
The probe is opposed by one of the main opposition parties, Jamaa
Source: AP
Apr 8, 2009
HANOI, Vietnam -- Sen. John McCain paid a quiet visit to the "Hanoi Hilton" prison where he was held for more than five years during the Vietnam War on Wednesday, making a few deadpan remarks as he made his way through dark corridors and past musty cells.
McCain allowed reporters to follow him while he escorted Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina through the prison.
Vietnam's communist government has turned the facility in
Source: Wall Street Journal
Apr 8, 2009
UNITED NATIONS -- The United States ambassador to the U.N., during a emotional ceremony here marking the 1994 Rwandan genocide, said that the U.S. government had failed to prevent the mass killings that began 15 years ago on Tuesday.
"Rwanda did not suffer from 'ancient hatreds' between Hutu killers and Tutsi victims," Ambassador Susan Rice said. "It suffered from modern demagogues, from ... those who were willing to kill in the warped name of ethnic difference, from
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2009
Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory.
Many who fought Nazi Germany during World War II did so to defeat the vicious racism that left millions of Jews dead.
Yet the BBC's Document programme has seen evidence that black colonial soldiers - who made up around two-thirds of Free French forces - were deliberately removed from the unit that
Source: Frontline/PBS
Apr 7, 2009
As the global financial downturn continues and pressure for profits increases on corporations across the world, a small group of lawyers in the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing an aggressive crackdown against an international business tactic -- bribery -- which the World Bank says amounts to as much as a trillion dollars a year in payments.
"Over the past two years, the U.S. government has collected almost a billion and a half dollars in fines in foreign bribery cases,"
Source: Latin America Herald Tribune
Apr 7, 2009
Mexican archaeologists began this month the recovery of a great Mayan city buried under tons of earth and jungle in the archaeological area of Ichkabal on the Yucatan peninsula, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.
Previous archaeological digs in Ichkabal indicated the existence at this site of a vast Mayan settlement comprising many buildings, of which the biggest is some 200 meters (656 feet) wide at the base and 46 meters (151 feet) high, the institute
Source: Global Media (Toronto)
Apr 7, 2009
Precious items are the plunder of looters who had hoped to sell them to private collectors.
Fifteen hundred pieces of this country's history are sitting in crates in the Afghanistan National Museum. Half of the relics date to the time before Islam arrived in Afghanistan in 642 AD. The rest cover the Muslim period up to and including the 20th century. But they did not come directly from archeological sites in Afghanistan.
They came instead from Heathrow Airport in London
Source: New York Times
Apr 7, 2009
Last Saturday was tomb-sweeping day, when the Chinese traditionally honor the dead. Sun Wenguang, a 75-year-old retired professor, was one of many to visit the cemetery.
Apparently, though, he chose the wrong death to commemorate. He came to remember Zhao Ziyang, a former prime minister and Communist Party general secretary who lost his party position and his freedom after sympathizing with student-led, pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Mr. Zhao, who died in 2005,
Source: BBC
Apr 7, 2009
Supporters have gathered in Stirling to mark the 75th anniversary of the Scottish National Party.
Veteran politician Winnie Ewing was joined by Parliamentary Business Minister Bruce Crawford to cut a special birthday cake for the event.
The party was formed following a merger between the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party.
First Minister Alex Salmond, who is in China, has sent an email to the party's 15,000 members to mark the occasion.
Source: AP
Apr 7, 2009
A state Senate committee has rejected a bill that would have blocked construction of a proposed trash incinerator near a Civil War battlefield just south of Frederick.
The action effectively kills an effort by local Republican Sen. Alex Mooney to prevent Frederick County from building a $527 million incinerator in an industrial park near the Monocacy National Battlefield.
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com
Apr 7, 2009
Having sat virtually untouched since it was purchased by the Gettysburg Foundation last year, the historic George Spangler Farm has a long way to go before it is ready to join the ranks of Gettysburg's other tourist attractions.
But next week, the public will have one of the first opportunities to explore the farm - if they're willing to do some cleaning in the process.
