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: International Herald Tribune
Aug 17, 2008
She was "The Korean Seductress Who Betrayed America," a Seoul socialite said to have charmed secret information out of one lover, an American colonel, and passed it to another, a top communist in North Korea.
In late June 1950, as North Korean invaders closed in on this panicked city, Kim Soo-im was executed by the South Korean military, shot as a "very malicious international spy." Her deeds, thereafter, only grew in infamy.
In 1950s America, grippe
Source: National Parks Traveler
Aug 17, 2008
What’s the single most significant date in the evolution of the National Park System? Was it 1872, the year that Yellowstone National Park was established as the first national park in America and the world? Was it 1906 when the Antiquties Act was signed into law? Was it 1916 when the Organic Act created the National Park Service? Was it 1917 when Stephen Mather became the first Director of the National Park Service? Was it December 2, 1980, when the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation A
Source: BBC
Aug 17, 2008
Next time you cut down a monster in an online game or punch a supervillain into the next county remember that your actions are helping to write the history of a new world.
To ensure that the big and small events in these fledgling worlds are not forgotten, erased or overlooked, the University of Texas, Austin has kicked off a project to study the best way to preserve their history.
"It's a huge challenge for archivists to deal with digital information," said
Source: NPR
Aug 17, 2008
Think of a coup d'etat and images of a far-flung banana republic likely come to mind. So it might come as a surprise that it happened here in the United States — just once, in 1898.
A mob of white supremacists armed with rifles and pistols marched on City Hall in Wilmington, N.C., on Nov. 10 and overthrew the elected local government, forcing both black and white officials to resign and running many out of town. The coup was the culmination of a race riot in which whites torched the
Source: BBC
Aug 17, 2008
Survivors of the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic are still protected from the virus, according to researchers in the US.
American scientists found that people who lived through the outbreak can still produce antibodies that kill the deadly strain of the H1N1 flu.
The study, published in the journal Nature, could help develop emergency treatments for future outbreaks.
The Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people.
Source: Observer (UK)
Aug 17, 2008
The value of sterling may be plummeting as fears grow over the depth of a possible recession. But in the scenic East Sussex town of Lewes - famous for its bonfire night parties and bewildering number of pubs - a handy alternative is about to become available.
Next month, in the latest sign that localism is a coming force in British everyday life, Lewes will launch its own currency. In doing so, it joins a growing list of communities around the world attempting to protect regional ec
Source: Observer (UK)
Aug 17, 2008
He was known as the people's pathologist, and made his name as a pioneering expert in some of the most gruesome murder cases in British history. Now the secrets of Britain's first forensic scientist - who helped convict Dr Crippen of his wife's murder and solve the Brides in the Bath killings - have been saved for the nation by the Wellcome Library.
Its archivists have paid £14,000 for the records of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the charismatic and highly controversial founder of the crim
Source: Observer (UK)
Aug 17, 2008
Canada is mounting an expedition to find the remains of the 1845 British attempt to find the Northwest Passage. The ships Erebus and Terror were trapped in ice and Sir John Franklin and his crew of 128 died.
Global warming has opened up the region and Canada is sending a team to survey an area south of King William Island. Frozen corpses, believed to be those of members of the expedition, have been found in the area. 'Canada will embark on its own search, which has the allure of an
Source: Observer (UK)
Aug 17, 2008
Young people are far less knowledgeable about British history than their elders, a nationwide quiz has found.
Just 23 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 knew which English monarch signed the Magna Carta, compared with 83 per cent of those over 65 who correctly named King John. One in four of the younger group identified James Watt with the steam engine, whereas three in four pensioners got it right.
In the ICM survey of 1,041 people for the History Channel's 'Great British
Source: Sunday Mail
Aug 17, 2008
It's the sort of classic jewellery favoured by modern women except these earrings were worn 2,500 years ago.
An archeologist discovered gold earrings, a ring and other funeral gifts dating back to the 5th century B.C. while excavating a Thracian tomb near the village of Kushare, about 280km from Sofia, Bulgaria.
Some of the oldest examples of gold jewellery and artifacts have been discovered in Bulgaria and it's Black Sea coast is considered the birthplace of the wor
Source: Telegraph
Aug 17, 2008
The artwork was previously attributed to an anonymous German artist, however after a year long study, experts now believe the Nuptial Portrait of a Young Woman was instead drawn by the Renaissance master.
It is thought that the 500-year-old drawing was commissioned by the woman to send to a prospective husband.
Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of the Da Vinci museum, in the artist's hometown of Vinci near Florence, said: "The intensity, quality and purity of the
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2008
To outsiders dancing with the corpse of a dead loved one, years after their demise, might seem ghoulish. But as Jonny Hogg reports, to the people of Madagascar, it is a ritual of respect for their departed ancestors.
The band, a cacophonous near harmony of tattered trumpets and elderly clarinets, has been has been playing for hours now.
The hilltop is crowded. The entire community has come to this spot, some distance from the village of Vatolaivy.
People
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2008
One of France's most iconic cars, the Citroen 2CV, is celebrating its 60th birthday this October. The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris has been looking at how this vehicle revolutionised the French motor industry.
Some may dismiss it as nothing more than an old tin can. The BBC Top Gear programme's Jeremy Clarkson wrote it off as a "weedy, useless little engine".
But enthusiasts like Xavier Audran who owns a dozen of them, worships the 2CV "not just as a
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2008
Relations between Argentina and its much smaller neighbour, Uruguay, have been strained for some time in a dispute over a pulp paper mill built on the river that separates the two countries.
But as Daniel Schweimler recently discovered, a much more serious dispute has emerged that strikes at the very heart and soul of both nations' national identity.
One of the great Argentine icons, alongside footballer Diego Maradona and the former first lady, Eva Peron, is the tang
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2008
The French authorities are formally investigating an Algerian official in connection with the killing of a leading Algerian opposition figure.
Ali Mecili was assassinated at his home in Paris in 1987.
He had been working as a senior aide to Hocine Ait Ahmed, leader of the Algeria's Socialist Forces Front.
The man being investigated is Mohammed Ziane Hassani, now in charge of protocol at Algeria's foreign ministry. He was arrested on Friday.
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2008
Argentina's former president, Carlos Menem, has been placed under investigation over his alleged role in a deadly explosion in 1995.
Prosecutors say Mr Menem was responsible for the blast that killed seven people at an arsenal.
They allege Mr Menem was trying to cover up proof of illegal arms trafficking to Ecuador and Croatia in the 1990s.
Mr Menem, president from 1989 to 1999, denies the charges.
The blast took place in the city of Rio Te
Source: BBC
Aug 16, 2008
The former Belarussian opposition leader Alexander Kozulin has left prison and is on his way home to Minsk, his daughter says.
It is not clear whether he has been freed permanently or only so he can attend his father-in-law's funeral.
Mr Kozulin was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2006 for staging protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr Lukashenko had defeated Mr Kozulin in an election that international observers said was severely flawed
Source: LAT
Aug 16, 2008
...They were the descendants of Koreans lured in 1905 by ship to plantations on the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico. Instead of finding a better life, they were sold to plantation owners and forced to cultivate henequen, a plant whose tough fiber was used to make things like rope.
The Koreans and their descendants would come to be known as the Henequen, in part because they were so hardy and hard-working. They had fled a Korea that was under Japanese rule, and despite their str
Source: NYT
Aug 16, 2008
Federal officials granted temporary legal status on Friday to 15 illegal immigrants whose spouses or parents died on 9/11 but who have remained largely invisible, living in the shadows of society for fear of deportation.
Those officials and the families’ supporters said the decision would clear the way for Congress to move forward on bills that would grant the immigrants permanent legal status.
“When I told my clients about it, there were tears of joy,” said Debra Bro
Source: LAT
Aug 16, 2008
Libya and the United States on Thursday settled all outstanding lawsuits by American victims of terrorism, clearing the way for the full restoration of diplomatic relations.
There were 26 pending lawsuits filed by American citizens against Libya over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and other attacks, said a senior Libyan government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the deal had not been publicly announced.
