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: New Zealand Herald
Aug 14, 2008
A Perth family's 25-year search to find their missing uncle, a soldier from World War I, has come to an end.
The federal government has confirmed the remains from a grave discovered in 2006 at Westhoek, in Belgium, are those of 21-year-old farmhand Private George Storey, from Perth.
Private Storey's nephew David Storey says he was first contacted by the Army history unit 18 months ago, but it has taken all that time to confirm the identification.
"They
Source: Tehran Times
Aug 14, 2008
Pakistan will celebrate its 61st Independence Day today with traditional enthusiasm and a renewed pledge to make the country prosperous and strong.
A flag-hoisting ceremony will also be held in Tehran, where Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, Mr. Shafkat Saeed, will perform the ritual.
After the Independence Day function, the ambassador will address a press conference.
Pakistan and India gained independence from Great Britain in August 1947. The splitting of
Source: Daily Post
Aug 13, 2008
THE so called “Holy Grail of all Beatles memorabilia” – the band’s first signed contract with manager Brian Epstein – is expected to fetch at least £250,000 at auction.
The historic document, arguably the most important music contract of all time, is the late manager’s personal copy. The first copy was originally signed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on January 24, 1962.
But Epstein refused to ink his name until he fulfilled his pledge t
Source: BBC
Aug 13, 2008
Dissident republicans are believed to have about 80-100 active members, the BBC has learned.
A small hardcore are experienced terrorists, previously members of the Provisional IRA.
The majority are believed to be committed to the dissident cause but lack operational experience.
There are small but relatively strong elements in Londonderry, Tyrone, Fermanagh and north Armagh.
It is estimated there could be about 250-300 others willing to len
Source: BBC
Aug 13, 2008
Japan and North Korea have agreed to reopen an inquiry into Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese reports say.
Agreement came when envoys of the two states, which have no diplomatic ties, met in China as part of broader talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.
In 2002, North Korea admitted that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens to help train its spies in Japanese ways.
It said five had been returned to their fam
Source: AP
Aug 13, 2008
Japanese World War II leader Hideki Tojo wanted to keep fighting even after U.S. atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, accusing surrender proponents of being "frightened," a newly released diary reveals.
Excerpts from the approximately 20 pages written by Tojo in the final days of the war and held by the National Archives of Japan were published for the first time in several newspapers Tuesday.
"The notes show Tojo kept his dyed-in-the-wool militarist
Source: LAT
Aug 13, 2008
Aplatoon of double-crested cormorants took flight from the eastern shore of the Columbia River, skimming the sun-sparkled surface as two slender white egrets stood in the nearby shallows, hunting small fish hiding in the reeds.
Twenty kayakers, mostly tourists from the Pacific Northwest, paddled along, letting the steady current do most of the work. They coasted past mule deer grazing on the shore, coyotes stalking the sandy beaches and cliff swallows buzzing the nearby white bluffs
Source: CNN
Aug 13, 2008
Cambodia's genocide tribunal formally indicted a former prison chief of the country's notorious Khmer Rouge, paving the way for a historic trial.
The U.N.-assisted tribunal said in a Tuesday statement its investigating judges issued the indictment after ending their investigation of Kaing Guek Eav -- also known as Duch -- whose Phnom Penh prison was used as a torture center.
Duch, accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes, is the first suspect to be indicted by
Source: Telegraph
Aug 13, 2008
Kaczynski has written to a panel of senior judges to complain that the public exhibition of his former Montana hideaway infringes the expressed wish of his victims to avoid further publicity.
In a handwritten note sent from prison and obtained by The Smoking Gun website, Kaczynski attacks the US government for releasing the cabin - from where he conducted his mail bombing campaign - to the museum.
The mathematics professor, who is currently serving a life term with no
Source: International Herald Tribune
Aug 13, 2008
In a world where preserving ethnic identities has acquired almost a sacred character, the Kristang people of this historic, picturesque seacoast trading port are something of an exception, and it's impossible not to feel melancholy about that.
The Kristang have been part of this part of the world since 1511, when Alfonso de Albuquerque, the governor-general of Portugal's expanding empire, seized Malacca from the local sultan and ordered his men to marry local women.
Alb
Source: Civil War Interactive
Aug 13, 2008
Kym M. Elder, a 21-year NPS veteran, has been named the first superintendent of Ford's Theatre National Historic Site. Elder's appointment became effective August 3rd.
The position Elder assumes was recently created, as the Ford's Theatre site is now a separate, stand-alone unit of the National Park System. Prior to this change, Ford's Theatre National Historic Site had been managed as a part of the National Mall & Memorial Parks. Ford's Theatre National Historic Site als
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Aug 13, 2008
t's a guide to improving Columbus' economy and creating a dynamic and inspirational urban heart.
It calls for more parks for children and parkways to link neighborhoods, as well as more public art and an effort to beautify the Scioto River's banks.
It's a comprehensive plan to rebuild the central city.
It's also 100 years old.
The 1908 "City Beautiful" plan discusses ideas that planners, civic leaders and residents are talking about n
Source: USA Today
Aug 13, 2008
...More than five years after the fall of Baghdad, the fate of Iraq's antiquities still torments archaeologists.
The looting of the National Museum garnered headlines in April 2003. But the widespread pillaging of archaeological sites — 10,548 sites are registered, with perhaps 100,000 actually buried there — bewilders and saddens scholars. They believe they are witnessing the ransacking of the cradle of civilization, a calamity "almost impossible to overstate for the destruct
Source: Deutsche Welle
Aug 13, 2008
Germany is marking the 47th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. Speaking at a memorial ceremony in Berlin, Parliament President Norbert Lammert urged that the memory of Germany's division and its victims be kept alive. Lammert and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit laid wreaths at a memorial at one of the few sections left standing of the Wall. Communist East Germany started building the barrier on August 13, 1961. The Berlin Wall was one of the most notorious symbols of the Cold War an
Source: Atlantic.com
Aug 12, 2008
One does not normally see 2000 lb. statues in marble and bronze playing musical chairs. But that’s what has been happening at the Natural History Museum in London, with Charles Darwin and his main adversary as the only players.
The museum was designed in the Victorian era as “a temple to nature,” and it feels like a cathedral. There’s a main hall that looks a lot like a nave, and at the far end, there’s a statue on a stairway landing below a stained glass window, in a position that
Source: LiveScience
Aug 12, 2008
Roman temple ruins from the 2nd century A.D. have emerged from excavations at the ancient Jewish capital of the Galilee in Israel.
The discovery shows that the city of Zippori housed a significant pagan population which built a temple in the city center during the Roman period.
The central location of the temple lies within a walled courtyard, and may help archaeologists better understand the urban layout of Zippori in the Roman era.
Source: CNN
Aug 12, 2008
John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, was denied parole for the fifth time Tuesday.
The New York State Division of Parole issued a release saying Chapman's request was denied "due to concern for the public safety and welfare."
Chapman, 53, is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in prison for shooting to death the former Beatle outside his New York City apartment on December 8, 1980.
The killer has served 24 years of his sentence at the maxi
Source: Telegraph
Aug 12, 2008
General Hideki Tojo lashed out at his countrymen in his journal even after atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The journal, found in the National Archives of Japan, covers the two-week period from Aug 10, 1945, a day after the second atomic bomb had struck Nagasaki.
"The Japanese government has accepted the notion that Japan is the loser and it appears to be going to accept unconditional surrender," Tojo wrote. "Such a position frus
Source: China Daily
Aug 12, 2008
Venezuela has found the first fossils of an extinct scimitar cat -- of the saber-toothed cat genus -- in South America, during oil prospecting activities southeast of Caracas, paleontologists announced.
"It's South America's most important discovery in 60 years," Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigation paleontologist Ascanio Rincon said on Monday.
He said fossils of six scimitar cats, or Homotherium, were found along with those of panthers, wolves, ca
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2008
The building, which dates to the second century AD, was found during an excavation at Zippori, the capital of Galilee during the Roman period.
The temple walls were plundered in ancient times and little more than its foundations now remain.
Coins minted in the town suggest Roman gods Zeus and Tyche may have been worshipped at the site.
The building is located south of the "decumanus" (colonnaded street) which ran east to west through the town a
