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: Chicago Tribune
Aug 5, 2008
When a group of House Republicans decided to continue discussing offshore drilling on the floor of a darkened Congress after the August recess started, they said they were making history.
They're right, according to researcher Anthony Wallis, who works in the House Historian's office.
Wallis, who has been looking into the issue, said that he has not found any examples of members forgoing their summer break to continue debating. The closest anecdote he could find was a n
Source: BBC
Aug 5, 2008
Rwanda has accused France of playing an active role in the genocide of 1994, in which about 800,000 people were killed.
A justice ministry report said France was aware of preparations for the genocide and helped train the ethnic Hutu militia perpetrators.
The report also accused French troops of direct involvement in the killings.
It named 33 senior French military and political figures that it said should be prosecuted. France has previously denied any
Source: CanWest
Aug 5, 2008
When several Knights Templar were burned at the stake for heresy in 1314, legend has it they screamed out a curse against the villainous lawyer who convicted them. Eight days later, he died.
They begged God to prove their innocence by taking the pope within 40 days. Thirty-three days later, Pope Clement V died too. Eight months after that, the French king who had coveted their money also passed away, and all his sons succumbed within 14 years, ending the royal family's 300-year reig
Source: New Zealand Herald
Aug 5, 2008
For 25 years, Robben Island, a former leper colony off the coast near Cape Town, was notorious as the prison which held Nelson Mandela.
After the release of the ANC leader and the collapse of apartheid, it was reborn as one of South Africa's most popular tourist attractions.
Now the island, described by one ANC activist as encapsulating the meaning of apartheid, has become symbolic not of the triumph of the human spirit but of the deep problems afflicting the Rainbow Na
Source: Times of India
Aug 5, 2008
The heirs of Knights Templar have initiated a legal battle in an attempt to force the Vatican to restore the reputation of the disgraced order that was accused of heresy and dissolved seven centuries ago.
In a lawsuit, the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of Christ, whose members claim to be descendants of Knights Templar, has called on Pope Benedict to recognise the seizure of assets worth £79 billion. According to the association based in Spain, when the order was
Source: Tehran Times
Aug 5, 2008
A team of Iranian archaeologists have recently returned to the Kelar Tepe conducting an in-depth study of prehistoric black and gray pottery from the region, located in Iran’s northern province of Mazandaran.
They also plan to excavate in the region for Neolithic residential areas, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.
The study project entitled “From Cave to Plain” aims to expand upon the archaeological studies previously carried out on the region, team dire
Source: Telegraph
Aug 4, 2008
Scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of meteorological information contained in the detailed logs kept by those on board the vessels that established Britain's great seafaring traditition including those on Nelsons' Victory and Cook's Endeavour.
Every Royal Naval ship kept a detailed record of climate including air pressure, wind strength, air and sea temperature and major meteorological disturbances.
A group of academics and Met Office scientists has unearthed
Source: Chicago Tribune
Aug 4, 2008
Illinois may be the Land of Lincoln, but when it comes to making ends meet during a budget crunch, not even the 16th president is spared.
The state is slashing hours at several Abraham Lincoln historic sites because of a massive deficit, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency officials said Thursday.
Starting Monday, visitors will see "closed" signs two days a week at Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site, the Old State Capitol and Lincoln's Tomb. The offic
Source: Sampan
Aug 4, 2008
The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a resolution honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War, culminating a five-year battle by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) to help correct the historical record.
Historians have recently uncovered evidence that hundreds of soldiers of AAPI heritage fought on both the Union and Confederate sides, continuing a long tradition of significant AAPI contributions to the history of the United States since the
Source: CNN
Aug 4, 2008
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is calling for Russia to regain its influential position in former Cold War ally Cuba, Russian news reports said Monday.
The statement comes amid persistent speculation about whether Russia is seeking a military presence in a country just 90 miles (150 kilometers) from the United States in response to U.S. plans to place missile-defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.
"We should restore our position in Cuba and other countri
Source: CNN
Aug 4, 2008
An intended recipient of one of the anthrax-laced letters sent in 2001's anthrax scare said Monday he was "very skeptical" of the government's investigation. Former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was Senate majority leader at the time, said he is suspicious of the case against researcher Bruce Ivins because of the government "bungling" of Steven Hatfill's case.
Hatfill, who was named by the Justice Department as a "person of interest" in 2002, was never charged
Source: Fox News
Aug 4, 2008
Usama bin Laden's former driver offered the terrorist leader aid and protection that helped make the Sept. 11 attacks possible, prosecutors said Monday in closing arguments at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.
Prosecutor John Murphy said evidence in Salim Hamdan's two-week trial showed the Yemeni detainee played a "vital role" in the conspiracy behind the 2001 attacks...
Source: Belleville News-Democrat
Aug 4, 2008
As unbelievable as it seems, there are a handful -- perhaps more -- of widows of Confederate vets still alive and kicking nearly 150 years after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
One case is fully documented: Maudie Celia Hopkins, now 93 and -- as of last week -- living in a nursing home in Lexa, Ark., according to Martha Boltz, public relations chairman of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va.
Maudie was just a teen when she wed Wil
Source: International Herald Tribune
Aug 4, 2008
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin launched his first flying machine from Lake Constance here in 1900.
Thus began a chapter of aviation history that would propel Friedrichshafen onto the world stage, make it a prominent target for Allied bombs during World War II and ultimately bequeath to the city a sizable foundation financed by the successor companies to Zeppelin's original enterprise.
According to the city, the foundation generates from $60 million to $80 million a year f
Source: Deutsche Welle
Aug 4, 2008
The Catholic Church has issued a list of 5,900 people who were forced by the Nazis to work as gardeners, grave-diggers and hospital orderlies at Catholic facilities in Germany during World War II.
The German church has already paid 1.5 million euros ($2.4 million) in compensation to 587 survivors since their ordeal was made public several years ago.
During the Nazi era, huge numbers of Eastern Europeans were forced to do factory or farm work at low pay, replacing millions of
Source: NYT
Aug 3, 2008
From the 1700s through the mid-1800s, oil extracted from the blubber of whales and boiled in giant pots gave light to America and much of the Western world. The United States whaling fleet peaked in 1846 with 735 ships out of 900 in the world. Whaling was the fifth-largest industry in the United States; in 1853 alone, 8,000 whales were slaughtered for whale oil shipped to light lamps around the world, plus sundry other parts used in hoop skirts, perfume, lubricants and candles.
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Source: China Daily
Aug 3, 2008
Eleven-year-old Jacob Walen from the Netherlands looks at a reconstructed skull of Torvosaurus at Lourinha museum in Lourinha, near Lisbon August 2, 2008. Walen found an original jaw bone of a dinosaur in Lourinha on July 27, 2003. Portuguese paleontologists presented a reconstructed skull of Torvosaurus, a giant prehistoric dinosaur they say is the largest known terrestrial predator of the Jurassic Period. Reconstructed from parts of a cranium, including a jaw bone with a 5.1 inch (13 cm) long
Source: Washington Post
Aug 3, 2008
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is calling on "eggheads" to help the military unravel questions about the recruitment of terrorists, the resurgence of the Taliban and messages delivered in militant Muslim religious schools.
Many eggheads are wary.
The Pentagon's $50 million Minerva Research Initiative, named after the Roman goddess of wisdom and warriors, will fund social science research deemed crucial to national security. Initial proposals were due July
Source: AFP
Aug 3, 2008
With a tight grip on his flashlight, Tommy Cassoe looks like a Danish Indiana Jones as he crawls out of a bunker buried under the sand, one of 7,000 the Nazis built along Denmark's western shores to fend off an allied invasion.
"Mission accomplished. The bunker is empty," Cassoe exclaims, showing off his bounty on the Krylen beach to a crowd of onlookers: rusty cans, a plastic vial containing medicine in case of a mustard gas attack, and electrical cables.
Th
Source: Boston Globe
Aug 3, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders.
The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president contends that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, healthcare, and the economy for all.
"I have said in the past, and I'll repeat again, that the best reparations we can provide are good schoo
