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: AP
May 14, 2008
JERUSALEM: Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his family thanked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni Wednesday for memorializing Netanyahu's brother, who was killed in the 1976 Israeli raid at Uganda's Entebbe Airport.
But the Ugandan president, who is in Jerusalem to attend Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations, wanted to know about the more distant past.
He grilled Israeli opposition-leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his historian father on Israel's history —
Source: http://www.witntv.com
May 14, 2008
There's another dead end in the search for North Carolina's first governor.
A team of East Carolina University archaeologists wrapped up their digging for the remains of Governor Richard Caswell today.
The team found only a piece of leather and the bottom of what is believed to be a wooden casket.
Excavation efforts ended after the team began a search for the governor's remains at one of his cemeteries about three weeks ago.
The piece of leathe
Source: http://www.cwnews.com/
May 14, 2008
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has categorically denied ordering the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that Gorbachev wrote to German foreign-policy analyst Werner Kaltefleiter in 2006, specifically denying that he was involved in the attempt on the Pope's live. La Repubblica claims to have a copy of Gorbachev's letter.
Source: Spiegel Online
May 14, 2008
Drought in Spain: A medieval church that has been underwater for four decades has re-emerged from a drying dam. The village of Sant Roma had been underwater since the Catalonian valley, where it is located, was flooded -- only the church's belltower was visible. But, with the drought, which has gripped Spain and forced Barcelona to ship in water, the 11th century church has re-emerged and is attracting hordes of tourists.
Source: Daily Press
May 14, 2008
A new federal report on the health of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary gives good grades to the overall condition of the historic Civil War wreck and the marine resources that have grown up around it.
But it also expresses continued concern about the threat of future damage to the famous ironclad warship from such human activities as illegal anchoring, looting and stray fishing nets — not to mention natural deterioration.
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com
May 14, 2008
The Lincoln Train Station is again at the center of growing contention in Gettysburg, but this time the discord is among Borough Council members who disagree on whether or not private entities should still be considered as potential buyers of the historic structure.
At least two council members would like officials to consider selling the station to non-government entities, while several others are actively pursuing a sales agreement with the Gettysburg National Military Park.
Source: Times (UK)
May 14, 2008
Is there anybody out there? The Ministry of Defence, it seems, is taking no chances. Files containing hundreds of previously classified reports are being released today in the hope of persuading ufologists that there has been no cover-up regarding the existence of visitors from outer space.
Yet the files do show that the MoD conducted a rigorous investigation of every alleged sighting of a UFO until well into the 1980s. In a briefing note in 1979 the MoD wrote: “Her Majesty’s Govern
Source: AP
May 14, 2008
Divers trained in archaeology discovered a marble bust of an aging Julius Caesar in the Rhone River that France's Culture Ministry said Tuesday could be the oldest known.
The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles -- founded by Caesar.
Among other items in the treasure trove of ancient objects is a 1
Source: http://www.gulfnews.com
May 14, 2008
Finally, Canada will formally apologise to the Indians here for the Komagata Maru tragedy of 1914 and acknowledge the hurt caused to the community.
The Komagata Maru ship brought 376 Indians to Canada in 1914 in violation of the racist immigration laws of that time. But it was not allowed to anchor here and forcibly sent back to India after two months. On return to India, many passengers were shot dead by British Indian police in Calcutta, now Kolkata.
Making this commi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 14, 2008
An ornate china dinner service used by Adolf Hitler’s elite bodyguard is expected to fetch £1,000 at auction.
Nazi guards would eat their meals served on the 30-piece set as they travelled incognito on the Hamburg-American shipping line, protecting Hitler against communist attack.
All the plates and dishes carry the symbol of the “Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler” (LAH), the name of the elite guard, in elaborate gold lettering. They would only be used in the guard’s privat
Source: National Security Archive
May 14, 2008
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is overwhelmed and behind the curve, facing huge increases in both electronic records and classified records, according to Congressional testimony today by National Security Archive director Tom Blanton.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, chaired by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE),
Source: AP
May 14, 2008
The wife of former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair said she and her husband watched in
distress as George Bush won the U.S. presidential
election in 2000, according to extracts of her
autobiography published Wednesday.
"I think it's fair to say that our hearts sank when
the result was finally ratified," Cherie Blair wrote
in "Speaking For Myself," which is being serialized in
The Times of London newspaper.
Source: AP
May 14, 2008
Long before Andy Warhol predicted that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, Sojourner Truth played a bit part in controlling her image and launching the current appetite for photos of celebrities.
"Fame and photography really take root in the 19th Century," said Jane Aspinwall, assistant curator of photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. "People in the 19th Century were just as interested in celebrities and collecting celebrity portraiture as we are today.
Source: DANIEL SCHWAMMENTHAL in the WSJ
May 14, 2008
Opinion polls in the U.S. consistently show that a majority of Americans are sympathetic to Israel. But the situation is the reverse on the other side of the Atlantic. It's particularly bad in Germany. In a British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) survey last month, for example, Germans were among the Europeans with the least favorable views of Israel, second only to Spain. Even the respondents in the United Arab Emirates had a more positive perception of the Jewish state than Germans did.
Source: US News & World Report
May 14, 2008
A white college valedictorian is nothing much to blog about, unless he went to Morehouse, the only all-male, historically black college in the country. Joshua Packwood (4.0 GPA) made history as the first white valedictorian in the 141-year history of Morehouse.
Packwood certainly wasn't the school's first white student, but he eventually became an "unlikely ambassador for the school." He was voted dorm president as a freshman and was a Rhodes scholar finalist. He was popul
Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com
May 13, 2008
The Governor’s Council issued a resolution at the Massachusetts State House on April 30 honoring Newton resident David Boyajian for his role in the campaign against the Anti-Defamation League’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and for questioning the appropriateness of towns’ affiliation with the ADL’s No Place for Hate anti-bias program.
The resolution was introduced by Marilyn Petitto Devaney, a Governor’s Council member and Watertown Town Councilor.
The resolution cit
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 13, 2008
Archaeologists excavating an enigmatic burial mound in Sussex believe that grave robbers beat them to the prize of finding the remains of a Bronze Age chief.
Racing against time to date a burial mound on the cliffs at Peacehaven Heights in East Sussex before it collapses into the sea, they have found evidence of human occupation of the site spanning back to 8,000 years BC.
But the prize was to find the remains of the warrior chief who was placed there in the Bronze Age,
Source: http://your4state.com
May 13, 2008
A group of black leaders is going before the Allegany County School Board to request an all-out ban of the Confederate flag.
Back in February, the principal of Fort Hill High School banned the flag from being displayed on school grounds amid major racial tension that led to several student suspensions.
Tuesday night, a group of community and church leaders plans to ask the school board for a permanent, county-wide ban of the Confederate flag in all public schools.
Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
May 13, 2008
An epoch in Irish education and society is coming to an end: the Christian Brothers, who over 200 years built the most formidable of reputations, are ending their day-to-day involvement in running schools.
No one disputes that the Brothers have made their mark in education but similarly no one disputes that some of them left marks – physical and psychological – on many of the boys who passed through their hands.
Their reputation for propelling promising pupils into succ
Source: Azzaman
May 13, 2008
Senior Iraqi officials are involved in the smuggling of archaeological items during their trips abroad, according to a British
Museum expert specialized in Mesopotamian antiquities.
Farouq al-Rawi, Professor of ancient Mesopotamian languages, said most of the antiquities these officials carry with them abroad
end up in the private collections of royals and wealthy families particularly in the oil-rich Gulf states.
