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: http://www.dailygazette.com
May 7, 2008
Siena College, which has an academic program that concentrates on the Revolutionary War era, is planning to open a satellite office near the Saratoga battlefield so students can be close to the site of what they are studying.
On Tuesday, staff from the college toured the former Schuylerville High School on routes 4 and 29. The college is considering renting space in the building, which is just a short drive from the battlefield.
The Saratoga battlefield is the site of the Ba
Source: http://www.episcopal-life.org
May 7, 2008
Grace Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina barely survived the Civil War, was seriously damaged by the earthquake of 1886 and withstood the ravages of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. No wonder the 162-year-old Gothic Revival building needs some serious restoration work. Cracks, settling and structural problems have taken their toll, especially in the steeple tower and clerestory walls.
Raising $12 million for repairs has been a challenge -- seven years into the "Saving Grace
Source: Reuters
May 7, 2008
Armenia's Orthodox leader on Wednesday used the pulpit of the Vatican to condemn the 1915 killing of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks, saying the whole world should recognise it as a genocide.
"We Armenians are a people who have survived genocide, and we know well the value of love, brotherhood, friendship and a secure life," Karekin II said in a public address during Pope Benedict's general audience in St. Peter's Square.
"Today, many countr
Source: http://www.thewest.com.au
May 7, 2008
Germany today banned two regional far-right organisations suspected of denying the Nazis’ slaughter of six million Jews and launched early morning raids against their members.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the groups outlawed were the Collegium Humanum and the Association for the Rehabilitation of Those Persecuted for Questioning the Holocaust (VRBHV)”.
Based in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the neo-Nazi groups are “collecting pool
Source: NYT
May 7, 2008
As Israel toasts its 60th anniversary in the coming weeks, rejoicing in Jewish national rebirth and democratic values, the Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be celebrating. Better off and better integrated than ever in their history, freer than a vast majority of other Arabs, Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens are still far less well off than Israeli Jews and feel increasingly unwanted.
On Thursday, which is Independence Day, thousands will gather in their former
Source: New Republic
May 7, 2008
An hour's drive from downtown Phnom Penh sits a campus of modern office
buildings. The architecture is standard office-park fare, but with fantastic
crowns of golden lintels and red tiles--traditional Khmer designs--grafted
atop. (The effect is rather like seeing a businessman wearing a papal crown.)
The offices were originally constructed for the military, and a sign that reads
ROYAL CAMBODIAN ARMED FORCES still hangs on one gate. Elsewhere on the campus, a
large bronze statue of a warrio
Source: Spiegel Online
May 6, 2008
Germany has founded a pantheon of 40 sporting heroes including soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer and champion boxer Max Schmeling. Critics say some athletes on the list were members of the Nazi party. But the organizers insist that the Hall of Fame reflect the ravages of German history.
Germany inaugurated a Hall of Fame for its sporting legends on Tuesday in a ceremony marred by criticism that some of the 40 athletes selected were members of the Nazi Party.
World Cup winner Fr
Source: National Geographic News
May 6, 2008
Debate has heated up over a controversial theory that suggests huge comet impacts wiped out North America's large mammals nearly 13,000 years ago.
The hypothesis, first presented in May 2007, proposes that an onslaught of extraterrestrial bodies caused the mass extinction known as the Younger Dryas event and triggered a period of climatic cooling.
The theory has been debated widely since it was introduced, but it drew new scrutiny in March at the annual meeting of the S
Source: Press Release--Pennsylvania Office of the Governor
May 6, 2008
Civil War enthusiasts will get an even better look at "The War of the Rebellion" with new interpretive and directional signs that will guide visitors along trails in six counties throughout the Dutch Country Roads region of the commonwealth, Governor Edward G. Rendell said today.
The signs will expand "Pennsylvania Civil War Trails: Prelude to Gettysburg," a program that presents visitors with the rich history, welcoming communities, small towns, and accommodatio
Source: http://www.courier-journal.com
May 6, 2008
The budget for the Waterfront Park memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln -- designed by noted Louisville sculptor Ed Hamilton -- has received a $200,000 pledge from a Louisville family.
Meanwhile, work at the site just downriver from the Big Four Bridge is well under way, with a rescheduled dedication now set for June 4, 2009.
"It's going well and we're on time," Hamilton said of his work. "It will be a unique Lincoln site, and I hope it will be a national at
Source: http://www.kctv5.com
May 6, 2008
A group of people came to City Hall Tuesday to fight plans to destroy a historical cemetery in Kansas City.
There are plans being made to redevelop about 100 acres of land on the border of Raytown in southeast Kansas City to build housing, stores and office buildings.
The Smith cemetery, which contains the remains of Civil War veterans and families from the 1800s, is housed on the land.
Source: http://www.progress-index.com
May 6, 2008
Officials at Petersburg National Battlefield have a new policy. If they find Civil War ordninance, call the bomb squad.
That is exactly what happened in late March when park officials uncovered a 44-pound, 8-inch diameter mortar shell. The shell was uncovered as workers and volunteers swept the future path of a park road for artifacts and explosives. The new road will go around the Taylor House.
After the shell was located, the area was marked, blocked off and the bomb
Source: National Security Archive
May 6, 2008
The White House yesterday admitted to a federal magistrate judge that it has no computer back-up tapes with data written before May 23, 2003, and that it cannot track the history of individual hard drives within the White House system that may contain missing e-mails.
The White House filing responded to an April 24, 2008, order from Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the U.S. District Court directing the White House to provide more precise information about e-mail customers and ha
Source: Fox News
May 6, 2008
An ancient Egyptian necklace was stolen from a museum in Dayton, Ohio, according to WHIO TV.
The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery artifact, made from carnelian gems, has been estimated to be several thousand years old, the station reported.
The thief damaged the case that held the necklace, which has been on display since it was donated in the 1940s, said Lynn Simonelli, the museum's vice president of collection and research.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
May 6, 2008
The newspapers all said it was the grandest spectacle of the age - that great day exactly 100 years ago today when what looked like the entire United States Navy steamed through the Golden Gate, 16 battleships bristling with guns and trailing plumes of bla
Source: WaPo
May 6, 2008
Identifying with the common man has been a requisite in presidential elections for almost two centuries. But the stakes are especially high in a race largely defined by an economic crisis, and campaign experts say the candidates have gone especially far in their appeals.
In the past six weeks, Clinton hammered down a shot of Crown Royal whiskey -- not necessarily the first choice of the workingman -- and chased it with a beer. Obama visited a Pennsylvania sports bar and sampled a Yu
Source: Bloomberg News
May 6, 2008
A medieval processional cross that was looted from Poland by the Nazis and discovered decades later in an Austrian garbage bin has been returned to the heirs of the countess who owned it before the war.
The Limoges enamel cross was part of the Dzialynska collection at Goluchow Castle in Poland, according to a statement from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a London-based organization which helps families recover property stolen by the Nazis. The 13th-century cross features
Source: LiveScience
May 6, 2008
The effects of a massive volcanic eruption in Peru more than 400 years ago might have significantly impacted societies and agriculture world-wide, according to a new study of historic records.
Huaynaputina erupted in southern Peru on Feb. 19, 1600, driving volcanic mudflows that destroyed villages for many miles around and spewing a huge column of smoke and ash into the atmosphere.
The eruption of Huaynaputina represents the largest known eruption in South America in th
Source: Independent (UK)
May 6, 2008
The former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein feared catching Aids or some other venereal disease during his US-supervised captivity, according to excerpts from his prison writings, published in a leading Arab newspaper yesterday.
The London-based daily Al-Hayat said its correspondent had obtained the material from the US authorities, and the US military confirmed that pages of Saddam's writings have been released.
They describe how, when Saddam found US guards were also usi
Source: BBC
May 6, 2008
One of the Vikings' most important trading centres has been discovered in Ireland.
The settlement at Woodstown in County Waterford is estimated to be about 1,200 years old.
It was discovered during archaeological excavations for a road by-pass for Waterford city, which was founded by the Vikings.
The Irish government said the settlement was one of the most important early Viking age trading centres discovered in the country.
