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: Financial Times
Mar 22, 2008
On the slow descent into the Tigris valley, steep cliff walls rise 100 metres on both sides at the confluence of seven natural gorges. The winding road continues into the Kurdish heartland of south-east Turkey until the Mesopotamian plain unfolds, revealing the first scattering of rock caves, of which there are thousands in the area. On the southern bank of the Tigris the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf overlooks the scene.
The town’s history dates back at least 7,000 years, with tr
Source: Fox News
Mar 22, 2008
When a noose was found hanging outside of the Nyumburu Cultural Center on the University of Maryland's College Park campus in September, police classified it as a hate crime but never named — or found — a suspect.
It might not have mattered if they had.
Current state law does not specifically list hanging a noose as a crime. The No Nooses Act attempts to change that by adding the hanging of a noose to a list of actions already specifically identified as crimes, includin
Source: NYT op ed
Mar 22, 2008
As early as six million years ago, apparently close to the beginning of the human lineage, an ancestral species had already developed the transforming ability for upright walking, scientists reported on Thursday.
A new, more detailed analysis of a fossil thigh bone found eight years ago in Kenya yielded strong evidence that the species Orrorin tugensis stood and walked on its hind limbs. The scientists said this was the earliest known example of bipedal locomotion.
Source: Christian Post
Mar 21, 2008
Amid a technology-driven culture where latest means better, it may not surprise many to find out that historical Jesus has also received a makeover.
He used to be known as Messiah, Son of God, Redeemer and Christ. Now, he's spiritual guru, philosopher, political pundit, hippie, and rock star.
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Ben Witherington, author of "What Have They Done to Jesus?," observes that today's image of Jesus has ranged from histor
Source: Calgary Herald
Mar 21, 2008
French explorer Samuel de Champlain - already getting a rough ride in the Canadian media on the 400th anniversary of his establishment of a trading post in Quebec City - doesn't get much respect in his native country either.
Those few French citizens who have heard of the man, sometimes dubbed Canada's founder, don't even consider him the most important native of Brouage, this historic fortified city that draws 400,000 visitors a year.
That title goes to Marie Mancini, King L
Source: BBC
Mar 21, 2008
European colonisation of South America resulted in a dramatic shift from a native American population to a largely mixed one, a genetic study has shown.
It suggests male European settlers mated with native and African women, and slaughtered the men.
But it adds that areas like Mexico City "still preserve the genetic heritage" because these areas had a high number of natives at the time of colonisation.
The findings appear in the journal Public Li
Source: AP
Mar 21, 2008
Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005.
The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.
"When workstations are at the end of their lifecycle and retired ... the
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com
Mar 21, 2008
Two decades after it was felled, Charlie is still at the checkpoint where the Wall stood parting East from West, gloved, hatted and wrapped in an outmoded US army greatcoat, holding the Star-Spangled Banner aloft in the freezing wind.
There’s little for Charlie to check now, but he may still have a point. At a euro a shot for shutterbugs, his act on the sandbags earns him a healthy daily wage. And for five euros more, he’ll emboss your passport with all the visas you no more require
Source: Times (UK)
Mar 21, 2008
A 17th-century painting had to be withdrawn from a Christie’s auction after the Polish Embassy in London revealed that it had been looted by the Nazis.
Pieter de Grebber’s Study of a Reading Man will be returned to the family of Abe Gutnajer, an antiques dealer murdered in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 by the Nazis, who confiscated his property.
Source: AP
Mar 21, 2008
The trial of a New Jersey man accused of attacking Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel (EL'-ee vee-ZEHL') in a San Francisco hotel is set to begin today.
Eric Hunt is charged with attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, battery and elder abuse charges for allegedly accosting Wiesel on an elevator at the Argent Hotel in February of last year.
Shortly after the incident, Wiesel told police that Hunt had asked him for an interview, then dragged him off an elevator.
H
Source: http://news.yahoo.com
Mar 21, 2008
Germany's Cabinet adopted a plan Wednesday for a $45.5 million museum to commemorate the plight of Germans uprooted from their homes in eastern Europe after World War II.
The program comes after years of heated debate with Germany's neighbors on how best to memorialize the hardship suffered by millions of Germans left homeless after borders shifted westward in 1945, without diminishing the crimes of the Nazis during the war.
The center in downtown Berlin will include a permanent exh
Source: NYT op ed
Mar 21, 2008
The National Archives and the William J. Clinton Presidential Library on Wednesday released more than 11,000 pages of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s public schedules for her eight years as first lady.
The long-awaited documents, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and a lawsuit, show her daily activities, from meeting with foreign dignitaries to designing the White House Christmas card.
In some ways, they provide support for her assertion tha
Source: http://www.timesonline.com (PA)
Mar 21, 2008
Nearly 90 years after Harriet Key asked the U.S. government to mark the grave of her husband, Jonah Key, a tombstone may finally be in the works for the long-forgotten Civil War veteran.
Key, who served with the 4th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops and was disabled by a Confederate bullet in 1864, lies in an unmarked grave at Freedom’s Oak Grove Cemetery.
That could soon change thanks to Ron Ciani and Pat Riley, two Beaver County men with an interest in history, but no t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 21, 2008
One in three primary school pupils believe that Sir Winston Churchill was the first man to walk on the moon, according to a survey.
The children, aged between four and ten-years-old, confused the war time Prime Minister with the American astronaut Neil Armstrong, despite the fact they were born in different centuries and different countries.
But their lack of knowledge comes as little surprise. Last month a similar poll of British teenagers revealed a quarter think that
Source: WaPo
Mar 21, 2008
Perhaps the Maestro composed some discordant notes after all.
The record of longtime Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan -- worshipped by business leaders and dubbed "Maestro" in a 2000 biography by The Post's Bob Woodward -- is getting a critical look as his successor Ben S. Bernanke wrestles with problems that began on the Maestro's watch.
Many economists blame Greenspan for lax bank supervision and for keeping interest rates too low, too long from mid-2
Source: WaPo
Mar 21, 2008
State Department employees snooped through the passport files of three presidential candidates _ Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain _ and the department's inspector general is investigating.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the violations of McCain and Clinton's passport files were not discovered until Friday, after officials were made aware of the unauthorized access of Obama's records and a separate search was conducted.
The incid
Source: Hartford Courant
Mar 21, 2008
After more than 300 years, the Connecticut residents accused of witchcraft finally might be vindicated thanks to what began as a school project.State legislators took up the issue Thursday of Connecticut's witch trials, the result of efforts by 14-year-old Addie Avery and her mother, Debra Avery, descendants of a Hartford woman accused of witchcraft and probably hanged. The judiciary committee discussed a resolution that would absolve the approximately 40 residents accused o
Source: http://sundaygazettemail.com
Mar 20, 2008
West Virginia disability rights groups are fuming after the owners of a pre-Civil War mental hospital in Weston renamed the property the "Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum."
Several mental health organization leaders have fired off letters this week to the contractor who now owns the former Weston Hospital.
They say the new name - which was the name of the hospital in the 19th century - is discriminatory and promotes misunderstandings about mental illness.
Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Mar 20, 2008
The Queen created another piece of history for Northern Ireland today with a show of religious and social unity at the Maundy Thursday service in Armagh.
The leaders of the four main churches in Ireland - including Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady - came together at St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastical capital, to watch Her Majesty distribute Maundy Money at the traditional pre-Easter religious service.
It was the first time that the
Source: AP
Mar 20, 2008
Three Vermont Abenaki bands and some former members of a Governor's Commission on Native American Affairs said Thursday they were insulted by a proposed process for recognizing the Abenakis and didn't trust current commission members who would review their status.
An amendment being considered by the state Senate is intended to address problems with a 2006 law that recognized Abenakis as a minority population, but not as a tribe for the purposes of selling their crafts as Native Ame
