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: Guardian
Mar 14, 2008
Archaeologists in Peru have discovered the ruins of an ancient temple, road and irrigation systems at a fortress overlooking the Inca capital of Cuzco.
The lead archaeologist, Oscar Rodriguez, said the temple, on the periphery of the Sacsayhuaman fortress, included 11 rooms thought to have held mummies and idols.
Rodriguez's team of archaeologists believe the structures predate the Inca empire, but were significantly developed and expanded by the civilisation.
Source: Independent (UK)
Mar 14, 2008
A British mining company is at the centre of a row over uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, the great American landmark which is one of the world's most celebrated preserved areas.
US environmentalists have launched a legal challenge to permission given to the British firm Vane Minerals to drill for uranium in the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, which borders the canyon on both north and south sides.
Last December the US Forest Service gave Vane, which is based in
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 14, 2008
Hillary Clinton, accused last week by a Nobel Peace Prize winner of exaggerating her claims of having "helped" bring peace to Northern Ireland, has raised the stakes by stating she was "instrumental" in doing so.
The former First Lady laughed and dismissed criticisms she had inflated her foreign policy experience in Northern Ireland and Bosnia as "nitpicking" on Thursday.
When asked by National Public Radio whether she had been in the "
Source: NYT
Mar 14, 2008
In the capsule version of the Barack Obama story, his mother is simply the white woman from Kansas. The phrase comes coupled alliteratively to its counterpart, the black father from Kenya. On the campaign trail, he has called her his “single mom.” But neither description begins to capture the unconventional life of Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, the parent who most shaped Mr. Obama.
Kansas was merely a way station in her childhood, wheeling westward in the slipstream of her furniture-s
Source: Wired.com
Mar 14, 2008
The Air Force's new slogan, "Above All," sounds pretty cool -- until your translate it into German, that is. Then it gets downright creepy. Like, Hitler creepy.A few weeks back, the Air Force rolled out an $81 million marketing campaign, to convince average folks and lawmakers that it was still relevant in today's fights. At the center of the effort -- which including television commercial
Source: Independent (UK)
Mar 14, 2008
Britain's biggest teachers' union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.
Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union's annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a "propaganda" exercise and makes n
Source: Robert Fisk in the Independent
Mar 14, 2008
[A] month-long investigation by The Independent, culling four Arabic-language newspapers, official Iraqi statistics, two Beirut news agencies and Western reports, shows that an incredible 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq. This is a very conservative figure and – given the propensity of the authorities (and of journalists) to report only those suicide bombings that kill dozens of people – the true estimate may be double this number. On several days, six – even nine –
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Mar 14, 2008
Katyn, a name that haunts Poland, may gain greater familiarity in the West. A new book from Yale University Press and a new, Oscar-nominated film from director Andrzej Wajda offer different takes on the Stalinist mass murder of Polish prisoners of war in the spring of 1940 and its 50-year cover-up.
In April and May 1940, some 14,500 Polish prisoners were shot by their Soviet captors. The POW's, chiefly military officers and policemen, were taken prisoner during the Soviet invasion o
Source: http://www.mfa.gov.il
Mar 13, 2008
A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries BCE) was recently discovered in archaeological salvage excavations in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza.
In an excavation being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in partnership with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza a rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period was recently discovered. Also
Source: http://www.ctv.ca
Mar 13, 2008
Everyone is captivated by a spectacular fall from grace or the salaciousness of an affair, and the political arena has provided more than its fair share of that type of voyeurism.
Soon-to-be-former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who announced he will resign effective March 17 after being implicated in a prostitution scandal, is simply the latest.
Here is a round-up of some of the top scandals and controversies. First, the U.S.:
[HNN Editor: The story includes
Source: AP
Mar 13, 2008
Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests.
Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said.
The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 13, 2008
Nearly half of the UK population does not know what the Magna Carta is, according to a YouGov poll.
The survey commissioned by the British Library found 45 per cent of the 2,000 people questioned had no knowledge of the English charter.
And only 32 per cent knew that it set written limits on the authority of the monarch.
Source: Evan Thomas in Newsweek
Mar 13, 2008
In Milwaukee, before the Wisconsin primary in mid-February, Michelle Obama made a remark that Republicans will use to hammer her husband should he win the Democratic nomination. "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback," she said. Almost immediately, Cindy McCain told reporters, "I have and always will be proud of my country." Both Michelle and her husband tried to explain that what she really mean
Source: Media Matters (Liberal media watchdog group)
Mar 13, 2008
Margaret Carlson falsely claimed of Sen. Hillary Clinton, "Everyone responsible for bringing peace to Northern Ireland is on the record saying her claim to involvement there is complete fiction." In fact, several figures involved in "bringing peace to Northern Ireland" -- including former Sen. George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland and former Social Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume -- have reportedly stated that Clinton played a role in the peace
Source: Der Spiegel
Mar 12, 2008
German "Desert Fox" Erwin Rommel and the British Eighth Army left behind hundreds of thousands of mines and unexploded shells in their North African battles of World War II. The explosive relics are hampering Egypt's access to untapped oil and gas reserves in the desert.
Source: Deutsche Welle
Mar 12, 2008
On March 12, 1938, Hitler's native Austria was annexed by Germany. Austrian newsstands this year are selling papers published during the time of Nazi rule. The project shows how local and foreign press saw the era.
A grainy image of a procession of uniformed Nazis marching somberly through the center of Austria's capital covers the front page of the daily Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt above the headline "The 'Day of the Legion' in Vienna."
"Everywhere heart-felt
Source: http://iccoventry
Mar 12, 2008
BOMB disposal experts have blown up the World War Two bomb which caused huge chaos in Coventry city centre yesterday.
Builders working at the Belgrade Plaza building site discovered the unexploded bomb at noon yesterday (Wednesday).
Bomb disposal experts were initially called in to deal with the bomb. But, due to the bomb's complexity and the extreme danger facing them, they called in further help from Cambridgeshire.
Source: http://www.catholic.org
Mar 12, 2008
St. Patrick Church in Pittsburgh’s Strip District has just received the perfect gift in time for its 200th anniversary year.
The historic church — the first established in the city of Pittsburgh — has received a treasure trove of material on its most famous pastor, Father James Cox, the noted “radio priest” of the 1920s and ’30s who advocated for the poor and unemployed.
Four huge boxes filled with newspaper articles, photos and other memorabilia on the famous labor p
Source: PRnewswire
Mar 12, 2008
At a news conference this morning, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) unveiled its annual report on the status of the nations historic battlegrounds. The report, entitled History Under Siege, identifies the most threatened Civil War sites in the United States.
According to CWPT President James Lighthizer, the report outlines steps that can be taken to rescue threatened Civil War sites.
Joining Lighthizer at the news conference announcing the report was country mus
Source: AP
Mar 12, 2008
France's last remaining veteran of World War I died Wednesday at age 110 after outliving 8.4 million Frenchmen who fought in what they called "la Grande Guerre."
Lazare Ponticelli, who was born in Italy but chose to fight for France and was a French citizen for most of the past century, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicetre, the national veterans' office said.
"It is to him and his generation that we owe in large part the peaceful and pa
