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.theherald.co.uk/news
Feb 16, 2008
A rock carving dating back to the bronze age has been uncovered by forestry workers clearing trees which fell during the recent storms.
The mysterious rock art had been hidden by a huge tree in Forestry Commission Scotland's Achnabreac Forest, in West Argyll, until it was blown down around three weeks ago.
Source: AP
Feb 16, 2008
An 8-year-old boy and his friend found a live, World War II-era hand grenade while searching for buried treasure with a metal detector.
Sidney Mathis and his friend had found nails, bolts and a toy car by sweeping the detector over a field near their home Thursday. But it was their other find that alarmed Sidney's father, Chris Mathis.
He arrived home Thursday to find the boys about to put the grenade into a bucket of water. Chris Mathis grabbed the grenade and dangled
Source: NYT
Feb 16, 2008
REVOLUTIONARIES know exactly what they want to tear down, but often lack the ability to predict what will come next. That was true of Ebrahim Yazdi and many of his allies in the Iranian revolution who now, three decades later, still savor the memory of the day the shah fled Iran, but struggle with the bitter reality that they have been spit out, marginalized and rejected by what it is they helped create.
Iran celebrated the 29th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution this month, but
Source: http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org
Feb 16, 2008
Over the course of 100 days in the fall of 1896, William Jennings Bryan gave more than 500 speeches. He was the Democratic nominee, and his presidential campaign was so broke, he took his message directly to just about every Midwestern town with a train station and a soapbox. Several million people showed up.
He was a fantastic orator. Picture him with 10,000 screaming Nebraskans behind him, and you can imagine what his Republican rival was up against.
"You had Wil
Source: AP
Feb 16, 2008
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday defended a plan to require 10-year-olds to honor child victims of the Holocaust, saying adults should not hide terrible truths from children.
The idea, floated by the president earlier this week, rankled psychologists worried about traumatizing youth and has teachers reviving debates about how France remembers World War II. But Sarkozy stood firmly by the plan in meetings with teachers over proposed reforms of France's school system.
Source: http://www.newschannel9.com
Feb 15, 2008
Heritage or hate? That's the controversy that continues to swirl around the confederate flag.
And now one Georgia organization is threatening to sue. They want the Ringgold City Council to hang the confederate flag at the historic Ringgold Depot by the middle of next week.
Back in 2005 the Ringgold City Council decided to remove the confederate flag from the Depot - now that's where many soldiers departed from to heard to the civil war. But three years after the counc
Source: National Geographic News
Feb 15, 2008
An unusual, well-preserved burial chamber that may contain the mummy of an ancient warrior has been discovered in a necropolis in Luxor.
Scientists opened the tomb—found in Dra Abul Naga, an ancient cemetery on Luxor's west bank—on Wednesday.
Source: Guardian
Feb 15, 2008
A few days ago, the Associated Press reported that the small Israeli town of Kiryat Yam is suing Google for slander, after a Google Earth user "inserted a note on the map" saying that the town was built "on the location of Ghawarina", a Palestinian village destroyed in 1948.
A town official said this was impossible, as Kiryat Yam was founded in 1945, while Google emphasised that their service "depends on user-generated content that reflects what people contr
Source: http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk
Feb 15, 2008
The tragic story of a Croydon family who lost four of their sons during World War I has been revealed by a local historian.
In a tale which echoes the storyline of the Hollywood blockbuster film Saving Private Ryan, Brian Roote has unearthed the tragic tale of the brothers who were all killed in action during a two-and-a-half year period in the Great War.
Albert, Stephen, Charles and Frank - the sons of Elijah and Mary Ann French - are all on Croydon's Roll of Honour af
Source: AP
Feb 15, 2008
The Swedish government has launched an online database with more than 1,000 documents on the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps.
The searchable database collects previously published material in one place to make it easier for both government and private researchers to explore Wallenberg's case, said Harald Hamrin, a retired Swedish diplomat who led the initiative.
Wallenberg, who worked as a diplomat in Buda
Source: http://www.iol.co.za
Feb 15, 2008
French archaeologists in Sudan say they have uncovered the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Africa, hailing the discovery as the biggest Neolithic find on the continent for years.
The tomb of a 5 500-year-old man surrounded by three sacrificed humans, two dogs and exquisite ceramics were exhumed north of Khartoum by Neolithic expert Jacques Reinhold and his 66-year-old Austrian wife.
"This is the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Sudan, in Egypt, in Africa,"
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
Feb 15, 2008
Eastern Utah's Nine Mile Canyon holds more than 10,000 known American Indian rock-art images. But they may be no match for 800 gas wells.
A Denver-based energy company's proposal to drill at least that many wells on the West Tavaputs Plateau threatens the thousand-year-old Anasazi ruins, where dust and chemicals are already corroding peerless rock art.
Source: http://www.wjactv.com
Feb 15, 2008
It's a mystery going back more than 140 years. Many have searched, but no one has found the millions of dollars in gold lost during the Civil War in Elk County.
Now, one treasure hunting team from Clearfield says it knows where the gold is [but the state of Pennsylvania won't allow him to dig it up.]
Source: Times (UK)
Feb 15, 2008
It's taken days of number-crunching, nights of scientific analysis and the objective advice of a panel of experts. But Comment Central has finally shortlisted ten of the greatest mistakes in British history.
Now it's over to you. Here are the contenders. Which do you think did the greatest harm to our island nation? Voting will close at midnight on Monday 18 February....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 15, 2008
A German socialist MP has been urged to resign after calling for the return of the secret police.
The MP, a member of The Left party, said bringing the Stasi back could be "useful".
Christel Wegner, one of The Left's six new MPs in the state legislature in Lower Saxony following last month’s elections, said it would be "useful to have the Stasi back to deal with (conservative) reactionary forces."
Source: Boston Globe
Feb 15, 2008
It may be a new image of Lizzie Borden: An angelic 8- or 9-year-old girl with a hint of baby fat still noticeable in her creamy white cheeks. In the black-and-white photograph, she seems proud of the feather in her straw hat and her wool coat with a satin lined collar.
That is far from the prevailing impression of Borden. Despite her acquittal at trial, she is commonly depicted as an ax-wielding spinster who got away with the murder of her father and stepmother in Fall River in 1892
Source: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp
Feb 15, 2008
The Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education has announced plans to make Japanese history mandatory at its 152 prefecture-run high schools as early as the academic year beginning 2012.
Prefectures across the country reportedly have been considering making Japanese history compulsory at high schools, but Kanagawa Prefecture will be the first to do so. Japanese history is currently an elective subject, in line with the government's teaching guidelines.
The guidelines stipu
Source: http://canadianpress.com
Feb 15, 2008
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is delaying its reopening from this summer to the fall.
Museum Director Brent Glass said the museum has received inquiries from visitors making travel plans, and wanted to provide them with a more realistic time frame for the reopening. An exact date has not been set.
The museum closed in the fall of 2006 for a $85-million renovation. Some of its most popular artifacts, such as Dorothy's ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz
Source: BBC
Feb 15, 2008
It looks incongruous across the dank, misty farmland north of Ypres. A large party marquee erected amongst the winter stubble; but it marks one of the most ambitious battlefield archaeology projects ever attempted.
I last visited this farm a year ago, on that occasion soggy from recent rain and swept by chilly easterly winds. Across that landscape a small survey team were mapping what lay below, using ground-penetrating radar.
Ninety years after Flanders was torn apart
Source: Belfast Herald (Ireland)
Feb 15, 2008
Two hundred years ago, Napoleon launched an invasion that would change Europe – and warfare – for ever. Now the Spanish are celebrating what some see as their finest hour.Brutality was nonetheless laced with heroism, which is why the Spanish War (as the French call it) became – despite the loss of an estimated million lives – a romanticised episode in Spain's collective memory, a brief precious moment of glory that today everyone seeks to reclaim. This is hardly surprising,
