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: BBC
Nov 27, 2007
The union jack should be combined with the Welsh flag, according to an MP who wants the change to be made to reflect Wales' status within the UK.
In a Commons debate, Wrexham's Labour MP Ian Lucas said Wales' Red Dragon should be added to the union jack's red, white and blue pattern.
He said the union jack currently only represented the other three UK nations.
But Stewart Jackson, Conservative MP for Peterborough, said the plan was "eccentric" and
Source: NYT
Nov 27, 2007
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the most prominent surviving member of the Kennedy family, has agreed to sell his memoirs for an advance of more than $8 million, people with knowledge of the negotiations say.
After a six-day auction that concluded Nov. 19, Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, bought world rights for the autobiography. Before the deal can be completed, Mr. Kennedy must clear his publishing contract with the Senate Ethics Committee.
Jonathan Karp, p
Source: AFP
Nov 27, 2007
A US genetic study bolsters claims that Native Americans are descended from one migrant group that crossed a lost land link from modern Siberia to Alaska -- not waves of arrivals from Asia, as rival theories say.
The new study by the University of Michigan, published Monday, examined genes of indigenous people from North to South America and from two Siberian groups, the university said in a report introducing the research.
Analysis found one unique genetic variant wide
Source: NYT
Nov 27, 2007
Empowered by an oil boom that pushed the country’s trade surplus past $94 billion this year, Russia has been flexing its muscles abroad. At home, meanwhile, young and trendy Muscovites are in the throes of nostalgia for the staples of Soviet childhoods, relics of a time when the U.S.S.R. was at the height of superpower status.
That may explain why one of the most popular fashion designers this fall is Denis Simachev, who is selling overcoats fastened with hammer-and-sickle buttons,
Source: LiveScience
Nov 26, 2007
Some researchers are worried that digitally altered photos could alter our perceptions and memories of public events.
To test what effect doctored photos might have, researchers from the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Padua in Italy showed 299 people aged 19 to 84 either an actual photo or an altered photo of two historical events, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing and the 2003 anti-war protest in Rome.
The original Tiananmen Square i
Source: http://www.allheadlinenews.com
Nov 26, 2007
Rock art in Egypt is being threatened by the increasing number of tourists trying to seek far and wide for the Egyptian frontiers. Much of the art that has been preserved for thousands of years is under risk from more and more people heading toward the sacred areas.
The most impressive of Egypt's rock art is the country's southwest corner, near the Sudanese and Libyan borders, where paintings of prehistoric man and beast are located.
Source: Seattle Times
Nov 26, 2007
Crumbling asphalt roads and docks still mark where the town of Umatilla once stood, but even deeper are the remnants of the 2,500-year-old tribal village of matalam.
Almost nothing has been done with the 70-acre Umatilla town site, found within 800 acres owned by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The city was moved to its current site in the mid-1960s to make way for the Columbia River to rise behind the John Day Dam.
Now the city of Umatilla and the Confederat
Source: http://www.uq.edu.au
Nov 26, 2007
Australia's early Catholic bishops failed Aborigines by paying lip service to their plight and not providing enough resources to help them, according to a new historical study.
The study, by UQ PhD recipient Stefano Girola, from the School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, examined the policies and attitudes of the Catholic hierarchy to Indigenous people from 1885 until 1967.
“I stress the Catholic hierarchy because there were always nuns and missionaries
Source: Legal Times
Nov 26, 2007
A weighty sense of anticipation hangs in the air as the senators filter into the vast chamber. Their faces are stony with the grave task set before them.
Scandal surrounds the president of the United States, and the U.S. House of Representatives has called for his impeachment. There is rampant speculation that the president is carrying on a homosexual, adulterous affair with the attorney general. On top of that, the president also stands accused of firing U.S. attorneys and replaci
Source: http://www.rte.ie
Nov 26, 2007
A letter from Michael Collins, written in 1917, in which he was critical of Eamonn De Valera, has sold for €260,000 tonight.
The letter went under the hammer at Whyte's auction house in Dublin, and was bought by a bidder from the south who wishes to remain anonymous.
The letter was written to the IRB member and 1916 Rising volunteer, Thomas Ashe, while he was on hunger strike and is said to be the first written indication of the political rivalry between Collins and De
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2007
A "final effort" is under way in South America to track down and prosecute ex-Nazi war criminals before they die.
Operation Last Chance - a scheme devised by the Simon Wiesenthal Center - attempts to locate Nazis in hiding.
It takes the form of a media campaign and offers financial rewards for any information that results in conviction.
The four countries involved are Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil - where large numbers of Nazis are thought
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2007
A chance conversation between a steward on the ss Great Britain and a visitor has brought to light documents linked to the ship's history.
The collection of photographs, letters and diary notes relate to successive generations of the Coles family.
John Coles, pictured as a baby in 1922 in one of the photographs, mentioned the collection on a visit to the ship which is in dry dock in Bristol.
The discovery is described by the trust curator as "unique and thri
Source: History Today
Nov 26, 2007
An extra £15m to restore the historic Cutty Sark is still needed, following a fire which wrecked the 19th-century tea clipper. The Cutty Sark Trust has raised £20m but still needed another £5m before the fire in a Greenwich dry dock six months ago. The timescale for reopening has been put back another year from November 2009.
Source: http://www.fresnobee.com
Nov 26, 2007
A high school history teacher has discovered the grave of a Fresno County pioneer who may have been the state's first black cattle rancher.
Teacher Bill Coate came upon Gabriel Moore's unmarked grave at Akers Cemetery last year while he was on a tour celebrating the county's 150th anniversary.
Coate had heard stories about Moore, who was born in Alabama in 1812 and sold into slavery in Arkansas. Moore traveled west to California, and by 1872, he had established his own
Source: LAT
Nov 26, 2007
Experts on Chinese American history say Chinatowns across the nation -- including in many California cities -- have always been rumored to have tunnels, but no proof exists that they were anything more than connected basements. They say the hype surrounding the legends revives misconceptions that fanned xenophobia in earlier times.
Oral histories and newspaper accounts from the early 20th century include clues that Los Angeles' original Chinatown (where Union Station now stands) wa
Source: http://www.exduco.net
Nov 26, 2007
The grandson of a soldier who fought in one of history’s first major tank battles will see his grandfather’s First World War vehicle - unearthed from a French farmer’s field - take pride of place at a 90th anniversary memorial event.
Tim Heap, 55, a University of Derby lecturer from Winster, Derbyshire, will this weekend attend the unveiling of a memorial to all the soldiers who died at the Battle of Cambrai, northern France, in November 1917, in memory of his grandfather Frank Hea
Source: AP
Nov 26, 2007
The Civil War resulted in many human narratives, each seemingly more heart-wrenching than the last. But few match that of Confederate Col. Isaac Erwin Avery in his final moments.
On July 2, 1863, the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Avery's North Carolina unit was ordered to attack a heavily fortified Union position on East Cemetery Hill. Leading the charge on a white horse, the colonel was struck in the neck by a musket ball.
As he lay dying, a close friend, Ma
Source: WaPo
Nov 26, 2007
Abraham Lincoln was the rarest of men, and John G. Sotos believes that extended all the way to his chromosome 10.
A physician, connoisseur of rare ailments and amateur historian, Sotos believes Lincoln had a genetic syndrome called MEN 2B. He thinks the diagnosis not only accounts for Lincoln's great height, which has been the subject of most medical speculation over the years, but also for many of the president's other reported ailments and behaviors.
He also suspects
Source: BBC
Nov 26, 2007
A new BBC documentary has re-examined the legacy of a controversial Scottish soldier who was dubbed "Mad Mitch" for his tough methods.
Lt Col Colin Mitchell became a national hero when he led his Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders back into the Crater area of Aden in July 1967.
The British army had earlier pulled out of the district after 24 soldiers were killed by insurgents.
But Mitchell's reputation has been tarnished by allegations of brutality
Source: Chicago Tribune
Nov 26, 2007
Munich is an easy city to like: clean, bright and livable. It has world-class art museums, stylish shops, wide boulevards, parks and squares. Conviviality overflows in its fabled beer gardens, and its people have an open, animated air.
Joachim von Halasz, a London-based financial analyst who often travels to Munich, knows well the attractions of this southern German city, including its towered and turreted Gothic revival Neues Rathaus, which the U.S. 7th Army used as headquarters ne
