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: AP
Nov 15, 2007
A Vietnam War-era artillery shell detonated when a man tried sawing into it for explosives, killing six children standing nearby, an official said Friday.
Three of the children died instantly and the others died on the way to hospitals following Thursday's incident in Tan Loi village in Binh Phuoc province, some 190 kilometers (120 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City, said village military chief Le Viet Truyen.
Source: AP
Nov 15, 2007
Unlike their visit a few months ago, Sandra Churchwell and Debra Wallace weren’t alone Wednesday as they gazed up at the massive Confederate monument on the grounds of the Alabama Capitol.
That’s because someone hopped over the wrought iron fence surrounding the monument during the weekend and painted the statues’ faces and hands black.
“It’s really a shame because this is such a nice monument, it’s so old,” Wallace said of the memorial, which was built on a cornerstone
Source: Reuters
Nov 15, 2007
If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7,500 years.
Recent excavations at the site – part of the Vinca culture which was Europe’s biggest prehistoric civilization – point to a metropolis with a great degree of sophistication and a taste for art and fashion, archaeologists say.
Source: http://mathaba.net
Nov 15, 2007
Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of stone and earthenware artifacts believed to be nearly 3,000 years old on the Sa Huynh culture on the An Hai islet on the Con Dao island district of the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
Source: BBC
Nov 15, 2007
One of Western Europe's earliest known urban societies may have sown the seeds of its own downfall, a study suggests.
Mystery surrounded the fall of the Bronze Age Argaric people in south-east Spain - Europe's driest area.
Data suggests the early civilisation exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin.
The study provides early evidence for cultural collapse caused - at least in part - by humans meddling with the environment, say
Source: BBC
Nov 15, 2007
One of Western Europe's earliest known urban societies may have sown the seeds of its own downfall, a study suggests.
Mystery surrounded the fall of the Bronze Age Argaric people in south-east Spain - Europe's driest area.
Data suggests the early civilisation exhausted precious natural resources, helping bring about its own ruin.
The study provides early evidence for cultural collapse caused - at least in part - by humans meddling with the environment, say
Source: BBC
Nov 15, 2007
A near-intact shipwreck apparently dating from the 17th century has been found in the Baltic Sea, Swedish television has said.
The discovery was made during filming for an under-water documentary series.
Public service SVT television said the wreck could be from the same era as the famous Vasa warship, which sank on its maiden voyage in August 1628.
Source: http://www.canada.com/
Nov 15, 2007
Provincial Tories are divided over a private member's bill -- one already vetted by the government caucus -- that would ramp up the amount of Canadian history taught in Alberta high schools.
The proposed legislation, which would require at least 75 per cent of social studies class time be dedicated to Canadian history, is also drawing fire from a Calgary teacher who's been working with the province on implementing new high school curriculum.
Calgary MLA Wayne Cao introd
Source: The Age
Nov 15, 2007
History may be rewritten on Friday when a coroner hands down a finding over the deaths of five Australian-based newsmen gunned down in East Timor.
Deputy NSW coroner Dorelle Pinch will hand down her finding on the death of Channel Nine cameraman Brian Peters, who was slain with four of his colleagues at Balibo on October 16, 1975.
Official reports have long maintained the five men were killed in crossfire during Indonesia's controversial invasion of East Timor.
Source: NYT
Nov 15, 2007
In December 1968, Mitt Romney returned home from a Mormon mission in France to find a changed country.
While assassinations, race riots, sit-ins and marches transformed his generation, Mr. Romney spent more than two years cloistered in a strict regimen of prayer and proselytizing.
The missionaries were discouraged from indulging in newspapers, radio, television or phone calls home. They spent twelve hours a day knocking on doors, often ending up defending the Vietnam Wa
Source: http://www.womensenews.org
Nov 15, 2007
More than 600 people gathered in New York a few days ago to mark the 30th anniversary of a landmark women's activism event that left a long, unfinished agenda. A 10-point plan for the 2008 election campaigns looks to restart the momentum.
The Freedom on Our Terms conference at Hunter College in New York this past weekend drew about 600 people from 21 states and offered a glimpse at what a difference three decades can make.
Sponsored by more than 60 women's organizations
Source: AP
Nov 15, 2007
Hiding from the Nazis in a cramped Amsterdam apartment, Anne Frank often gazed at a majestic chestnut tree visible through an attic skylight — her only window to the outside world — and dreamed of freedom.
Now a group of tree conservationists and local activists are fighting a last-ditch effort to prevent the badly diseased tree from being cut down, saying it is a living link to the memory of the teenage diarist, who died in a concentration camp aged 15.
"It's a mo
Source: BBC
Nov 15, 2007
For the first time in more than 60 years a Colossus computer is cracking codes at Bletchley Park.
The machine is being put through its paces to mark the end of a project to rebuild the pioneering computer.
It is being used to crack messages enciphered using the same system employed by the German high command during World War II.
The Colossus is pitted against modern PC technology which will also try to read the scrambled messages.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 15, 2007
Whatever you do, don't tell Walter Roberts you admire his mock Tudor house.
The former architect has spent nearly four years fulfilling his lifelong dream by painstakingly designing and hand crafting the only faithful recreation of a Tudor home in Britain.
"Even my wife thinks I am slightly mad but I love the Tudor period of our history and can't think of anything better than living like a Tudor gentleman," said the 69-year-old, who started out as a carpenter.
Source: Daily Mail
Nov 14, 2007
High tides and winds that have battered our shores have unearthed a burial mystery for archaeologists.
Erosion by the sea and weather has revealed what seems to be the remains of a Bronze Age child.
But what puzzled archaeologists was a layer of hard white material which appears to have been moulded around the body, like a casing.
Source: Washington Times
Nov 14, 2007
Republicans across the country are encouraging voters to sign up for a "Clinton library card," a publicity stunt to highlight the dispute over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House records.
The Democrats have been arguing over the issue since it surfaced during an Oct. 30 debate, and former President Bill Clinton has since said the debate question about the records kept by the National Archives was "breathtakingly misleading."
But Republicans hav
Source: Weekly Standard
Nov 14, 2007
A NEW DISCOVERY in the archives at the United Nations has drastically altered the historical narrative of the exile of Jews from Arab countries.
Conventional wisdom had long held that the exile was the result of isolated incidents of anti-Semitism. But the newly discovered document reveals that it was, in fact, the result of concerted efforts by Arab countries, amounting to what is essentially a standard multinational policy of discrimination.
The document was released
Source: AP
Nov 14, 2007
Poland's parliament on Wednesday established an annual day of remembrance for more than 14,000 Polish officers who were captured at the start of World War II and killed by Soviet secret police.
Members of the 460-member lower house, or Sejm, agreed to make April 13 an annual "Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Katyn Crime," one of the most painful episodes in Poland's history.
Lawmakers stood and applauded, approving the resolution by acclamation.
Source: AP
Nov 14, 2007
Austria's Cabinet on Wednesday backed plans for a Vienna institute to house the archives of late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
But ministers disappointed organizers with few details on funding for the proposed Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, which would house about 8,000 original files left by Wiesenthal.
Wiesenthal, who died in September 2005 at age 96 in his Vienna home, helped find hundreds of war criminals, including one-time SS leader Adolf Eichm
Source: AP
Nov 14, 2007
A new office within Germany's Institute for Museum Research is opening in January to help identify and research art stolen by the Nazis, Germany's culture minister said Wednesday.
The office, which comes under the State Museums of Berlin, will help museums, libraries and archives identify items that were taken from their rightful owners during the Nazi period, Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said.
