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: NYT
Sep 2, 2007
When President Bush is asked what he plans to do when he leaves office, he often replies curtly: “I don’t have that much time to think beyond my presidency” or “I’m going to sprint to the finish.”
But in an interview with a book author in the Oval Office one day last December, he daydreamed about the next phase of his life, when his time will be his own.
First, Mr. Bush said, “I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers.” With assets that have been estima
Source: LAT
Sep 1, 2007
Excavations at a 6,000-year-old archeological mound in northeastern Syria called Tell Brak are providing an alternative explanation for how the first cities may have grown.
Archeologists have thought cities generally began in a single small area and grew outward -- but evidence indicates that the urban area at Tell Brak was a ring of small villages that grew inward to become a city.
The finds, reported Friday in the journal Science, provide insight into political develo
Source: The Hindu
Sep 1, 2007
British military scientists sent hundreds of Indian soldiers into gas chambers and exposed them to mustard gas, documents uncovered by this reporter have revealed.
The Indian troops were serving under the command of the British military at a time when India was under colonial rule.
The British military did not check up on the Indian soldiers after the experiments to see if they developed any illnesses. It is now recognised that mustard gas can cause cancer and other dis
Source: Peter Steinfels in the NYT
Sep 1, 2007
One hundred years ago next Saturday Pope Pius X issued a papal encyclical, “Pascendi Dominici Gregis,” that would have a huge impact on the Roman Catholic Church and consequently on its role in the blood-drenched history of the first half of the 20th century.
Today, not many Roman Catholics, let alone others, could identify or describe “Pascendi.” Yet compared with the widely known encyclicals addressing social and moral problems, it has probably had a deeper impact on their religio
Source: NYT
Sep 1, 2007
On May 25, Stanford University’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, devoted the bulk of its front page to the university’s former provost, who is on leave while she serves out her term as secretary of state. “Condi Eyes Return,” read the headline, “but in What Role?”
Within hours, the letters to the editor started coming in. “Condoleezza Rice serves an administration that has trashed the basic values of academia: reason, science, expertise, and honesty. Stanford should not welc
Source: NYT
Sep 1, 2007
A modest archaeological museum in Aidone, Sicily, is heralding the return of two sixth-century B.C. marble sculptures that have haunting smiles and a somewhat mysterious past. The artifacts are believed to have been looted from Morgantina, an ancient Greek settlement whose ruins lie next to Aidone.
The acroliths — statues usually made with wooden trunks but stone heads and extremities — were once owned by the New York businessman Maurice Tempelsman. For the last five years they have
Source: http://www.expatica.com
Aug 31, 2007
he family of Spain's late dictator Francisco Franco have refused to allow regional government inspectors to examine the state of his former summer castle, local authorities said Friday.
The historical Pazo de Meiras castle, built in 1893 in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, was given to the dictator -- who died in 1975 -- by his own regime in 1938.
It currently belongs to his daughter, Carmen Franco Polo, 80, but since 1991 it has been included on a list of Ga
Source: BBC
Aug 31, 2007
Bristol City Council's record office are compiling a detailed archive of Bristol's black history, in an effort to preserve it for future generations.
The city's museums, galleries and libraries are working alongside a range of African-Caribbean organisations and individuals to try to prevent the rich history of black people in Bristol being lost forever.
This project is known as the Bristol Black Archives Partnership.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Aug 31, 2007
The killing of 1.5m Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during World War I remains one of the bloodiest and most contentious events of the 20th century, and has been called the first modern genocide.
In all, 25 concentration camps were set up in a systematic slaughter aimed at eradicating the Armenian people - classed as "vermin" by the Turks.
Winston Churchill described the massacres as an "administrative holocaust" and noted: "This crim
Source: Earth Times
Aug 31, 2007
German television has uncovered a Nazi shrine in a bunker in Adolf Hitler's Obersalzberg mountain lair near Berchtesgaden in the state of Bavaria. Prosecutors said Friday they were laying charges against the owner of the World War II bunker for allowing Nazi slogans and swastikas to be scrawled on its walls.
According to a television report by national public broadcaster ARD, the bunker is advertised in the hotel located above and visitors pay an entry charge.
Source: China Daily
Aug 31, 2007
Researchers have found in Southwest China a cemetery built during the Second World War where about 300 air warriors of the US squadron "Flying Tigers" were buried.
The cemetery lies in the woods in Puzhao village in the northeastern suburbs of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, said Sun Guansheng, head of the Yunnan Flying Tigers Research Association.
About 300 Flying Tigers members and 500 Chinese airmen were buried in the cemetery when it was first built n
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 31, 2007
A Pacific islander who saved the life of John F Kennedy during the Second World War has been recognised for his bravery - 64 years later.
Kennedy was a US navy lieutenant when the motor torpedo boat he commanded was inadvertently rammed and cut in two by a Japanese destroyer one night in the Solomon Islands in 1943.
[Aaron Kumana was one of two "natives" who helped Kennedy send a message on a coconut about the sinking of his vessel.]
Source: AP
Aug 31, 2007
Gabriel Prosser, who was hanged for leading a failed slave revolt in 1800, has won a symbolic gubernatorial pardon. Prosser and 34 supporters were executed in Richmond on Aug. 30, 1800, after two slaves revealed the planned uprising in Richmond, known as Gabriel's Rebellion.
In his informal pardon, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Prosser was motivated by 'his devotion to the ideals of the American revolution _ it was worth risking death to secure liberty.''Gabriel's
Source: University of Cambridge
Aug 31, 2007
A team of archaeologists, including scholars from the University of Cambridge, have unveiled new research that could rewrite the history of the world's earliest cities.
Surveys at the ancient settlement of Tell Brak, in north-east Syria, have produced fresh evidence that indicates the first urban settlements were the result of natural migration, and not the artificial creations of those in power.Academics have traditionally believed that the growth of ancient ci
Source: Birmingham News
Aug 31, 2007
A curious history buff may have found a Civil War-era vessel in the Yazoo River. This week, near drought conditions left the water level so low that a boat was visible in the river bottom.Bob Harston of Silver City, Mississippi, said he's heard stories about the Confederate vessel in the river for years. Harston called Vicksburg National Military Park historian Terry Winschel, who traveled to the site Monday with an archaeologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Source: NYT
Aug 31, 2007
An Indian judge, remembered by fewer and fewer of his own countrymen 40 years after his death, is still big in Japan.
In recent weeks alone, NHK, the public broadcaster, devoted 55 minutes of prime time to his life, and a scholar came out with a 309-page book exploring his thinking and its impact on Japan. Capping it all, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, during a visit to India last week, paid tribute to him in a speech to the Indian Parliament in New Delhi and then traveled to Calcutta
Source: BBC
Aug 30, 2007
Archaeologists working in Syria have unearthed the remains of dozens of youths thought to have been killed in a fierce confrontation 6,000 years ago.
According to Science magazine, the celebrating victors may even have feasted on beef in the aftermath.
The findings come from northeastern Syria, near Tell Brak, one of the world's oldest known cities.
Source: BBC
Aug 30, 2007
A council's claim that taxpayers could be hit with a £110m bill to safeguard a 4000-year-old group of stones has been labelled "ludicrous and misleading".
Herefordshire Council said £110m was the figure it had been quoted for the cost of building a tunnel underneath the Rotherwas Ribbon.
The feature was unearthed by workmen building a relief road in Hereford.
Campaigner Bob Clay said the figure was "extraordinary" and claimed the council was t
Source: 1010 Wins
Aug 30, 2007
Anne King was 19 and earning $12 a week in a Kresge's dime store when she was recruited in 1942 to learn how to make airplane parts from blueprints. At Republic Aviation on Long Island, she worked both as a mechanic and riveter on P-47 Thunderbolt fighters and other aircraft.
King and five other women who performed wartime factory work (almost always for less money than men working at the same tasks) will gather at what is now Republic Airport in Farmingdale on Friday and take ride
Source: http://pakistaniat.com (Click here to see a picture.)
Aug 30, 2007
The Confederate Battle Flag (commonly called the Southern Cross) was first designed during the American Civil War (in 1861) by the Army of Northern Virginia. The 13 stars on the flag symbolize the original 11 US confederate states plus Kentucky and Missouri. 146 years later, the flag has found a new home. It is being used as decoration in a village fruit shop outside Islamabad. Wonder if the shopkeeper knows about the flag?
