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
Aug 28, 2007
A group of Israeli archaeologists is protesting about fresh excavations at Jerusalem's holiest religious shrine, saying it threatens priceless relics.
Muslim authorities at al-Aqsa mosque, also venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount, are digging a 150-metre trench for water pipes and electricity cables.
Israeli critics say the work is causing irreparable damage, indiscriminately piling up earth and carved stones.
Mosque officials insist it is urgent infrastr
Source: International Herald Tribune
Aug 28, 2007
Poland's nationalist-conservative government could claim as much as $20 billion in compensation from Germany for the destruction of its art treasures during the Nazi occupation, in what is becoming a growing dispute between the countries as Polish parliamentary elections approach, officials in Warsaw said Tuesday.
The latest dispute, one of many that have led to a sharp deterioration in relations between Warsaw and Berlin since the Polish government was elected nearly two years ago
Source: Press Release--WGBH
Aug 28, 2007
Muhammad Ali discussing his refusal to fight in Vietnam; African American students arriving at school during Boston’s court-ordered de-segregation; Bill T. Jones performing a monologue and solo dance; Robert McNamara reading from a letter sent by Nikita Khrushchev to President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis — that’s just a taste of the resources available on Open Vault. Launched by the WGBH Media Library and Archives (MLA), the Open Vault (http://ope
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Aug 28, 2007
If Ron Avery has his way, Philadelphia tour guides will stop telling you things that will make you flunk your history test.
They'll stop saying that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln once dined together. Or that Ben Franklin had not one, but 69, illegitimate children. That basement kitchens had outdoor exits so as to spare the furniture should the cook's skirts catch fire. Or that a house would be left to burn if it didn't display an insurance company fire mark.
Mr.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 28, 2007
Newsreader [ie: TV anchor] Natasha Kaplinsky has told for the first time how members of her family were massacred in the Holocaust.
The 34-year-old broke down in tears as she discovered the terrible truth about her ancestry while filming BBC1 series Who Do You Think You Are?
Kaplinsky is descended from Polish Jews on her father's side. For the programme she travelled to the small town of Slonim in Belarus, which was part of Poland during the Second World War, to researc
Source: CSM
Aug 28, 2007
If Ron Avery has his way, Philadelphia tour guides will stop telling you things that will make you flunk your history test.
They'll stop saying that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln once dined together. Or that Ben Franklin had not one, but 69, illegitimate children. That basement kitchens had outdoor exits so as to spare the furniture should the cook's skirts catch fire. Or that a house would be left to burn if it didn't display an insurance company fire mark.
Source: NPR
Aug 28, 2007
The King Tut exhibition has drawn millions of visitors to museums across the country since it opened two years ago. But some African-American scholars believe the exhibition makes King Tut look too white. The debate over Tut's race led the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, where the show is on display, to sponsor a conference on the subject.The show, Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs has drawn a steady stream of protesters since it opened in Los
Source: http://www.lancashireeveningtelegraph.co.uk
Aug 27, 2007
A RARE diary, giving an unique insight into life in World War One's trenches, has been transcribed by a history student for public use.
An unknown soldier is responsible for the log, which gives an unflinching account of life on the Western Front from 1917 and 1918 and is held at Blackburn's Central Library.
The 40-page diary was kept by a soldier from the Royal Field Artillery's 330 Brigade A Battery - for which four Blackburn soldiers gave their lives on the field of
Source: HNN Staff summary of blog at www.brianbeutler.com
Aug 27, 2007
A liberal blogger has posted the Princeton PhD dissertation of US commander David Petraeus. The dissertation, dated 1987, concerned,"The American military and the lessons of Vietnam: A study of military influence and the use of force in the post-Vietnam era."
Blogger Brian Beutler quotes this section of the dissertation:
[M]any in the military believe that the United States armed forces can win small wars if allowed to do so. Those who hold this vie
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Aug 27, 2007
In a final rule published in the Federal Register August 17, 2007, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced across-the-board fee increases for reproduction of archival materials in its facilities nationwide. In addition to Federal records, this includes donated historical materials, Presidential records, and records filed with the Office of the Federal Register. This rule will become effective on October 1, 2007.
The National Archives current fees were estab
Source: NYT
Aug 27, 2007
The Reagan administration was only a few months old when it faced a major test: Senators were calling for the head of the president’s new director of central intelligence, and no one knew if he would survive their investigation into his tangled past business dealings and questionable agency management.
But the White House’s worries were quickly set to rest by the man the Senate had chosen to get to the bottom of the matter, Fred D. Thompson. In July 1981, just one day into his job a
Source: NYT
Aug 27, 2007
MOSCOW, Aug. 25 — Two months ago, Roxana Contreras was exploring a provincial Russian town when a street vendor persuaded her to buy some Red Army medals and old ruble notes the day before she was to return to her home in St. Louis, she said.
Now she is stuck in Russia, mired in a legal and bureaucratic imbroglio, accused of trying to smuggle cultural treasures out of the country. Pending a court hearing, she has been ordered to remain in Voronezh, about 365 miles south of Moscow, w
Source: Newsday
Aug 27, 2007
Lewis Greenstein owns a house that stands at the center of a wrenching controversy over the preservation of black history versus the revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn.
His home at 233 Duffield St., which was built in 1847, contains what he says is clear evidence that it was used to shelter and feed black slaves escaping along the legendary Underground Railroad to Canada.
Source: Slate
Aug 27, 2007
Firefighters in Greece narrowly saved the ruins of Olympia from the wildfires that spread across the island nation over the weekend. The blaze torched the edges of the stadium, but officials say the archaeological treasure survived. Can ancient ruins catch on fire?
No, but they can crumble from the heat. Greek ruins made of limestone or marble aren't going to burst into flames, but they can undergo physical and chemical changes when subjected to the heat of burning vegetation nearby
Source: BBC
Aug 27, 2007
The Government has been accused of failing to deliver on a pledge to fund an investigative unit re-examining murders from the Troubles.
Dave Cox, head of the Historical Enquiries Team, (HET) said last year's funding, worth £4m had to come out of the Chief Constable's policing budget.
This was despite a Government promise two years ago that it would provide £32m for the work over six years.
However, an NIO spokesman insisted the police had not lost out on fu
Source: AP
Aug 27, 2007
fter a 30-year international court fight to stay in the U.S., John Demjanjuk, accused of concealing a past as a Nazi concentration-camp guard, could be out of options if a lone pending ruling goes against him, his attorney said.
"If we lose it, we're sort of at the end of the road, and the Justice Department is going to try and deport him. That's my guess," said John Broadley, Demjanjuk's attorney in Washington.
The Justice Department first brought charges seeking t
Source: Guardian (UK)
Aug 27, 2007
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has been forced to defend his description of Nicolas Sarkozy as "a citizen of Africa", for a speech by the French president that was widely condemned elsewhere on the continent as racist.Mr Mbeki wrote to the rightwing French leader praising an address to a university audience in Senegal last month in which Mr Sarkozy said that Africans had turned their back on progress.
"The tragedy of Africa is that the Afr
Source: Roger Cohen in the NYT
Aug 27, 2007
[Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the United Nations, is anguished.] Khalilzad’s anguish centers on May 6, 2003. That’s the day he expected Bush to announce his return to Iraq to convene a grand assembly — something like an Afghan loya jirga — that would fast-forward a provisional Iraqi government.
Instead, the appointment of L. Paul Bremer III to head a Coalition Provisional Authority was announced. Khalilzad, incredulous, went elsewhere. In the place of an Afghan-Ameri
Source: Discovery
Aug 27, 2007
Either modern humans were in Israel over 200,000 years ago, or our now-extinct ancestors behaved a lot like us when they hunted and cooked, suggest artifacts and bones from a newly excavated cave.
Together, the remains paint a picture of relatively sophisticated hunting and food preparation at the site, called Misliya Cave, in Mount Carmel, Israel.
According to lead author Reuven Yeshurun, the cave exhibits "the full array of modern hunting behavior."
Source: WaPo
Aug 27, 2007
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, Aug. 27 -- Firefighters backed by aircraft dropped water and foam on the birthplace of the ancient Olympics on Sunday to stop wildfires from burning the 2,800-year-old ruins, one of the most revered sites of antiquity.
But the fires, which have been burning for three days, obliterated vast swaths of the country, and the death toll rose to 60. New fires broke out faster than others could be brought under control. Desperate residents appealed through televisio
