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: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 1, 2007
Human ancestors developed the ability to walk upright while living in trees rather than on open land as previously believed, scientists say.
The traditional view that our ancient relatives developed the ability to manage on two feet only when they moved out of the forests to live on the open savannahs of east Africa is mistaken, according to ground-breaking new research.
British scientists, who spent a year in Indonesian rainforests observing orang-utans, believe the co
Source: AP
Jun 1, 2007
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Visitors to the new, presidential-style museum honoring evangelist Billy Graham enter and exit the building through crosses as tall as 40 feet high, a design meant to emphasize that the $27-million complex is an extension of the minister's work.
''My hope is there will be thousands of people who come here every year and accept Jesus Christ as their savior,'' said the Rev. Franklin Graham, son and successor to his father, the world's most widely heard preacher
Source: NYT
Jun 1, 2007
Driven mainly by an extraordinary influx of Hispanics, the nation’s population of minority students has surged to 42 percent of public school enrollment, up from 22 percent three decades ago, according to an annual report issued yesterday by the government.
The report, a statistical survey of the nation’s educational system, portrays sweeping ethnic shifts that have transformed the schools. The changes, with important implications for educators and policy makers, have been most stri
Source: AP
Jun 1, 2007
Gov. Bob Riley signed a resolution expressing “profound regret” for Alabama’s role in slavery and apologizing for slavery’s wrongs and lingering effects. “Slavery was evil and is a part of American history,” said Mr. Riley, a Republican. “I believe all Alabamians are proud of the tremendous progress we have made and continue to make.” The Democrat-controlled Legislature approved the resolution last week.
Source: Vanity Fair
Jun 1, 2007
All the qualities that made Ronald Reagan one of the most popular presidents in modern American history are reflected in the diaries, to be published this month, that he kept throughout his eight years in office. Here he is, losing his temper with the Soviets (and his son Ron), cracking jokes about Castro, protecting Nancy, holding the weeping mothers of Marines killed in Beirut. An exclusive excerpt, edited and introduced by Douglas Brinkley, recalls the turbulent sweep of the era Reagan domina
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
May 31, 2007
GERMANY may be poised to break a long-standing taboo by charging an entrance fee to concentration camp memorial sites.
Peter Dietz de Loos, president of the International Dachau Committee — named after the first concentration camp of the Nazi regime near Munich — said the camps desperately needed the money for renovations, staff and daily upkeep.
Jewish groups, politicians and former prisoners of the Nazis have spoken out against the plan, calling it shameless.
Source: Guardian
May 31, 2007
Iran's powerful intelligence ministry has stepped up its war of nerves with the west by telling the country's academics they will be suspected of spying if they maintain contact with foreign institutions or travel abroad to international conferences.
The blunt warning has been issued by the ministry's counter-espionage director in an atmosphere of rising suspicion and paranoia as Iran claims to have cracked a CIA-backed spy ring and has charged three American citizens with spying.
Source: http://www.thestatesman.net
May 31, 2007
Pakistan’s Education Min-ister has defended the inclusion in school textbooks of chapters dealing with Hindu monarchs in the subcontinent, saying history deals with historical events and not religious incidents.
The Islamic alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA) had objected to inclusion of the Ashok and Chandra Gupta Maurya period in history textbooks, whose curriculum is otherwise confined to Islamic periods and its rulers.
The chapters dealing wi
Source: Mark Hare, columnist, in the democratandchronicle.com
May 31, 2007
When I read that Mayor Robert Duffy's proposed city budget would downsize and outsource the position of city historian to save about $58,500 a year, I recalled that more than 20 years ago, the trustees at the George Eastman House secretly discussed giving away the museum's collection of films and photos.
Kodak had grown weary of the annual expense of a growing collection, and the trustees had approached the Smithsonian Institution about taking them all — lock, stock and Ansel Adams.
Source: BBC
May 31, 2007
Several dozen people have taken part in a rare public protest in the Chinese capital Beijing, against what they see as Japanese crimes during World War II.
About 30 people marched to the Japanese embassy with banners and slogans.
Such protests are rare in China, although the government has sanctioned a number of rallies against the Japanese wartime treatment of Chinese.
However the number of these demonstrations has fallen in recent years.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 31, 2007
The Spanish government is to take legal action in the US courts to force an exploration company to reveal whether 17 tons of gold and silver coins, worth an estimated £250 million, were recovered from a wreck off the British coast.
Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration has refused to say where the treasure was found, but it is widely believed to have come from the British sailing ship Merchant Royal, which sank off the Isles of Scilly in 1641 carrying Spanish cargo.
Source: Miami Herald
May 31, 2007
The lake kept its secret as long as the rain fell.
The remains rested in the soft, black muck for hundreds of years -- buried beneath the water of Lake Okeechobee.
But the drought tore open the ancient grave, and a local man happened upon it. The bodies have been discovered.
But the mystery is just beginning.
''It's a mixed blessing,'' State Archaeologist Ryan Wheeler said. ``The lower lake levels give us a chance to learn . . . but the site wa
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
May 31, 2007
The National Archives and Records Administration has announced the impending release of an additional 11 hours and 30 minutes of Nixon White House tape recordings. The three tapes to be released were all recorded in November 1972. The Archives has not announced the date for the release of the tapes, but it will not occur earlier than July 5, 2007. A copy of the full announcement, including details about how researchers may access the recordings, is available in the May 31, 2007, Federal Register
Source: NYT
May 31, 2007
Valerie Wilson, the former Central Intelligence Agency operative at the heart of an investigation that reached into the White House, sued the agency in federal court in New York today over its refusal to allow her to publish a memoir that would discuss how long she worked for it.
Although that information is set out in an unclassified letter to Ms. Wilson that has been published in the Congressional Record, the C.I.A. insists that her dates of service remain classified and may not b
Source: LAT
May 31, 2007
This is the story of one man's broken dream to serve his country and love his woman.
Kan Zhonggan was a spy. His master was the government of Taiwan, an island that broke with mainland China in 1949 after a protracted civil war. Ever since, mutual espionage has been a way of life, but it was especially robust in the early years of the split.
Little was known about the lives of the secret agents who risked everything for the cause until a group of elderly former spies d
Source: WaPo
May 31, 2007
With Fred Thompson deciding to read for the part of Republican presidential nominee, we thought we'd see how the pickup-driving former senator and "Law & Order" star stacked up against others who used their SAG cards to gain political favor.
[The list includes: Helen Gahagan Douglas, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sonny Bono, Clint Eastwood, Fred Grandy, Jesse Ventura, Ben Jones.]
Source: LAT
May 31, 2007
President Bush would like to see the U.S. military provide long-term stability in Iraq as it has in South Korea, where thousands of American troops have been based for more than half a century, the White House said Wednesday.
Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Bush believes U.S. forces eventually will end their combat role in Iraq but will continue to be needed in the country to deter threats and to help handle potential crises, as they have done in Sout
Source: The Detroit News
May 31, 2007
American presidents have come close to apologizing to African-Americans for slavery, and several have spoken of the evil of what some historians call the peculiar institution. Soon, in a measure introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., the U.S. House of Representatives could formally apologize for slavery, Jim Crow segregation and the continuing legacy of discrimination against black people.As of last week, due in part to a strategy devised to appeal more intimately to poten
Source: Independent (South Africa)
May 31, 2007
A Japanese court on Thursday refused to award compensation to Korean women who were allegedly forced to work in a Japanese machinery factory during World War II.In the latest rejection in a string of similar cases, the Nagoya High Court upheld a lower court's ruling that the six Korean women - aged 76 to 78 - and a relative of a now deceased woman had lost their rights to seek damages.
Judge Kunio Aoyama acknowledged the plaintiffs were "forced to come to J
Source: http://www.theage.com.au
May 30, 2007
Searchers have failed to solve the mystery of what happened to Australia's first submarine, lost off Papua New Guinea in 1914.
Navy search teams had hoped an object on the seabed off PNG would be the submarine AE1, lost at the start of World War I.
Instead it turned out to be a submarine-shaped rock formation, Veterans Affairs Minister Bruce Billson said.
