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: German Press Agency
Apr 30, 2007
The opening of one of the world's most extensive archives dealing with Nazi concentration camps and forced labour may reveal the names of many previously unknown Holocaust victims, according to the archives chief, Reto Meister.The vast store of unique papers managed by the International Tracing Service (ITS) is kept in the German town of Bad Arolsen.
The ITS, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross, helps survivors of the camps and the press-gangs
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 30, 2007
Britons have a bewildering lack of knowledge about their country, a survey suggests.
Stonehenge was built by the Romans, and Hadrian’s Wall is in China –- these are two of the misconceptions in the poll of 3,000 people commissioned by UKTV History...
A quarter say that the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall, are among the Seven Wonders of the World, confusing them with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. According to one in five, the Pennines are between France and Spain; an
Source: Washington Post
Apr 30, 2007
Researchers have long debated what happened when the indigenous Neanderthals of Europe met "modern humans" arriving from Africa starting some 40,000 years ago. The end result was the disappearance of the Neanderthals, but what happened during the roughly 10,000 years that the two human species shared a land?
A new review of the fossil record from that period has come up with a provocative conclusion: The two groups saw each other as kindred spirits and, when conditions wer
Source: Telegraph
Apr 30, 2007
PARIS -- To the cheers of 30,000 supporters, Nicolas Sarkozy launched his final push for the presidency yesterday with a stinging attack on France's "cynical" and "immoral" Left, symbolised by his rival, the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal.
The gathering in Paris appeared to be a final rallying cry from the centre-Right contender at what he called a defining moment in French history, when the country was plagued by "doubts"...
He summone
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 30, 2007
PORTSMOUTH, England -- Rare photographs that show African slaves being freed by the Royal Navy have gone on display for the first time, as part of an exhibition to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.
The photographs, which are being shown at the Royal Naval Museum, show a sailor removing a manacle from a slave, as well as Marines with slave traders, in about 1907. They were donated by Samuel Chidwick, 74, of Dover, whose father, Able Seaman Joseph Chidwick, too
Source: Telegraph
Apr 30, 2007
It has been captured in song, celebrated in literature and attracts 250,000 visitors a year but, despite all that, this week the Scottish island of Skye will officially disappear.
Highland Council has decided that the island, immortalised in the Skye Boat Song about Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight, should drop its "Anglicised slave name" in favour of its Gaelic nickname, Eilean a' Cheo.
The new name, which means Island of Mist and is pronounced "ellan-uh-c
Source: Newsweek
Apr 30, 2007
Clarence Thomas is arguably the most powerful black man in America, one whose position as a Supreme Court justice merits more than a modicum of respect. Yet as authors Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher make clear in "Supreme Discomfort," a new biography, Thomas has yet to get his due.
Though most Italian-Americans are liberals, "they're all proud of me," conservative Justice Antonin Scalia tells the authors. Scalia's implicit question is: why do blacks not feel t
Source: http://www.presstv.ir
Apr 29, 2007
Excavations at a pre-Bronze Age mound in Iran have led to the discovery of what may be the oldest commercial district in the Middle East.
Archeologist digging at the 7,000 year-old site named the Pardis Mound south of Tehran have unearthed dozens of brick kilns, pottery wheels and hand-made spindles, said Hassan Fazeli Nashli, the head of Iran's Archeology Research Center.
Ceramic jars and necklaces were also among the ancient artifacts discovered, Nashli said.
Source: AP
Apr 29, 2007
NEW YORK -- The backlash has built up even before the official release of former CIA Director George Tenet's memoir, with criticism about his version of the run-up to the Iraq war, interrogation techniques and other events.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday disputed Tenet's claim that the Bush administration, before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, never had a serious debate about whether Iraq posed an imminent threat or whether to tighten existing sanctions.
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune
Apr 29, 2007
Hurricane Katrina may have largely spared the French Quarter, but the catastrophic storm is destined to be memorialized there in powerful detail in a major exhibition the Louisiana State Museum plans to open next year in the historic Presbytere on Jackson Square.
Artifacts -- everything from a blue tarp to a Coast Guard helicopter rescue basket to Fats Domino's flood-damaged piano -- will tell some of the story. In addition to photographs and audio-visual presentations, the museum a
Source: ABC News
Apr 29, 2007
Fifteen years ago, Los Angeles -- and the entire nation -- watched in horror as rioters pulled Reginald Denny from his truck at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in south-central L.A. and beat him senseless in the street.
The beating happened just hours after four police officers accused of attacking black motorist Rodney King were acquitted in court, enraging many blacks who had long felt unfairly treated by the Los Angeles Police Department.
The mayhem at the
Source: BBC News
Apr 29, 2007
A father and son team from Edinburgh think they have found a secret piece of music hidden in carvings at a famous medieval chapel in Midlothian.
Stuart Mitchell, 41 and his father Tommy, 75, said they had deciphered a musical code locked in the stones of Rosslyn Chapel [already famous for The Da Vinci Code] for more than 500 years.
They will reveal the music in May at a concert in the 15th century chapel...
Stuart Mitchell discovered a series of figures whi
Source: Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News/PennLive
Apr 29, 2007
FREDERICKSBURG, Pa. -- Stefan Wentling said most people know what it means to be made a scapegoat, but he wonders how many know the term comes from the Bible.
The term comes from the book of Leviticus, where it refers to a goat that was to bear the sins of the children of Israel into the wilderness.
He aims to share such knowledge with Northern Lebanon High School students in his proposed course, "Bible in History and Literature," which he hopes to teach next
Source: Lisa Gray, Houston Chronicle
Apr 29, 2007
In Houston, money has always mattered more than history. So it came as a surprise last summer that the city showed a sudden interest in its past, and in the special places that show its imprint.
Too many of them are already gone. The Shamrock Hotel made mythic by Giant? Leveled to make way for a parking lot. The Fourth Ward that gave us Lightnin' Hopkins and Arnett Cobb? Buried under Midtown, with "historic district" signs denoting nothing much but irony. The 1930s Jeff Da
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Apr 29, 2007
PHNOM PENH -- The first time Prum Son married her husband, in August 1977, she was not a willing bride. But she knew that refusal would mean her execution.
The five-minute ceremony was held late at night, without notice, after a day of backbreaking work digging irrigation canals, followed by a routine, hours-long indoctrination session at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
With 21 of her female friends, all in soiled work clothes, she was summoned to a bare room lit by a sin
Source: Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
Apr 29, 2007
LAS VEGAS —- Probably the most overlooked tourist site in Las Vegas is also its lowliest in terms of glamor, glitz, size and neon. However, the Old Las Vegas-Mormon Fort State Historic Park is worth a visit for a priceless lesson in pioneer history and as a contrast to the modern Las Vegas.
Located on the extreme north end of Las Vegas Boulevard, at Washington Avenue —- in downtown Las Vegas —- this is where the settlement of Vegas began. If you blink, you might miss this corner of
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 29, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of “discrepancies” in her official story.
Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President’s Men, has spent eight years researching the unauthorised 640-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rod
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 29, 2007
The Queen is being urged to apologise for the slaughter of American Indians and the introduction of slavery when she visits Virginia this week as guest of honour to mark the 400th anniversary of the first English settlement in the New World at Jamestown.
She will be landing in the middle of a row over political correctness after officials in Virginia banned the use of the word “celebration” for the anniversary. It is being called a “commemoration” out of respect for the suffering of
Source: New York Times
Apr 29, 2007
Among the things New York City does exceedingly well is erase its own past, even the more durable parts, like the old Pennsylvania Station or the Third Avenue El. So when it comes to a more fleeting kind of history, a lot of imagination is necessary to pay homage.
Standing in front of an expensive-looking apartment loft building in TriBeCa the other day, Ethan Andrews, who works for the public-art organization Creative Time, was trying to conjure up the late 1970s, when the building
Source: BBC News
Apr 29, 2007
A half-sized replica of the biblical Noah's Ark has been built by a Dutch man, complete with model animals.
Dutch creationist Johan Huibers built the ark as testament to his literal belief in the Bible.
The ark, in the town of Schagen, is 150 cubits [225 feet] long -- half the length of Noah's -- and three storeys high...
Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras and bison are included in the ark's interior.
The Bible's
