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
Apr 17, 2007
A sacred Jewish scroll buried by the Nazis during World War II has been put on display at a school in Manchester.
It was taken to King David's School in Crumpsall after a governor became one of hundreds of people to make a request to the Chief Rabbinate in Israel.
The 120-year-old parchment tells the story of the Old Testament in Hebrew.
The scroll was one of 48 scrolls confiscated from the large Jewish community living in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius.
Source: PBS, Library of Congress
Apr 17, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The Library of Congress and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) announced today a joint community engagement initiative designed to gather the first-hand recollections of the diverse men and women who served our nation during wartime. The public outreach campaign begins this spring and will be continued beyond the broadcast of Ken Burns's new film,"The War," which airs on PBS beginning September 23, 2007.
The Veterans History Project (VHP), a major program of the Library of
Source: New York Times
Apr 17, 2007
When the Spanish flu reached the United States in the summer of 1918, it seemed to confine itself to military camps. But when it arrived in Philadelphia in September, it struck with a vengeance.
By the time officials there grasped the threat of the virus, it was too late. The disease was rampaging through the population, partly because the city had allowed large public gatherings, including a citywide parade in support of a World War I loan drive, to go on as planned. In four months
Source: Reuters
Apr 17, 2007
TULA, Mexico -- The grisly find of the buried bones of 24 pre-Hispanic Mexican children may be the first evidence that the ancient Toltec civilization sacrificed children, an archeologist studying the remains said on Monday.
The bones, dating from 950 AD to 1150 AD and dug up at the Toltecs' former capital Tula, north of present day Mexico City, indicated the children had been decapitated in a group.
The way the children, aged between 5 and 15, were placed in the grave,
Source: AP
Apr 17, 2007
JERUSALEM -- The e-mails from grateful students arrived soon after Liviu Librescu was shot to death, telling how the Holocaust survivor barricaded the doorway of his Virginia Tech classroom and saved their lives at the cost of his own.
Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several foreign victims of Monday's shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Apr 17, 2007
Following is a list of major shooting incidents on college campuses in the United States.
Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007: At least 33 dead as of Monday afternoon, including the gunman; 26 injured. The gunman opened fire in a dormitory and a classroom building, killing at least 30 people and injuring many others. (Chronicle article.)
University of Texas at Austin, August 1, 1966: 16 dead, including the gunman; 31 injured. From atop a 27-story tower, Charles J. Whitman sho
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Apr 17, 2007
As the missions and budgets for U.S. Special Operations Command
steadily expand, a new official history looks back at the
origins and development of SOCOM.
"Since its creation in 1987, USSOCOM has supported conventional
forces and conducted independent special operations throughout
the world, participating in all major combat operations,"
writes SOCOM Commander General Bryan D. Brown.
The new account, prepared by the SOCOM hi
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Apr 17, 2007
Few colleges have ever had to cope with a violent tragedy even approaching the magnitude experienced at Virginia Tech Monday —- “thank God,” says Judy O’Rourke, who, as director of undergraduate studies at Syracuse University, can imagine the pain in Blacksburg today all too well.
For while the circumstances were very different, Syracuse too lost an overwhelming number of students to violence when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Thirty-five Syracuse Uni
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 17, 2007
JOHANNESBURG -- Nelson Mandela beamed yesterday as he watched Mandla, his grandson, invested with the royal chieftainship due him by blood and custom but stripped from the Mandela family nine decades ago by South Africa’s British colonial rulers.
The colourful ceremony was mainly in honour of the increasingly frail Mr Mandela, 88, who was walking with the aid of a stick and supported by his wife Graça and aides. But he waived his right to the restored kingship of his home village of
Source: Telegraph
Apr 16, 2007
Not just Dad's Army, but Mum's Marauders too.
The Home Guard was a very different organisation from the bumbling and badly-led eccentrics of the Walmington-on-Sea unit [fictional location of BBC comedy series"Dad's Army"], one in which women played a surprisingly large part, according to a new study.
Women were so prominent in protecting Britain's shores against imminent invasion that they were required to sign papers showing they understood that they could be shot as g
Source: AP
Apr 16, 2007
OSWIECIM, Poland -- The Jewish prayer for the dead echoed across the wooden barracks and barbed wire fences of the former Auschwitz death camp on Monday, as thousands gathered to mourn the victims of the Holocaust.
In Israel, a two-minute siren sounded at 10 a.m., bringing pedestrians to a halt on busy streets and causing cars to pull over on highways as the country paused to pay respects to the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II.
Israeli leaders gat
Source: BBC News
Apr 16, 2007
Singer Bryan Ferry has apologised for an interview in which he praised the iconography of the Nazi party.
The UK star is reported to have told a German newspaper that the "mass marches and the flags" of Hitler's regime were "just fantastic -- really beautiful".
Jewish leaders in Britain condemned the comments, and called for Marks and Spencer to drop Ferry as a model.
"I apologise unreservedly," the singer said in a statement,
Source: New York Times
Apr 16, 2007
COLUMBIA, Tenn. -— In early April, the mules rule this city 40 miles south of Nashville. Long ears twitch in trailers that bump through the streets, braying rings out in Maury County Park, and residents greet strangers with “Have a good Mule Day.”
Mule Day marks the arrival of spring and brings together family and friends for reminiscence and cookouts, mule sales and shows, even a liar’s contest. For many, the highlight is a parade of mule-drawn wagons, pixieish beauty queens and wa
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 16, 2007
The rings of Uranus were discovered almost two centuries earlier than is commonly thought, according to new research by a British scientist.
Although the existence of rings around the seventh planet was not confirmed until 1977, the brightest one may have been seen in 1797 by Sir William Herschel then the Astronomer Royal.
Herschel, who discovered Uranus in 1781, presented a paper to the Royal Society, describing a possible ring, but was unable to confirm his observati
Source: AFP
Apr 16, 2007
JERUSALEM -- Thousands of Iranian surfers every month visit a new Holocaust Web site in Farsi run by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, despite their leadership's questioning the Nazi genocide of Jews, the museum said...
The Web site was put online by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem in January, and has so far had some 25,100 visits, including 12,170 from inside Iran, spokeswoman Estee Yaari said...
"We believe that making credible, comprehensive information about the
Source: Montgomery Advertiser
Apr 16, 2007
The public is invited to the grand opening of a new museum at Confederate Memorial Park, just off U.S. 31 in Chilton County.
The Alabama Historical Commission will open the museum at 10 a.m. April 28...The new museum serves as a showcase for Alabama's Confederate heritage and interprets the historic site for visitors. The exhibit uses the latest presentation technology in 35 separate cases and panels, along with six media stations...
Confederate Memorial Park is the sit
Source: BBC News
Apr 16, 2007
An Irish village has cleared the latest hurdle in its campaign to change its names to [Dun Bleisce or] the Fort of the Harlot.
The loose translation of its old Irish title means "the stronghold of immoral women".
Many residents in the village of Doon in County Limerick...said the name referred to a strong woman and local women were noted for their beauty and culture.
The first mention of the name Dun Bleisce was in 774.
The name was c
Source: Sofia (Bulgaria) Echo
Apr 16, 2007
Scientific exploration of the Roman city of Nove, located near the town of Svishtov, will begin in June 2007.
One of the Bulgarian teams to work on the site will arrive in June. A team from Sofia University and one from the Warsaw University should arrive later, Focus news agency reported.
Exploration began in 1960, when a Bulgarian-Polish team started inspecting the region near Svishtov...
Svishtov mayor Stanislav Blagov said that urgent measures were need
Source: Discovery News
Apr 16, 2007
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," says Isaac Newton, throwing his long wavy hair over a shoulder and adjusting the collar of his 17th-century shirt.
A 13-year-old boy wrinkles his brow and steps with baggy pants onto an orange skateboard.
"Don't understand? Let's use your skateboard as an example," says Newton, pointing toward the device invented centuries after his death.
These are not actors but rather a curio
Source: Live Science
Apr 16, 2007
North America's oldest church may lie beneath a small town in Newfoundland, according to information cobbled together from the research of a historian who recently died before publishing her seminal work.
An Italian friar and sailing companion of explorer John Cabot erected the church during his second trip to the continent in 1498, according to the late Alwyn Ruddock, said Evan Jones, a University of Bristol researcher who investigated and pieced together Ruddock's notes.
