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: Timesonline (UK)
Jun 11, 2006
ONE of Britain’s most senior military strategists has warned that western civilisation faces a threat on a par with the barbarian invasions that destroyed the Roman empire.
In an apocalyptic vision of security dangers, Rear Admiral Chris Parry said future migrations would be comparable to the Goths and Vandals while north African "barbary" pirates could be attacking yachts and beaches in the Mediterranean within 10 years.
Europe, including Britain, could be
Source: NYT
Jun 11, 2006
NYC: There is that instant of horror to be relived, forever frozen in bronze. There are scenes of valor and camaraderie to be celebrated. But more than anything, there are names to be touched and traced: the Fire Department's 343 dead.
The first large-scale 9/11 monument at ground zero — a bold, literal and almost neo-Classical 56-foot-long bronze relief dedicated to the firefighters "who fell and to those who carry on" — was unveiled yesterday on the side of "10 Hous
Source: NYT
Jun 11, 2006
This weekend Hawaii celebrates the birthday of the king who united the islands nearly 200 years ago. But as the colorful flower leis were draped over a towering golden statue of the warrior king on Friday, the people of the state remained divided over whether the federal government should grant recognition to Hawaii's native people.
The issue was dealt what may turn out to be a fatal blow by the Senate on Thursday, when a bill giving Native Hawaiians the same legal standing as Ameri
Source: ynetnews.com
Jun 11, 2006
A boycott of Israeli academics declared by a UK teachers' union in May was cancelled on Sunday after the union's merger with a larger body whose delegates oppose the motion.The boycott was also partially lifted because of a campaign against the move by academics in Israel, Britain and the United States.
Israeli academics, however, remain pessimistic.
The University and College Lecturers' Union (NATFHE) voted for a motion that urged its member
Source: NYT
Jun 11, 2006
The Japanese government is now moving toward revising the Fundamental Law of Education, which was drafted in 1947 during the American occupation to prevent a revival of prewar nationalism. The revision proposed by the governing Liberal Democratic Party would emphasize patriotism, tradition and morality, and hand greater control over schools to politicians.
The occupation-era law replaced the prewar Imperial Rescript on Education, which had instructed children to sacrifice themselves
Source: NYT
Jun 11, 2006
Presidents have historically used the social powers of the office to build goodwill at the Capitol. Lyndon B. Johnson was a master at it; Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were especially good. But Mr. Bush, with his early-to-bed, early-to-rise habits, has shown little interest in the social networking that characterizes so much of Washington political life, said James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.
"If you had
Source: NYT
Jun 10, 2006
NIE YUANZI was an ambitious college professor whose "big character poster," displayed on the grounds of Beijing University, was said to have ignited the Cultural Revolution, a prairie fire of violent purges and denunciations that quickly spread across the nation.
Wang Rongfen was a student of German at Beijing's elite Foreign Language Institute who was imprisoned after writing a bold letter to Mao challenging his judgment in unleashing the self-destructive frenzy of his yo
Source: Matthew Kaminski in the WSJ
Jun 10, 2006
Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's last communist leader, is still fighting hard to shape history. Press any hot button and the general holds forth in long, clear, numbing sentences, as if back at a Party Plenum. Martial law imposed by him in the early hours of Dec. 13, 1981, to break Solidarity and Lech Walesa? That, he claims -- as he has always done -- "saved Poland" from the Soviets. His unswerving loyalty to Moscow and a decade of strongman rule? That paved the way for democracy. Gen.
Source: Seattle PI
Jun 10, 2006
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. -- It was his work that drew protests when the national intelligence director spoke at a commencement, but it's his history lesson that has raised eyebrows.
John Negroponte spoke at commencement at the St. Johnsbury Academy, where his son was graduating, and commented during his speech that the town and the academy were named for St. John.
Actually, Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen named St. Johnsbury for Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur, a French auth
Source: CNN
Jun 10, 2006
SHARPSBURG, Maryland (AP) -- Members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups rallied Saturday at the Antietam National Battlefield, believed to be the first time a group was given permission to demonstrate at the site of the bloodiest day of the Civil War.
About 30 people, some in white robes and others in the military-style clothing and swastika armbands of the National Socialist Movement of America, stood next to a farmhouse on the battlefield. Some delivered speech
Source: BBC
Jun 10, 2006
Thirty years ago rioting broke out in the South African township of Soweto and set off a wave of disturbances in other townships in a country still firmly in the grip of apartheid. Hamilton Wende, a pupil in a white South African school at the time, says this uprising proved to be a significant step along the road to democracy.
Source: Prague Monitor
Jun 9, 2006
Archaeologists have uncovered a 6,200-6,500 year-old round shrine (rondel) from the Neolithic Age in Prague, archaeologist Milan Kucharik from the Museum of the Capital Prague told reporters today.
The shrine served religious rituals, and it was probably also used for feasts and exchange of goods, said Kucharik.
The rondel building with a 23-metre diameter was enclosed by two ditches with three palisades and it had two gates - one from east and the other from west.
Source: NY Daily News
Jun 9, 2006
The co-author of Deep Throat's book will lash out at The New York Times this Sunday for hiring Richard Nixon counsel John Dean to review it.
John O'Connor, who helped Mark Felt write "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington," based upon manuscripts written by Felt before he began showing signs of dementia, shot off a letter blasting Dean.
"It would be hard to imagine a reviewer more biased than Dean," O'
Source: NYT
Jun 9, 2006
After years of trying to sell the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s archives to a library or university, the King family will instead put them up for auction on June 30, Sotheby's announced Thursday.
The sale, expected to bring $15 million to $30 million, will take place exactly five months after the death of Coretta Scott King, Dr. King's widow, who was keenly interested in finding an institutional home for the papers.
The buyer will determine the future accessibilit
Source: BBC
Jun 9, 2006
SECTIONS of the King’s Table, a symbol of royal power until it was smashed by Oliver Cromwell, have been found beneath the floor of the Palace of Westminster. The elaborately carved stone table was used by kings and queens from the 13th century for coronation feasts and state banquets but disappeared under Puritan rule.
It represented the power and authority of the monarch in the same way as the King’s Bench, a court, and the King’s Privy Wardrobe, also known as the Jewel Tower.
Source: Yahoo News
Jun 9, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY - Government-funded archaeologists are making a push to survey ancient sites across a remote stretch of southern Utah before looters can scoop up the last artifacts.
One team is recovering treasures before they disappear from the ground along Comb Ridge, an 80-mile monocline that Native Americans worship as the very spine of the earth. Another is shoring up the crumbling walls of ancient dwellings at 10 sites in the same region, about 300 miles southeast of Salt Lake
Source: Boston Globe
Jun 9, 2006
They were lost to history, six Union soldiers from Massachusetts killed in battle just days before the famous First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. Found in shallow graves in woods in Centreville, Va., the men's remains were traced to the First Massachusetts Infantry, after a decade of painstaking research.Tomorrow, they will be buried at the National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne with an honor guard and a three-volley salute with Civil War-era rifles.
But
Source: BBC
Jun 9, 2006
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej has called for national unity during colourful celebrations in the capital to mark his 60 years on the throne. The king, who is the world's longest-serving monarch, addressed a cheering crowd of hundreds of thousands of people in Bangkok's Royal Plaza.
Speaking from the palace balcony, King Bhumibol, 78, said that unity would bring prosperity to Thailand.
Source: Variety
Jun 8, 2006
Valhalla Motion Pictures and Legendary Pictures are going to Iraq, obtaining feature rights to Matthew Bogdanos' "Thieves of Baghdad" to produce for Warner Bros.
Studio and Legendary will co-finance the adaptation of the book, which focuses on the pursuit of stolen antiquities from the Iraq National Museum. Gale Anne HurdGale Anne Hurd will produce.
Tome's a first-person account of Bogdanos' criminal investigation in the midst of war to recover priceless artifacts a
Source: Newsday
Jun 8, 2006
EAST HADDAM, Conn. Kidnapped from his African homeland at age 7 and sold into slavery in America, Venture Smith would grow into a man of mythically large proportions. He won his freedom and became a successful 18th-century businessman so revered by this river town that its denizens to this day tend his grave.
While state and local historians know Smith's story well, they want to make it as well-known to the rest of the world as the story of Amistad and its hero, Cinque. To do that,
