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: NYT
Aug 3, 2011
SEATTLE — Marla Cooper stepped forward Wednesday to claim that her uncle Lynn Doyle Cooper was the famed “D. B. Cooper” who mesmerized the world by hijacking a plane almost 40 years ago and bailing out somewhere over the rugged terrain of southwest Washington. His body was never found.If Ms. Cooper is correct, it could mean that the hijacker survived the jump from 10,000 feet and that a four-decade-old mystery is solved.Or not.After Ms. Cooper told her story to ABC News and CNN, law enforcement officials advised caution. Over the past 40 years, they said, many similar accounts have been reported. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has received tips on more than 1,000 suspects in the case and has yet to find a lead that pans out....
Source: BBC
Aug 3, 2011
A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found.
But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough.
The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists.
The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves.
The study is published in the open access journal Plos One..... .....
Source: BBC
Aug 3, 2011
A Dundee student is going on a quest to find a legendary Incan city of gold that has been eluding explorers for hundreds of years.
Ken Gawne, from Northern Ireland, will be part of a four-man team searching for Paititi on a journey through remote Peruvian rainforest.
According to legend, Paititi is where the Incas hid their treasures from the Spanish conquistadors.
The explorers will spend three weeks in Peru looking for the lost city.
The trip is the latest in a series of adventures for Mr Gawne, 28, who has been on an expedition to China and crossed the Sahara Desert in west Africa - using the journeys to make an Indiana Jones tribute film called Treasure of the Templars.
The Dundee University psychology student said the plan to look for Paititi came from a conversation with his Norfol
Source: BBC
Aug 3, 2011
France has confirmed it will extradite Manuel Noriega to Panama, where he is wanted over human rights violations during his rule in the 1980s.
The former Panamanian military leader is currently serving a prison sentence in France for money laundering.
Prior to that, he spent 20 years in prison in the US after being convicted there of drug-trafficking charges.
It is expected that Noriega will be sent next month to Panama, where courts have already convicted him in absentia.
He was found guilty of three charges of human rights violations. Each conviction carried a 20-year prison sentence.
The 77 year old will have a month to launch an appeal to prevent his extradition. However, his lawyer has said he wants to return to Panama.....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 3, 2011
In a twist the Master of Suspense himself would have been proud of Alfred Hitchcock's earliest surviving movie has been found languishing in a vault in New Zealand.
All copies of The White Shadow, a silent feature film released by Hollywood in 1924, had been thought lost to posterity, and cinema historians have described the discovery as "priceless".
Three dusty reels containing the first half of the film – about 30 minutes of footage – had been stored deep in the bowels of the New Zealand Film Archive, where the search is continuing for the other three reels.
The acclaimed director was 24 when he worked on what was billed as a "wild, atmospheric melodrama" starring actress Betty Compson as twin sisters, one angelic and the other "without a soul". He was credited as assistant director and also wrote the scenario, designed the sets and edited the footage.
At the time silent Hollywood films were distributed worldwide and, while many prints were discarded and lost in the US, others survived abroad where they were kept after runs in cinemas had finished....
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Aug 3, 2011
A crazy plan to make German footballers in World War Two play a 'Blitzkrieg' game that copied the tactics of battlefield warriors has been found in a German archive.Devoted Nazi Karl Oberhuber accused the national team trainer Sepp Herberger - the coach for 28 years who led postwar West Germany to its first World Cup win in 1954 - of being 'too Jewish' in his training methods.In 1940, when the Nazi armies overran France, Belgium and Holland with lightning war tactics, Oberhuber was chief adjutant to the Nazi gauleiter of Bavaria and in charge of sport in the state. This made him a powerful and dangerous man to have as an enemy....
Source: BBC
Aug 2, 2011
...As the Soviet Union consolidated its control on Sakhalin in the late 1940s, life was extremely difficult for the Japanese citizens left behind. The Furihato family lived in one room in an old barracks.
Occasionally, by agreement, the Japanese government would send a ship to collect some stranded citizens, but the Furihatos were often unaware of the sailings.
On one occasion they did hear about a boat, but one of the children had a badly broken leg and could not travel. Ms Furihato's mother, Yo, decided that all the family should stay behind.
Sakhalin is no longer a flashpoint in Russia-Japan relations, but the two countries are still locked in a poisonous dispute over some of the islands in the nearby Kuril chain. Sakhalin's prospects have been severely hampered by the row.
Transport links between Japan and Sakhalin are few - just two flights and two ferries a week in summer. And trade in the area is limited - consisting mostly of natural gas going from Russia to Japan, and old ships piled high with used cars going in the other direction....
Source: BBC
Aug 2, 2011
Four former Guatemalan soldiers have been sentenced to life in prison for the massacre of more than 200 people during the country's civil conflict.
The court said the four had committed crimes against humanity when they were part of a counter-insurgency unit which carried out the killings in the village of Dos Erres in 1982.
They received a sentence of 30 years for each of the 201 victims.
They are the first former soldiers to be convicted for human-rights abuses.
Daniel Martinez, Manuel Pop Sun, and Reyes Collin Gualip were sentenced to 6,060 years in prison each for murder and crimes against humanity...
Source: Guardian (UK)
Aug 2, 2011
On 9 June, the General Services Administration threw Modesto's downtown post office onto the auction block. Like so many other postal facilities, the Renaissance-style palazzo had long served as an anchor for downtown stores of the California town, a public space where citizens met to exchange news as well as transact business in an ennobling lobby of polished travertine and marble beneath murals of local farming activities.The federal government once designed its post offices to elevate and inspire the public whose assets it is now selling. An architectural journal in 1918 spoke of the tutelary value of post offices:"They are generally the most important of the local buildings, and taken together, [are] seen daily by thousands, who have little opportunity to feel the influence of the great architectural works in the large cities."
Source: Boston Globe
Aug 2, 2011
Poland’s government has earmarked funds to improve accessibility to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp memorial for visitors and to develop educational programs about the notorious Holocaust site.At a session on Tuesday, the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged almost 34 million zlotys ($12 million) to local authorities to be spent between 2012 and 2015 on developing access roads leading to the museum and other infrastructure....
Source: Polskie Radio
Aug 2, 2011
Representatives of several European countries have been taking part in events commemorating WWII's Roma genocide by Nazis and their allies, to coincide with the 67th anniversary of the liquidation of the so-called 'Roma camp' at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 2 August 1944.The meetings are being promoted under Poland's presidency of the EU Council.Meetings in Krakow and at Auschwitz began on Monday, with guests including leading specialists on the fate of the Roma community in wartime Europe.Last Friday, the Polish parliament passed a resolution confirming 2 August as the official Roma and Sinti Genocide Remembrance Day....
Source: Gulf Times (Qatar)
Aug 2, 2011
Sirens wailed, traffic drew to a halt and pedestrians stood in silent tribute yesterday, as Poland’s capital marked the ill-fated 1944 Warsaw uprising against occupying Nazi Germany.The sirens sounded at 5pm (1500 GMT), the exact time that the Polish resistance launched Europe’s largest World War II revolt on August 1, 1944. The brief siren ceremony was the cornerstone of dozens of events to mark the start of the 63-day uprising, which sparked bloody Nazi reprisals and the destruction of Warsaw. At a memorial monument, President Bronislaw Komorowski paid tribute to resistance veterans, whose number has dwindled to around 3,000....
Source: Huffington Post
Aug 2, 2011
A 14,000 year old carving found in a cave on the Gower peninsula, a part of South West Wales, may be the oldest example of rock art in Britain. The carving of a reindeer is an example of Upper Paleolithic rock art, the second discovery of the kind in the British Isles.Dr. George Nash of the University of Bristol discovered the carving in September of 2010 while with students and members of the Clifton Antiquarian Club. The deer-like motif is hidden in the recesses of the cave and was carved with a sharp tool, possibly made of flint....
Source: NYT
Aug 2, 2011
Some archaeologists have painted primitive societies as relatively peaceful, implying that war is a reprehensible modern deviation. Others have seen war as the midwife of the first states that arose as human population increased and more complex social structures emerged to coordinate activities.
Source: BBC
Aug 2, 2011
A rare book marking a literary milestone in South Africa has been discovered by a Fife university expert researching a 19th Century collection.
The lost work, which is written in French and tells the story of a forgotten shipwreck, is one of just seven copies known to exist.
David Culpin, of St Andrews University, found it while studying books owned by a governor of Cape Colony in the 1800s.
Cape Colony's present day name is Cape Town.
The book tells the tale of the Eole, a French merchant vessel which sank off the coast of Africa in April 1829, and of its eight survivors who walked barefoot for three weeks to safety....
Source: BBC
Aug 2, 2011
A private box at the Royal Albert Hall has been put up for sale for £550,000.
The box, which can seat five people, is located on the second tier of the Grade I listed building in Kensington, central London, which opened in 1871.
The private box is the only remaining one in the hall to retain the original timber veneer and mirrored panels, estate agent Harrods Estates said.
Earl Spencer and the Duke of Devonshire have previously owned the box, but the current owner has not been revealed.
The box is located on the eastern side of the auditorium and has about 865 years remaining on the lease....
Source: BBC
Aug 2, 2011
The British Library is making digital copies of more than 40,000 classic books available for the iPad.
Texts appear in fully digitised form, complete with original page markings and drawings, as opposed to the plain formatting associated with other types of e-books.
All of the works date from the 18th and 19th centuries and include novels, poetry and historical accounts.
Users must pay a monthly subscription of £1.99 to access the full collection....
Source: AP
Aug 2, 2011
In a dramatic policy shift, Israel's prime minister has agreed to negotiate the borders of a Palestinian state based on the cease-fire line that marks off the West Bank, according to a TV report.In a speech about the Middle East in May, Obama proposed negotiations based on the pre-1967 line with agreed swaps of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state. Netanyahu reacted angrily, insisting that Israel would not withdraw from all of the West Bank, though that was not what Obama proposed.Now Netanyahu is basically accepting that framework, Channel 2 TV reported on Monday, and is offering to trade Israeli territory on its side of the line for West Bank land where its main settlements are located....
Source: NYT
Aug 1, 2011
WASHINGTON — In a rare symbolic strike against unnecessary government secrecy, the government’s former classification czar has filed a formal complaint against the National Security Agency and Justice Department seeking punishment of officials who classified a document that he says contained no secrets.The former official, J. William Leonard, said that in his 34 years with the federal government he saw routine overclassification of government documents, rarely saw it challenged and never saw it punished. But now that the Justice Department is seeking to imprison government workers for leaking classified information to the news media, Mr. Leonard said, it is especially critical to make sure that only genuine secrets are protected by law.“If you’re talking about throwing someone in jail for years, there absolutely has to be responsibility for decisions about what gets classified,” said Mr. Leonard, who directed the Information Security Oversight Office from 2002 to 2007....
Source: NYT
Aug 1, 2011
PALMDALE, Calif. — Tucked away here in the Mojave Desert, the assembly plant for the high-flying Global Hawk jet resembles a giant hobby shop.Work tables surround a handful of fuselages, and an unusually long wing — needed to slip through the thin air at 60,000 feet — is ready to be bolted into place. Open panels await controls for cameras and eavesdropping gear, and bright blue tool bins and parts vats are scattered around the concrete floor.Just 50 people work in the factory and a test hangar, and only five of the drones will be built this year. But despite a spate of delays, second-guessing and cost overruns, the Global Hawk is once again on track to replace one of America’s most noted aircraft: the U-2 spy plane, famed for its role in the cold war and more recently Afghanistan....The U-2 was created in the 1950s to monitor Soviet nuclear sites. It is still used, as the Global Hawk will be, to supplement satellites by gazing into North Korea and Iran from outside their borders.
