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
May 13, 2011
As the war in Northern Ireland was reaching its end in the late 1990s, two interviewers set out to collect memories of the conflict from men and women who had been involved as paramilitary fighters in some of the era’s most violent and grim episodes.
Source: Science News
May 12, 2011
In Asia’s northern hinterlands not far from the Arctic Circle, Stone Age toolmakers left an evolutionary calling card that’s hard to read.Artifacts found in this desolate region imply that the toolmakers adapted to frigid temperatures and dark winters, says a team led by archaeologist Ludovic Slimak of the University of Toulouse, France. Around that time, modern human groups in Europe and southwestern Asia underwent pivotal cultural changes. Some groups even reached Arctic spots near the new finds and left behind artifacts associated with that human cultural transition....
Source: Irish Times
May 12, 2011
BOG BUTTER found in a timber vessel in a bog at Shancloon near Caherlistrane, north Galway, could be 2,000 to 2,500 years old, according to a specialist from the National Museum of Ireland.
The butter, weighing almost two stone, was found in a timber keg which may have been hewn from a tree trunk and shaped into a barrel using early Iron Age implements.
The container of bog butter was found in a plot of bog where Ray Moylan from Liss, Headford, was having his annual supply of turf cut by local contractor Declan McDonagh.
Mr Moylan, a part-time bus driver, contacted t
Source: BBC
May 12, 2011
A row has broken out after an idea to re-enact the siege of Conwy Castle by English forces was rejected.
Cadw said no to the event despite an earlier re-enactment of Owain Glyndŵr's capture of the castle in 1404.
One councillor said there were fears people might be offended but insisted this was not the case and that the event would boost tourism.
A member of Conwy's Chamber of Trade disagreed, saying it would be too "negative".
Historic monuments body Cadw said it rejected the idea on the basis it was "out of line" with their historical in
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 12, 2011
Vladimir Putin has become the object of veneration for a bizarre Russian all-female sect whose followers believe that the tough-talking prime minister is a reincarnation of the early Christian missionary Paul the Apostle.
Source: ANI
May 12, 2011
Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old wine pot in Henan province.
A Western Han dynasty ancient tomb group was accidentally found at a construction site in Puyang city, China's Henan province, on April 10.
During the excavation, archaeologists discovered an airtight copper pot covered in rust. They found the pot had a liquid weighing about half a kilogram in it, reports People Daily Online.
They are now sampling the liquid....
Source: BBC News
May 12, 2011
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which investigates Nazi war criminals, has published its latest list of its most wanted surviving suspects.
Those on the list are "wanted" because they have not been punished, even if they have extradition orders against them or have been tried and convicted. In some cases it is unclear whether they are still alive. They remain on the list until it is proven that they are dead....
Source: CNN
May 12, 2011
Forty years after they ended, the 1960s remain the most controversial decade of the 20th century. Either you believe that they destroyed America, or they cured it.
Put me down as a fervent believer in their success as a cure.
Before 1960, only undivorced white Protestant men had ever served in the White House.
Source: WaPo
May 12, 2011
MUNICH — Retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk was convicted of thousands of counts of acting as an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp and sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison, a groundbreaking verdict that closed one chapter in a decades-long legal battle.Judges ordered him released pending appeal, on the ground that he did not pose a flight risk.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
May 11, 2011
TAIYUAN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in north China's Shanxi Province said Wednesday that they are planning to apply for UNESCO World Heritage status for the ruins of a famous battlefield where the State of Qin won its decisive victory over the State of Zhao, which ultimately allowed for the unification of China over 2,000 years ago.
Source: Montreal Gazette
May 11, 2011
When retired American president John Adams wrote to a friend in December 1812 about the war then being waged along the Canada-U.S. border, he let loose with some boastful thoughts about how efficiently Canada could have been conquered if he was still at the helm of the young republic.
Source: The Local (Germany)
May 11, 2011
Bavaria has refused to extradite a convicted Nazi war criminal back to the Netherlands, from where he broke out of jail in 1952, Germany's justice ministry said Wednesday.
Source: Secrecy News
May 11, 2011
Forty years after they were famously leaked by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971, the Pentagon Papers will be officially released next month at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library.
Source: Wales Online
May 11, 2011
Bloodstained mattresses were left strewn around, while a rotten stench hung heavily in the air.
This was Hitler’s Berlin bunker as victorious Allied troops descended on the German capital through the eyes of a young South Wales soldier.
Stephen Moore-Haines, now a 90-year-old World War II veteran, still has the Nazi iron cross he picked up from the famous site of the Fuhrer’s death.
The medal, with the inscription “sur treue dienfte” (for true service) on the back, was in the blood-soaked passageway leading to the room where Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945.
Source: History.com
May 11, 2011
Last week, Charles Darwin became the latest “patient” at an annual conference that aims to unravel the medical mysteries of long-dead historical figures. A leading gastroenterologist diagnosed three conditions that may have plagued the English naturalist throughout his life and contributed to his death at 73.
Source: AP
May 11, 2011
On April 15, 1994, just days into a bloodletting that would leave nearly a tenth of Rwanda's population dead, a mob of ethnic Hutus gathered in the village marketplace in Birambo. Incited and possibly organized by local Hutu leaders, the mob ransacked homes and businesses owned by ethnic Tutsis. In the days that followed, hundreds of Tutsis who fled into the nearby mountains were hunted down and killed.
Source: BBC
May 11, 2011
Argentine authorities have arrested three former policemen in connection with what became known as flights of death during military rule.They are accused of being the crew when French nun Leonie Duquet and rights activist Azucena Villaflor were thrown from a plane in 1977.Their bodies washed ashore and were buried in an unmarked grave until their remains were identified in 2005.Hundreds of political prisoners are known to have died this way.
Source: BBC
May 11, 2011
Seven pieces of art have been stolen from the Palace Museum inside Beijing's former imperial palace, the Forbidden City, in the first theft for 20 years.The stolen items - which were on loan to the museum - include a purse and women's make-up cases.Police are reported to be looking for a 27-year-old man in connection with the theft.The valuable items were stolen from one of China's top historical sites in the heart of Beijing.News reports say the thief got into the complex by knocking a hole in a wall.
Source: Toronto Star (Canada)
May 11, 2011
Archeologists and several B.C. First Nations are keeping a close eye on a remarkable discovery in the North Okanagan near Vernon, B.C.
Workers expanding an orchard discovered a skull last month and further investigation turned up three more sets of human remains.
Provincial archeology branch official Eric Forgeng says the bones have not been dated but there’s no question they are from a First Nations burial site.
He says wear on the teeth is consistent with ancient diets that included a lot of gritty food, causing a distinctive pattern....
Source: CNN
May 11, 2011
Romans let out a sigh of relief Wednesday morning.
Everything was still in place: buildings, famous ancient ruins, schools and homes.
In recent months, concerns of a possible earthquake that was going to destroy the "Eternal City" spread on the Web. It all started with the misinterpretation of the theory of Raffaele Bendandi, a seismologist who died in 1979 who claimed a major quake would take place on May 11, 2011.
