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: AP
May 4, 2011
Legal and human rights groups say they fear Cambodia's U.N.- backed genocide tribunal will shut its doors prematurely without prosecuting former second-tier Khmer Rouge officials accused of atrocities.Lawyers for the regime's aging former foreign minister, meanwhile, pressed Wednesday for his release from prison, saying he should be held under house arrest instead until his trial later this year.
Source: AP
May 4, 2011
John Demjanjuk's attorney argued Wednesday for his client's acquittal on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder, saying he never served as a Nazi guard and was a victim himself of both the Soviet regime and the Germans.
Ulrich Busch said in his second day of closing remarks that Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk had suffered under the Soviet regime of Josef Stalin before he was captured while serving with the Red Army and then imprisoned by the Nazis.
The 91-year-old is accused of agreeing
Source: Fox News
May 4, 2011
Much like his great uncle, revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, retired Mexican army Gen.
Source: AP
May 4, 2011
The leader of Apache warrior Geronimo's tribe is asking President Barack Obama for a formal apology for the government's use of the revered figure's moniker as a code name for Osama bin Laden.Fort Sill Apache Tribal Chairman Jeff Houser sent a letter to the president Tuesday, saying equating the legendary Apache warrior to a "mass murderer and cowardly terrorist" was painful and offensive to all Native Americans.
Source: History.com
May 4, 2011
After a century-long ban, French legislators voted in mid-April to legalize absinthe, the legendary potion prized by 19th-century bohemians for its hallucinogenic and inspirational effects. Find out more about the spirit’s heyday in the 19th century, its fall from grace in the early 1900s and why it’s once again becoming a drink of choice.
Source: BBC News
May 4, 2011
Green, incredibly alcoholic and some say mind-altering - these are the qualities that led to absinthe being banned in France almost 100 years ago. But all that's about to change, after the government voted to allow sales of the drink nicknamed the "green fairy"."I will not be seen as a drug addict anymore," says Clement Arnoux, an absinthe drinker and enthusiast."It changes everything from the point of view of my friends and family," he said.
Source: USA Today
May 3, 2011
WASHINGTON — Alan Shepard never became a household name like fellow astronauts John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, and Neil
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 3, 2011
China is making final preparations to stage a "Red Olympics" to mark the 90th anniversary since the founding of the ruling Communist Party and boost the nation's "revolutionary spirit" at a time or rising social tensions.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 3, 2011
As President Barack Obama and his team sat on tenterhooks in the Situation Room, the CIA director Leon Panetta broke the silence with the memorable words: "We have a visual on Geronimo."
It was the first confirmation that Osama bin Laden, who had been given the 19th Century Apache leader's name as a code word, was definitely in
Source: BBC News
May 3, 2011
Scientists have shed new light on the origins of rice, one of the most important staple foods today.A study of the rice genome suggests that the crop was domesticated only once, rather than at multiple times in different places.Tens of thousands of varieties of rice are known, but these are represented by two distinct sub-species.The work published in PNAS journal proposes that rice was first cultivated in China some 9,000 years ago.
Source: The Root
May 2, 2011
"This is a fiction," Fergus M. Bordewich, renowned historian and author of five nonfiction books, told The Root about the latest rancorous debate about black Confederates that comes as the nation's commemoration of the Civil War's 150th anniversary continues.
Source: AP
May 2, 2011
Nutcracker Man didn't eat nuts after all. After a half-century of referring to an ancient pre-human as "Nutcracker Man" because of his large teeth and powerful jaw, scientists now conclude that he actually chewed grasses instead.
The study "reminds us that in paleontology, things are not always as they seem," commented Peter S. Ungar, chairman of anthropology at the University of Arkansas.
The new report, by Thure E.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 2, 2011
“The physics of bouncing something on water is relatively simple,” says Dr Hugh Hunt, breezily. “But actually doing it, at scale, under a plane, building a dam and blowing it up, is much more of an engineering exercise than a science exercise.”There are few more memorable stories in the history of Britain’s Armed Forces than that of Operation Chastise – better known, of course, as the Dam Busters raid. The bravery of the pilots who flew Lancaster bombers at the great dams of West Germany is the stuff of Second World War legend.
Source: NYT
May 2, 2011
As millions of Israelis paused in reflection on Monday at the sound of the siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Internet here was buzzing. The first online database of more than half a million pieces of property lost by Holocaust victims, many in Eastern Europe, had just been uploaded as a first step toward restitution.
Source: The Hot Word
May 2, 2011
Imagine this: your beloved great uncle bequeaths to you an old book; so old that it is literally coming apart at the seams. You tuck away the tattered tome in the attic, where it will stay for decades. One day you decide to unearth the inherited manuscript and have it appraised.
Source: The Atlantic
May 2, 2011
Osama bin Laden is dead, but the U-S-A chant lives on.
Source: Haaretz (Israel)
May 2, 2011
A Yemenite Jew named Israel Subaryi supervised the transport of weapons and other supplies from Nazi Germany to Yemen in the 1930's; a well-respected businessman, he was the chief representative of his country's leader, the imam.In May 1938, the Sturmfels sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Yemen, with seven rifles, 16 pistols, 340 barrels of gunpowder, water canteens, food and other supplies. During the Nazi years, this was one of many ships that brought arms and other goods to Yemen.
Source: BBC
May 2, 2011
An exceptionally well-preserved Stradivarius violin, the Lady Blunt, which fetched $10m at its last sale in 2008, is to be auctioned for charity.The 1721 violin is being sold by the Nippon Music Foundation, with the entire proceeds going to their Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.The Lady Blunt set a record price every time it was sold last century.Auctioneers Tarisio said they will sell the instrument online on 20 June. ....
Source: BBC
May 2, 2011
When Charles Muriuki heard that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, he rushed to the memorial park which now stands on the site of what used to be the US embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.His mother was one of the more than 200 people killed when al-Qaeda operatives blew up the US mission on 7 August 1998. Like her, most of the victims were Kenyan.
Source: BBC
May 2, 2011
A bomb disposal team have detonated a World War II shell near Holy Island.A member of the public saw the shell at Goswick Sands on Sunday evening and alerted Berwick coastguard.It was identified as an unexploded shell and a controlled explosion was carried out by the Faslane bomb disposal team at 0800 BST.Humber Coastguard warned people to beware of unexploded WWII ordnance that may be washed up on the North East coast. ...........
