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
Mar 6, 2011
The Cambodian government said part of a historic 11th-century stone temple collapsed Sunday due to heavy shelling by the Thai army as the two sides battled across their disputed border for a third day.
Both countries accused each other of instigating the clashes, which continued across the darkened mountainous border for more than three hours Sunday. The extent of the damage to the Preah Vihear temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was not immediately clear.
The crumbli
Source: CNN
Mar 6, 2011
As the late President Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday is observed, historians point out that his political successes, not his persona, have been mythologized over the years.
Upon taking office, Reagan faced a severe recession and double-digit inflation. Gas station lines stretched for miles. Americans simply lost hope in their economic future, historians say.
The former governor of California used his experiences in politics and his career in Hollywood -- first as an act
Source: CNN
Mar 6, 2011
Twenty-four hours a day, over six days, they're coming by the thousands to remember their hero.
The earthly remains of Maj. Gen. Vang Pao lie in a casket, crossed U.S. and Royal Lao flags nearby.
A spirit guide chants so that the soul of the deceased will go to the spiritual world and be reborn.
This week's funeral in Fresno, California, for the charismatic soldier who fought alongside U.S. troops against Communist forces in the mountains of Laos, is a pilg
Source: Huliq
Mar 5, 2011
EUGENE, Ore. – A recent report out of Germany and a new book about Hitler’s master strategist, Erich von Manstein, sheds new light on how the Nazi’s could have won World War II; while, at the same time, students here at the University of Oregon in Eugene and elsewhere ask why it’s taken so long to expose yet more secret files from van Manstein that reveal a “dark cause” that’s sweeping the world today.
New documents released by the German government reveal it was not Adolph Hitler,
Source: BBC
Mar 5, 2011
A Spitfire has been flown over Southampton in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first test flight of the world famous aircraft in the city.
Carolyn Grace, 58, thought to be the world's only female Spitfire pilot, gave the public a view of her plane over Southampton Water earlier.
Later, she flew the Spitfire around a lap of Southampton International Airport to recreate the test flight.
The airport, then Eastleigh airfield, was the setting for the
Source: CNN
Mar 5, 2011
Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is apologizing for invoking Hitler and Stalin on the Senate floor.
The statement came a day after Brown said dictators Hitler and Stalin didn’t want unions while railing against legislative measures proposed in Ohio and Wisconsin that would limit collective bargaining rights for state workers.....
Source: AP
Mar 5, 2011
A visit former U.S. President George W. Bush planned to make to Switzerland next week has been canceled because of security concerns, after left-wing groups called for mass protests and rights activists proposed legal action against him for allegedly ordering the torture of terrorism suspects.
Bush's spokesman David Sherzer said the two-term president was informed Friday by the United Israel Appeal that his Feb. 12 dinner speech in Geneva had been called off.
Saturday's
Source: CNN
Mar 5, 2011
Washington (CNN) -- The family of a man who fought alongside U.S. troops in Vietnam have been told their relative will not be allowed to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Major General Vang Pao led thousands of Hmong soldiers as they fought alongside the United States against the North Vietnamese Army during the war in Southeast Asia, according to a news release from Congressman Jim Costa of California.
Costa, on behalf of Pao's family, asked the Army to grant a
Source: Discovery News
Mar 4, 2011
Was Hamlet, Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark, actually Irish? That is the question, according to a paper published in the latest edition of the journal Review of English Studies.
Scholars have long agreed that William Shakespeare based his Hamlet on Amlethus, a legendary figure found in the "History of the Danes," a saga written around 1200.
The name Amlethus was then traced back to the word Amlothi, which appears in a 10th or 11th century poem by the Icelandic
Source: Gettysburg Times
Mar 4, 2011
Contractors are taking extra precaution when they dig up streets in Gettysburg this summer, as part of several multi-million dollar roadway upgrades.
After all, this is historic Gettysburg, and you never know what crews may unearth.
Procedures are in place so that when contractors excavate an unexpected Civil War relic — or even bones — work stops immediately, pending further inspection.
In fact, the state’s Department of Transportation has conducted archae
Source: Grind TV
Mar 4, 2011
People are discovering antique fishing tackle all the time, in closets and at garage sales, but none of that compares to discoveries made recently by archaeologists at two of the Channel Islands off Southern California.
Looking for signs of ancient human settlement, they unearthed meticulously-crafted spearheads and other tools (see photo at right) that date back 12,000 years and provide insight into the lives of a seafaring culture that obtained bounty from the ocean.
Source: Yahoo News
Mar 4, 2011
LONDON (Reuters) – A 350-year-old notebook which documents the trials of women convicted of witchcraft in England during the 17th century has been published online.
The notebook written by Nehemiah Wallington, an English Puritan, recounts the fate of women accused of having relationships with the devil at a time when England was embroiled in a bitter civil war.
The document reveals the details of a witchcraft trial held in Chelmsford in July 1645, when more than a hundr
Source: Raleigh Telegram
Mar 4, 2011
WILMINGTON - A rare World Ward II rubber intelligence map of Iwo Jima was returned to the Battleship USS North Carolina this week. The battleship took part in the US Navy and Marine assault on the Japanese-held island during a brutal World War II battle.
Over the past six months, a conservation effort at East Carolina University preserved the rubber relief map by removing previous restorations that caused deterioration. The map is now stored in an oxygen free environment to ensure
Source: Fox News
Mar 4, 2011
Holocaust survivors struggling to collect what they say is $20 billion in Jewish life insurance policies never paid by European companies scored a major breakthrough this week when members of Congress filed legislation allowing them to sue.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., introduced two companion bills that would force European companies such as German's Allianz SE and Italy's Assicurazioni Generali to disclose lists of pre-World War II policies and e
Source: AP
Mar 4, 2011
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has inspired Americans for generations, but consider his jarring remarks in 1862 to a White House audience of free blacks, urging them to leave the U.S. and settle in Central America.
Lincoln went on to say that free blacks who envisioned a permanent life in the United States were being "selfish" and he promoted Central America as an ideal location "especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land — thus being
Source: BBC
Mar 4, 2011
The widower of a woman whose diploma from a Dundee college went missing in the post 40 years ago has said he is looking forward to receiving it.
The certificate was sent to Dorothy Sanderson in Arbroath, Angus, in 1970, but never reached her.
She died in 1995, but her widowed husband Dr Andrew Scott was traced after a relative contacted the BBC.
Dundee College received the diploma in the post on Thursday, marked "not at this address".
Source: Telegrapg (UK)
Mar 4, 2011
Rodney King, the man whose beating triggered the 1991 Los Angeles riots, was pulled over by police the day before the 20th anniversary of the original attack, and fined for having an expired licence.
He was stopped close to Interstate 210 north of Los Angeles, the same freeway on which officers pursued him at high speed before assaulting him two decades ago.
On this occasion King, 45, was stopped for running a red light in a green Mitsubishi.
His fiancée C
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 4, 2011
Michelangelo’s statue of David is at risk of being toppled by the construction of a high-speed railway line beneath Florence because of his flimsy ankles.
The statue is riddled with tiny cracks, particularly in the ankles of the boy warrior, and could collapse as a result of vibrations from the 1.4 billion euro project, which is due to start in the summer.
The threat of serious damage being done to one of the world’s most famous statues has prompted calls for it to be
Source: NYT
Mar 4, 2011
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief antiquities official for almost a decade and a cabinet minister since January, said Thursday that he would not stay on in a newly formed government.
Egypt’s prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, resigned Thursday, and the army asked his replacement, Essam Sharaf, to form a caretaker cabinet.
“If the government will ask me again, I will not accept this job,” Mr. Hawass said in a telephone interview.
He also posted on his blog a list of som
Source: NYT
Mar 4, 2011
LONDON — The year was 1977. Above the tiny island nation of Grenada, big things were happening in the sky. Sir Eric Gairy, the country’s prime minister, was convinced that the objects he thought he was seeing were hostile alien aircraft from outer space.
The British government did not share Sir Eric’s conviction that, as he put it, “persons from outer space are studying us, or perhaps living among us as earthlings.” A “ridiculous proposal that will only bring the United Nations int
