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: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 15, 2010
Revealing sketches and drawings of life in the trenches have been discovered in a First World War soldier's diary after lying hidden
for 90 years.
Lieutenant Kenneth Wootton's diary give an astonishing insight into the horror of major WWI battles and includes ink drawings of tanks and battle movements.
Lt Wootton, who was awarded the MC for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty, kept a diary for most of the war - from 1915 until 1917, when he was sent home
Source: BBC
Sep 15, 2010
A Bronze Age burial site has been uncovered at the planned location of the Highlands' first Asda supermarket.
Archaeologists found an area of cremation pits surrounded by a ring ditch at Slackbuie, in Inverness.
Almost 2,000 flints were also recovered from the field on the city's distributor road.
Pieces of Neolthic pottery known as Unstan Ware were also discovered during digs led by Edinburgh-based NG Archaeology Services.
The details are cont
Source: Live Science
Sep 15, 2010
A cremated male skeleton in a lavish ancient Greek tomb is not Alexander the Great's half-witted half-brother, according to a new study.
The research reignites a 33-year-long debate over whether the burned bones found in the tomb belong to Alexander the Great's father, Philip II, a powerful figure whose years of conquest set the stage for his son's exploits, or Alexander the Great's half-brother, Philip III, a figurehead king with a less successful reign.
The research
Source: AP
Sep 15, 2010
Egypt's antiquities chief says archaeologists have unearthed a 2,800-year-old burial chamber that boasts brightly painted astrological scenes at a site believed to house the tombs of ancient Egyptian nobles.
Zahi Hawass says in a Wednesday statement the chamber belonged to a priest named Karakhamun, whose tomb was first discovered in the 19th century but soon after disappeared under the desert sands. He says an Egyptian-American team stumbled on the burial chamber while doing restor
Source: New York Post
Sep 15, 2010
Defenders of an alleged cyber bully went on the attack today, accusing a noted Hebrew historian of plagiarism and claiming their client had every right to fight dirty in this no-holds-barred academic brawl.
Raphael Golb, 49, went on trial for allegedly engineering a wacky 2008 identity theft and "sock-puppeting" campaign against his dad’s intellectual rivals over ancient origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
During opening statements to jurors, defense lawyers didn
Source: BBC
Sep 15, 2010
The Epic of the Persian Kings exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge features illustrations inspired by the Shahnameh - poet Ferdowsi's Book of Kings - on its 1,000th anniversary.
In Persian literature it's a given that the Shahnameh - Book of Kings - is a timeless classic; In the West however the work is probably less well-known now than in Victorian times.
A new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge focuses on the gorgeous artwork the Shahnameh
Source: BBC
Sep 15, 2010
A French court has blocked the extradition to Rwanda of Eugene Rwamucyo, a doctor suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide.
Dr Rwamucyo is wanted over atrocities carried out in the country's southern Butare region.
The court in Versailles, just outside Paris, also freed Dr Rwamucyo, who had been arrested at a funeral in May.
French judges have ruled that suspects extradited to Rwanda cannot expect a fair trial.....
Source: BBC
Sep 15, 2010
A bronze statue of the Battle of Britain's "unsung hero" Sir Keith Park has been unveiled in central London.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park commanded RAF squadrons that defended London and the South East from Luftwaffe attacks in 1940.
The 2.78m (9ft) statue by sculptor Les Johnson was unveiled in Waterloo Place in Haymarket on the 70th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day.
Sir Keith's family and 14 veterans of the battle were at the event....
Source: BBC
Sep 15, 2010
Pieces of an ancient Egyptian necropolis which were pillaged from Egypt in 1999 have been discovered in an antiques shop in Spain.
A Middle Eastern expert spotted the eight fragments of limestone after recognising the inscriptions, Barcelona police said.
The pieces are inscribed with hieroglyphics dating from the 3rd Century BC.
They will now be returned to the Egyptian government.
The artefacts were looted from the Saqqara burial ground in th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 15, 2010
Plans for a monument to Benazir Bhutto have provoked anger in Pakistan where thousands of people are demanding that its 900m rupee (£7m) cost be used instead to help millions displaced by the country's floods.
Mrs Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan and member of one of the country's most powerful families, was assassinated in a suicide attack in December 2007. Asif Ali Zardari, her husband, is now president, and the 10-acre park and library complex in her name received app
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 15, 2010
More than 10,000 confused birds were trapped by the beams of memorial lights switched on to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.
Two beams emanating from Manhattan, known as the Tribute of Light, had to be turned off five times to allow the migrating birds to continue on their journey last week.
The birds were on their way from Canada to the warmer climate of the Caribbean and South America....
Source: AP
Sep 15, 2010
Backers of a bill to provide up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust renewed their push for the measure Wednesday as a second House vote nears.
First responders, survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks and New York lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill to press their case. They are urging passage of the bill to provide free health care and compensation to 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who fell ill after working in the trade center ruins. A vote is expected
Source: AP
Sep 15, 2010
A Turkish lawmaker demanded Wednesday that the leaders of a 1980 military coup be brought to trial, following approval of constitutional amendments that lifted their immunity.
The prospect of legal action against a cadre of elderly and retired military officers could fuel tension in a nation where a reformist government led by devout Muslims is battling opposition from staunchly secular institutions, including the courts and the military.
It's not clear if such prosecut
Source: Star Tribune
Sep 15, 2010
Minnesota is home to an impressive collection of iconic consumer brands, from Betty Crocker to Post-It notes, and a number of companies have set up museums or exhibits as a way to tell the state's unique business story. At the same time, they use their heritage to call attention to their products.
Akshay Rao, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, says history can be a powerful tool for building a brand.
"Brands are the
Source: Jacksonville News (WY)
Sep 15, 2010
Underneath a white tent near Game Creek along Highway 89/191, University of Wyoming archeology student Bryon Schroeder sits in a 6- foot-deep hole troweling out the winding path of a rodent burrow through a square of gray earth.
Schroeder excavates the burrows first so the rodent-churned dirt doesn’t contaminate the cake layers of history that jut out at perfect right angles from the walls and floor like an M.C. Escher drawing.
On one wall, the charred, fractured stone
Source: Deutsche Press
Sep 15, 2010
New finds at a well-preserved ancient battlefield in the north of Germany are not only rewriting geo-political history, but also revealing some of the secrets of Rome's military success.
Until only two years ago, northern Germany was believed to have been a no-go area for Roman troops after three legions were wiped out by German tribesmen in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in AD 9.
The revelation that two centuries later a Roman force mounted a punitive raid deep inside th
Source: National Parks Traveler
Sep 15, 2010
On September 17, 1862, "the bloodiest day in American History," savage combat at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, left 23,000 soldiers dead, wounded, or missing. This Friday, on the 148th anniversary of the epic battle that blunted the first Confederate invasion of the North and opened the way to the Emancipation Proclamation, an all-day guided hike at Antietam National Battlefield will give visitors a close encounter with the action scenes.
Consult the pa
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Sep 15, 2010
They are quintessentially English seaside scenes which could easily be accompanied by the phrase: ‘Wish you were here’.
But in fact, these snapshots of the English coastline served a far more sinister purpose.
They appear in a top-secret dossier Adolf Hitler issued to senior officers in advance of his planned invasion-of Britain in 1940.
Featuring landmarks such as Brighton Pier and Land’s End, they were intended to help Nazi troops identify targets in Operatio
Source: CNN
Sep 15, 2010
At the age of 19, Christopher Kagwa was taken from his home in Uganda, East Africa, to fight in a distant war he knew nothing about.
More than 70 years later, the memories of fighting for the British Colonial Government in World War II are still fresh.
Sgt. Kagwa, formerly of the King's African Rifles, is one of Uganda's few living veterans of the world's bloodiest conflict.
He told CNN: "We were very scared of the white men. We didn't know anything ab
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 15, 2010
Agatha Christie, the British mystery writer, has had the anniversary of her 120th birthday celebrated with an elaborate new Google Doodle.
The search engine's multicoloured logo has been replaced with an elaborate scene adapted from one of the crime author's many detective novels.
Each of the logo's letters has been replaced with a character taken from her novels. For example the letter "G" has been designed in the form of her Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
