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
A collection of affectionate letters written by Oscar Wilde to a young male magazine editor have been revealed for the first time.
Penned in his own hand, the revealing letters appear to show the poet struggling with his homosexuality at a time when it was punishable by prison.
In one he muses: "This is all wrong isn't it."
In fact eight years after he wrote these letters Wilde began his famous two years in HMP Reading for "gross indecency" wi
Source: BBC News
Sep 15, 2010
A benefit concert to mark the year that John Lennon would have turned 70 is to be held in New York, it has been announced.
Music stars lined-up to pay tribute to the former Beatle include Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper and Aimee Mann.
The concert will be held on 12 November at the Beacon Theatre.
Proceeds will go to the Playing for Change Foundation, which promotes peace with music.
The show is one of several events being held around
Source: USA Today
Sep 15, 2010
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The Khmer Rouge shot and killed his wife and child. They tortured him with electric shocks and yanked out his toenails. They turned rice paddies into "killing fields," where the corpses of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians were left to rot.
So for all that, jailing one old man for 19 years doesn't feel like justice to Chum Mey.
"It's a shame we don't have the death penalty anymore," says Chum, 79, inside S-21, a former Khmer
Source: AP
Sep 14, 2010
Rwandan police arrested the country's most prominent opposition leader Thursday and accused her of forming a terrorist organization, months after she was barred from challenging the president in an election.
Authorities said Victoire Ingabire was implicated during investigations into the activities of a man who was a former commander of a Hutu militia group operating in neighboring Congo.
Ingabire already faced charges of genocide ideology after she stated publicly that
Source: National Geographic
Sep 14, 2010
Apparently laid to rest more than 10,000 years ago in a fiery ritual, one of the oldest skeletons in the Americas has been retrieved from an undersea cave along Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, researchers say.
Dating to a time when the now lush region was a near desert, the "Young Man of Chan Hol" may help uncover how the first Americans arrived—and who they were.
About 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Cancún, the cave system of Chan Hol—"little hole&
Source: National Geographic
Sep 14, 2010
Apparently laid to rest more than 10,000 years ago in a fiery ritual, one of the oldest skeletons in the Americas has been retrieved from an undersea cave along Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, researchers say.
Dating to a time when the now lush region was a near desert, the "Young Man of Chan Hol" may help uncover how the first Americans arrived—and who they were.
About 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Cancún, the cave system of Chan Hol—"little hole"
Source: NYT
Sep 14, 2010
The photograph accompanying this article is one of the best ever taken on a soccer field. The game is over, there is a winner and a loser. Indeed, this image is a symbol of the World Cup, the ultimate prize in soccer, passing from one of these men to the other.
But can you see joy and despair? Or do you see in their touch, their smiles, their eyes something that means so much more than who won
Source: King5.com
Sep 14, 2010
The dilapidated factory that helped make Seattle a high-tech town is being demolished after 75 years, a casualty of time, technology and tails that grew too tall.
Boeing Co.'s Plant 2, a sprawling but long outdated building between Boeing Field and south Seattle's Duwamish River, gave birth to some of the world's most significant aircraft. It was the site of Seattle's biggest disappearing act and a home to "Rosie the Riveter," women who built thousands of World War II plan
Source: Discovery News
Sep 14, 2010
A Roman ship that wrecked nearly 2,000 years ago contained a chest stocked with surgical tools and green pills.
Advanced DNA analysis of 2,000-year-old tablets has revealed that vegetable pills may have been part of an ancient travel medical kit, according to a new study.
The kit was recovered from a shipwreck found some 200 meters (656 feet) from one of the most beautiful beaches in Tuscany. The wreck is estimated to date back to 140-120 B.C. and was partly excavated i
Source: BBC
Sep 14, 2010
A picture of life on board Britain's 19th Century prison ships has emerged with the publication online of details of some of the 200,000 inmates.
The records outline the disease-ridden conditions on the "prison hulks", created to ease overcrowding elsewhere.
The prisoners included eight-year-old Francis Creed, who was jailed for seven years on HMS Bellerophon for stealing three shillings worth of copper.
The records, held by National Archives, are
Source: Fox News
Sep 14, 2010
On Oct. 25, 2007, 22 year-old Army Spc. Salvatore Giunta raced head-on into an enemy ambush to save the lives of two American soldiers during a deadly fire fight in one of the most inhospitable regions of eastern Afghanistan.
Giunta saved the life of one soldier and prevented Sgt. Josh Brennan, who later died of his wounds, from being carried away by Taliban fighters.
Giunta, who has since been promoted to sergeant, got a call two years later from President Obama -- h
Source: BBC News
Sep 14, 2010
A picture of life on board Britain's 19th Century prison ships has emerged with the publication online of details of some of the 200,000 inmates.
The records outline the disease-ridden conditions on the "prison hulks", created to ease overcrowding elsewhere.
The prisoners included eight-year-old Francis Creed, who was jailed for seven years on HMS Bellerophon for stealing three shillings worth of copper.
The records, held by National Archives, are
Source: News 3
Sep 14, 2010
Greek scientists and archaeologists have given an ancient Athenian girl from the 5th century BC a face by using her skeleton, found in an ancient grave. 'Myrtis' has been brought back to life through facial reconstruction from her intact skull and teeth.
The 11-year-old Athenian girl died of typhoid fever in 430 BC during a plague, and her bones were found in a mass grave near the ancient Athenian cemetery of Keramikos when the Athens subway was being dug up in 1995. The mass grave
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
Sep 14, 2010
Widow says she'll continue lawsuit against Ohio Historical Society over Adena tablet
Edward Low will be buried today, but his fight to regain a cherished childhood treasure will live on.
Low, 77, of Reynoldsburg, died Thursday, before his lawsuit against the Ohio Historical Society reached court.
His widow, Dorothy Low, has vowed to carry on the fight her husband began three years ago when he first asked the historical society to return his "Indian ro
Source: Reuters
Sep 14, 2010
Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains.
Specialized hunting sticks, bows and arrows and even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe have been among finds since 2006 from a melt in the Jotunheimen mountains, the home of the "Ice Giants" of Norse mythology.
As water streams off the Juvfonna ice field, Piloe and two other archaeologist
Source: AP
Sep 14, 2010
The dilapidated factory that helped make Seattle a high-tech town is being demolished after 75 years, a casualty of time, technology and tails that grew too tall.
Boeing Co.'s Plant 2, a sprawling but long outdated building between Boeing Field and south Seattle's Duwamish River, gave birth to some of the world's most significant aircraft. It was the site of Seattle's biggest disappearing act and a home to "Rosie the Riveter," women who built thousands of World War II plan
Source: BBC
Sep 14, 2010
US senate officials investigating the release of the Lockerbie bomber are to hold talks with the Scottish government in Edinburgh on Thursday.
The team, representing Senator Robert Menendez, will meet Scottish justice officials.
They will not meet Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who freed Abdelbasset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in August 2009....
Source: BBC
Sep 14, 2010
wartime heroine who was captured three times by the Germans and endured spells in concentration and labour camps is to be buried by a council because no friends or family can be traced.
Eileen Nearne, 89, who died in her Devon home on 2 September, was one of 39 female agents sent to occupied France in her capacity as a member of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II.
Miss Nearne, who was fluent in French, was captured by the Germans just four month
Source: AP
Sep 14, 2010
Turkey must pay about $170,000 (euro133,000) to the family of a slain ethnic Armenian journalist, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday, saying the state failed to protect him despite threats against his life.
The verdict also awarded the compensation to Hrant Dink's family because of a lack of respect for freedom of expression, and for failure to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder, the court said.
The journalist had sought to encourage reconcil
Source: Fox News
Sep 14, 2010
A famous civil rights photographer who covered everything from the Emmett Till murder to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. reportedly was also an informant who spied on the civil rights movement for the FBI.
Numerous FBI reports portray Ernest Withers -- a veteran freelancer for America's black press known as "the original civil rights photographer" -- as a prolific informant who, from at least 1968 until 1970, used his access to civil rights events and meetings
