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 5, 2010
Three ancient icons, one of which contained relics of Russia's most venerated saint, have been stolen from a church in Moscow.
Clerics at the St Trinity church in a Moscow suburb discovered the theft after a service on Saturday, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
One of the icons contained relics of St Sergiy of Radonezh, a 14th century Orthodox monk who became Moscow's patron saint....
Source: AP
Sep 5, 2010
The man who once served as the international face of Saddam Hussein's regime predicted Sunday that he will die in an Iraqi jail, citing his old age and lengthy prison sentence.
During a brief interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Tariq Aziz said that considering he is 74 and faces more than two decades in prison for crimes related to his role in the former regime, he expects to die behind bars.
Aziz served for years as Saddam Hussein's foreign minister, establi
Source: AP
Sep 5, 2010
...In recent weeks, as debate has raged over the placement of a planned Islamic cultural center and mosque a couple of blocks from the construction, Americans have been reminded of just how many people lay claim to this place, the focal point for all those who have a stake in the legacy of Sept. 11.
There were battles over the land — over the prolonged search for victims' remains that kept turning up more tiny body parts in the soil five years later. The developer and insurance comp
Source: Statesville Record & Landmark
Sep 4, 2010
At a time when other historic sites around the country are shutting down, new site manager Doug Brown compares Fort Dobbs to a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Just two days after starting the job, Brown sat in a conference room in the small gray house that quarters the historical site’s offices and stared out the window, almost as though he could see the fort standing there.
Brown is no stranger to transormations -- Fort Dobbs will be the third large-scale historic site proje
Source: BBC
Sep 4, 2010
An Argentine court has reopened an investigation into crimes against humanity in Spain during the rule of Gen Francisco Franco.
The appeals court overturned a previous ruling that blocked a suit brought by Argentine relatives of two Spaniards killed under Franco.
It said they had a right to know if the case was being investigated.
Crimes committed under Franco and during the 1936-39 civil war are covered by an amnesty law in Spain.
The Arge
Source: N YT
Sep 4, 2010
...Forty years ago, Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates raised the degree of difficulty to new, well, heights. He threw a no-hitter with Richard M. Nixon calling balls and strikes and Jimi Hendrix, wielding a Fender Stratocaster instead of a Louisville Slugger, digging in at home plate.
Or at least that is what he thought while pitching under the influence of LSD.
Ellis walked eight and hit a batter but beat the Padres, 2-0, before 9,303 fans who turned up at San Diego
Source: CNN
Sep 4, 2010
Detectives are investigating the discovery of two "mummified" babies found wrapped in 1930s newspaper in the basement of a Los Angeles apartment building.
Police said this week they have identified the owner of the steamer trunk in which the babies were found and have contacted her family.
The coroner is still trying to figure out how and when the babies -- whose remains were found in two doctor's bags -- died....
Source: CNN.com
Sep 3, 2010
President Obama will award the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for bravery, to Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard Etchberger for his valor in saving the lives of three wounded comrades at a then-secret base in Laos in 1968, the White House announced Friday.
After Etchberger saved his fellow airmen, he was shot and killed by enemy fighters.
His heroics were kept a secret for years because the United States wasn't supposed to have troops in Laos during the V
Source: WaPo
Sep 3, 2010
To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial - from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines.
Archaeologists, many of them Americans, say the opposite is true: This patch of forest, and many others across the Amazon, was instead home to an advanced, even spectacular civilization that managed the forest and enriched
Source: AFP
Sep 3, 2010
Judaism is making a comeback in Germany 65 years after the Holocaust, thanks largely to immigration from the ex-Soviet Union, as shown by the ordination in Leipzig this week of two rabbis.
The ordination as Orthodox rabbis of the men originally from Uzbekistan and Lithuania was Germany's second since 1945, underscoring the growth of the eastern city's Jewish community that 20 years ago numbered only 30.
More than 300 German and foreign Jewish leaders attended the ceremo
Source: BBC
Sep 3, 2010
Fidel Castro has addressed a rally for the first time since handing the Cuban presidency to his brother Raul in 2006.
In a speech at Havana University, Mr Castro warned of nuclear war arising from the dispute that has pitting the United States and Israel against Iran.
Some 10,000 people gathered to listen to the 84-year-old, who wore his trademark olive-green uniform.
His speech was the latest in a string of appearances since he re-emerged in July from secl
Source: William and Mary News
Sep 3, 2010
Laboratory analysis by the College of William and Mary's Center for Archaeological Research (WMCAR) has revealed that the bone fragments found this summer in two unmarked graves on campus are the remains of dogs interred some two centuries ago.
The discovery represents a significant scholarly mystery, as researchers both at WMCAR and in the College's Department of Anthropology say that evidence of the formal interment of dogs dating from the Colonial period is unprecedented.
Source: Discovery News
Sep 3, 2010
A group of people who lived nearly 2,000 years ago in Sudanese Nubia took doses of tetracycline -- through their beer.
People have been using antibiotics for nearly 2,000 years, suggests a new study, which found large doses of tetracycline embedded in the bones of ancient African mummies.
What's more, they probably got it through beer, and just about everyone appears to have drank it consistently throughout their lifetimes, beginning early in childhood.
W
Source: The Washington Post
Sep 3, 2010
To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial - from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines.
Archaeologists, many of them Americans, say the opposite is true: This patch of forest, and many others across the Amazon, was instead home to an advanced, even spectacular civilization that managed the forest and enriched
Source: The Washington Post
Sep 3, 2010
...The 23-year-old Maryland native and self-described "wet-nosed lieutenant" was the fire control officer for an Army artillery unit engaged in what historians considered some of the bloodiest fighting of the Korean War: the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
By the night of Dec. 1, 1950, only 385 of the original 3,000 soldiers remained in the 31st Regimental Combat Team, known as Task Force Faith. About 1,000 had been killed, taken prisoner or left to freeze to death. Another 1
Source: Irish Central
Sep 3, 2010
A retired federal agent's research has uncovered the records which show that the United States first female cop was an Irish woman.
While researching the history of Chicago law enforcement, Rick Barrett, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and amateur historian, discovered records of Sergeant Marie Owen, the first female cop in the United States and an Irish-born woman.
Barrett spent over three years researching Owens. He spend his time travelling all over t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 3, 2010
Sweat, dust and the breath of the 4.5 million tourists who tramp through the Sistine Chapel each year are damaging its priceless Renaissance frescoes, the head of the Vatican Museums has warned.
Art custodians expressed alarm over the state of the exquisite paintings which adorn the chapel, in the heart of the Vatican city state, following the first cleaning operation for four years.
The Sistine Chapel is subjected to an influx of between 15,000 and 20,000 visitors a d
Source: Fox News
Sep 3, 2010
A key financial backer of the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero once contributed to a U.S.-designated terror group, MyFoxNY.com reports.
Egyptian-born businessman Hisham Elzanaty, who made what is described as a "significant investment" in the Ground Zero mosque project,contributed more than $6,000 in 1999 to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, also known as HLF, tax records show.
The donations came two years before the federal gover
Source: AP
Sep 3, 2010
Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.
The revolutionary leader wore the olive-green cap and uniform — minus the star and laurels he held as commander in chief — at a speech early Friday to students at the University of Havana. The clothing choice was sure to revive speculation the 84-year-old is seeking a large
Source: Washington Post
Sep 3, 2010
The mummies at the National Museum of Natural History are going into storage. Their antiquated hall, the Origins of Western Culture, will close Sept. 26 for an extensive three-year renovation, although a few specimens will be viewable next spring.
The one human mummy and handful of animal mummies are among the museum's most popular attractions, right behind the Hope Diamond and the giant whale and squid. Featured are an Egyptian male, 2,200 years old, and an Apis bull, from 332-30 B
