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: The Northern Echo
Aug 19, 2010
UNITED in death, they have lain together under the earth undisturbed for more than 350 years, victims of the Civil War that tore England apart.
Now, centuries after they were buried and forgotten, their story has finally come to light – and given a new insight into the months-long siege of York in 1644.
For, although they were once part of Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary army, they did not die in battle, but instead succumbed to disease that was rife among the besieging
Source: Daily News & Analysis
Aug 19, 2010
Archaeologists have discovered a large group of ancient stone statues at the worship site of Guizai Mountain near Hunan province.
According to People's Daily Online, these statues are a lot more in number and a lot older than the Qin Terracotta Warriors found in the depths of the Nanling Mountains located in Dao County of Yongzhou City.
Tang Zhongyong, director of the Dao County Administrative Office, said that the Guizai Mountain site is a large ancient worship site. T
Source: Daily Press
Aug 19, 2010
Two of the nation's foremost underwater archaeologists began work in the river off Yorktown Beach Wednesday morning, surveying the previously undetected wreck of a ship that may have been scuttled by the British during the Revolution.
Brought in by the Department of Historic Resources' Threatened Sites Program, the team includes Williamsburg-based John D. Broadwater — who recovered the historic turret of the USS Monitor in 2002 — and North Carolina-based Gordon Watts — who discovere
Source: USA Today
Aug 19, 2010
When the 9/11 museum opens in two years, its most poignant items will include two $2 bills, some cellphone bills, a 1993 "Welcome Back to the World Trade Center" mug and the contents of a woman's pocketbook.
All have been donated to the museum, which is asking families of those killed in the 2001 attacks for photos, personal items or mementos — things to show posterity that at the start of the 21st century there were people with achievements, passions and dreams that terro
Source: LA Times
Aug 19, 2010
Central Park is almost synonymous with New York. But historians have long wondered whether the city's signature park was originally conceived the way it looks today. Were the ornate colorful tiles underneath the Bethesda Terrace a vision of the original designers? What about elegant black lamps that dot the park?
Now historians might finally have some clues about the park's design.
Illustrations for features of Central Park and other public places in New York have resu
Source: BBC
Aug 19, 2010
Previously unseen records shedding new light on life in Victorian workhouses have gone online for the first time.
They include thousands of untouched 19th Century letters, memos and reports between the Cardiff and Llanfyllin Poor Law Unions and the boards regulating workhouses in London.
The documents have been pieced together by volunteer groups, including several in Wales.
The 'Living the Poor Life' project was led by the National Archives.
E
Source: BBC
Aug 19, 2010
The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain is being commemorated by a reading of one of Churchill's most famous speeches and a fly-past.
Winston Churchill's "so much owed by so many to so few" speech will be read at 1552 BST, precisely 70 years after he gave the address in Parliament.
The reading outside the Churchill War Rooms will be followed by a Spitfire and Hurricane fly-past over Whitehall.
The RAF defeat of the Luftwaffe is seen as a tur
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 19, 2010
Libyan officials have said that the Lockerbie bomber is now expected to live for another two years with the help of treatment from regime's best doctors.
Col Mummar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has decreed that Abedelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, a former intelligence agent, must receive the same level of medical care as afforded to state leaders.
High level Libyan officials told The Daily Telegraph that Megrahi is expected to live for at least two years, despite his rel
Source: AP
Aug 19, 2010
The Egyptian antiquities department says a stolen Greek-era statue that was confiscated in Canada is on its way home.
Thursday's statement said the marble bust was seized by Canadian customs after it was illegally brought into the country.
The 5 inch (13 centimeter) tall figure will be handed over to the Egyptian embassy in Canada. There were no further details on the age and nature of the statue....
Source: Pew Research Center
Aug 19, 2010
A substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined. More than a year and a half into his presidency, a plurality of the public says they do not know what religion Obama follows.
A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sha
Source: Irish Examiner
Aug 19, 2010
THE Department of the Environment has launched an investigation into the complete destruction of two ancient ring-forts.
Senior archaeologists from its National Monuments section are liaising with gardaí in Co Cork as part of the probe.
It was launched following works on farmland in the village of Kilmurry near Macroom, Co Cork, on which the two recorded monuments were located.
Ring-forts are oval or circular fortified settlements or farmsteads that were built mo
Source: Yahoo News
Aug 19, 2010
MOSCOW – Russia remembered two unlikely national heroes Thursday — a pair of skinny street mutts who moved the Soviet Union into the lead of the space race when they became the first living creatures to circle the Earth and come back alive.
The Aug. 19, 1960 mission by Belka and Strelka was a key step in preparations for the flight of Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human in space about a year later.
It showcased the Soviet lead in space exploration and turned the tw
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 19, 2010
A butterfly house where Winston Churchill took refuge in the turbulent post war years has been renovated by the National Trust.
The former prime minister and wartime leader converted a summer house in the grounds of his home Chartwell in Kent at the end of the Second World War.
The building, which fell into disrepair in the 1950s, became a refuge of peace in the turbulent post war years where despite his heroics during the war led to him being defeated in the general election
Source: CNN
Aug 19, 2010
When I was a little boy, my dad and I would sit on the floor next to his old reel-to-reel tape deck, taking turns talking into it and playing our voices back -- the same reel-to-reel he unwittingly used to gain his 15 minutes of fame.
It was October 3, 1951, when Larry Goldberg, a 26-year-old travel agent living with his parents in Brooklyn, set up the deck next to a radio before setting off to work in Manhattan.
He asked his mom to record the 9th inning of the third ga
Source: BBC News
Aug 19, 2010
While memories of the Battle of Britain remain fresh in the minds of The Few who flew, and the staff who supported them, veterans fear its significance could soon be forgotten by others.
Seventy years ago the RAF was locked in a life and death struggle with the Luftwaffe in the skies over England.
The three weeks between mid-August and early September in 1940 were decisive for the Battle of Britain.
The bravery of the RAF pilots was captured in Winston Chur
Source: BBC News
Aug 19, 2010
Veteran screen star Ernest Borgnine is to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) next year, organisers have announced.
The 93-year-old, who won an Oscar for his role in the 1955 film Marty, has appeared in more than 200 movies during his lengthy career.
SAG president Ken Howard said Borgnine still had "boundless energy" and boasted an "impressive body of work".
He will collect his honour at an awards cere
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 19, 2010
Georges Freche ordered five statues for the southern city of Montpellier, celebrating Lenin, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Franklin Roosevelt and the French socialist leader Jean Jaures.
Each weighs in at between 850 kilos (1,874 pounds) and a tonne and each cost local taxpayers an estimated 200,000 euros (260,000 dollars). They were unveiled on Wednesday and will be formally inaugurated next month.
Mr Freche, a former Socialist who was expelled by the party aft
Source: AP
Aug 18, 2010
HAVANA – Fidel Castro is showcasing a theory long popular both among the far left and far right: that the shadowy Bilderberg Group has become a kind of global government, controlling not only international politics and economics, but even culture.
The 84-year-old former Cuban president published an article Wednesday that used three of the only eight pages in the Communist Party newspaper Granma to quote — largely verbatim — from a 2006 book by Lithuanian-born writer Daniel Estulin.
Source: Ria Novosti (RU)
Aug 18, 2010
Georges Freche, a historian who was mayor of the provincial French city for 27 years until 2004, has commissioned French sculptor Francois Cacheux to produce the works, which weigh from 850 to 1,000 kilograms and cost around 200,000 euros ($260,000).
The first five are well on the way to being installed on a square in the west of Montpellier. French socialist Jean Jaures, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, French leader Charles de Gaulle and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt
Source: BBC News
Aug 18, 2010
The American Ballet Theatre company is to perform in Cuba later this year for the first time in 50 years.
Barack Obama's administration has given the troupe permission to dance at the Havana International Ballet Festival at the Karl Marx Theatre.
Its last Cuban performance was at the inaugural event in 1960.
While the general travel ban on US tourists remains, it is the latest sign of an easing of relations between the two former Cold War adversaries.
