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)
Jul 30, 2010
A US senator examining the early release of the Lockerbie bomber has said he is considering sending investigators to Britain after British officials and BP executives declined to attend a hearing in Washington.
Robert Menendez, who is to chair the rescheduled congressional inquiry into the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, said that they were pursuing the possibility of sending individuals to England or Scotland to interview witnesses.
The US Senate's forei
Source: BBC News
Jul 29, 2010
A ceremony has taken place in Orkney to commemorate what is regarded as one of the most remarkable feats of marine salvage ever achieved.
Ernest Cox masterminded the recovery of 34 ships of the German fleet sunk by their crews in the waters of Scapa Flow at the end of WWI.
Lauded by the media of the day, his work is now all but forgotten.
Relatives unveiled a special plaque at Lyness, where the salvage operations were based, as a reminder....
Source: Discovery News
Jul 29, 2010
Internationally-renowned dinosaur hunter Phil Manning, from the University of Manchester, and his team are hoping to bag a Triceratops skeleton from a 'secret location' they've found in the South Dakota Badlands, according to Manning.
He and his colleagues believe at least three skeletons of this iconic dinosaur are gently weathering in 65-million-year-old rocks at the undisclosed site.
At present, Manning and his colleagues are trying to figure out how they can excava
Source: Discovery News
Jul 29, 2010
A 200-year-old mystery has finally been solved.
Thanks to a never-say-die effort between a currency historian and a scholar studying John James Audubon (1785-1851), the famous artist's first published bird illustration has been discovered.
This depiction of a running grouse or Heath Hen (a relative of the greater prairie chicken) was intended for mass production on bank notes. Audubon had mentioned the drawing and the resulting engraved paper money in two diary entries,
Source: Time
Jul 29, 2010
Its origins are an archaeological riddle worthy of Indiana Jones, but it's also a beacon of an oil-rich future. Welcome to the at least 7,000-year-old Arbil citadel in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, a stunning walled fortress on a roughly 10-hectare site that some experts say is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement on earth (it's still occupied today, by a single family of 12). After years of stop-start negotiations, the citadel is finally set for a face-lift and likely World Heritage
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 29, 2010
The Galapagos Islands has been withdrawn from a list of endangered world heritage sites by a UN panel.
The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) took the decision at a meeting in Brazil’s capital Brasilia.
The archipelago of volcanic islands off the Pacific coast of Ecuador had been on the World Heritage in Danger list since 2007. A growing local population, fishing, and tourism had put pressure on natu
Source: BBC News
Jul 29, 2010
Tales of the man who founded Penguin 75 years ago, conjure up the image of an eccentric character from one of the publisher's books.
Sir Allen Lane was the man who used a fairground slide to drop deliveries to his company (then based in a crypt) and came up with the Penguincubator - a vending machine for the firm's books to be installed on train platforms.
Stories differ as to whether this machine was ever made, with some reports suggesting at least one machine was inst
Source: BBC
Jul 29, 2010
David Cameron has rejected calls for the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which has been part of the Crown Jewels for 150 years, to be returned to India.
The diamond, which was mined in India, was seized by the East India Company in 1849 and presented to Queen Victoria.
Indian politicians have long urged the 105-carat treasure's return....
Source: BBC
Jul 29, 2010
An 88-year-old man charged with taking part in the killing of 430,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp may be tried as a minor, officials say.
Samuel Kunz is also charged with personally shooting dead 10 Jews at Belzec in occupied Poland in 1942-43.
The retired civil servant was 20 when he is alleged to have started working as a guard at the camp.
He has confirmed being at Belzec, but denied being involved in any killings, officials say....
Source: BBC
Jul 29, 2010
Hawley Crippen, the doctor hanged for the gruesome murder of his wife Cora, is one of the most infamous killers in British history. Exactly 100 years after his arrest, why is there a campaign to prove his innocence, asks Stephen Tomkins?
Having the surname Crippen does not endear you to UK Customs, according to a distant relative of the infamous doctor convicted of killing his wife.
James Patrick Crippen of Ohio, second cousin three times removed of Dr Hawley Crippen, h
Source: BBC
Jul 29, 2010
Serbia is seeking support for a UN resolution which it says will prevent separatist movements from following the example of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
Last week the UN's highest court ruled that Kosovo's secession in 2009 did not violate international law.
Kosovo says the resolution - which says unilateral secession should not be a way of resolving territorial disputes - is "disastrous".
Serbia rejects Kosovo's
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 29, 2010
A colossal statue of explorer Christopher Columbus has finally found a home in Puerto Rico after a two decade quest and a string of rejections because it was deemed too ugly.
The 600-ton monument, which stands at 350 ft tall, was given to the United States as a gift of friendship by its Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.
But the bronze creation, designed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1492, was shunned by cities across
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 29, 2010
An American man has found after a 27-year-search the wreckage of a Second World War bomber in which his air force pilot cousin was killed.
Gerald Landry, 73, spent the best part of three decades looking for the bomber pilot shot down by the Luftwaffe in December 1944.
Now, in a remarkable discovery, artefacts recovered from the bottom of the Adriatic Sea near Croatia could confirm the death of First Lt Russell Landry.
Lt Landry was part of an 800-strong
Source: AP
Jul 29, 2010
A man listed as the oldest living male in Tokyo in fact died some 30 years ago, city officials said after his body was found mummified in his bed.
Police visited the home of Sogen Kato at the request of ward officials updating their list of centenarians ahead of Respect for the Elderly Day in September. Kato was born July 22, 1899.
Welfare officials have tried to meet Kato since earlier this year, but his family members repeatedly chased them away, saying Kato was well
Source: AP
Jul 29, 2010
They knock the noses off statues in a park that was a favorite haunt of poet John Keats and throw dye into the iconic Trevi Fountain.
Vandals are increasingly on the prowl in the Eternal City — and now Italian authorities are fighting back, sending more police, installing cameras and even considering using convicts to protect monuments and artworks.
For the troublemakers nothing is sacred: earlier this month vandals left anti-pope graffiti on the Scala Santa, or Holy S
Source: AP
Jul 29, 2010
South Africa's president says six of the country's traditional monarchies are being abolished.
The country's 13 black ethnic kingships were used to muster support for white-led rule in the apartheid era before democratic elections in 1994.
Some of the monarchs were appointed by the apartheid government with few legitimate claims to their throne....
Source: AP
Jul 29, 2010
...Created during World War II as a purely U.S. operation free of the perceived taint of European allies, the Pond existed for 13 years and was shrouded in secrecy for more than 50 years. It used sources that ranged from Nazi officials to Stalinists and, at one point, a French serial killer.
It operated under the cover of multinational corporations, including American Express, Chase National Bank and Philips, the Dutch-based electronic giant. One of its top agents was a female Ameri
Source: CNN
Jul 29, 2010
A "groundbreaking" new exhibition of rare artifacts from Saudi Arabia's ancient past -- some which have never been shown abroad -- has opened in the Louvre, Paris.
The world-famous museum is hosting Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a traveling exhibition showcasing 300 archeological treasures found in the Gulf country, many pre-dating the birth of Islam.
The exhibition is the result of 40 years of excavation across Saud
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 29, 2010
The last remaining stocks of original Royal Navy rum were released for sale on Wednesday, almost exactly 40 years after the final rations of the drink were issued to serving sailors.
Some 6,000 bottles of Black Tot Rum were issued for sale at HMS Belfast on the River Thames in London.
On 31st July 1970, known as Black Tot Day, the last rations were given out to serving sailors, calling to a close a tradition going back some 300 years.
Sailors bore black ar
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 29, 2010
The website, which has gone live today, contains every single law ever made in the UK, including all revisions throughout legal history since 1267.
Legislation.gov.uk will allow anyone, from officials to ordinary citizens to scrutinise the laws on which their legal rights and responsibilities are based. There are multiple options for downloading and printing the information across the site....
