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: NYT
Jul 26, 2010
For 30 years since the brutal Khmer Rouge regime was driven from power, Cambodians have lived with unresolved trauma, with skulls and bones from killing fields still lying in the open and with parents hiding the pain of their past from their children.
A Cambodian woman cried after Kaing Guek Eav, a Khmer Rouge leader responsible for more than 14,000 deaths, was sentenced to 35 years Monday.
Journalists watched in Phnom Penh as Kaing Guek Eav, awaited his sentence. It wa
Source: AP
Jul 26, 2010
Lynnewood Hall, a century-old stunner of a building just outside Philadelphia, silently, almost invisibly, languishes 200 feet beyond a two-lane blacktop road like a crumbling little Versailles.
The graceful fountain that welcomed hundreds of well-heeled visitors, President Franklin Roosevelt among them, was dismantled and sold years ago. Its once meticulously sculpted French gardens are overgrown with weeds and vines. The classical Indiana limestone facade may have lost its luster
Source: San Jose Mercury-News
Jul 26, 2010
The San Jose artist once revered for saving Big Basin's redwoods from greedy loggers isn't exactly a household name. But with the transformation Sunday of his home into a public showpiece, local historians are hoping Andrew P. Hill is again recognized as a California hero.
"If it wasn't for Andrew Hill, we wouldn't have been able to go to Big Basin to see the redwoods on Mother's Day," said Rich Winslow, a San Jose engineer who brought his family to the grand opening of Hi
Source: haaretz (Israel)
Jul 26, 2010
Outspoken Hollywood director says new film aims to put Adolf Hitler, who he has called an 'easy scapegoat' in the past, in his due historical context.
Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years.
n the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holoc
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 26, 2010
The remains of the largest rat to ever roam the Earth have been discovered in a remote cave in East Timor.
The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog.
Australian archaeologists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found the bones of the giant rat alongside 11 new species of rat, eight of which weighed more than 2lbs
Source: BBC News
Jul 26, 2010
Archaeologists have discovered a 4th Century Roman villa near Aberystwyth.
It is the most north-westerly villa found in Wales and has forced experts to reconsider the whole nature of Roman settlement across mid and north Wales.
Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.
"The discovery raises significant new questions," said Dr Toby Driver and Dr Jeffrey Davies, excava
Source: BBC News
Jul 26, 2010
Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal, which is investigating the country's 1971 liberation struggle against Pakistan, has issued its first arrest warrants.
Court officials told the BBC the war crimes indictments targeted four leaders of Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, already in custody.
The tribunal was set up in March to try people accused of atrocities.
Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until the nine-month war of secession, which left up to three mi
Source: BBC News
Jul 26, 2010
Closing arguments are to begin in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Mr Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his office for personal gain - including an effort to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat - and attempted extortion.
The case turns largely on hours of conversations wire-tapped by the FBI.
The defence says Mr Blagojevich's talk was mere bluster, arguing prosecutors have not proven he committed crimes.
Source: BBC News
Jul 26, 2010
Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He had admitted overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness.
This is the tribunal's first verdict.
Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 26, 2010
Tens of thousands of secret American military documents have been leaked disclosing how Nato forces have killed scores of civilians in unreported incidents in Afghanistan.
The classified memos also reveal the secret efforts of coalition forces to hunt down and “kill or capture” senior Taliban and al-Qaeda figures.
And they document growing evidence that Iran and Pakistan is supporting the insurgency. Although many of the claims in the documents, of which there are mor
Source: NPR
Jul 25, 2010
In a 5-acre clearing in central New Jersey, half an hour south of Trenton, there's a hole about 6 feet deep and 15 feet across. Months ago, except for a few trees, the site was empty.
For decades, it was rumored to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Turns out it was. Now, Westampton Township has commissioned a geophysical survey and allowed Temple University archaeologists to do a thorough excavation. And they're finding that the freed and escaped slaves who made it here
Source: telegraph (UK)
Jul 25, 2010
As they prepare for holiday reading in Tuscany, City bankers are buying up rare copies of an obscure book on the mechanics of Weimar inflation published in 1974.
Ebay is offering a well-thumbed volume of "Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations" at a starting bid of $699 (shipping free.. thanks a lot).
The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or
Source: NYT
Jul 25, 2010
...Indonesia’s linguistic legacy is increasingly under threat as growing numbers of wealthy and upper-middle-class families shun public schools where Indonesian remains the main language but English is often taught poorly. They are turning, instead, to private schools that focus on English and devote little time, if any, to Indonesian....
In 1928, nationalists seeking independence from Dutch rule chose Indonesian, a form of Malay, as the language of civic unity. While a small percen
Source: BBC News
Jul 25, 2010
President Sebastian Pinera of Chile has rejected a plea by the Roman Catholic Church that he pardon members of the armed forces over human rights abuses committed during military rule.
Mr Pinera said the proposal had caused division in Chile and reopened old wounds.
He said there could be no pardon for serious offences such as murder and crimes against humanity.
More than 3,000 Chileans were killed by the military between 1973 and 1990.
The Chi
Source: Guardian
Jul 25, 2010
Search for remains of armada which came to grief on a pioneering voyage to Kenya 600 years ago.
It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre arou
Source: BBC
Jul 25, 2010
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has made his first reported appearance outside Havana since handing over power to his brother in 2006.
Cuban television showed the 83-year-old visiting a mausoleum in Artemisa, south-west of Havana, which honours Cuban revolutionary fighters.
It is the latest in a number of recent appearances.
Until now, Mr Castro has made only sporadic appearances on TV or in public since he retired from public life.
Howeve
Source: BBC
Jul 25, 2010
The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
The Sunday Times claimed to have seen a letter from the US administration to the Scottish government before the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Salmond emphasised that the Scottish government had made public all of its own documents relating to the release of Megrahi.
He said th
Source: BBC
Jul 25, 2010
Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal is to issue a verdict in the trial of the former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch - the first from the court.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, ran the Tuol Sleng prison, where "enemies" of the regime were sent.
He has admitted overseeing the deaths of up to 15,000 people who passed through its gates and asked for forgiveness during the public hearings.
Duch, the first of five surviving senior figur
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 25, 2010
Plans to honour colonial explorer Henry Morton Stanley in his home town in Wales have been criticised by objectors who say his expeditions were cruel, racist and exploitative.
Residents of Denbigh hope to celebrate his legacy with a £31,000 bronze statue, but have been told by academics that their plan is "appalling".
Stanley was the Victorian explorer who trekked to the heart of Africa and greeted a fellow Briton with the words “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”
Source: Fox News
Jul 25, 2010
The Obama administration told Scottish officials last August that, although it opposed any release of the Lockerbie bomber, it would rather see him released in Scotland than transferred to a Libyan prison, according to a secret memo obtained by The Sunday Times in London.
The publication of the memo's contents comes just days after President Obama, at a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, said "all of us ... were surprised, disappointed and angry" b
