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: AP
Jul 17, 2010
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he'll resume direct peace talks if Israel accepts its 1967 frontier as a baseline for the borders of a Palestinian state and agrees to the deployment of an international force to guard them.
Abbas is under growing pressure from the United States to resume negotiations, and met Saturday with President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, George Mitchell.
Abbas' latest comments, published Saturday in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad, hinte
Source: AP
Jul 17, 2010
Divers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, one of the finders said Saturday. They tasted the one bottle they've brought up so far before they even got back to shore.
Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia. The nationality of the sunken ship has not yet been determined.
The divers discovered the shi
Source: BBC
Jul 17, 2010
A piece of Neolithic rock art has been unearthed during a weekend geological course in Cambridgeshire.
The hand-sized artefact discovered in the village of Over is unlike anything previously found in the east of England, Cambridge University said.
It consists of a slab of weathered sandstone with two pairs of concentric circles etched into the surface.
Archaeologists believe it is typical of art from the later Neolithic era and could date back to 2500BC.
Source: BBC
Jul 17, 2010
Welsh has been spoken for the first time in a ceremony at Westminster Cathedral to honour the martyred saint John Roberts.
On Saturday, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams addressed the congregation in both English and Welsh.
The service was part of a series of events to mark the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Welsh saint.
The monk, from Trawsfynydd, Gwynedd was hanged, drawn and quartered in 1610 for being a Catholic dissenter.
Source: BBC
Jul 17, 2010
The remains of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar have been exhumed in Venezuela to determine the cause of his death nearly 200 years ago. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered Bolivar's tomb be opened because he suspects he was murdered. Most accounts maintain Bolivar died from tuberculosis in Colombia in 1830. More than 50 experts including criminal investigators and forensic pathologists have been examining the remains to see if Bolivar was the victim of a conspiracy rather than disease, according to Venezuela's attorney-general, Luisa Ortega Diaz....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 17, 2010
Archeologists in Guatemala have discovered a Mayan king's tomb packed with a well-preserved hoard of carvings, ceramics and children's bones that cast fresh light on the vanished civilisation.
Researchers uncovered the burial chamber in Guatemala's the jungle-covered Peten region in May, but the discovery has only just been made public.
The tomb is thought to date from 300 – 600AD and is located beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz.
The C
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 17, 2010
Lord Mandelson may be among the high-profile witnesses called to appear before US senators to respond to allegations that pressure from BP played a role in the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.
Congressional investigators are considering summoning the former business secretary to hearings of the powerful Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Despite the firm denials by the British government and BP that Megrahi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 17, 2010
Naomi Campbell is preparing to appear before a war crimes tribunal in The Hague over allegations that she received a blood diamond from Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.
When a supermodel, a warlord and an actress gathered to dine at Nelson Mandela's historic residence on the slopes of Table Mountain, it was always set to be a memorable evening. Yet as Naomi Campbell slipped into her long white dress and fastened the straps of her gold sandals, it is certain that even she could not
Source: LC Sun News
Jul 16, 2010
For the first time in more than a century, one of the counterfeit bank notes proven to be in the sequence passed by Billy the Kid and his gang has found its way back to Lincoln County.
U.S. Marshal Historian Dave Turk of Washington, D.C., and retired Federal Criminal Investigator Steve Sederwall of Capitan began the hunt to find the sample of the counterfeit bank notes passed by the Kid. They knew that at least one would have been preserved after the trials were over that convicted
Source: Fox News
Jul 16, 2010
The installation of a memorial bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in Bedford, Va., next to Western Allied leaders in World War II has ignited a firestorm of controversy and threatened to tear apart the small town 200 miles south of the nation's capital.
Opponents of the bronze sculpture say it has no right to be placed in the National D-Day Memorial next to the busts of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill because Stalin's mur
Source: Yahoo News
Jul 16, 2010
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the tea party have hurled accusations of racism at each other all week, sparking off a media frenzy that has made it difficult at times to keep track of the debate.
Yesterday, the fight took a pretty bizarre turn: Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams posted an imaginary letter to President Abraham Lincoln on his personal website that accused the NAACP of being racist for using the word "colored" i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 16, 2010
A long lost Hollywood silent film featuring Charlie Chaplin is to be screened for the first time in nearly a century after being discovered at an antiques fair.
The comedy called A Thief Catcher was made in 1914 and was missing for so many years that Chaplin's appearance in it as a buffoon policeman had been forgotten.
The 10-minute movie was discovered by the American cinema historian, Paul Gierucki, who bought a can of old film marked "Keystone" at an antiqu
Source: CNN
Jul 16, 2010
A top Libyan oil official on Friday denied allegations of an agreement to free the Lockerbie bomber in exchange for bolstered BP commercial interests in the country.
Britain and Libya had sparred over whether Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi should be included in a prisoner transfer agreement the two nations were negotiating. Under the agreement, Libyan prisoners in Britain would be transferred to Libya to serve out their sentences.
British officials and BP said the oil
Source: CNN
Jul 16, 2010
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared on the island's state-run television for the second time in less than a week on Friday, using the forum to again blast U.S. arms policy.
But a world limited to conventional arms would leave the United States in a position of power, he said. The 83-year-old former Cuban leader cited as an example the power of a Trident submarine to launch "in two minutes" a missile made of a material stronger than steel that could travel at speeds u
Source: BBC
Jul 16, 2010
The US has raised concerns about the release of the Lockerbie bomber, after the foreign secretary said the decision to free him was "a mistake".
William Hague spoke to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Britain may wish to explain the circumstances behind Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's release.
Four US senators believe oil giant BP lobbied for the move to secure a deal with Libya....
Source: The Post-Standard
Jul 16, 2010
The Montezuma Historical Society on Sunday will hold a program honoring the 185th anniversary of the Mentz Church’s first service.
The program begins at 2 p.m. at the old church, at the intersection of McDonald and Mentz Church roads in the town of Montezuma....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 16, 2010
Leonardo da Vinci's painting technique of using multiple layers of paint and glaze has been examined in an attempt to crack the mystery of Mona Lisa's smile.
French researchers studied seven of Paris's Louvre Museum's Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the Mona Lisa to analyse his technique that gave his works their dreamy quality.
Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint o
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jul 16, 2010
Archaeological dig at abandoned Roman city in Hampshire yields earliest representation of an Egyptian deity found in Britain.
A battered and corroded thumb-sized piece of bronze has turned out to be a unique find, the earliest representation of an Egyptian deity from any site in Britain – and appropriately, after almost 2,000 years hidden in the ground, it is Harpocrates, the god of secrecy and silence.
The little figure was found at Silchester, site of an abandoned Rom
Source: ABC News
Jul 16, 2010
Mount Vernon recreates Founding Father's rye whiskey recipe for the public.
The distillery, just three miles from Mount Vernon outside of Alexandria, Va. opened for business after the Virginia General Assembly approved sales in small amounts, selling out all 471 bottles at $85 dollars a pop.
Unlike whiskey made today, however, the general's batch wasn't aged. According to historians, the saying goes that Washington's whiskey was aged from the time it took to get from M
Source: AFP
Jul 16, 2010
New Yorkers raced against time Friday to reveal the secrets of a mostly intact, 18th century sailing ship found in the muddy foundations of the World Trade Center reconstruction site.
The ghostly vessel emerged from the mud earlier this week, its hull and deck virtually complete and still equipped with an anchor. But with sudden exposure to air wreaking havoc on the wood, archaeologists are hurrying to examine their find.
The unexpected echo from Manhattan's early years
