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: BBC
Jul 15, 2010
Nelson Mandela's African National Congress is preparing to celebrate his 92nd birthday.
In a statement Thursday, South Africa's governing party said President Jacob Zuma and other ANC officials will visit Mandela on Saturday, the eve of his birthday, at his Johannesburg home.
On Mandela's birthday, ANC leaders will renovate a school in Mvezo, the southern South African village where Mandela was born....
Source: BBC
Jul 15, 2010
A court session in John Demjanjuk's (dehm-YAHN'-yuks) trial in Germany has been put off after the court's doctor said the 90-year-old was recovering from dehydration.
Dr. Albrecht Stein told the court Thursday that Demjanjuk had not been drinking enough during recent hot weather and needed intravenous fluids.
The former Ohio autoworker is being tried on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder over allegations he was a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp. He says he is a
Source: BBC
Jul 15, 2010
A senior Tanzanian defence lawyer at the UN-backed tribunal for Rwanda has been shot dead outside his home in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam.
Jwani Mwaikusa, who also taught law at the University of Dar es Salaam, was killed as he drove into his compound on the outskirts of the town.
Police say his nephew and a neighbour were also killed on Tuesday night.
The attackers are reported to have ransacked the professor's car, taking a briefcase and some d
Source: BBC
Jul 15, 2010
The US Secretary of State is considering a request to examine whether BP lobbied the UK to try to secure the transfer of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.
Hillary Clinton is looking at the request from four senators who claim the firm pressed for the release in the hope of securing an offshore oil deal.
BP has denied making any representations over his case.
The latest request cites newspaper reports claiming BP lobbied for Megrahi's release to safeguard an oi
Source: BBC
Jul 15, 2010
Two US TV networks have refused to air a controversial advert condemning plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.
The advert is funded by the National Republican Trust, a conservative group not affiliated to the Republican Party.
Entitled "Kill the Ground Zero Mosque", the video calls the proposed mosque a "monstrosity" that will invite further attacks on the US.
The advertisement has received over 1
Jul 15, 2010
Omar Bin Laden, the son of fugitive terrorist Osama Bin Laden, has said that he believes his father is still alive, although he does not know where he is.
Mr Bin Laden, 29, said he still loved his father, but he does not want to be like him.
Mr Bin Laden also spoke about his love of American culture, saying that he enjoys Jim Carrey films, American football, rock music and even Laurel And Hardy....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 15, 2010
More than 900 unexploded bombs from the Second World War have been found beneath a restaurant in Okinawa.
Construction workers on a road expansion project discovered the explosives with a metal detector and notified police, Kiyotaka Maedomari, a senior police official in Itoman city, said.
An army bomb disposal squad discovered the total of 902 unexploded munitions – including rocket bombs, grenades and motor projectiles – believed to have been made in the United Stat
Source: Discovery.com
Jul 14, 2010
Scientists who exhumed the remains of several members of the Medicis, the clan that dominated the Florentine Renaissance, have conclusively dismissed the theory of family murders, solving a more than 400-year-old cold case.
Malaria, not poison as long rumored, killed Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Bianca Cappello, according to research to be published in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The couple d
Source: Politico
Jul 14, 2010
In 1971, then-27-year-old John Kerry delivered testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that contained a powerful message to the members of the upper chamber: You have the power to end to this.
“We are asking here in Washington for some action, action from the Congress of the United States of America, which has the power to raise and maintain armies, and which, by the Constitution, also has the power to declare war,” Kerry said. “We have come here, not to the preside
Source: AP
Jul 14, 2010
In the middle of London, a plot of earth is dug across with trenches and studded with old bricks. If the world of theater ever has hallowed ground, this is it.
It's the site of London's first theater, where William Shakespeare's plays were performed and where the Bard himself once trod the boards.
Archaeologists who have been digging here since 2008 have uncovered a section of outer wall and floor surface from the building, completed in 1576 and known simply as The Thea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 14, 2010
A 900-year-old drainage system has saved a city in south China from severe floods that have left over one hundred people dead and a million homeless across the region.
Torrential rain and flash floods have caused £1.9 billion of damage in China. Nearly forty people were killed this week alone in a series of landslides.
But the 100,000 residents of the ancient city of Ganzhou, in Jiangxi province, are safe and dry, thanks to two drains built during the Song dynasty (960
Source: The Art Newspaper
Jul 14, 2010
A large number of major works of art are now being sold by aristocratic British owners (see p1). All come from stately homes, most of which are open to the public. The list of major works is worth around £80m; add in lesser works and those being marketed discreetly, and the total could exceed £100m.
Duke of Devonshire
One of the surprise sales is from Chatsworth, a £10m bronze relief of Ugolino Imprisoned with his Sons and Grandsons (around 1549, right), by Leonardo’s n
Source: NYT
Jul 14, 2010
In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday.
On Tuesday morning, workers excavating the site of the underground vehicle security center for the future World Trade Center hit a row of sturdy, upright wood timbers, regularly spaced, sticking out of a briny gray muck flecked with oyster shells.
Obviously, these were more than just remnants of the wooden cribbing used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to extend the shoreline
Source: BBC
Jul 14, 2010
France has staged its annual Bastille Day parade, amid criticism at the presence of some African leaders.
Armies from former colonies celebrating 50 years of independence were invited to join the military parade.
A human rights group has said that some of the troops and leaders should instead be facing trial for war crimes.
Critics also said the move gave the false impression that France granted them independence, when many fought against French rule.
Source: BBC
Jul 14, 2010
Researchers have discovered the skull of a 29 million-year-old animal that could be a common ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes, including humans.
It indicates that apes and Old World monkeys diverged millions of years later than previously thought, say the scientists.
The discovery was made in Saudi Arabia by researchers from the University of Michigan.
They described the primate, Saadanius hijazensis, in the journal Nature....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 14, 2010
A 900-year-old drainage system has saved a city in south China from severe floods that have left over one hundred people dead and a million homeless across the region.
Torrential rain and flash floods have caused £1.9 billion of damage in China. Nearly forty people were killed this week alone in a series of landslides.
But the 100,000 residents of the ancient city of Ganzhou, in Jiangxi province, are safe and dry, thanks to two drains built during the Song dynasty (96
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 14, 2010
Secret government memos suggest that Tony Blair ordered the Foreign Office to allow British terrorism suspects to be transported to Guantanamo Bay.
The documents were released as part of the civil court case being pursued by Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo prisoner.
They reveal that Mr Blair, then Prime Minister, personally overruled the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s demand for consular access to British prisoners....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 14, 2010
The North Iowa branch of the Tea Party has replaced a billboard comparing Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin, admitting the sign was a bad decision.
Workers papered over the sign in downtown Mason City at the request of an anti-tax tea party group in the state of Iowa.
The roughly 200-member tea party group had the original sign put up last week. It showed photographs of Mr Obama, Hitler and Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "N
Source: BBC
Jul 14, 2010
A huge outdoor art poster that blends Mickey Mouse's image with that of a swastika and a nude woman's body is causing a stir in Poland, where memories of the suffering inflicted by Nazi Germany remain strong.
The poster, which went up in June in the western city of Poznan just steps from a synagogue, is an Italian artist's take on what he calls the "horrors" of the American lifestyle and is one piece of artwork in a contemporary art exhibition opening in the fall.
Source: AP
Jul 14, 2010
A British gallery says a restoration project for Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" has revealed new details and suggest the artist may have painted all the picture himself, instead of with his assistants as previously thought.
The National Gallery says the 18-month project removed some yellowing varnish, enabling experts to take a closer look at the painting's brush strokes and styles.
It said Wednesday that research affirmed that the Renaissance artis
