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: CNN
Jul 2, 2010
A fugitive Rwandan clergyman wanted for his role in the 1994 genocide has been arrested in Uganda, a police spokesman told CNN Friday.
A 2001 indictment from the U.N.-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda alleges that Jean-Bosco Uwinkindi, now 59, led a group that sought out and killed Tutsis in the genocide. Some 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in 100 days, many of them brutally bludgeoned or sliced open with machetes.
The indictment says that about 2,000
Source: CNN
Jul 2, 2010
If she's confirmed, Solicitor General Elena Kagan would become the fourth woman to sit on the Supreme Court. If not, at least she'll earn a spot on a future version of this list -- nominees who didn't make it to the bench, at least on their first try.
1. Robert Bork
In our time, the most famous rejected nominee is Robert H. Bork, a legal scholar and U.S. Court of Appeals judge with a long paper trail of conservative opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 19
Source: CNN
Jul 2, 2010
Would the spirit of the Declaration of Independence have been any different if it referred to Americans as "subjects" instead of "citizens?"
Thomas Jefferson apparently thought so, and recent analysis of a rough draft of the Declaration has confirmed speculation that he considered both before settling on "citizens."
Recent hyperspectral imaging by scientists in the Library of Congress' Preservation Research and Testing Division performed on
Source: BBC
Jul 2, 2010
The contents of an "indecipherable" letter written by David Livingstone shortly before he met Henry Stanley have been revealed for the first time.
The so-called Letter from Bambarre was scribbled by the Scottish explorer on torn-out book pages in February 1871.
Livingstone's writing had faded so badly it was impossible to read but scientists used spectral imaging technology to recover the text.
It condemns slavery, relays details of Africa and rev
Source: AP
Jul 1, 2010
"Colonel Peacock, Major Hogan, Captain Bower ... Shoot from the hip! Quick march! Right turn!" The names, ranks and barked commands of World War II British officers tumble from these old Asian soldiers' memories as if it all happened yesterday.
But the war never really ended for the Karen tribesmen who fought with the British to drive the Japanese out of Burma, and who now live as refugees in jungle camps astride the Thai-Myanmar border or inside their ravaged homeland, i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 1, 2010
A terse letter in which Italy's national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, pleads poverty over an outstanding tax debt is among a cache of rare documents which will go on display for the first time at the world's oldest bank.
The documents come from the archives of the Monte dei Paschi bank, which was founded in 1472 in the Tuscan city of Siena and ranks as the oldest surviving bank in the world....
Source: Politico
Jul 1, 2010
A new poll of leading presidential scholars ranks Barack Obama as the 15th best president of the United States, just below Bill Clinton but ahead of Ronald Reagan.
The Siena College poll, which surveyed 238 presidential scholars at U.S. colleges and universities, asked scholars to rate the nation’s 43 chief executives on 20 attributes ranging from legislative accomplishments to integrity and imagination.
In the overall ranking, Obama rated two places below Clinton, who
Source: BBC News
Jul 1, 2010
A team of archaeologists have announced they are to investigate Ice Age Jersey.
An initial 18-day dig is to take place at seven sites including La Cotte, where Ice Age remains have been found.
The 21-strong crew includes researchers from Southampton University, University College London, and the British Museum....
Source: CNN.com
Jul 1, 2010
There have been plenty of attacks on Christianity over the years, but few claims have been more surprising than one advanced by an obscure Swedish scholar this spring.
The Gospels do not say Jesus was crucified, Gunnar Samuelsson says.
In fact, he argues, in the original Greek, the ancient texts reveal only that Jesus carried "some kind of torture or execution device" to a hill where "he was suspended" and died, says Samuelsson, who is an evangelical
Source: Catholic.net
Jul 1, 2010
The recently opened sections of the Vatican Secret Archives have revealed that Pope Pius XII not only helped save thousands of Jews, but also their patrimony, from the Nazis.
Pave the Way Foundation reported Tuesday that its researchers found documents of "great importance."
Michael Hesemann, a historian and foundation representative from Germany, has been researching documents in the Vatican archives and he found a letter sent by Cardinal Eugenio Pacell
Source: BBC
Jul 1, 2010
This week marks the 70th anniversary of a tragedy which deeply affected the Italian community in Wales.
A ship called the Arandora Star was sunk off the coast of Ireland. It was carrying Italians and Germans who had been arrested after the outbreak of war.
The sinking of the Arandora Star touched virtually every Italian family living in south Wales, as it did so many other Italian families in London and Scotland....
Source: BBC
Jul 1, 2010
The costs of a Leonardo da Vinci theft investigation and extortion case at the High Court have exceeded £350,000.
The figures were obtained by the BBC via Freedom of Information requests.
Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary has spent nearly £250,000 on its operations since the Madonna of the Yarnwinder was stolen in 2003.
Prosecution costs of two extortion cases, which did not result in any convictions, have been estimated at a little more than £130,000.
Source: BBC
Jul 1, 2010
Somalia's President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is on the front line, as fierce battles rage on the day the country marks 50 years of independence.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that the president was dressed in military fatigues atop an African Union tank.
The president warned before the anniversary that Somalia was in danger of perishing as a nation.
Government troops, backed by African peacekeepers, are battling Islamist militants who control most of Somalia.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 1, 2010
Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue is back in plain sight after a four-month long £2.7 million renovation.
As it was unveiled, the monument was lit up in green and yellow to honour the Brazilian football team as it played in the World Cup.
The renovation to the 125-foot Christ the Redeemer, which draws nearly two million visitors a year, was funded through public and private donations. In an effort to match the colour of the soapstone, the restorers used more
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 1, 2010
Amedeo Guillet, who died on June 16 aged 101, was the Italian officer who led the last cavalry charge faced by the British Army.
Amedeo Guillet was born in Piacenza on February 7 1909 to a Savoyard-Piedmontese family of the minor aristocracy which for generations had served the dukes of Savoy, who later became the kings of Italy.
He spent most of his childhood in the south – he remembered the Austrian biplane bombing of Bari during the First World War – then followed
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 1, 2010
A terse letter in which Italy's national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi, pleads poverty over an outstanding tax debt is among a cache of rare documents which will go on display for the first time at the world's oldest bank.
The documents come from the archives of the Monte dei Paschi bank, which was founded in 1472 in the Tuscan city of Siena and ranks as the oldest surviving bank in the world.
They include the earliest known prototype of today's travellers' cheques – a prea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 1, 2010
A 75-year-old man has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for killing thousands of people during Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Yussuf Munyakazi, a father of 13, was found guilty of "genocide and extermination" involving Tutsis who had sought refuge in Catholic churches, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said in a statement.
In a summary of its judgement on Wednesday, the court said it accepted the accounts of witnesses, who said that Munyakazi led group
Source: CNN
Jul 1, 2010
Former military members on Thursday slammed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan over her handling of military recruiters on the Harvard campus when she was dean of the university's law school.
On the final day of the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Kagan, a total of 24 witnesses were scheduled to testify for and against President Barack Obama's pick to replace the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
The 50-year old Kagan has come under criticism from
Source: CNN
Jul 1, 2010
Researchers scanning the Peruvian desert for whale fossils have stumbled upon the remains of a "sea monster" three times the size of a modern day killer whale.
The teeth of "Leviathan Melvillei" were so large it was initially assumed they were elephant tusks.
They had been searching for other types of whale fossils in a remote area some 300 kilometers south of Lima. "The place where we found it was 20 kilometers from the nearest village," s
Source: Jewish Exponent
Jul 1, 2010
It's accepted as a truism that the majority of Philadelphians take the wealth of historical artifacts that surround them -- the most significant dating from the period of this country's struggle for independence -- pretty much for granted. I say this with some certainty since I count myself as typical of those who've spent most of their lives in and around Philly. For example, I always stop for a second to admire Independence Hall's trim classical lines (when I'm in the area, that is), and enjoy
