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: Free Lance-Star
January 26, 2009
Its recent peace overture got a frosty reception, but the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition remains committed to working with Orange County on developments proposed at the gateway to the Civil War site.
Two weeks ago, three Orange supervisors slam-med the coalition's offer to collaborate on planning the area's future, calling it a ruse to delay their decision on a proposed retail center anchored by a 138,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter. One called the offer a "cheap ploy to
Source: Spero News
January 26, 2009
Demonstrations are being held in many European countries to save the monastery of Mor Gabriel, a spiritual center for the Syriac Orthodox community in Turkey.
Founded in 397, it is the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world. It is located on the plateau of Tur Abdin, "The Mountain of the Servants of God," on the Turkish border with Iraq. The see of the metropolitan archbishop of Tur Abdin, Mor Timotheus Samuel Aktas, with its three monks, 14 nuns, and 35 young
Source: WSJ
January 27, 2009
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- This capital city was named for a rock. That's clear. But ask a local to point out which rock exactly and you're likely to draw a blank stare.
Once, people would have known: The city's namesake jutted into a crook of the Arkansas River from the steep south bank, creating a perfect landing spot for ferries and riverboats. But in 1872, huge chunks of the rock were blasted away to make room for a railroad bridge. The remnants soon disappeared from view, hidden by w
Source: AP
January 27, 2009
ANGEL ISLAND STATE PARK, Calif. – The Angel Island Immigration Station, once known as the "Ellis Island of the West," is reopening after a multimillion-dollar restoration of the historical landmark aimed at showing visitors a chapter of American history that many would rather forget.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Asia, were detained on the largest island in San Francisco Bay for days, weeks and sometimes months in the three decades before World War II.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 28, 2009
Benjamin Netanyahu, the favourite to win next month’s Israeli general election, yesterday predicted al-Qaeda would blow up the purported burial place of Jesus Christ, if the country relinquished control of Jerusalem.
Mr Netanyahu, who claimed to have forecast the destruction of the Twin Towers by Islamic extremists in 1995, said terrorists would target the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Christianity’s holiest site.
“Radical Islam is willing and will want to attack the
Source: Foxnews
January 28, 2009
Iran's government spokesman on Tuesday branded the Holocaust a "big lie" created to place the Islamic republic's arch-foe Israel in the Middle East, the state IRNA news agency reported.
"The Holocaust is a concept coming from a big lie in order to settle a rootless regime in the heart of the Islamic world," Gholam Hossein Elham told a conference on Gaza in central Iran's religious city of Qom.
It was not the first time an Iranian official has questio
Source: BBC
January 21, 2009
You would think, on meeting him, that Sameh Zakout has a contented life - a career in music, occasional trips abroad, the very embodiment of an Israeli Arab who has made the most of his opportunities.
Sameh's grandparents once lived in the Palestinian village of Isdud, just south of Tel Aviv.
But in 1948, they fled their home as refugees during the war that brought about Israel's creation.
Isdud was left in ruins and today its agricultural land is cultiv
Source: BBC
January 28, 2009
A decision is due to be made over the future of a skeleton found near an ancient stone circle 80 years ago.
Druids have called for the remains of the three-year-old child to be reburied at Avebury, Wiltshire, out of respect.
But archaeologists insist the skeleton - currently on display at the Alexander Keiller museum - should be kept available for research and testing.
Public consultation on whether the remains should reburied ends this weekend.
Source: Russia-IC
January 27, 2009
Moscow archeologists unearthed a hoard of ancient coins, jewels and an icon. Many of the items date back to the 12th century.
On the 6-meter depth one can discern outlines of ancient Moscow constructions: a well, remains of a palisade, charred logs, and traces of a big fire.
"These are unique coins. As a matter of fact, these are the earliest Moscow money. They were coined under the Great Prince Vasili Dmitrievich, the son of Dmitry Donskoy. We have never found who
Source: BBC
January 26, 2009
Sonja Karadzic was a very familiar presence to those of us who reported the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s.
Ms Karadzic told me how she had no contact with her father for five years. She and her mother had begun the legal process in Bosnia to have him declared officially dead.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, she has given the first real insight into how her father will defend himself at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY
Source: Tehran Times
January 28, 2009
The studies were carried out on 52 skeletons discovered by a joint Italian-Iranian archaeological team at the cemetery of the city during the 12th season of excavation that concluded last week.
“Using teeth to assist in creating artwork was very common among the people of the Burnt City,” anthropologist of the team Farzad Foruzanfar told the Persian service of CHN on Tuesday.
The people used their teeth in weaving wicker, nets and textiles, and in creating artwork wit
Source: History Today
January 27, 2009
A sunken ship, which dates back almost three centuries, has been discovered in the Gulf of Finland during a seabed survey for the Nordstream gas pipeline project. The wreck was found, 54 metres beneath the seabed, near the island of Gogland along with the remains of five other ships from a Russian fleet which sank after a storm in 1713. The 16-metre long ship is a Dutch-modelled tjalk, a flat-bottomed military transport ship with a shallow draught particularly adapted to the rivers and coastal w
Source: Deutsche Welle
January 28, 2009
The witness, now aged 80, gave his testimony via video link.
He told the court in Munich that in 1944, as a teenager, he had witnessed German Wehrmacht soldiers killing residents of his village, Falzano di Cortona. He said that eleven people, for example, were herded inside a farmhouse.
"The house was then blown up with dynamite," the witness told the court. "Only one person survived."
He also said the soldiers had killed three other vil
Source: TPM (Liberal blog)
January 27, 2009
On the question of whether we'll get to the bottom of the Bush White House's role in the US Attorney firings, it's starting to look more and more like the ball is squarely in President Obama's court.
Yesterday, as we noted, House Judiciary chair John Conyers issued a subpoena to Karl Rove, ordering him to testify about the affair February 2nd and declaring ominously: "It's time for him to talk."
(Rove, making a claim to executive privilege backed by President
Source: Stone Pages
January 25, 2009
In a an analysis of the size, shape and asymmetry of the cranium of Homo floresiensis, Karen Baab, a researcher in the Department of Anatomical Scienes at Stony Brook University, and colleagues conclude that the fossil, found in Indonesia in 2003 and known as the 'Hobbit,' is not human. They used 3-D shape analysis to study the LB1 skull of the hobbit and found the shape of the skull to be consistent with a scaled down human ancestor but not modern humans. Their findings, reported in the current
Source: AP
January 27, 2009
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa – It's been 50 years since a single-engine plane crashed into a snow-covered Iowa field, instantly killing three men whose names would become enshrined in the history of rock 'n' roll.
The passing decades haven't diminished fascination with that night on Feb. 2, 1959, when 22-year-old Buddy Holly, 28-year-old J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and 17-year-old Ritchie Valens performed in Clear Lake and then boarded the plane for a planned 300-mile flight that
Source: Times (UK)
January 24, 2009
He is one of Britain’s best-known historical figures, famed for his exploration of the New World, controversial romantic liaisons and the chivalrous act of placing his jacket over a puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I’s feet would not get wet.
Much less known is Sir Walter Raleigh’s kinship with a young black boy from Guyana, whom he brought back with him from the Americas and who became ensconced in the explorer’s household, according to newly discovered records.
Centurie
Source: Open Democracy
January 24, 2009
As the twentieth anniversary of the end of communism in Poland approaches, polls estimate that around 44% of Poles have come to approve of his move against the Solidarity movement while only 32% are critical. The general himself invariably claims that his decision was motivated by fear that the Soviet Union would invade Poland - thus crushing far more than Solidarity. His critics argue that Moscow wouldn't have invaded and have Soviet documents to back their case. The Russians, relieved that th
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
January 27, 2009
No, the mascots didn't have to slug it out.
Instead, the case of Robert Morris versus Robert Morris, a spat over identity that landed two campuses hundreds of miles apart in federal court, has been amicably resolved.
Under an agreement, the college named Robert Morris -- the one in Chicago -- can legally begin calling itself a university as long as it tacks the word "Illinois" onto the end of the title.
It's part of a settlement preserving the nam
Source: http://www.stripes.com
January 25, 2009
Shepherd boys scale the ancient tower at Aqar Quf with ease.
The ziggurat’s clay-brick walls have eroded into steep cliffs over the past 3,500 years, and the
shepherds go hand over hand on a well-known path to the peak. There are no guards blocking the
climb, no visitors to watch the spectacle.
On the desert below, the shepherds’ flock grazes among the gutted remains of a museum and restaurant.
The Aqar Quf ziggurat is among the 10 oldest str
