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: Las Vegas Sun
October 18, 2008
A Nevada Republican Party mail piece that accuses Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of having “close ties to (a) domestic terrorist” is reckless and inflammatory, historians say, because it could stir dark passions, including a desire to inflict violence on Obama.
“This is dangerous politics,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian. He noted the country’s long history of political assassination and racial violence.
Shouts of “Kill him!” an
Source: NYT
October 18, 2008
ST. GALLEN, Switzerland — One of the oldest and most valuable collections of handwritten medieval books in the world, housed in the magnificent baroque halls of the library in this town’s abbey, is going online with the help of a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
For centuries scholars from around the world have flocked to the Stiftsbibliothek — literally, the abbey library — in this quaint town nestled in the rolling hills of eastern Switzerland, to pore over i
Source: International Herald Tribune
October 18, 2008
Thai and Cambodian field commanders worked Saturday to strengthen a fragile truce following a deadly gunbattle between their soldiers stationed on the border.
The commanders, Cambodian Maj. Gen. Srey Doek and Thai Col. Chayan Huaysoongnern, conducted a joint inspection of their troops, ate lunch together and discussed how to prevent future flare-ups of violence in disputed territory near an 11th century temple.
Fighting between the two sides Wednesday killed two Cambodi
Source: International Herald Tribune
October 17, 2008
Life appears to be imitating art in a drama convulsing the Czech Republic: the charge that when he was a 21-year-old student, Milan Kundera, now one of eastern Europe's most celebrated writers, denounced a Western intelligence agent to Czechoslovakia's communist police.
The denunciation resulted in a 22-year jail sentence for the agent, Miroslav Dvoracek, including hard labor in a uranium mine.
In Kundera's first novel, "The Joke," a mordantly comic satire of
Source: WSJ
October 18, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The five life-sized bronze men line up, in hats and overcoats, their shoulders slumped. Outside a closed door, they wait for bread or, perhaps, a job.
Eva Durak, 31 years old, slipped into the queue of statues and assumed a glum pose appropriate to the Great Depression, while a friend snapped a picture. It wasn't hard for her to fake the misery. Business at the restaurant where Ms. Durak tends bar is off about 75%, she figures.
"We're almost there,&qu
Source: Times (UK)
October 15, 2008
Winston Churchill authorised millions of dollars in bribes to stop General Franco from entering the Second World War on the side of Germany, a new book claims.
The British wartime leader persuaded Juan March, a Spanish banker, to act as a secret agent, organising payments of millions of dollars to the generals. In return the generals persuaded Franco not to side with Hitler.
The plot was revealed by the historian Pere Ferrer in Juan March: The Most Mysterious Man in the
Source: National Geographic News
October 16, 2008
A development boom near Egypt's Abydos archaeological site is damaging one of the most sacred gathering places for ancient pilgrims, experts say.
Millions of Egyptians crossed the desert surrounding Abydos from 664 B.C. to A.D. 395 to pay homage to the god of the dead, Osiris. Many of Egypt's earliest pharaohs were buried at the site.
Modern pressures in the form of new farms and buildings have taken their toll on the 3.1-mile (5-kilometer) wide area, sometimes called t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2008
The 19 files, which date from 1986 and 1992, show the extensive records of strange sightings by members of the public and unexplained radar images from air traffic control.
In one instance, an Alitalia flight coming into land at London's Heathrow Airport reported a near miss with a UFO, which the pilot described as "similar to a missile - light brown or fawn - about three metres in length but without any exhaust flame".
Captain Achille Zaghetti was so concer
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2008
It has long been suspected that humans have an ancient history of drug use, but there has been a lack of proof to support the theory.
Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to prehistoric South American tribes.
Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an archeologist from North Carolina State University, made the breakthrough on the Caribbean island of Carriacou.
Source: LAT
October 10, 2008
In one homeland they were treated as outcasts, in the other as refugees. Now thousands of these Amerasians are uniting and lobbying Congress for what they feel is a birthright: 'We are Americans.'
Source: NYT
October 16, 2008
RIVERTON, Wyo. — At 69, her eyes soft and creased with age, Alvena Oldman remembers how the teachers at St. Stephens boarding school on the Wind River Reservation would strike students with rulers if they dared to talk in their native Arapaho language.
“We were afraid to speak it,” she said. “We knew we would be punished.”
More than a half-century later, only about 200 Arapaho speakers are still alive, and tribal leaders at Wind River, Wyoming’s only Indian reservation,
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 17, 2008
For more than 60 years Britain's Bomber Command led by Arthur 'Bomber' Harris has been vilified for causing up to 500,000 deaths in the carpet bombing of Dresden during World War II.
But now, after a four-year investigation, a panel of German historians has said that the true number of dead from the Allied air raids in January 1945 was between 18,000 and 25,000.
They reached the figure after combing through death certificates, hitherto sealed eyewitness reports, registr
Source: NYT
October 16, 2008
“To Keep or Not Keep the Electoral College.”
With a Shakespearean flourish, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to apply its engineering and systems know-how to that question at a conference tomorrow that brings together Constitutional scholars and mathematics experts.
“Since its creation in 1787, the Electoral College has remained the most mysterious mechanism for electing a president of a country,’’ said Alexander S. Belenky, head of the Center for Enginee
Source: Guardian (UK)
October 18, 2008
A former head of MI5 today describes the response to the September 11 2001 attacks on the US as a "huge overreaction" and says the invasion of Iraq influenced young men in Britain who turned to terrorism.
In an interview with the Guardian, Stella Rimington calls al-Qaida's attack on the US "another terrorist incident" but not qualitatively different from any others.
"That's not how it struck me. I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a go
Source: Times (UK)
October 18, 2008
The terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, played an important part in bringing about peace in Northern Ireland, a leading negotiator in the peace process said.
Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s chief of staff, said yesterday that he believed the extent of the damage and carnage caused by the attacks deterred the IRA from further bombings. Speaking at The Times Cheltenham Literary Festival, Mr Powell said: “It’s true, 9/11 was important. Terror is competitive, or
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 17, 2008
The allegation came as graffiti questioning the veracity of the attempted extermination of Europe's Jews was daubed on a bridge on the outskirts of the capital.
"The Holocaust is the biggest lie in history," one slogan read, signed by a neo-Nazi group calling itself 'Militia'.
Last month the same group defaced the walls of a historic cemetery, calling the speaker of Italy's Senate, Renato Schifani, a "Jew" for having paid a visit to Auschwitz.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 18, 2008
Dozens of previously unseen doctors' reports, diaries and prescriptions show that people visited hospitals with symptoms including depression, inflamed bodies, excessive erotic desire, irrational thoughts and a loss of self control.
The term love sickness would now be considered to be unrequited or forbidden love or the distress of being broken-hearted.
Doctors prescribed remedies including potions, diets, mental exercises and listening to music.
In drastic
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 18, 2008
Papers which were kept secret for almost 70 years show that the Soviet Union proposed sending a powerful military force in an effort to entice Britain and France into an anti-Nazi alliance.
Such an agreement could have changed the course of 20th century history, preventing Hitler's pact with Stalin which gave him free rein to go to war with Germany's other neighbours.
The offer of a military force to help contain Hitler was made by a senior Soviet military delegation
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 18, 2008
Night after night they climbed into their cramped and freezing aircraft to strike at Germany's cities and factories.
And each time they flew, the odds of them surviving the night-fighters and flak grew longer and longer.
Yet the sacrifice and seemingly inexhaustible bravery of the young men of Bomber Command has gone almost unrecognised for 60 years.
Even Churchill snubbed them, though they faced some of the worst losses of any branch of the British mili
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 17, 2008
A middle-aged man has launched a bizarre legal bid - claiming to be the secret love child of John F Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 53, insists he is the legal heir to JFK's cash - and is suing the late President's estate for what he says is his fair share.
And he says he has kept his identity secret for 45 years since Kennedy's death because he was hoping his estate would "do the right thing" and pay him.
Lawyers for the esta
