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: AFP
September 23, 2008
The central Iraqi Sunni city of Samarra which houses a revered Shiite mosque that was bombed by Al-Qaeda has been selected as a world heritage site, the government said on Tuesday.
"The Universal Heritage Committee of UNESCO has agreed to add the city of Samarra to its list of world heritage sites," a statement said.
Samarra, north of Baghdad in Sunni Salaheddin province, gained prominence after the Shiite Al-Askari shrine there was bombed on February 22, 200
Source: AP
September 24, 2008
For the first time, the stories of the arrival of Native Americans and African slaves to U.S. shores will be included in the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.
The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation announced Wednesday that it was creating The Peopling of America Center within the museum to tell the history of those who arrived before and after the peak immigration years between 1892 and 1954.
The story of the migration to America "goes back to the beginning o
Source: BBC News (Click here to watch clips.)
September 24, 2008
The televised presidential debates have played a key role in many of the US election campaigns since the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon contest. Here are some of the dramatic moments which changed the course of election history.
Source: AP
September 24, 2008
VIZNAR, Spain -- The tranquil, pine-carpeted hills in this patch of southern Spain hold awful secrets. Now, one of them has been thrust into the spotlight of a still painful accounting of atrocities committed in the Spanish Civil War.
The dispute has arisen over whether to open the grave of Federico Garcia Lorca, widely considered Spain's best 20th century poet and playwright.
At the start of the 1936-39 war, Viznar, near the ancient city of Granada, became one of many
Source: CNN
September 24, 2008
In a blistering speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed "a few bullying powers" for creating the world's problems and said the "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road."
And while he insisted Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful, Ahmadinejad blamed the same powers for seeking to hinder it "by exerting political and economic pressures on Iran, and threatening and pressuring" t
Source: WaPo
September 24, 2008
A brief survey of current events:
The stock market has gone nuts, and the federal government is treating Wall Street with experimental cures that will cost nearly $1 trillion. An unpopular foreign war, now in its sixth year, has resulted in more than 4,100 American deaths. For the first time in history, the presidential campaign includes an African American candidate for president and a Republican female candidate for vice president.
Taken together, these data points gi
Source: BBC News
September 24, 2008
A prominent French writer, Pierre Pean, is on trial in Paris accused of inciting racial hatred in a book on the Rwandan genocide.
Mr Pean wrote that the Tutsis had a culture of lies and deceit, and this had somehow spread to the Hutus.
He said it made investigating Rwanda "an almost impossible task". Some 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in 1994.
A French rights group, SOS Racisme, filed the lawsuit against Mr Pean.
Source: Reuters
September 24, 2008
Forensic experts said on Wednesday they had unearthed the remains of 362 Muslim victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia.
It was the 10th mass grave found in the village of Kamenica, in an area labeled "Death Valley," that contained the remains of many of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed by Bosnian Serb forces as they fled Srebrenica in July 1995.
Source: Telegraph
September 22, 2008
A 14th-century recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks is to put online for the first time to give modern-day chefs an insight into the delicacies of the Middle Ages.
Forme of Cury, which was written in 1390 in Middle English, details more than 200 recipes that were cooked in the royal household, including blank mang (a sweet dish of meat, milk, sugar and almonds) and mortrews (ground and spiced pork).
The book is one of 40 rare manuscripts that are bein
Source: AP
September 24, 2008
VERSAILLES, France -- The Petit Trianon was Marie Antoinette's refuge, the mini-chateau where she escaped from queenly protocol and played at living a simpler life. Curators who oversaw its renovation have tried to recreate that intimate atmosphere.
The boxy neoclassical building on the grounds of the immense chateau at Versailles reopened Wednesday after a yearlong, $7.34 million renovation funded by Swiss watchmaker Breguet, which once made a timepiece for the queen...
Source: BBC
September 23, 2008
Many people have compared the current financial crisis with the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s that followed it.
Yet current events are clearly not in the same league.
"I don't think so, considering that the Great Depression had thousands of banks failing and people losing their life savings, 25% unemployment and social unrest and tent cities of the poor," says Allan Sloan, Washington Post and Fortune magazine columnist.
Source: NYT
September 23, 2008
A week before the American government plans to start a redesigned civics test as part of the naturalization process, a senior immigration official sought on Tuesday to calm nervous immigrants and critics who say the new exam will be more challenging than the current one.
“It’s not harder than the current exam,” said Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the citizenship office at Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that devises and administers the test. “In fact, for some it may be
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 24, 2008
A hotelier who saved three historic country houses from ruin has given them to the National Trust in one of the biggest donations ever made to the charity.
The properties include Middlethorpe Hall near York, a William III country house that served as a nightclub for an inglorious decade before being rescued by businessman Richard Broyd.
Hartwell House, a Jacobean and Georgian property set in 90 acres of grounds near Aylesbury, Bucks, has also been handed to the Trust al
Source: http://www.winchesterstar.com
September 24, 2008
When the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Association distributed its new tourist guide “Shenandoah at War” last spring, officials at the organization crossed their fingers for a positive response.
To their surprise, the response was greater than expected, especially after the guide got some exposure in a Richmond Times-Dispatch story.
“We were inundated,” said Elizabeth Stern, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation’s associate director for policy and communication
Source: AHA Blog
September 22, 2008
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has posted reports on the impact of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav on historic buildings in the affected areas, including several National Trust properties. On September 17, representatives of the Galveston Historical Foundation received permission from authorities to visit Galveston Island to assess the damage. They report that the Strand National Historic Landmark District and East End residential district sustained serious flood damage. The Trust is see
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
September 22, 2008
If you like presidential debates, thank Ronald Reagan.
Until Reagan ran for reelection in 1984, debates were a hit-and-miss thing. Only when both candidates thought it was in their interest to debate would debates take place. In 1960, the younger and less experienced candidate, John F. Kennedy, wanted to debate in order to close the stature gap with Vice President Richard Nixon. Nixon wanted to debate because he was trailing in the polls and thought he was a really great debater.
Source: McClatchy
September 22, 2008
In this telegenic, mass-media age, the health and fitness of presidential candidates often is equated with their fitness to lead.
But should someone's health, vigor and resting pulse rate make a whit of difference as a barometer of performance as president? And is it fair to compare the health and wellness of candidates who have a 25-year age gap, as is the case with Barack Obama and John McCain?
Yes, says presidential historian Allan Lichtman, author of "The Keys
Source: WaPo
September 23, 2008
The Smithsonian Board of Regents yesterday continued to transform its operational structure by electing Patricia Q. Stonesifer, the former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the chairwoman of its board.
The position was created more than a year ago in the wake of scandal at the institution. Stonesifer will take over from current chairman Roger Sant in late January.
Source: http://www.dailymail.com
September 9, 2008
ST. ALBANS, W.Va. -- Many 11-year-olds breathe and live video games. Zane Samples chooses to spend his time wearing Confederate gray and living history.
"They hated the blue devils (Union troops), and they had nice hearts," he said of Confederate soldiers. "The rebels stood strong. They didn't have anything, but they still held together."
A fifth-grader at St. Francis Assisi School in St. Albans, Zane shared his love for Civil War history last weeken
Source: http://www.thecentralvirginian.com
September 22, 2008
More than 144 years after General George A. Custer positioned his headquarters on its front porch, the Charles Goodall Trevilian
House will cement its permanent place in the battle's history for future generations.
After some negotiations, the sprawling antebellum homeplace on Danne Road was recently purchased by the Civil War Preservation
Trust with the assistance of the Trevilians Station Battlefield Foundation."People see different things when they look at a house," said Gerald W. Harlow
