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: Telegraph (UK)
April 11, 2010
Henry Kissinger cancelled a warning against carrying out international political assassinations just days before a former Chilean ambassador was killed in Washington, according to a newly released State Department cable.
The declassified document revived questions about Mr Kissinger's role in curbing the secret programme of international assassinations by South American dictators known as Operation Condor.
According to the National Security Archive, a research organisa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 11, 2010
The people of Sudan began voting on Sunday in a controversial election that will decide whether President Omar al-Bashir wins another term despite his indictment on charges he committed international war crimes in Darfur.
But voters were left with few alternatives after Mr Bashir's main challengers boycotted the race, citing widespread fraud before the voting even began.
The elections, which run through Tuesday, are supposed to be an essential step in a 2005 peace pla
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 10, 2010
The most dramatic and significant images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope have been named to mark the iconic telescope's 20th anniversary in space.
Now, to mark the observatory's 20th anniversary, scientists at Nasa have selected the most dramatic and scientifically-important images it has taken.
Massive clouds of dust where new stars are born, the bursts of light released when stars die, beautiful structures of galaxies and even new planets in dist
Source: Fox News
April 11, 2010
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Sunday defended fellow Gov. Bob McDonnell for his decision to declare April "Confederate History Month" in Virginia without initially acknowledging the legacy of slavery, saying the controversy "doesn't amount to diddly."
The Virginia governor took heat for his declaration from a slew of top officials, including President Obama and former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder -- the first black elected governor and a grandson of slave
Source: CNN
April 11, 2010
The body of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash in Russia over the weekend, returned to tributes in his homeland Sunday afternoon.
Soldiers in perfect step carried the casket from the plane that transported onto the tarmac, where mourners were waiting. Catholic priests recited prayers at the military airport before Kaczynski's daughter and twin brother, followed by others, took turns kneeling before the flag-draped casket.
People lined up al
Source: CNN
April 11, 2010
The shroud of Turin, which some Christians believe is Jesus Christ's burial cloth, went on public display Saturday for the first time since it was restored in 2002.
About two million people -- including Pope Benedict XVI -- are expected to view the shroud while it's on view at the Turin Cathedral for the next six weeks.
The shroud, which bears the image of a face that some Christians say is Jesus', was restored eight years ago to remove a patchwork repair done by 16th-c
Source: BBC
April 9, 2010
Russian leaders have paid tribute to Anatoly Dobrynin, a long-serving ambassador to the US renowned for his role in the Cuban missile crisis.
He died in Moscow on Tuesday at the age of 90.
Dobrynin was Russia's ambassador in Washington from 1962-1984, becoming a trusted intermediary between the two Cold War superpowers.
In a Kremlin statement, President Dmitry Medvedev called Dobrynin a "legend" of Russian diplomacy.
Russian Prime
Source: WaPo
April 10, 2010
MOSCOW -- Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 96, officials said.
Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the Soviet-era Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret
Source: The Daily Star
April 10, 2010
Archaeologists of Jahangirnagar University have postulated that the recently excavated remains and relics of three Buddhist monasteries at Nawabganj in Dinajpur district are of 10 th-11th centuries AD.
Director of the excavation team Ecological Archaeology Group Asst Prof Swadhin Sen of JU believes that the monasteries belong to the Pala dynasty when the region -- Rajshahi, Bogra, Pabna and Dinajpur (both in India and Bangladesh) -- was known as Varendra.
He said assem
Source: BBC
April 8, 2010
A rare first edition of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter, has been discovered.
The book was found by librarians at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, where Kipling's eldest daughter, Elsie, lived.
The author wrote the inscription to his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 aged six, said Trust officials.
The book is on display at Wimpole Hall, where Elsie lived from
Source: BBC
April 9, 2010
A Swedish man suspected of having masterminded the theft of a sign from the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz has been extradited to Poland.
Anders Hogstrom arrived in Warsaw before being taken to Krakow, not far from Auschwitz, for questioning, the BBC's Adam Easton reports.
Mr Hogstrom, a 34-year-old former neo-Nazi leader, denies any wrongdoing.
He told a Swedish newspaper that he was asked to take possession of the sign on behalf of an unnamed collector.
Source: BBC
April 9, 2010
A plan to scatter some of the ashes of explorer Sir Edmund Hillary at the peak of Mount Everest has been called off.
Buddhist lamas had warned it would bring bad luck, so the Sherpas behind the plan said the ashes instead would be kept at a monastery near Everest.
The world's highest mountain is considered sacred to the Buddhist Sherpas who live in the region.
Source: Discovery News
April 9, 2010
Nine megaliths in a remote part of Dartmoor, England, share features in common with Stonehenge, and may shed light on the meaning behind these prehistoric stone monuments, according to a report in the latest issue of British Archaeology.
The Dartmoor megaliths, which were recently carbon-dated to around 3500 B.C., could predate Stonehenge, but both sites feature large standing stones that are aligned to mark the rising of the midsummer sun and the setting of the midwinter sun. Yet a
Source: North Hampton
April 9, 2010
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be the remains of a medieval Jewish synagogue underneath a town centre take-away.
A survey of land underneath Kebabish and The Bear public House, both in Sheep Street, Northampton, has found what experts estimate could be the remains of an ancient synagogue, dating back hundreds of years.
The finds, which include brick walls and what appears to be a staircase, were confirmed using a state-of-the-art ground-penetrating
Source: UPI
April 8, 2010
Searchers said they found five objects Thursday deemed possible remains of Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack victims in a former New York landfill.
The find follows the unearthing Wednesday of 20 other objects that could be human remains in what was once the Fresh Kills landfill on New York's Staten Island.
Forensic anthropologists will determine if DNA tests on the potential remains, found in debris excavated around Ground Zero, are warranted, officials said.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 9, 2010
Thousands of white South Africans waved the flag of the apartheid state and gave the Nazi salute at the funeral of the diehard Afrikaner supremacist Eugene Terreblanche.
Mourners came from across the country, some carrying apartheid-era South African flags and the AWB banner, which is a three-pointed swastika.
Once an unflinching opponent of black rule, Mr Terreblanche had languished in obscurity after serving a term in jail for attempted murder.
M
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 9, 2010
A selection of Chinese imperial works of art has smashed world auction records after fierce bidding at Sotheby's in Hong Kong.
An imperial white jade seal commissioned by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century was sold to an Asian buyer for US$12.29 million ($8m) breaking the world auction record for both white jade and imperial seals.
The price was almost double its estimate of about US$6.4 million and reflects international interest in objects of Ch
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 9, 2010
Babushka Yuliana Mitry can still chant the words to dozens of the ancient songs the Lipovan people brought to Romania's Danube delta as they fled persecution in Russia nearly 300 years ago.
But as her ethnic Russian minority struggles to keep its customs and traditions alive in a globalised world, the 69-year-old grandmother fears that the songs of the Lipovan could one day be lost for good.
Mitry's people left their historic homeland in around 1740, seeking refuge in
Source: Fox News
April 9, 2010
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological genius of the 20th century, is now emerging as a, martyr and spy -- a war hero who conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
On April 9, 1945, 65 years ago today, just a few weeks before an allied offensive brought Germany to its knees and ended World War II in Europe, a young, mild-mannered Lutheran theologian was hanged by the Nazis in Flossenburg Concentration Camp.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theological genius of the 20th century, is now
Source: CNN
April 9, 2010
Virginia's proclamation of Confederate History Month without any reference to slavery was unacceptable, President Obama said in an interview broadcast Friday.
The new language added to the proclamation says that "it is important for all Virginians to understand that the institution of slavery led to this war and was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights."
McDonnell's statement noted that while Virginia was hom
