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: AP
April 5, 2010
North Korea accused the United States on Monday of ignoring its efforts to return remains of American soldiers who were killed in the Korean War in the 1950s and threatened to stop collecting and returning the bodies.
The North's military said it informed the U.S. twice this year of "a number of" remains of U.S. troops found during land realignment and farming preparations in 10 different locations. But the U.S. Defense Department has not offered a concrete response and as
Source: CNN.com
April 3, 2010
Senegal on Saturday unveiled a colossal statue during a lavish ceremony amid reports of criticism over the monument's construction at a time when the western African nation is struggling financially.
The 164-foot structure -- about a foot taller than the Statue of Liberty -- shows the figures of a man, a woman and a child, arms outstretched, facing the Atlantic Ocean.
President Abdoulaye Wade says the statue, which he designed, is a monument to Africa's renaissance. Cri
Source: NYT
March 26, 2010
A prominent Chinese scholar and film critic who was scheduled to speak at an academic conference in the United States this week said Friday that she had been barred from leaving China as punishment for her commentary on human rights and free speech.
The scholar, Cui Weiping, 54, a poet and professor at the Beijing Film Academy, said that she had planned to lecture at Harvard and attend a conference sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies in Philadelphia, but that the director
Source: The Washington Post
April 5, 2010
A lot of attention has been focused on Texas in recent weeks, because state officials decided to rewrite social studies curriculum and force kids to learn a distorted view of the country's past.
Folks in other states are worried that the changes will wind up appearing in schools outside Texas. The state, with almost 5 million students in kindergarten through high school, dictates what is in the textbooks it purchases from publishers, and other states often buy the same materials.
Source: AP
March 5, 2010
Wisconsin is known historically as a hotbed of social reforms, yet cracking down on drunken drivers has never been high on policymakers' to-do list....
Big breweries once dominated the state and ties to the beer industry remain stout, giving way to a belief that hard drinking is as much a part of the Wisconsin culture as the Green Bay Packers and cheese. That's created a blind spot of sorts for the socially conscious state: drunken driving....
Much of Wisconsin's love o
Source: VOV News
April 5, 2010
A seminar was held in Quang Ngai province on April 5 to discuss the consequences of Agent Orange/Dioxin on the environment and people’s health.
This was part of a project carried out by the Hanoi Public Medicine University in coordination with the Quang Ngai provincial Department for Health to provide assistance to victims of toxic chemicals sprayed by US troops during the war in Vietnam.
In his report, Professor-Doctor Le Ngoc Trong, an adviser in the project, describ
Source: CNN
April 5, 2010
Some know Emmitt Smith as the National Football League's all-time leading rusher. Others recognize him as a three-time Super Bowl champion or a Dancing with the Stars winner.
But do you really know who Emmitt is?
Until he traced his genealogy for the NBC reality series "Who Do You Think You Are?", Emmitt says he didn't even know the answer to that question.Emmitt soon learned that his great-great-grandmother, Victoria, had an
Source: The Guardian
April 5, 2010
The Romans, as Monty Python famously acknowledged, have done many things for us. Contrary to popular wisdom, however, improving our diet was not one of them.
A study of the remains of almost 20,000 people dating from the 8th century BC to the 18th century AD has found that the Roman empire reduced our level of nutrition, which increased again in the "dark ages".
That is because the key factor in determining average height over the centuries – an indicator of n
Source: The Guardian
April 5, 2010
Archaeologists in Stratford-upon-Avon have made a sensational discovery: Shakespeare's broken beer jug. Possibly.
Scraps of pottery, broken clay pipe and a 19th century penny have emerged from a muddy hole in what was a garden until a week ago. But this is the most extensive hunt for Shakespeare in his own backyard in 150 years, and every scrap is precious.
In 1597 the playwright returned from London a rich and famous man and bought New Place, the second best house in h
Source: BBC
April 5, 2010
With the planned development of Guernsey's runway surveying around the airport uncovered the remains of a bronze age settlement in 2008.
Archaeological excavation began on the site in March 2009 and soon uncovered the remains of what appeared to be a cremation pit.
By March 2010 this picture of a settlement had developed further.
The dig itself was affected by the water table in the area which Phillip explained gets too wet in winter as from November the
Source: NYT
April 4, 2010
Finding a politician’s mouth has rarely been a problem — unless it has been missing since 1834.
That is the year when an angry Whig sympathizer decapitated a figurehead of Andrew Jackson that had just been affixed to the bow of the U.S.S. Constitution in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston.
The mouth and the rest of the head eventually went their separate ways.
But now, 176 years later, they have been reunited in New York, thanks to research by a team fr
Source: Time
April 2, 2010
Democrats had hoped that passing health care reform would give them a much-needed bump in the polls ahead of this year's difficult midterm election; instead, their ratings have dipped, renewing worries about a political debacle in November. The worst-case scenario recalls the ghosts of 1994, when Newt Gingrich's Republicans took control of the House following the failure of the Clinton Administration's attempt at health care reform.
There are certainly parallels. In 1994, Bill Clin
Source: CNN
April 5, 2010
The international police organization Interpol has stepped up the hunt for Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter, who is wanted by Iraqi authorities on terrorism charges.
Interpol posted a picture on of Raghad Hussein, 41, on its Web site Monday, noting that she is being pursued for "crimes against life and health incitement [and] terrorism."
Iraqi authorities say that Hussein has provided financial backing for a terrorist cell network tied to a series of attacks o
Source: WSJ
April 4, 2010
General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt hasn't been popular with conservatives of late. GE was a major backer of the cap-and-trade climate bill that passed the House last year, in part because the capping of carbon emissions would boost demand for its wind turbines and solar panels....
All the more noteworthy, then, is Mr. Immelt latest move, which is likely to improve his P.R. image with conservatives. Last month, he announced GE would give $15 million to mark the 100th anniversary of
Source: FoxNews
April 4, 2010
Scientists hope discovery of child skeleton will help them to work out what our ancestors looked like and to determine key dates in their evolution from ape-man to man-ape.
A fossil skeleton of a child discovered in a cave system known as the Cradle of Humankind may represent a previously unknown stage in the evolution of man, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
The skeleton, which is almost complete despite being two million years old, is believed to belong to one of t
Source: BBC News
April 5, 2010
New York City officials are to begin a three-month search for the remains of more than 1,000 missing victims of the 9/11 attacks - however, some relatives of the deceased say it is too little, too late, reports the BBC's Matthew Price in New York.
It is hard to believe that the best part of a decade on from the 11 September attacks, the debris from the World Trade Center site is still being examined.
That is partly a reflection of the enormity of the task, the huge amou
Source: BBC News
April 5, 2010
24 August, AD79. The day one volcanic mountain came to life and two cities met their deaths.
Pompeii and the nearby settlement of Herculaneum were consumed by a mixture of heat, falling pumice stone and ash.
Mount Vesuvius, about 9km (5.5 miles) away, had exploded, sending a mass of volcanic debris high into the air, which then landed like a military bombardment on the citizens of the two cities below.
Estimates of deaths in both places range from between 1
Source: NYT
April 4, 2010
A nondescript post office here provides an appealing footnote to the history of Korean literature. From 1945 until his death in 1967, the poet Yu Chi-hwan strolled in almost daily, mailing thousands of letters to a widowed poet, his muse in one of the country’s most celebrated literary love affairs.
Now, a century after Japan’s 1910 annexation of Korea, this same post office stands at the center of a not-so-lovely affair mirroring a larger debate over history, the responsibilities o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 4, 2010
Hidden sketches by the likes of Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael have been discovered by experts at the British Museum.
They found the "underdrawings", which had been erased by the artists, with new techniques developed for drug detection and forensics.
One of the images reveals that Michaelangelo based his Bruges Madonna sculpture on a male model. At the time women rarely sat as models for artists.
The sketch was found beneath a la
Source: CNN
April 4, 2010
All around the world this weekend, Christians are celebrating Easter. For them, this holiest of days announces that death does not have the final word and that eternal life awaits those who would just believe.
Sunday also marks the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death. Forty-two years ago, an assassin's bullet took his life as he struggled to secure the promises of American democracy for the children of slaves. His sacrifice, along with countless others, helped ush
