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)
December 4, 2009
War veterans have vowed to identify a "cowardly Walter Mitty" who marched in a Remembrance Day parade wearing an ''impossible'' array of medals.
The man wore a beige SAS beret and 21 military medals and badges, including the Military Cross, as he walked alongside 600 genuine war heroes.
Thousands of well-wishers, including recently bereaved families of servicemen killed in Afghanistan, clapped and cheered as he marched past.
But organisers beca
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 4, 2009
Tony Blair's place in history will forever be coloured by the war in Iraq.
The Iraq war and its aftermath have seen the most contentious decisions taken by any British Government since 1945. Tony Blair stands accused of leading the country into war on a false prospectus, subordinating British interests to George W Bush and showing gross negligence in failing to plan for postwar Iraq.
The only other event that comes close to earning a prime minister such ignominy is th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 4, 2009
A copy of Edgar Allan Poe's first book fetched $662,500 at a Christie's auction in New York, smashing the previous record price for American literature.
The copy of "Tamerlane and Other Poems", published by Poe anonymously in 1827 when he was just 13, had been estimated to sell for between $500,000 and $700,000 (£ 302,000 to £442,000).
The previous record was $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago. No more than 40 or 50 copies were
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 4, 2009
A new world record for a Rembrandt is expected to be set next week, when this 1658 painting could sell for up to £25 million.
Portrait of a Man, painted by the Flemish Old Master during a period of personal crisis, went on display at Christie's on Friday ahead of next Tuesday's sale. It is the first time it has been exhibited since 1970.
The current record for a Rembrandt, for a picture of an old woman simply called Portrait of a Lady, is £19.8 million. It sold at Chr
Source: Fox News
December 4, 2009
A Medal of Honor recipient in a dispute over his right to fly the American flag in his yard will have another week before D-Day -- when he'll be forced to take down the Stars and Stripes or face legal action.
Ninety-year-old Col. Van T. Barfoot, a veteran of three wars, initially was given a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to dismantle his flagpole or face a legal battle over violating an order from his townhouse community association in Henrico County, Va
Barfoot, who fought in
Source: USA Today
April 12, 2009
When Ira Hayes was alive, his image was captured in one of the most famous war photographs ever taken — the World War II image of U.S. military personnel raising the flag over Iwo Jima.
Last month, 54 years since his death, his family learned that another image of Hayes, a face mask, had been cast in plaster while he lay in a Phoenix mortuary. The mask of Hayes, a Pima Indian from Bapchule, Ariz., was made without the family's knowledge and ended up on display at the Gilbert Ortega
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2009
The Ministry of Defence department that investigated UFOs sightings has been closed after almost 60 years, it has been disclosed.
The MoD department, which has dealt with more than 12,000 reports – including 135 last year - was used to assess threats posed by any Unidentified Flying Objects sightings throughout Britain.
Any reports made would now not be investigated or followed up as the hotline had been closed, a spokesman said.
UFO experts expressed anger
Source: IceNews (Iceland)
March 12, 2009
An important new find by a team of Swedish archaeologists indicates that the Finland-Sweden border area around the Torne River Valley was inhabited up to 11,000 years ago.
The discovery, located near Pajala in Sweden’s far north, is the oldest settlement to be found in the county of Norrbotten, according to archaeologist Olof Ostlund. “Now the pages in the National Encyclopaedia regarding inland ice can be torn out and burned,” said Ostlund.
The find was made during a r
Source: AP
March 12, 2009
NEW YORK — Two stolen ancient artifacts are being returned to Italy from New York City.
An Italian government representative is taking possession of them at a ceremony Wednesday. The artifacts are a Pompeii plaster wall painting and a Corinthian vase for mixing water and wine.
They were recovered by immigration and customs officials in June. Both items had been scheduled for auction in New York before they were discovered to have been stolen.
Immigration of
Source: Discovery News
March 12, 2009
Worn teeth, periodontal diseases, abscesses and cavities tormented the ancient Egyptians, according to the first systematic review of all studies performed on Egyptian mummies in the past 30 years.
After examining research of more than 3,000 mummies, anatomists and paleopathologists at the University of Zurich concluded that 18 percent of all mummies in case reports showed a nightmare array of dental diseases.
"Evidence of dental disorders is plentiful because usua
Source: Pew Research Center Publications
December 1, 2009
More Americans continue to view the Republican Party as friendly toward religion (48%) than rate the Democratic Party that way (29%). President Barack Obama's administration, however, is seen as friendly toward religion by more people (37%) than is the Democratic Party as a whole. And all three get higher ratings for friendliness toward religion than the news media (14%), scientists (12%) or Hollywood (11%)...
... Views of the Democrats' friendliness toward religion have declined am
Source: Pew Research Center Publications
December 3, 2009
The Obama administration has exerted a considerable amount of diplomatic energy on Turkey: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited there in March, the president himself followed in April and next week Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will call on the White House. Nonetheless, the administration continues to face serious challenges in this strategically important nation. While overall ratings for the U.S. have improved throughout much of the world, in Turkey they remain dismal -- on
Source: CNN
December 3, 2009
At 108 years old, Cpl. Frank Buckles said Thursday he hopes he lives to see the day when there's a memorial on the National Mall honoring all Americans who fought in World War I.
Buckles, the last surviving U.S. veteran of the war that ended in 1918, came to Capitol Hill in support of legislation to pay tribute to his comrades.
Lawmakers are considering whether to help fund a national rededication of an old city monument already on the Mall or to forgo such support in f
Source: BBC
December 2, 2009
Indonesia has banned the film Balibo, which depicts the deaths of six foreign journalists in East Timor, the head of the foreign correspondents club said.
The club cancelled a screening of the film on legal advice that they could face charges.
The journalists died as Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1975.
Jakarta maintains they were killed accidentally in cross-fire. But an Australian coroner found in 2007 that the journalists had been executed.
Source: Politics Daily
December 3, 2009
Just as President Obama has outlined his broad strategy for Afghanistan and is pushing ahead with other global initiatives, the percentage of Americans who believe the U.S. should mind its own business and let other countries get along on their own has reached an all-time high, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center and the Council on Foreign Relations conducted Oct. 28 - Nov. 8.
The Pew survey found 49 percent of Americans holding that view. The previous highs were 41 perce
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
January 12, 2009
DID American whalers discover the east coast of Australia before Captain Cook?
That is the intriguing question a crack team of maritime archaeologists, divers and marine scientists hope to answer when they sail tomorrow for a remote reef 450 kilometres off the coast of Queensland.
The expedition leader, Kieran Hosty, describes the 200-year-old mystery of Wreck Reef as one of the great untold sagas of our maritime history.
The story began in 1803, after Mat
Source: The Times (UK)
December 2, 2009
A team of archaeologists began digging on the site of Shakespeare’s last home yesterday in a search for clues that might reveal more about his life.
They hope to discover remains of clothing, documents and even household waste. The dig is at New Place, where he lived from 1597 until his death in 1616.
Richard Kemp, of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said: “We are hoping to find organic debris that will teach us what the great man had for dinner. Our dream find would
Source: Fox News
December 3, 2009
LONDON — A toll bridge built in 1769 across the River Thames has sold for more than $1.66 million at auction.
The Swinford bridge brings in about 320,000 in toll payments from about 4 million vehicle crossings a year.
Due to a quirk in British law, toll revenue collected from the picturesque stone structure about 65 miles northwest of London can be collected tax-free.
Source: The National Security Archive
December 2, 2009
The Guatemalan army, under the direction of military ruler Efraín Ríos Montt, carried out a deliberate counterinsurgency campaign in the summer of 1982 aimed a massacring thousands of indigenous peasants, according to a comprehensive set of internal records presented as evidence to the Spanish National Court and posted today by National Security Archive on its Web site. The files on “Operation Sofia” detail official responsibility for what the 1999 UN-sponsored Historical Clarification Commissio
Source: CNN
February 12, 2009
Washington (CNN) -- Will the Iraq troop surge strategy of 2007 help serve as a guidepost for President Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan?
Some say comparing President Bush's decision to send an additional 20,000 troops into Iraq four years into that war and President Obama's announcement that he's sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan is comparing apples with oranges.
By most assessments, Bush's decision in 2007 to implement a "surge" of troops into Ir
