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: WSJ
October 6, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the release of thousands of pages of sealed documents concerning sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic diocese of Bridgeport, Conn.
The court's decision Monday effectively lifts a stay that has delayed the release of the documents since 2006, when four newspapers persuaded a Connecticut court to unseal them.
The materials were filed in 23 lawsuits against the Catholic diocese by parishioners during the 1990s, alleging that th
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs
October 5, 2009
The Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco, together with the Bay Area Filipino American community, kicked off the celebration of Filipino American History Month in simple ceremonies held at the California Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Philippine Consul General to San Francisco Marciano A. Paynor, Jr. and Fil-Am Board of Education Commissioner Hydra Mendoza, representing San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, cut the ceremonial ribbon officially marking the start of Filipino American
Source: DeSoto Times Tribune
October 4, 2009
OLIVE BRANCH - Hundreds of DeSoto County School students got an up close look at life during the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803-1806 at a living history encampment on the grounds of the Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center in Olive Branch Thursday.
Tom Ronk, of Jefferson City, Mo., presided over the 55-foot replica of the keelboat that carried Lewis and Clark as far as they could navigate on river before embarking overland.
The replica was trucked to
Source: NYT
October 4, 2009
WASHINGTON — Gen. David H. Petraeus, the face of the Iraq troop surge and a favorite of former President George W. Bush, spoke up or was called upon by President Obama “several times” during the big Afghanistan strategy session in the Situation Room last week, one participant says, and will be back for two more meetings this week.
But the general’s closest associates say that underneath the surface of good relations, the celebrity commander faces a new reality in Mr. Obama’s White H
Source: Guardian (UK)
October 4, 2009
If it is information on the health of medieval women or the battle of Trafalgar you require, then the British Library is a pretty good place to look. But those wanting to shed light on more recent events or discoveries recorded online could be in trouble.
Digital literature, online scientific research and internet journalism that should have been saved in the nation's main libraries over the past five years may have been lost because ministers have failed to give them the legal powe
Source: BBC
October 5, 2009
Featuring stories of great escapes and survival against the odds, a new exhibition dedicated to servicemen who were taken prisoner during the two world wars opens on Monday at the Somme Heritage Centre in Newtownards.
The museum has collected a selection of personal stories from veterans from Northern Ireland, describing their experiences in prison camps in Germany and the Far East.
Also on display is a large-scale model of the notorious Colditz Castle, the place where
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 5, 2009
The fossilised skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed "Samson" is still looking for a home after bidders failed to bite at an auction in Las Vegas.
Auctioneers had hoped bids would top $6 million (£3.8 million) but the highest offer was only $3.7 million (£2.3 million).
Samson was the star attraction in a huge dinosaur auction at the Venetian hotel and casino.
About 50 other lots, including a duck-billed dinosaur, a pair of Einiosaurus skeleto
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 5, 2009
A baby woolly mammoth which spent 40,000 years frozen in the Siberian permafrost, has provided scientists with clues about how the species survived during the Ice Age.
"Lyuba" was sucked to her death in a muddy river bed. She was so well preserved that traces of her mother's milk remained in her belly when she was discovered three years ago by nomadic reindeer herders.
Lyuba is to be the star of a mammoths-and-mastodons exhibition at Chicago's Field Museum, d
Source: AP
October 4, 2009
An Illinois woman who set out on a treasure hunt for buried gold coins after finding a cryptic note in an antique rocking chair may have been the victim of a prolific prankster who died more than 30 years ago.
With help of a donated backhoe, Patty Henken recently tore up a vacant lot in Springfield, Ill., where a typewritten note signed by "Chauncey Wolcott" — found in an old chair she bought at auction last November — suggested she would find a chest containing more than
Source: Independent (UK)
October 5, 2009
The United Nations' refugee agency is planning to include the Holocaust in a new human-rights curriculum for Gaza's secondary-school pupils, despite strident opposition to the idea from within Hamas.
John Ging, the UN Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) director of operations in Gaza, told The Independent that he was "confident and determined" that the Holocaust would feature for the first time in a wide-ranging curriculum that is being drafted.
Mr Ging, a pas
Source: Independent (UK)
October 5, 2009
Britain offered to pay Colonel Muammar Gaddafi £14m in return for Libya ending its military support for the IRA, secret papers seen by The Independent have revealed.
The deal, worth £500m today, was part of a package of compensation measures to appease the Libyan leader and help open up trade with the North African state during the late 1970s.
Discovery of the secret offer, detailed in a letter sent by the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, raises fresh questions about
Source: BBC
October 4, 2009
Opening a three-week synod of African bishops, he said political colonialism was over.
But he said the developed world continued to export materialism - which he called "toxic spiritual rubbish" - to the continent.
Almost 200 bishops from 53 African states have gathered to discuss how the Catholic Church can help resolve the continent's social injustices and wars.
The Pope says he will attend as many of the working sessions of the synod as poss
Source: BBC
October 5, 2009
The book found that MI5 did not get to grips with Soviet espionage in Britain until the early 1970s.
The history was written by Professor Christopher Andrew, who insisted he was given complete access to MI5's files.
The Defence Of The Realm also reveals numerous attempts by politicians to use MI5 for their own ends.
Prof Andrew said it was not until 1971, when 100 Soviet diplomats were expelled from Britain, that MI5 contained KGB and Soviet bloc intelli
Source: Spiegel Online
October 1, 2009
Officially, history began for Porsche in 1950. But the company existed
before that as a supplier for Hitler's war machine. New research
suggests that the company benefited much more from its Nazi ties than
it has admitted to.
Pass the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and continue across Porsche
Square, you'll come to a factory gate. Behind it stands a barrack, its
wooden slats still bearing the faded lettering "Reutter" -- a company
which once provided Porsche with its fi
Source: Yahoo News
October 3, 2009
CHICAGO (AFP) – Sucked to her death in a muddy river bed, a baby woolly mammoth spent 40,000 years frozen in the Siberian permafrost where her body was so perfectly preserved traces of her mother's milk remained in her belly.
Three years after her discovery by nomadic reindeer herders, Lyuba will head to Chicago as the star of a mammoths and mastodons exhibit at the world-famous Field Museum.
The exhibition, announced at mid-week, opens March 5 and will run through Sept
Source: The Oakland Tribune
October 4, 2009
OAKLAND
The message, they said, is simple: Those who broke stereotypes after the Civil War by breaking horses in the West deserve to be honored and remembered.
"Twenty-five to 30 percent of working cowboys were people of color," said Wilbert McAllister, 68. "We know the truth. We're not fake."
McAllister is president of the Oakland Black Cowboys Association, which held its 35th annual parade Saturday in the streets surrounding DeFremery
Source: NYT
October 3, 2009
CHICAGO — People who live here felt that the place had been on an exhilarating roll lately. First there was Barack Obama, Chicago’s Barack Obama, capturing the presidency right here in Grant Park, the city’s front yard. Next, or so everyone thought, Chicago was to be picked to host the 2016 Summer Games, more proof that everyone else had at last come to recognize this place as world class...
... Barry Bowlus, a lifelong Chicagoan, likened the Olympic defeat to the city’s fire of 187
Source: NYT
October 3, 2009
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — In the 18th and 19th centuries, whaling was a big business here, and it was a diverse business, too. As Arthur R. Railton put it in his book “The History of Martha’s Vineyard,” “almost every whaler had men of color in its crew” — Indians, descendants of slaves and even people from places like the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Africa.
But, Mr. Railton went on, “men of color only infrequently made it to positions of responsibility.” Usually they ended their v
Source: Times (UK)
October 5, 2009
Colonel Gaddafi, who sent hitmen to Britain to assassinate Libyan émigrés in the 1980s, posed the gravest state-sponsored terrorism threat to this country during that period, the authorised history of MI5 says.
By the spring of 1980, MI5’s F Branch, responsible for counter-terrorism, “possessed conclusive evidence that the Libyan embassy in London — renamed the Libyan People’s Bureau — was directing operational and intelligence-gathering activities against Libyan dissidents”.
Source: Times (UK)
October 5, 2009
A rusty iron helmet that may be the only surviving relic of one of the most decisive battles in English history has been found in an antiques shop.
A label on the helmet suggests it was fished out of the River Derwent at Stamford Bridge, where King Harold Godwinson defeated Viking invaders in 1066 before he was beaten by William the Conqueror at Hastings.
Historians speculate that Harold, England’s last Anglo-Saxon king, may have halted the Norman Conquest had he not ha
