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
September 26, 2009
A mistake made along the Hudson River is offering archaeologists a rare glimpse into how colonial military engineers built wooden forts, including the key stronghold constructed here by the British during the French and Indian War.
A formal excavation of the original Fort Edward was called after crews dredging PCB-contaminated sediment from the Hudson River last month accidentally ripped out wooden beams thought to have been part of the original fort, which was built in the 1750s. R
Source: Discovery News
September 28, 2009
A number of ancient Roman statues might lie beneath the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri in southern Italy, according to an underwater survey of the sea cave.
Dating to the 1st century A.D., the cave was used as a swimming pool by the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. - 37 A.D.), and the statues are probably depictions of sea gods.
Carried out in collaboration with the archaeological superintendency of Pompeii, the Marevivo project aims at returning th
Source: AP
October 2, 2009
Researchers seem to have solved the mystery of what happened to the "Big Red" flag flown by Citadel cadets when they fired on a ship trying to resupply Fort Sumter three months before the Civil War.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports a 10-by-7-foot flag with a large white Palmetto tree and a white crescent on a red field has been located in storage at an Iowa museum.
Researchers think it is the same flag that flew over Morris Island when cadets fired
Source: BBC
October 2, 2009
A former u-boat listening station on the Pembrokeshire coast that monitored submarine transmissions during World War II is up for sale.
In more recent times the red brick building has been used as a farm machinery workshop and store.
Prospective buyers have until Wednesday to submit sealed tenders with offers invited over £45,000.
Source: BBC
October 2, 2009
The three judges who jailed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in 2001 have denied they were under pressure to secure a conviction.
The denial came in a letter to the New York Times which had published the claim by US professor Dirk Vandewalle.
Meanwhile Megrahi, who still protests his innocence despite dropping his appeal against conviction, has put more material online in a bid to clear his name
On his website, Megrahi concentrates on the crucial evi
Source: BBC
October 4, 2009
War veterans have taken part in a memorial parade in Falmouth to remember those troops that left the town 67 years ago on a World War II mission.
Operation Chariot, in 1942, took out vital German facilities in the French port of St Nazaire and played an important role in winning World War II.
The crew of HMS Cambeltown, filled with explosives, sailed from Falmouth and rammed the dry dock gates.
Five Victoria crosses were awarded for the attack.
Source: BBC
October 4, 2009
A memorial to honour secret agents who worked for the Allies in World War II is unveiled in London, featuring a carving of captured and executed Violette Szabo.
They came from all generations of the military - veterans of World War II, serving men and women, and young military cadets - all gathered on London's South Bank to see the new memorial officially unveiled.
The bust gazing out across the Thames depicts Violette Szabo, one of Britain's more extraordinary under-c
Source: AP
October 4, 2009
The civil rights group co-founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. narrowed the list of finalists for its next president Saturday to his youngest daughter and an Arkansas judge.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference's board of directors will consider the Rev. Bernice King and Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen for the organization's top spot. They will succeed the Rev. Byron Clay, who has served as interim president since February, when Charles Steele resigned
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 3, 2009
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.
A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.
A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.
The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its na
Source: Media Research Center (Conservative media watchdog group)
October 1, 2009
Unemployment under President Barack Obama is at a 26-year-high. The last time the economy had 9.7 percent or higher unemployment was under President Ronald Reagan. But despite similar periods of rising unemployment, Obama and Reagan received almost exactly opposite treatment from the network news media.
Under Obama reporters have gone to great lengths to spin rising unemployment by finding “positive trends” in the job losses, even focusing on as few as 25 jobs being “saved” by the e
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
October 2, 2009
CHICAGO - By all appearances, the four finalists for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games desperately want to win. The question is why.
The 1976 Olympics left Montreal with a $1 billion debt, which the province of Quebec fully paid off only in 2006. Australian taxpayers pay $32 million a year to maintain Sydney Olympic venues that now go largely unused. The projected budget for London 2012 was $3.9 billion; it's now $15.1 billion and climbing.
The bid cities of Chicago, Rio de
Source: Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Network of Education and Academic Rights (NEAR)
October 1, 2009
Prominent academic and human rights defender, Dr. Salomón Lerner Febres, has reported receiving death threats at his office in the Catholic University of Peru, Human Rights Watch has said. The former president of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been subjected to harassment before and the Peruvian authorities are being called upon to investigate the threats immediately.
Dr Lerner, also the former rector of the Catholic University of Peru and current president of the Insti
Source: BBC
October 1, 2009
An Argentine judge has indicted ex-President Carlos Menem for allegedly trying to cover up evidence related to a deadly 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires.
A car bomb hit a Jewish community centre, known as the AMIA, killing 85.
In a written statement, the judge said Mr Menem covered up what was called at the time "the Syrian connection". He has previously denied any wrongdoing.
At the start of the investigation, the spotlight had turned on an Argentine
Source: OpEdNews.com (via USA Today)
October 3, 2009
MUMBAI, India — An incongruous billboard has appeared high above Mumbai's slums: A thin Mohandas Gandhi, the ascetic father of India's independence, sits wrapped in simple white cloth above the image of a fat Montblanc pen.
German luxury penmaker Montblanc launched a limited-edition commemorative fountain pen in honor of Gandhi this week, just in time for the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Mahatma — or "Great Soul" — on Friday.
The price? $24,763.
Source: http://www.nowpublic.com
October 3, 2009
A 20-second video showing the only surviving footage of Anne Frank has been posted on her new YouTube channel by the Amsterdam museum, the Anne Frank House.
It was taken in 1941 and is the only film footage of Anne that has ever been known to exist. It is a video of a neighbor's wedding and nine seconds in to the footage, a 13-year-old Anne can be seen leaning over the balcony above to get a look at the bridge and groom. The wedding is thought to have taken place at No 37 Merwedeplein, an
Source: The Washington Times
October 2, 2009
President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.
The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.
Source: Azstarnet.com
September 27, 2009
The discovery of a prehistoric irrigation system in the Marana desert is giving archaeologists a deeper glimpse into one of the first groups of people to farm in the Tucson basin.
"What we're looking at is, perhaps, the earliest sedentary village life in the Southwest with people depending on agriculture as a primary food source," said project director Jim Vint.
For more than 3,000 years, an elaborate ancient irrigation system has remained hidden deep beneath
Source: ThisisHampshire.net
September 27, 2009
DIVING almost blind in the Solent’s murky waters, the team of maritime detectives could just make out the shape of a wooden plank protruding from the muddy seabed.
While it might have been dismissed as underwater junk by the untrained eye, the archaeologists soon realised they had discovered a vital clue to a lost civilisation.
The timber was not isolated. In fact they found another 23 pieces of all shapes and sizes intersecting throughout the underwater cliff off Boul
Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
September 28, 2009
SANTIAGO – A Chilean family who was removing the soil from the yard of their home where they were planning to do some construction got a big surprise when they found four skeletons dating from 320 B.C., La Segunda daily reported Monday.
The Valdes Navarro family found the relics of the Bato culture on Saturday in Con-Con, a municipality located about 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Santiago.
Francisco Allendes, an archaeologist, historian and former director of the Co
Source: ISRIA
September 30, 2009
The Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Communications and Works announces the completion of the archaeological excavations at the Neolithic site of Choirokoitia. Excavations were carried out in July and August by the National Centre of Scientific Research of France under the direction of Dr A. Le Brun.
Research undertaken in 2005 on the north side of the hill where the site is installed was completed. The aim of this research was to determine the outline of the walls, whic
