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: The Wall Street Journal
August 30, 2009
Senator Edward M. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery as darkness fell Saturday evening, steps away from the graves of his brothers Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.
"There's something befitting about having a burial at the dying of the day," said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop emeritus of Washington and a friend of the senator's, who presided over a small ceremony attended only by the senator's immediate family and Vice President Joe Biden
Source: NYT
August 30, 2009
WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2003, long before Abu Ghraib or secret prisons became part of the American vocabulary, a pair of recently hired lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union noticed a handful of news reports about allegations of abuse of prisoners in American custody.
The lawyers, Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh, wondered: Was there a broader pattern of abuse, and could a Freedom of Information Act request uncover it? Some of their colleagues, more experienced with the f
Source: New York Daily News
August 30, 2009
The stately Jamaica manor of Rufus King, who helped frame the U.S. Constitution and voiced fiery, ahead-of-his-time appeals against slavery, ranks far down the list of the city's favored tourist sites.
His role in shaping the fledgling nation likely fell into obscurity because he never ascended to the presidency - and few historians explored his accomplishments in crucial yet unsung roles as senator and ambassador to Great Britain.
But a researcher who is combing throu
Source: Azzaman
August 28, 2009
The government has set up a commission to recount Iraq Museum possessions in the light of the standards applied in international museums, an Antiquities Department official said.
Abdulzahra Talaqani, the department’s information officer, said the registering of the possessions is part of measures by the government to check smuggling and trace items stolen from the museum.
Not only relics on display will be recounted, but also items kept in the museum’s stores and wareh
Source: UPI
August 26, 2009
Israeli archaeologists say they have found a miniature precious stone carved with the image of Alexander the Great.
The stone, dating to the Hellenistic period, was found at the Tel Dor excavation site south of Haifa, the Israeli news Web site Arutz Sheva reported Wednesday.
The stone is less than a centimeter long (less than a half-inch) and less than a half-centimeter wide, Ayelet Gilboa, one of the archaeologists directing the work, told the news Web site. The type o
Source: Reuters
August 27, 2009
An important Viking hoard of jewels and coins unearthed in England by a father-and-son team of treasure hunters in 2007 has been acquired by two museums and will go on display next month.
The Vale of York hoard, valued at 1.1 million pounds ($1.8 million) and dated at 1,000 years old, includes objects from Afghanistan, Ireland, Russia and Scandinavia, underlining the global spread of cultural contacts during medieval times.
The York Museums Trust in York, northern Engla
Source: The Local (Germany)
August 27, 2009
Hessian Science Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann on Thursday presented fragments of a 2,000-year-old bronze equestrian statue of Roman Emperor Augustus found recently in a stream near Giessen.
On August 12, archaeologists pulled the gold-gilded, life-sized head of a horse and a shoe of the emperor – who ruled the Roman Empire between 23 BC and 14 AD – from a stream in what was once the Roman outpost Germania Magna. Experts there have uncovered several bits – including a horse hoof and a d
Source: The Local (Sweden)
August 27, 2009
Swedish archaeologists have announced the find of a 7th century burial ship, the oldest of its kind to be discovered in Scandinavia.
The ship, thought to be from the Vendel era (550-793) of Swedish prehistory, was found in Sunnerby on the island of Kållandsö in Lake Vänern in central Sweden and, according to Lake Vänern Museum, is the only known ship burial to be uncovered in Sweden.
Archaeologists from Lake Vänern Museum and Gothenburg University are busy excavating th
Source: The Korea Herald
August 28, 2009
The National Museum of Korea said yesterday it has unearthed a 2,000-year-old skeleton of a Mongolian nomad at the Xiongnu Tombs of Duurlignars, about 500 kilometers northeast of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
The skeleton of a man was identified as mortal remains of the Xiongnu, a confederation of nomadic tribes in Central Asia, a finding that archeologists and historians could use to advance the studies about the ancient tribe. The Xiongnu tribe is often linked with the Hu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 30, 2009
She was on her first Telegraph assignment and only 26 when she spotted German tanks invading Poland. Now 97, Clare Hollingworth talks to Malcolm Moore.
Seventy years ago, a sleek limousine crossed the border of Poland and Germany and sped along the autobahn between Beuthen and Gleiwitz. Inside was a 26-year-old reporter on her first assignment for The Daily Telegraph, who was about to break the scoop of the century.
Once past Gleiwitz, the road began to climb a hill.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 31, 2009
The hidden image of a butchered pig has been discovered by a restorer in a 17th century Dutch painting 350 years after it was painted.
Barn Interior, one of 16 paintings given to Calvin College in Michigan by alumnus Cornelius Van Nuis two years ago, shows a woman and two children inside a barn. It was painted by Egbert van der Poel, who lived from 1621 to 1664.
Last summer, Joel Zwart, the director of exhibitions at the college, sent the picture to Barry Bauman, a Chi
Source: CNN
August 30, 2009
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the Justice Department's decision to review waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques is politically motivated.
Cheney said he opposes the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to ask a former prosecutor to review CIA interrogations of high-profile terrorism suspects.
Cheney made clear he believes President Obama directed Holder to launch the review because the president is f
Source: CNN
August 28, 2009
Friends, family and colleagues gathered to pay tribute to Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy on Friday evening after tens of thousands had filed past the Democratic legend's casket throughout the day.
The wake was held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in suburban Boston, where an estimated 45,000 people had filed past the senator's flag-draped casket by Friday evening.
The senator's funeral is scheduled for Saturday at Boston's Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basil
Source: Brisbane Times
August 28, 2009
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, called for the end to the history and culture wars yesterday, but wound up starting a new fight with his predecessor, John Howard.
Launching the first volume of Tom Keneally's 'Australians: Origins to Eureka,' Mr Rudd called for a reappraisal of the way the nation viewed its past.
In a pointed reference to Mr Howard's time in office, he said it was time ''to move beyond the arid intellectual debates of the history wars and the culture war
Source: Boston.com (Boston Globe)
August 29, 2009
The procession of Ted Kennedy's body through Boston was a history lesson for millions of Americans watching at home. From the North End to Faneuil Hall to Dorchester, the sites of the Revolutionary era co-mingled with the sites of special importance to the Kennedy family — including Ted’s grandfather, John ‘‘Honey Fitz’’ Fitzgerald, the North End kid who became the first American-born Irish mayor of Boston in 1906. Today, Mission Hill, awash with Colonial, Irish, Jewish, and African-American his
Source: Time
August 28, 2009
The 54-year reign of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is expected to come to an end on Sunday in the country's first general election in four years. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), has little experience leading on a national level, but there are strong indications that voters will overwhelmingly support the party and its ambitious platform of reforming Japan's broken system.
After half a century Japan, it seems, is finally clamoring for change. The L
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 29, 2009
The lawyer acting for the freed Lockerbie bomber is flying to Libya to prepare for the release of a dossier of evidence "proving" his client's innocence.
Tony Kelly, a Scottish solicitor, said that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, who returned to his homeland ten days ago after being released from prison on compassionate grounds, remains determined to show his guilty verdict was unjust.
The lawyer said he had been unable to discuss this issue with Megra
Source: The Daily Beast
August 29, 2009
Four years ago today, Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, causing unprecedented devastation. In his weekly radio and Internet address, President Barack Obama marked the anniversary, vowing that the federal government will continue to assist with the city's recovery and that it has learned from the disaster. “As we remember all that was lost, we must take stock of the work being done on recovery, while preparing for future disasters,” Obama said. "None of us can forget how we felt
Source: Google News
August 28, 2009
CHICAGO — The glass-topped casket that displayed lynching victim Emmett Till's disfigured body to the world and became a rallying point for the civil rights movement is headed to the Smithsonian Institution, Till's family announced Friday.
"Hopefully, when this casket, when it's on display at the Smithsonian, young boys and young girls from all over the world are going to see it and it's going to inspire them to fight for those who are too weak to fight for themselves," sa
Source: NYT
August 28, 2009
The hunt for the comrade to a single shoe in a mountain of shoes. The calls, shouted to be heard above the din, of “Are you decent?” The buddy system. The comfort of knowing that no matter where you went, everyone knew at least one of your older brothers or sisters, and so in a way, knew you, too.
The large Irish-American family, once the norm, is now the exception, a turnaround brought into sharp relief this week with the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the retrospective loo
