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: NYT
August 22, 2009
President Obama had not even taken office before supporters were etching his likeness onto Mount Rushmore as another Abraham Lincoln or the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Yet what if they got the wrong predecessor? What if Mr. Obama is fated to be another Lyndon B. Johnson instead?
To be sure, such historical analogies are overly simplistic and fatally flawed, if only because each presidency is distinct in its own way. But the L.B.J. model — a president who asp
Source: Today's Zaman
August 17, 2009
Archeologists unearthed 16,000 year-old mother goddess figurine during excavations in Direkli Cave in the southern province of Kahramanmaras...
... Erek said that the figurine showed that the social status of women was very important 16,000 years ago.
Erek noted that the oldest fired clay god or goddess figurines --unearthed in Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Near East-- were made in 5,000 BC. He added that experts believed that the clay was used earliest in that period, howe
Source: 5-Minute Herald (Miami Herald)
August 15, 2009
More than 10 years after taxpayers shelled out $27 million to buy the land around the Miami Circle, ground was finally broken Friday on a new park that will open the ancient Native American site to the public.
Located at the mouth of the Miami River, the 2,000-year-old limestone slab was not on display and the park is not scheduled to open until next spring, but local officials said the groundbreaking was an important first step toward developing the historic space.
Arc
Source: Indiana University
August 18, 2009
A prehistoric water-filled cave in the Dominican Republic has become a 'treasure trove' with the announcement by archaeologists of the discovery of stone tools, a small primate skull in remarkable
condition, and the claws, jawbone and other bones of several species of sloths. The discoveries extend by thousands of years the scope of investigations led Charles Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs at IU Bloomington's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreati
Source: Spiegel International
August 21, 2009
Some 2,500 years ago, a mysterious culture emerged in Nigeria. The Nok people left behind bizarre terracotta statues - and little else. Archaeologists are now looking for more clues to explain this obscure culture...
...Like their cemeteries, the temples and huts of the Nok have disappeared without a trace. No one knows what their farm animals, streets or religious ceremonies were like. But the shards of clay statues are everywhere - on rock slopes, in ancient refuse pits and in ope
Source: Culture24
August 20, 2009
A 5,000-year-old carving discovered in the Orkney Islands is being hailed as the oldest face in Scotland by archaeologists. At first
glance, it appears little more than a tiny fragment of sandstone with a few crude scratches on the surface. Yet this precious object is the earliest carving of the human form to be found in Scotland - there are
only two others in the whole of the British mainland.
The face and its lozenge-shaped body - measuring just 3.5cm by 3cm - were carved o
Source: Costa Levante News
August 21, 2009
A large number of prehistoric archaeological sites in the Valencia Region (Spain) do not have adequate protection and are open to acts of vandalism and stealing, a report warned. The caves dating back to the Palaeolithic period and in some cases to the Iron Age located in La Safor district have no protection at all...
... All appear to have been forgotten by the authorities in favour of more modern causes such as baroque churches, 19th century buildings and monuments that are less t
Source: USA Today
August 20, 2009
China's founding dynasty may just be a myth, say archaeologists. In a news report published in Science magazine, writer Andrew Lawler surveys a decade's worth of discoveries suggesting ancient China sprang from distinct regions, rather than possessing a single national culture some 4,300 years ago. "How China became China is no mere academic topic; it goes to the very heart of how the world's most populous and economically vibrant nation sees itself and its role in the world," Lawler w
Source: TimesOnline
August 21, 2009
Is he the evil perpetrator of the deadliest terrorist attack in British history, or a sick old man, a loving father and grandfather, who has suffered a terrible miscarriage of justice? Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi put on a virtuoso performance when The Times came calling yesterday...
... Al-Megrahi promised that before he died he would present new evidence through his Scottish lawyers that would exonerate him. “My message to the British and Scottish communities is that I will put out
Source: The Wall Street Journal
August 22, 2009
Authorities in China are moving to snuff out petitioning, a centuries-old form of protest that brings thousands of aggrieved people to the capital each year seeking justice.
The new rules come as authorities are seeking to keep a lid on protests ahead of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in October. One official from the legislative affairs committee said recently that an "improvement" of the petitioning situation was needed to ensure "a harmoniou
Source: The Wall Street Journal
August 22, 2009
The government of Scotland found itself scrambling Friday to control political fallout from a decision to flex its independence by releasing a Libyan man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Television footage of a crowd of welcoming Libyans waving Scottish flags has fanned anger about the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer. He was allowed to travel to Libya on Thursday despite demands from victims' family members and a host of U.S. off
Source: AP
August 21, 2009
Seventy years ago Sunday, the Soviet Union signed a pact with Nazi Germany that gave dictator Josef Stalin a free hand to take over part of Poland and the Baltic states on the eve of World War II.
Most of the world now condemns the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but Russia has mounted a new defense of the 1939 treaty as it seeks to restore some of its now-lost sphere of influence.
The Soviet government was convinced that a Nazi attack on Poland was imminent and "we neede
Source: Foxnews
August 21, 2009
A 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummy, under examination of a high-tech scanner at Stanford Medical Center, may shed new light on ancient medical care and death in Egypt, reports say.
Researchers at Stanford are analyzing a minor priest from ancient Egypt named Iret-net Hor-irw, or "The Eye of Horus is Upon You," the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Probably just 20 when he died in the Egyptian cult city of Akhmim, the mummy is being readied for a new exhibition, "Very Post
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 22, 2009
British volunteers have launched a privately-funded mission to recover the remains of eight RAF crew killed in Malaya in 1945, after the Government refused to help.
Sunday is the 64th anniversary of the crash that killed the crew of the 356 Squadron Liberator KL654 while on a resupply sortie over Negeri Sembilan in central Malaya.
Japan had announced its surrender only eight days earlier and part of the crew’s mission was to search for prisoners of war still held in c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 21, 2009
One of Adolf Hitler's best paintings will be auctioned in Germany next month.
Three watercolours depicting cottages, mills and churches nestled in rural landscapes will be auctioned on Sept 5, Weidler's auction house in Nuremberg said on Thursday.
The three paintings are dated from 1910 and 1911 and originate from Vienna where Hitler spent several years as a struggling artist. He then joined the army and fought in World War One.
The auction house is expect
Source: Foxnews
May 21, 2009
The same groups who made the "tax tea parties" possible in April are planning anti-Obamacare rallies across the country Saturday in all 435 congressional districts.
If Democratic lawmakers thought all the furor over President Obama's health care plan expressed this month at town hall meetings was dying down, they might be in for a surprise Saturday.
And their message is clear: We will not stand for socialized, government-controlled health care.
Source: AP
August 22, 2009
Relatives of Americans killed when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, plan to converge on New York City in September to protest Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's speech at the United Nations.
Family members are furious that convicted Libyan bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison Thursday and was greeted in Libya by cheering crowds. He and his family also met later with Gadhafi.
Scottish officials said al-Megrahi, a former
Source: CNN
August 22, 2009
A former Bush administration official said she thinks former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's recent charges that politics were behind raising the terror level in 2004 were "personally motivated."
In a new book, Ridge says top Bush administration officials may have tried to raise the nation's terror alert for political reasons in the days before the 2004 presidential vote.
In response, Frances Townsend, a former Homeland Security adviser to President Ge
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 22, 2009
Former lieutenant William Calley said: "There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai.
"I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."
Mr Calley was addressing members of the Kiwanuis Club in Greater Columbus, Georgia, in remarks delivered on Wednesday but which have only now emerged.
The killin
August 21, 2009
A month before Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi plans to visit the U.S. for the first time, his regime Thursday ignored President Obama’s direct appeal not to give the Libyan convicted for his role in the Lockerbie bombing a hero’s welcome on his return to Tripoli.
Former intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, freed by the Scottish authorities on compassionate grounds after serving just eight years of a life sentence, was flown home on Gaddafi’s jet, accompanied by Gaddafi’s s
