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)
August 6, 2009
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe is man's earliest map, dating from almost 14,000 years ago.
A stone tablet found in a cave in Abauntz in the Navarra region of northern Spain is believed to contain the earliest known representation of a landscape.
Engravings on the stone, which measures less than seven inches by five inches, and is less than an inch thick, appear to depict mountains, meandering rivers and areas of good foraging and hunting.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 6, 2009
He was known for being handy with a gun, but an exhibition in New Mexico proves legendary sharpshooter Billy the Kid also knew how to weild pen.
A letter he wrote to the state's governor Lew Wallace will be available for public viewing in the Santa Fe library for the first time.
Billy the Kid was being held in the Santa Fe jail at the time he wrote the letter. Just four months later, the Kid was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 6, 2009
A former security guard at the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison told a tribunal on Wednesday that he watched as a Western prisoner was burned alive.
But the head of the prison - the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial in the UN-assisted tribunal - denied it.
Up to 16,000 people were tortured under Duch's command at S-21 prison and later were taken away to be killed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule of Cambodia. Only a handful survived.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 6, 2009
Thousands of people have lined the streets of Wells, Somerset, to watch the funeral procession of Harry Patch, the last British veteran of the First World War trenches.
Mr Patch, 111, the 'Last Tommy', who did not want a state funeral, was honoured at a service at Wells Cathedral.
Last week hundreds of people queued outside the cathedral for several hours to get one of the 1,050 tickets to the funeral which were allocated to the public.
Source: The Times (UK)
August 6, 2009
The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was exposed as a fraud 30 years ago by British diplomats who were investigating his qualifications.
The science-fiction writer, who invented a religion now followed by celebrities such as Tom Cruise, awarded himself a PhD from a sham “diploma mill” college that he had acquired, the diplomats found.
Such was the climate of fear and paranoia surrounding Scientology that the U.S. believed the sect had sent bogus doctors to declar
Source: Wall Street Journal
August 5, 2009
Farm real-estate values fell for the first time in more than 20 years, according to government statistics released Tuesday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its annual report that the value of all land and buildings on U.S. farms averaged $2,100 an acre Jan. 1, down 3.2% from last year. The decline in farm real-estate values was the first since 1987, the agency said.
Farm real-estate values had been climbing steadily over the past decade, reaching record levels l
Source: Wall Street Journal
August 6, 2009
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey met the leader of the country's main Kurdish party Wednesday, signaling a new drive to end a 25-year conflict that has hobbled Turkey's status as a rising regional power and slowed its efforts to join the European Union.
"Our people want unity... and an end to blood and killing," said Mr. Erdogan, describing the hourlong meeting with Democratic Society Party head Ahmet Turk as "very, very important."
More
Source: CNN
August 6, 2009
The president she tried to assassinate has been dead for nearly three years, and her longtime idol and leader, Charles Manson, remains in prison.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Fromme, now 60, is set to be released on parole August 16.
For years, she was one of Manson's few remaining followers, as many other "Manson Family" members have shunned him. A prison spokeswoman would not say whether Fromme continues to correspond with Manson.
Source: NYT
August 4, 2009
After 13 years of failed redevelopment efforts, the United States Postal Service is giving up and auctioning off its largest vacant property: the hulking 2.7-million-square-foot old central post office here.
The suggested opening bid for the auction is $300,000, which is less than an individual condominium goes for in many of the surrounding downtown buildings...
... The behemoth, which is nine stories tall with 14-story corner towers, is several blocks southwest of the
Source: History Today
August 4, 2009
To celebrate their 150th anniversary and its strong naval heritage, Woods’ 100 Old Navy Rum recently launched a project to find out what it means to be a hero for people in the UK today. During the month of June researchers interviewed 1,000 people from across the UK. The results of their research revealed that for 41% of people members of the army and the navy were considered the most heroic. A quarter of those questioned viewed doctors and paramedics as particularly heroic, followed by the pol
Source: Wall Street Journal
August 5, 2009
A year after Russia fought a war with its former-Soviet neighbor Georgia, the argument over who was to blame for a conflict that at one point threatened to reignite the Cold War is raging again.
The five-day conflict left hundreds dead, Georgia's army crushed and two parts of its territory on the border with Russia -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- under Russian occupation. It also left the West struggling with how to respond to Russia's determination to assert a sphere of influence.
Source: bloomberg.com
August 4, 2009
Plans by German scholars to reprint Adolf Hitler's"Mein Kampf"" as an academic treatise were rejected by the state copyright holders, who said a new edition of the book could fuel support for far-right groups.
The Bavarian authorities this week reaffirmed a 64-year-old ban on the book after the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History, or IFZ, applied for permission to reprint the work. State officials said that extremist groups could have legally promoted the book if the
Source: Tallahassee.com
August 5, 2009
For the first time, Leon County Schools is growing closer to a districtwide plan that will ensure more African-American history is taught across multiple subjects throughout the school year.
It comes on the heels of a Tallahassee civic-rights group's relentless pursuit — which has included filed complaints, letters to Gov. Charlie Crist and a filed lawsuit to the state attorney general — for more to be taught.
Black history is being taught already in Leon County. But so
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
August 4, 2009
A German Jew sent to Britain as a schoolboy to escape Hitler's gas chambers is to be a witness for the prosecution at what is expected to be the last great Nazi war crimes trial.
Kurt Gutmann, 82, has been chosen as one of a handful of co-plaintiffs who will testify against John Demjanjuk, who is accused of taking part in the murders of 27,900 people at the Sobibor extermination camp in occupied Poland.
Kurt’s brother Hans and his mother Jeanette died there in 1942, tw
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 5, 2009
Russia has revived a Cold War military tradition by deploying nuclear-powered submarines close to the US coastline.
Two Akula class submarines have been patrolling 200 miles off the US east coast but remained just inside international waters, the Pentagon said.
The mission, the first of its kind for at least 15 years, recalled many underwater confrontations of the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly stationed submarines off each other's coast
Source: BBC
August 5, 2009
The world of espionage lies at the heart of the mythology of the Cold War.
But while the tales of adventure, betrayal and mole hunts have proved a source of rich inspiration for thriller writers, did they actually make a difference to the outcome?
It is difficult to know the answer.
One reason it is hard to make a judgement is that much of the intelligence collected was military or tactical in nature, and would only have proven useful if the Cold War had g
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 5, 2009
An effort by one of Germany's leading Holocaust deniers to set up a neo-Nazi "youth camp" in a rural hotel has been scotched by a court decision to have the neo-Nazis thrown out.
The court in Lower Saxony cleared the way for the debt-ridden hotel's receiver to evict the neo-Nazis, who had been occupying the premises amid a tense standoff with police and local anti-Nazi protesters.
Hours before the decision, German commandos had raided the hotel after hearing
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 5, 2009
Italy is planning to build a 200ft high, solar energy-producing statue of one of its most cherished saints.
The statue of Padre Pio, who was canonised in 2002 by Pope John Paul II and has a huge worldwide following, will be built on a hill in southern Italy, close to the town where he is commemorated.
It will cost several million pounds, with the money to be raised from his followers around the world.
The statue will be coated in a special photovoltaic pai
Source: Times (UK)
August 5, 2009
A Ministry of Defence press officer has claimed that being forced to tell lies about the war in Iraq has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.
John Salisbury-Baker, 62, who spoke for the Armed Forces in the North East, said that he had struggled to cope with a stress-related condition for the past two years. He is based at the Imphal Barracks in York.
He is pursuing a claim for disability discrimination on the grounds that the stress of the job has effectively l
Source: Times (UK)
August 5, 2009
Lockerbie victim families expressed anger today after the Scottish Justice Secretary made an unprecedented visit to the bomber in prison as speculation grew that he could be returned to Libya.
Kenny MacAskill met with Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, at Greenock Prison, as part of ongoing deliberations about his future. It is thought to be the first time a senior Holyrood minister has visited a convicted killer in jail.
In May, Libyan authorities applied for al-Megrah
