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: BBC
July 9, 2009
Hundreds of people have been evacuated from the world-famous Getty art museum in Los Angeles as a brush fire rages in nearby mountains, officials say.
The museum, home to priceless works like van Gogh's Irises, remains closed.
Ventilation systems were shut down to prevent smoke damage to the museum's priceless art collection.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 9, 2009
The Prince of Wales has praised Henry VIII as an environmentalist with a keen interest in architecture.
Delivering this year's Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the Prince said: "Henry instigated the very first piece of green legislation in this country.
In 1543 Henry passed laws to protect forests by preventing shipbuilders from felling too many oak trees.
Source: AP
July 9, 2009
Four cemetery workers have been charged with dismembering bodies after police found what they called "startling and revolting" conditions at a historic cemetery near Chicago.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says workers at the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip allegedly dug up more than 100 graves, dumped the bodies into unmarked mass graves and resold the plots to unsuspecting members of the public.
Burr Oak is the final resting place of many famous African-Americans,
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 8, 2009
Pakistan's president has admitted his country created terrorist groups
to help achieve its foreign policy goals.
Asif Zardari told a meeting of former senior civil servants in
Islamabad, it was time to be honest about their deployment."Let us be truthful to ourselves and make a candid admission of the
realities," he said."The terrorists of today were the heroes of
yesteryears until 9/11 occurred and they began to haunt us as well."
These groups were not thrown up because of government
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 9, 2009
President Barack Obama has told African leaders it is time to stop blaming colonialism and "Western oppression" for the continent's manifold problems.
Ahead of a visit to Ghana at the weekend, he said: "Ultimately, I'm a big believer that Africans are responsible for Africa.
"I think part of what's hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we've made excuses about corruption or poor governance, that this was somehow the consequence of ne
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 8, 2009
The National Archives are being "dumbed down", stripped of funding and are in danger of being turned into little more than a "glorified family history centre", a researcher claimed yesterday.
The records at Kew, west London, have provided some of the best insight into past political thinking, fears about security through the ages and quirks of royal behaviour.
However, Ruth Wilcock, who has worked there for 34 years, said she fears that the Archives are be
Source: AP
July 8, 2009
Spread upon a table are a sampling of gifts to former President George W. Bush: a purse made of vines from the Thai queen, a Texas Rangers jersey autographed by pitcher Nolan Ryan and a framed mosaic of St. Peter's Basilica from the pope.
The gifts, documents and electronic records accumulated during Bush's two terms have gone from the White House to a warehouse in suburban Dallas, just a few miles north of a turnpike named for his father. They will remain there until Bush's $300 mi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 8, 2009
A few minutes into our conversation, Buzz Aldrin makes it clear that we won't be spending much time reliving the day that began a new chapter in the history of the human race and made him one of the most famous people on – and off – the planet. It's not that the Second Man on the Moon doesn't want to talk about his space odyssey; it's just that he thinks he should be suitably rewarded for doing so.
Surprisingly, Aldrin's reservations about describing what it's like to kick up moon
Source: Providence Journal
July 7, 2009
Kneeling in a hole, archaeologist James Garman pokes through two centuries of soil, trash and treasures. After a few hours of digging, he and other researchers find a tarnished belt buckle from the early 1800s.
“We are so close to the 18th century,” says Garman, staring at a dark line of dirt at the bottom of the pit.
For the third straight year, researchers this summer have been sifting a 15-by-20-foot pit off lower Thames Street for items owned by Thomas Richardson I
Source: AP
July 8, 2009
After decades of failed efforts, the latest venture to create a cultural hub honoring Douglass in the city where he spent his most influential years is close to fruition. All it needs is staff — at least five people to complement the Hunts' nonprofit efforts and run the new resource.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony drew a big crowd to the Frederick Douglass Resource Center over the Fourth of July weekend. The main gallery is adorned with 19th-century photographs, maps and handwritten lett
Source: BBC
July 8, 2009
The Hague tribunal has rejected the argument by former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic that he should not be prosecuted because of an immunity deal.
Mr Karadzic said the former US peace envoy Richard Holbrooke had promised him immunity from prosecution if he gave up politics.
Mr Holbrooke has repeatedly denied there was any such deal.
The UN court said even if there was, it did not have legal standing, and that Mr Karadzic's trial should go ahead.
Source: BBC
July 8, 2009
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has made a rare public appearance for commemorations of the 15th anniversary of his father's death.
Observers said he looked gaunt and limped slightly while entering the crammed auditorium where the ceremony was held in the capital Pyongyang.
It was the second major state event the 67-year-old has attended since suffering a suspected stroke in August.
His poor health has led to concerns of a power struggle if he dies sudden
Source: BBC
July 7, 2009
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have appealed against the judges' decision not to indict Sudan's president for genocide.
The judges in March said there was insufficient evidence to support the three charges of genocide in Darfur.
However they issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The ICC chief prosecutor is in Ethiopia for talks with the African Union, which says Mr Bashir s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 9, 2009
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has pledged to help rebuild an Italian village which was all but destroyed by April's earthquake, 65 years after Nazi troops carried out a massacre of civilians.
Mrs Merkel was accompanied by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, for her tour of the devastated hamlet, which took place on the sidelines of the G8 summit in nearby L'Aquila.
They inspected the ruins of the local church, which will be rebuilt with the help of £2.6
Source: Reuters
July 8, 2009
A FORMER fighter for the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s told a Cambodian court today how he was suspected of turning against the Pol Pot regime, arrested and beaten unconscious, waking up beneath bodies in a burial pit.
Phork Khan, 57, was testifying at the trial of Duch, head of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 interrogation center in Phnom Penh, who faces life in prison if convicted on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and homicide.
As the regime purged suspec
Source: Times (UK)
July 8, 2009
Al Gore invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill yesterday when he urged political leaders to follow the example of Britain’s wartime leader in the battle against climate change.
The former US Vice-President accused governments around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid taking difficult decisions.
Speaking in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by The Times, Mr Gore said: “Winsto
Source: Guardian (UK)
July 8, 2009
Two titans of the British museum world, Sir Nicholas Serota and Neil MacGregor, last night sketched out their visions for the museum of the future.
Both said that the relationship between institutions and their audiences would be transformed by the internet. Museums, they said, would become more like multimedia organisations.
"The future has to be, without question, the museum as a publisher and broadcaster," said MacGregor, director of the British Museum.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
July 8, 2009
With its smooth and elegant lines, this could be a prototype for some future successor to the stealth bomber.
But this flying wing was actually designed by the Nazis 30 years before the Americans successfully developed radar-invisible technology.
Now an engineering team has reconstructed the Horten Ho 2-29 from blueprints, with startling results.
It was faster and more efficient than any other plane of the period and its stealth powers did work against ra
Source: BBC
July 8, 2009
Howard Manoian, 84, had been awarded the prestigious French award the Legion d'honneur for bravery.
He claimed he had landed in Sainte-Mere-Eglise in France - the setting of a fierce battle immortalised in the John Wayne film The Longest Day.
But his military records reveal he spent the war behind the front line.
Source: BBC
July 8, 2009
Mr Karadzic said the former US peace envoy Richard Holbrooke had promised him immunity from prosecution if he gave up politics.
Mr Holbrooke has repeatedly denied there was any such deal.
The UN court said even if there was, it did not have legal standing, and that Mr Karadzic's trial should go ahead.
Mr Karadzic, 64, faces 11 charges including genocide.
