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: http://www.sciencedaily.com
June 2, 2009
Researchers have discovered a fossilized face and jaw from a previously unknown hominoid primate genus in Spain dating to the Middle Miocene era, roughly 12 million years ago. Nicknamed "Lluc," the male bears a strikingly "modern" facial appearance with a flat face, rather than a protruding one. The finding sheds important new light on the evolutionary development of hominids, including orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans.
In a study appearing i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 3, 2009
Watson's Hotel, a crumbling remnant of one of the grandest relics of the British Raj, has been forced to shut down more than 140 years after it was shipped over from England.
The Mumbai housing authority has urged the Grade II–A heritage structure to be evacuated before the onset of the monsoon next week and has registered the 138-year-old building in the "most dilapidated" category of its pre-monsoon survey of dangerous structures.
Built in 1871, the hotel wa
Source: History Today
June 2, 2009
‘Legacies of British Slave Ownership’ is a new project launched, today, by a team of historians from UCL (University College London). The aim of the three-year project is to investigate Britain’s debt to slavery and create an ‘Encyclopaedia of British slave owners’, an online database which will identify all slave-owners in the British Caribbean in the 1830s at the time slavery was abolished. It is the first comprehensive attempt to study the extent and significance of slave-ownership in the for
Source: CNN
June 3, 2009
An emotional Nancy Reagan helped unveil a statue of her late husband, President Reagan, on Wednesday, calling the 7-foot figure "a wonderful likeness."
The statue is one of two from California in the National Statuary Hall Collection donated by states to honor significant figures.
Nancy Reagan stood arm-in-arm with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio to pull down the curtain from the statue. She thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for makin
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 3, 2009
The 25-year-old Ukrainian Avraham Radbil and 28-year-old Hungarian Zsolt Balla were handed their certificates on Tuesday at the new synagogue in Munich. The ceremony was attended by senior German political figures and Jewish leaders.
The two newly-ordained rabbis were trained at a seminary in Berlin, which began courses in 2005. They have positions awaiting them in the cities of Leipzig and Cologne.
A "small miracle"
The president of the Central C
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 2, 2009
In an unprecedented ruling, the Federal Social Court in the western German city gave the green light to three Jewish claimants, two men and one woman all over 80 years old, to claim the pensions.
Judge Ulrich Steinwedel said the cases "stemmed from the darkest chapter of German history and couldn't leave anyone unmoved."
During World War II, the three claimants were confined in ghettos -- cordoned-off zones in eastern European cities where Jews were corralled
Source: CNN
June 3, 2009
India's lower house of parliament elected a woman as its speaker
Wednesday, a first in the male-dominated chamber's history.
Meira Kumar was nominated by the ruling Congress party.
Meira Kumar is also a member of the"untouchable" Dalit class, the
lowest rung in the centuries-old caste system in the country.
The speaker conducts the proceedings of the house. She will preside
over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women.
Source: BBC
June 3, 2009
China has boosted security in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, ahead of Thursday's anniversary of the killings in 1989.
Many dissidents say they have been told to leave Beijing or are confined to their homes.
Xiang Xiaoji, now a US citizen, was trying to come to Hong Kong on Wednesday to join commemorative events being held to mark the anniversary. But he was refused entry and returned to New York.
Another prominent protest leader, Wu'er Kaixi, flew from his h
Source: BBC
June 2, 2009
For the first time since 1980, the US has authorised its embassies around the world to invite Iranian diplomats to Independence Day receptions.
The move is part of a new policy of engagement with Iran under President Barack Obama's administration.
The decision to invite Iranian diplomats to an American reception is a symbolic gesture but it puts an end to almost 30 years of a US policy discouraging even informal contacts with Iranian officials.
It is not
Source: BBC
June 2, 2009
Two dinosaur skulls have fetched top prices at an auction in New York.
A giant 65-million-year-old Triceratops skull sold at Bonhams' Natural History auction for $242,000 (£148,000).
A skull from a cousin of the T. rex, the Alioramus remotus, went for $206,000 (£126,000). Both sold for almost double the original estimates.
The auction house would not reveal the buyers, but said the bones could end up as home ornaments.
Source: BBC
June 2, 2009
An American man has returned a 21kg (46lb) chunk of medieval pillar taken from Jerusalem's Old City 12 years ago.
Israeli authorities had received a letter from a priest asking forgiveness for the man, after he confessed to taking away the stone.
He said a tour guide had given him the weighty piece of marble, and that he had not realised until later that it had probably been stolen.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority said it was not planning legal action.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 2, 2009
The Prince of Wales is to attend the 65th anniversary celebrations of D-Day after the intervention of President Obama, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The change of heart came after White House officials put pressure on the French government to invite the Queen who was kept off the original guest list by President Sarkozy.
But Buckingham Palace, after hasty talks with Downing Street, is to announce that the Prince of Wales will represent the Queen at the D-Day comme
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 2, 2009
China has begun imposing an information blackout ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, blocking access to popular networking websites such as Twitter and BBC television reports inside China.
The measures came as the authorities tried to close all avenues of dissent ahead of Thursday's anniversary, placing prominent critics under house arrest and banning newspaper from making any mention of the pro-democracy protests.
The co-ordinated internet
Source: Times Online (UK)
June 3, 2009
It is an arresting, surreal image: a group of Aborigines emerge slowly from the desert, walking over a red sand dune, tall, black, semi-naked silhouettes seen through the barren spinifex bushes in the middle of Western Australia.
It is September, 1964 — the Beatles had just finished their first sell-out tour of North America and Goldfinger had just opened in UK cinemas — and yet across the other side of the world these desert-dwelling indigenous Australians were about to see a whit
Source: CNN
June 2, 2009
The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq who retired over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is calling for a truth commission to investigate Bush-era policies behind the abuse and controversial interrogations of detainees.
"The mechanisms that are responsible for establishing accountability have lost their credibility within the country, and there's a lack of trust in them," retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview on CNN's "Newsroom" Tuesday. "A
Source: CNN
June 3, 2009
From where he came, no one could have predicted what Ronald Takaki would become. Raised in a low-income area of Oahu, Hawaii, a descendant of Japanese immigrants who toiled in sugar cane plantation fields, he cared more about surfing than schoolwork.
The pioneering and beloved professor of more than 30 years at University of California, Berkeley, and prolific author who helped change how American history is written, died on May 26.
In the 1960s, he earned a master's an
Source: AP
June 2, 2009
On the eve of the 65th anniversary of D-Day, the foundation that runs the National D-Day Memorial is on the brink of financial ruin. Donations are down in the poor economy. The primary base of support — World War II veterans — is dying off. And the privately funded memorial is struggling to draw visitors because it's hundreds of miles from a major city.
Facing the prospect of cutting staff and hours, the memorial's president believes its only hope for long-term survival is to be ta
Source: http://www.marketwire.com
June 2, 2009
In a historic moment at the White House today, Mrs. Ronald Reagan stood next to President Barack Obama as he signed the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act, which will honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Wilson Reagan. The 11-member Commission will plan, develop and carry out activities which pay tribute to our nation's fortieth president.
"I was delighted to be back at the White House today and even more delighted to be part of the Ronald Reagan Centennial
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
May 30, 2009
On May 29, 2009, the National Archives and Records Administration announced a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of an external hard drive containing copies of backup tapes from the Executive Office of the President (EOP) of the Clinton Administration. NARA learned in late March 2009 that the hard drive was missing from a processing room at NARA’s College Park, Maryland facility.
Source: NYT
May 31, 2009
Google appears to be throwing down the gauntlet in the e-book market.
In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google. The move would pit Google against Amazon.com, which is seeking to control the e-book market with the versions it sells for its Kindle reading device.
