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: AP
May 2, 2009
TOKYO — When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused any problems.
But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and ang
Source: IHT
May 3, 2009
After decades of dictatorship and disrepair, Iraq is celebrating its renewed sovereignty over the Babylon archaeological site — by fighting over the place, over its past and future and, of course, over its spoils.
Now with the support of some officials in Baghdad, the local government has reopened the excavated ruins of Babylon’s ancient core, shuttered ever since the American invasion in 2003. It has done so despite warnings by archaeologists that the reopening threatens to damage
Source: Times (UK)
May 2, 2009
The Garden of Eden may not have looked much like its traditional image of a lush, fertile corner of the Earth.
Instead, a genetic study of Africa suggests that the origin of humanity lies in a sandy, inhospitable region near the coastal border of Namibia and Angola.
The area is populated by the Bushmen, or San people, who may be the closest thing to a biblical Adam and Eve. ...
Scientists suggest that the clicking sounds characteristic of the San’s language may b
Source: NYT
May 2, 2009
Jack Kemp, the former football star turned congressman who with an evangelist’s fervor moved the Republican Party to a commitment to tax cuts as the central focus of economic policy, died Saturday evening at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 73....
Mr. Kemp was secretary of housing and urban development under the first President George Bush and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1996. But his greatest legacy may stem from his years as a congressman from Buffalo, especially 1
Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette
May 3, 2009
1793 accounts ledger indicates 1756 date on cornerstone may be accurate.
Pittsburgh's Historic Review Commission is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to recommend historic status for the Old Stone Inn, a West End landmark at 434 Greentree Road. If the inn is as old as growing evidence indicates, it may be older than the nation, even older than Pittsburgh.
No historic nomination in recent memory has led to such depths of discovery. Researchers have become giddy as th
Source: Los Angeles Times
May 3, 2009
A New York-born and Princeton-educated historian and commentator on Middle East affairs has been chosen Israel's next ambassador to Washington, Israeli news media reported Saturday.
According to the online edition of the newspaper Haaretz, Michael B. Oren’s selection by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval at its meeting today. Oren would replace Sallai Meridor.
Oren is a senior fellow at
Source: BBC
May 3, 2009
A man who was saved by a woman from a fatal crush at a London Underground station during World War II has met his rescuer's family after 66 years.
Alfie Morris was 13 years old when he went to take shelter in Bethnal Green Tube station, east London, on 3 March 1943 from an impending air-raid.
Maude Chumbley grabbed his hair and saved him from the crush as hundreds of people climbed down the stairs. A total of 173 people, including many
Source: BBC
May 3, 2009
A huge wave crashed into the New York City region 2,300 years ago, dumping sediment and shells across Long Island and New Jersey and casting wood debris far up the Hudson River.
The scenario, proposed by scientists, is undergoing further examination to verify radiocarbon dates and to rule out other causes of the upheaval.
Sedimentary deposits from more than 20 cores in New York and New Jersey indicate that some sort of violent force swept the Northeast coastal region
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 2, 2009
A hero Gurkha who lost his arm and sight in one eye fighting for Britain has appealed to the Queen and the Prime Minister for his granddaughter to be allowed to stay in the country to care for him.
Lachhiman Gurung won the VC after he single-handedly repelled a Japanese attack for four hours in World War Two despite suffering horrific injuries.
Now aged 91, he needs constant care from his granddaughter, Amrita, but she faces deportation after being refused leave to re
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 1, 2009
A children's colouring book that depicts the burning towers of the 9/11 terror attacks and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina has been removed from a US government website over concerns that its contents could prove upsetting.
The 25-page book, called A Scary Thing Happened, was approved by the Bush administration.
Makers said it was prepared by a crisis response team to help children "cope with disasters".
However, it has since been removed fr
Source: BBC
May 2, 2009
Brazilian police and soldiers have begun an operation to remove non-indigenous residents from an Indian reservation in northern Brazil.
The operation follows a landmark ruling by the country's Supreme Court that the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation should be solely for indigenous people.
The non-indigenous rice farmers and farm workers say they are victims of "legalised robbery".
But the authorities say they will be properly compensated.
Source: Independent (UK)
May 1, 2009
It was a setting for one of the most famous love stories in English history. The great scented garden that Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, created at Kenilworth Castle, his home in Warwickshire, especially to woo Elizabeth I has been re-created by English Heritage and opens to the public tomorrow.
Dudley was one of Tudor England's most powerful – and most glamorous – courtiers. He and Elizabeth had known each other since childhood. They had both been imprisoned in the Tower of
Source: Times (UK)
May 2, 2009
Publication of a controversial report into security failings before the July 2005 bombings has been delayed, causing mounting concerns among survivors and relatives of the dead.
The 7/7 families had been told to expect the report, into security lapses which left Mohammed Sidique Khan free to carry out the attacks, “within days” of the end of the trial of three men accused of helping him.
That trial finished this week but no date has been set for publishing the report,
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 1, 2009
Campaigners and opposition MPs said a public investigation into the legitimacy of the invasion and the subsequent failures in nation building could not be delayed any longer.
They spoke out after a final memorial parade in Basra in which the names of each of the 179 servicemen and women killed during the conflict were read out before control of southern Iraq was handed over to an American commander.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, called for an immediate inquiry similar
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 1, 2009
New evidence suggests an "isolated community" escaped annihilation and lived on a rocky, desert plateau in North America.
Until now, palaeontologists widely believed the creatures were wiped out 65 million years ago when an asteroid collided with Earth.
But now experts say a "pocket" of dinosaurs survived and roamed a remote area of what is now New Mexico and Colorado.
Carbon dating of newly-discovered bones in the San Juan Basin prov
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 1, 2009
The 25-page book, called A Scary Thing Happened, was approved by the Bush administration.
Its cover shows a childlike drawing of one of the Twin Towers in flames, with a hijacked plane looming close to the second tower.
The image is repeated three times on page 12, where readers can colour in the flames.
The book also features a scene reminiscent of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Makers said it was prepared by a crisis r
Source: Deutsche Welle
April 30, 2009
In a letter to the leaders of 39 nations, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called on other countries to support the newly established Auschwitz-Birkenau foundation. The foundation is attempting to raise 120 million Euros ($160 million) to ensure long term maintenance funding for buildings and ruins at the former Nazi death camp.
Although the foundation has only been officially in existence for a week, the international response to the request for funds has been positive.
Source: Sky News
May 2, 2009
The picture, sent to a teenage girl suffering from terminal leukaemia in the 1960s, went under the hammer in Aylsham, Norfolk.
Andrew Bullock, of auctioneers Keys, said it was thought Harrison had copied the signatures of his fellow band members - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon.
"We've sent it to a handwriting expert and it's just about 100% certain that they were done by George," he said.
Source: BBC
May 1, 2009
The ruling allows for the 89-year-old Ohio resident to be deported - although the appeals process is not exhausted.
A stay of deportation was granted earlier in April after federal agents briefly removed him from his home.
His family said he was too ill to be moved but the government has filed video showing him walking unassisted.
Mr Demjanjuk denies charges of being a guard at the Sobibor death camp in World War II.
Source: NYT
May 1, 2009
LONDON — The writer Carol Ann Duffy was appointed Britain’s poet laureate on Friday, becoming the first woman to take a 341-year-old job that has been held by, among others, Dryden, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Cecil Day-Lewis and Ted Hughes.
Ms. Duffy, 53, is known for using a deceptively simple style to produce accessible, often mischievous poems dealing with the darkest turmoil and the lightest minutiae of everyday life...
Announcing the decision, the culture secretary, And
