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
August 7, 2008
Raila Odinga was speaking at a memorial service in central Nairobi commemorating those who died in coordinated al-Qa'eda bombings exactly ten years ago.
The blasts, against the US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania's main city, Dar es Salaam, were the first blamed by Washington on the then largely unknown organisation headed by Osama bin Laden.
"The scale of this atrocity shocked our nation to the core," Mr Odinga said after laying a wreath at the site of Nai
Source: AP
August 7, 2008
Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,900-year-old well-preserved chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Thursday.
Daniela Agre said her team found the four-wheel chariot during excavations near the village of Borisovo, around 180 miles east of the capital, Sofia.
"This is the first time that we have found a completely preserved chariot in Bulgaria," said Agre, a senior archaeologist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sci
Source: Benton County Daily Record
August 7, 2008
BENTONVILLE - Although the statue of the Confederate soldier on the Bentonville Square will be honored with a centennial celebration Friday, no Confederate flags will fly at the event.
A 100-year celebration is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at the Bentonville Public Library to honor the monument. The event will feature speakers who will discuss the history behind the statue.
Johnny Haney, a downtown businessman and Bentonville resident, explained why the Confederate flag
Source: Telegraph
August 7, 2008
The naval leader, who became a national icon after his death in the battle of Trafalgar, comfortably topped a poll whose results covered more than 800 years of British military history.
They ranged from Richard the Lionheart, whose exploits on the Crusades earned him fourth place on the list, to Lt Col Herbert "H" Jones, posthumous winner of a Victoria Cross for charging Argentine positions during the Falklands War in 1982, who came eighth.
Admiral Lord Nels
Source: Independent
August 7, 2008
The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is being kept free for a statue of the Queen riding a horse which will be commissioned after she dies, say senior officials.
The plan sheds new light on why the plinth has never had a full-time occupant and has been used recently to showcase the work of modern artists. It also explains why the Mayor of London, who has been informed of the plan, recently performed a mysterious U-turn on proposals for a permanent statue to be placed on the m
Source: U.S. News and World Report
August 7, 2008
Ten years on, the American-brokered Good Friday agreement, which laid the framework for ending 30 years of violence between Northern Ireland's Roman Catholics and Protestants, is rightfully considered proof positive that negotiations can bring entrenched sectarian wars to peaceful ends. Nevertheless, a recent and worrisome spate of violence by a small cadre of hard-core Catholic dissidents—splinter groups of the Irish Republican Army, which has abandoned armed revolt against British rule—is a re
Source: AP
August 7, 2008
President Bush is eagerly awaiting the start of the Summer Olympics, making history as the first president to attend this world athletic competition on foreign soil.
But his arrival in Beijing Thursday night on the eve of the opening of the games came amid an atmosphere of tension with China's leaders over his high-profile speech in Thailand exhorting the growing world power to grant more freedom to its people.
Bush, first lady Laura Bush and their daughter Barbara ca
Source: Washington Post
August 6, 2008
The Bush administration joined former top CIA officials in denouncing a new book's assertion that White House officials ordered the forgery of Iraqi documents to suggest a link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the lead hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The claim was made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, whose book "The Way of the World" also contends that the White House obtained compelling evidence in early 2003 that Iraq possessed
Source: AP
August 6, 2008
The theater where "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said Wednesday.
The possible foundations of what is known as simply, The Theatre, were unearthed by builders excavating the site — a vacant garage — for another structure. Museum archaeologists were called to the location to make sure not
Source: LAT
August 7, 2008
The military jury deciding the fate of Osama bin Laden's driver today sentenced him to 5 1/2 years in prison for providing material support for terrorism, far less than the minimum 30 years in prison the prosecution sought.
The military judge hearing the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Navy Capt. Keith J. Allred, has said previously he will credit Hamdan with at least five years of the 6 1/2 years he has been imprisoned at Guantanamo.
Prosecution lawyers asked for a life term but
Source: International Herald Tribune
August 6, 2008
A panel of six military officers Wednesday convicted a former driver for Osama bin Laden of providing material support for terrorism, but acquitted him of a conspiracy charge, arguably the more serious of the two charges he faced in the first military commission trial here.
The former driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who has said he is about 40, faces a possible life term, a sentence that will be determined in a proceeding that was scheduled to begin Wednesday afternoon.
As
Source: Telegraph
August 7, 2008
Luftwaffe veteran Willi Schludecker, 88, flew scores of missions over the UK during the 'Baedeker Blitz' of 1942.
Earlier this year the remorseful pilot visited Bath for a memorial service to apologise for his role in bombings of the town which killed 400 people.
Last Friday he returned to Bath after promising event organiser Chris Kilminster, 61, a flight in one of his planes.
But just moments after taking off from a private airstrip near Marshfield, Glos, the
Source: AP
August 6, 2008
A vintage World War II landing craft was hauled across a coastal North Carolina town Wednesday and is set to be restored and preserved - one of only about a dozen of its kind believed to be left.
The North Carolina Maritime Museum moved the rare Higgins boat to its Watercraft Center in Beaufort, where restoration work is to begin Thursday.
"There are only four left in the United States, including this one, so it's a very unique boat," museum spokeswoman Michel
Source: History Today
August 6, 2008
A pair of Queen Victoria’s hand-made knickers from the 1890s has sold at auction for £4,500. The July 30th sale at auctioneers Hansons auctioneers in Derbyshire also included the Queen’s chemise and nightgown. The 50in cotton bloomers include a VR monogram and were sold by relatives of the monarch’s lady-in-waiting; auctioneer Charles Hanson said: ‘These pants, considering their provenance and pedigree, are very exciting.’
Source: Sunday Herald
August 6, 2008
A BURGEONING international market for second world war memorabilia is putting strain on the numerous small museums that commemorate the 1944 D-Day landings, which are increasingly under the eye of unscrupulous collectors, French police say.
Two recent thefts have highlighted poor security at the more than 25 collections - mainly in private hands - which draw thousands of summer visitors along the Normandy coast. In one incident, the booty included a rare German "Enigma" en
Source: AP
August 6, 2008
Police divers checking a report of human remains off a Puerto Rican beach may have made an archaeological discovery: bones and possible artifacts from a colonial-era ship, officials in the U.S. island territory said Wednesday.
The divers found a cannon, pieces of a ship, human bones, a sword and a medal engraved with the name Isabel II, said Sgt. Angel Rivera Rodriguez, a spokesman for Puerto Rico's police department.
Divers were dispatched to Playa Monserrate, near the tow
Source: AP
August 6, 2008
Egyptian scientists are carrying out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine whether they are the young pharaoh's offspring, the antiquities authority said Wednesday.
The two tiny female fetuses, between five to seven months in gestational age, were found in King Tut's tomb in Luxor when it was dissevered in 1922.
DNA samples from the fetuses "will be compared to each other, along with those of the mummy of King Tutankhamun,
Source: AP
August 6, 2008
Alberto Achacaz Walakial, one of the last surviving members of the nomadic Kaweskar tribe that once plied the waters off Chile's Patagonian coast, has died of blood poisoning, local media reported on Tuesday.
Government documents listed Achacaz's age at 79, but some believe he was close to 90.
Experts estimate that only about a dozen full-blooded Kaweskars — or Alacalufes — survive and the group appears destined to disappear in the near future as there are no women of
Source: AP
August 6, 2008
Hiroshima's mayor on Wednesday urged the next U.S. president to support a proposed ban on nuclear weapons, as Japan marked the 63rd anniversary of the atomic blast that obliterated this city and killed 140,000 people.
In a ceremony, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba also announced the launch of a two-year study to gauge the psychological toll of the Aug. 6, 1945, attack in the closing days of World War II.
Japan submitted a resolution in the U.N. last year calling for the abol
Source: Telegraph
August 6, 2008
Squadron Leader Eric Dowling was one of the last surviving members of the Stalag Luft III prison break whose actions were made into the book on which the movie was based.
But even though his real life role bears a striking resemblance to that of Charles Bronson's character in the classic motion picture, the airman was less than impressed with Hollywood's version of events.
Sq Ldr Dowling, who knew seven of the 50 soldiers murdered during the escape, was particularly sca
