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: Reuters
July 27, 2007
Sixty-two years ago they were bitter enemies -- one a Japanese pilot trained to crash his plane into U.S. ships on a suicide mission, the other two survivors of a ship sunk by one of the pilot's kamikaze comrades.
But on Friday the three now elderly men shook hands and blinked back tears during a meeting that the former U.S. servicemen said finally helped them come to terms with their traumatic past.
"You feel terrible towards the people who did this to you and as
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
July 27, 2007
For the first time since it began debating the issue more than three
decades ago, Congress is now poised to adopt legislation that will
require -- not merely recommend -- public disclosure of the total
national intelligence budget.
"Not later than 30 days after the end of each fiscal year beginning
with fiscal year 2007, the Director of National Intelligence shall
disclose to the public the aggregate amount of funds appropriated by
Congress for the National Intelligence Program for suc
Source: AP
July 26, 2007
Researchers in northern Greece have uncovered two massive tusks of a prehistoric mastodon that roamed Europe more than 2 million years ago — tusks that could be the largest of their kind ever found.
The remains of the mastodon, which was similar to the woolly mammoth but had straighter tusks as well as different teeth and eating habits, were found in an area about 250 miles north of Athens where excavations have uncovered several prehistoric animals over the past decade.
Source: AFP
July 27, 2007
An artificial big toe attached to the foot of an Egyptian mummy could be the world's oldest prosthetic body part, British researchers said Friday.
The fake toe, which is made of wood and leather and is currently on display at the Cairo Museum in Egypt, dates from between 1000 and 600 BC.
Researchers at Manchester University in north-west England hope to prove it was used to help someone who had lost their original big toe to walk.
If they do, it could mean
Source: AP
July 27, 2007
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Friday laid the blame for the current low in Russia's relations with the West squarely on Washington, accusing the United States of making major mistakes that had thrown the world into a period of "global disarray."
Russia has fallen out with the United States on a raft of issues, clouding relations and leading some commentators to draw parallels with the Cold War.
Gorbachev, who won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his
Source: Telegraph
July 27, 2007
One of Britain's last surviving First World War veterans has died aged 107, leaving only five British survivors of the 1914-18 campaign.
William Young, a former trench-based radio operator, was the last known veteran of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), the forerunner of the Royal Air Force.
William Young pictured during the First World War
He died in his sleep earlier this week in Perth, Western Australia, where he lived with his wife May and their son.
Source: Telegraph
July 27, 2007
The Pope's private secretary has given warning of the Islamisation of Europe and stressed the need for the continent's Christian roots not to be ignored, in comments released yesterday.
"Attempts to Islamise the West cannot be denied," Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in an advance copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazin to be published today.
"The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wro
Source: BBC
July 26, 2007
A hospital and schools were partly funded with the proceeds from the slave trade during what a historian describes as the Highland's "forgotten past".
Dr David Alston researched the region's links with slavery for a series of lectures in Inverness.
He found the city's old infirmary and academy, along with Fortrose Academy received money from the trade.
Dr Alston said during the 1700s and 1800s Highlanders sought their fortunes in the colonies.
Source: BBC
July 26, 2007
A rare Irish 9th century silver brooch has been donated to National Museums Northern Ireland.
The Ballyvolan brooch, described by experts as "exceptional", was found in the ruins of Ballyvolan Fort near Kilmartin in County Wicklow about 1900.
It had until recently been in an English private collection.
The brooch was accepted by the British government in lieu of inheritance tax, and allocated to the Art Fund.
Source: AP
July 23, 2007
Israel's official Holocaust memorial and museum has unveiled the private archives of one of the most contentious Jewish figures from the Holocaust era in an attempt to exonerate the man's tarnished legacy.
Yad Vashem officials said the material released Sunday should finally put an end to what it said was an unjustified smear campaign against Rudolf (Israel) Kasztner.
Kasztner was hailed by admirers as a Holocaust hero for saving thousands of Jews. But critics reviled h
Source: NYT
July 26, 2007
A year ago, Fidel Castro led thousands of Cuba’s communist party faithful in enthusiastic cheers to celebrate the guerrilla attacks on army barracks that sparked his revolution a half century before. It was the last time he was seen in public.
That night, after two long speeches, the gaunt 80-year-old leader suffered an acute infection and bleeding in his colon, from which he has yet to recover. Five days later, he handed over power to his brother and a small group of cabinet offici
Source: New Republic
July 23, 2007
As a rising St. Louis politician in the mid-1970s, Richard Gephardt was among a dynamic group of aldermen dubbed "The Young Turks." So perhaps it's not surprising that, 30 years later, the former Democratic minority leader of the House of Representatives has aged into an Old Turk. This spring, Gephardt has been busy promoting his new favorite cause--not universal health care or Iraq, but the Republic of Turkey, which now pays his lobbying firm, DLA Piper, $100,000 per month for his ser
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
July 25, 2007
A leading collection of gay and lesbian literature is at the center of a debate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The director of a library in the city’s Gay and Lesbian Community Center wants the collection moved to a nearby public library. Fort Lauderdale’s mayor, Jim Naugle, fought the plan, saying the collection contains pornography and should not be housed in a city-owned building, according to a report this week in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. But city commissioners overruled the mayor and appro
Source: Rocky Mountain News
July 26, 2007
Ward Churchill's attorney is seeking a more sympathetic jury by taking the case of the fired University of Colorado professor to Denver District Court rather than to a federal judge.
Federal judges tend to defer to the personnel decisions of university governing boards, especially if the boards followed due process as set forth in their own operating procedures, legal experts say. But a local jury is less predictable.
"There's no way to know - some will, some won't (defe
Source: WaPo
July 25, 2007
Wallace Terry was a journalist back when journalism was still a respected profession. He died in 2003, after a distinguished career reporting and writing for The Washington Post and Time magazine.
It is tempting to refer to Terry as a "pioneering" journalist because he entered the business when few black or other non-white journalists did much more than fetch copy or coffee at big news outfits. But Terry survived (and thrived) in no small part because others like him had g
Source: AP
July 25, 2007
Now in their 70s and 80s, children of the victims of Josef Stalin's political repressions remembered one of the darkest pages of Russia's history at a ceremony Wednesday in central Moscow.
Several hundred people laid flowers and lit candles to honor the victims of the Great Purge of 1937, when millions were labeled "enemies of the state" and executed without trial or sent to labor camps.
The 70th anniversary comes as the Kremlin, focused on restoring Russians'
Source: NYT
July 25, 2007
Unhappy that The New York Times had published confidential information on American troop deployments, the administration sent a letter of complaint: “I cannot feel any sense of security either for the safe conduct of the affairs of this Department or for the lives and welfare of the soldiers of the United States on the Mexican border, if information of a highly confidential and delicate matter is likely to appear in a newspaper, either through a lack of loyalty on the part of the persons in the
Source: BBC
July 25, 2007
An octopus with a porcelain plate stuck to its suckers has led to the discovery of a hoard of ancient pottery, South Korean scientists say.
A fisherman caught the octopus off South Korea's west coast in May. He said the animal appeared to be hiding under a plate.
Archaeologists searched the area and discovered a 12th Century wooden wreck buried in mudflats.
They said more than 500 pieces of porcelain had been recovered so far.
Source: Yahoo
July 25, 2007
A US federal judge on Wednesday ordered Sudan to pay 7.9 million dollars to the families of the 17 sailors killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
The bombing was carried out by two Yemeni militants with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network who had trained in Sudan. The US destroyer was anchored in the Yemeni port of Aden at the time of the attack.
The Yemenis blew themselves up next to the Cole, punching a 12-meter (40-foot) hole in its side. Thirty-nine sail
Source: http://americas.irc-online.org
July 25, 2007
A much awaited human rights abuse trial is underway in Argentina. The accused is a catholic priest charged with carrying out human rights abuses while working in several clandestine detention centers during the nation's 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The priest was arrested four years ago while living under an alias in Chile. This is the latest human rights trial of accused torturers since the landmark conviction of a former police officer for genocide in 2006.
