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 (UK)
July 23, 2010
An ancient ceremonial ground used by a Pre-Columbian civilisation for human sacrifices has been uncovered on Peru's northern coast, archaeologists said on Thursday.
The discovery appears to reinforce prevailing theories about a ceremony known as "the presentation" that was carried out by the Moche people, an agricultural civilisation that flourished between 100 BC and 800 AD.
Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Bruning Museum in Peru and a leader of the di
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 26, 2010
The remains of the largest rat to ever roam the Earth have been discovered in a remote cave in East Timor.
The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog.
Australian archaeologists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found the bones of the giant rat alongside 11 new species of rat, eight of which weighed more than 2lbs
Source: BBC News
July 26, 2010
Archaeologists have discovered a 4th Century Roman villa near Aberystwyth.
It is the most north-westerly villa found in Wales and has forced experts to reconsider the whole nature of Roman settlement across mid and north Wales.
Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.
"The discovery raises significant new questions," said Dr Toby Driver and Dr Jeffrey Davies, excava
Source: BBC News
July 26, 2010
Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal, which is investigating the country's 1971 liberation struggle against Pakistan, has issued its first arrest warrants.
Court officials told the BBC the war crimes indictments targeted four leaders of Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, already in custody.
The tribunal was set up in March to try people accused of atrocities.
Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until the nine-month war of secession, which left up to three mi
Source: BBC News
July 25, 2010
President Sebastian Pinera of Chile has rejected a plea by the Roman Catholic Church that he pardon members of the armed forces over human rights abuses committed during military rule.
Mr Pinera said the proposal had caused division in Chile and reopened old wounds.
He said there could be no pardon for serious offences such as murder and crimes against humanity.
More than 3,000 Chileans were killed by the military between 1973 and 1990.
The Chi
Source: BBC News
July 26, 2010
Closing arguments are to begin in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Mr Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his office for personal gain - including an effort to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat - and attempted extortion.
The case turns largely on hours of conversations wire-tapped by the FBI.
The defence says Mr Blagojevich's talk was mere bluster, arguing prosecutors have not proven he committed crimes.
Source: BBC News
July 26, 2010
Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He had admitted overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness.
This is the tribunal's first verdict.
Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40
Source: NYT
July 24, 2010
Like everything else, war is a lot more expensive than it used to be.
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Americans a staggering $1 trillion to date, second only in inflation-adjusted dollars to the $4 trillion price tag for World War II, when the United States put 16 million men and women into uniform and fought on three continents.
Sticker shock is the inevitable first reaction to the latest statistics on the costs of all major United States wars since the
Source: Guardian
July 25, 2010
Search for remains of armada which came to grief on a pioneering voyage to Kenya 600 years ago.
It's another chapter in the now familiar story of China's economic embrace of Africa. Except that this one begins nearly 600 years ago.
A team of 11 Chinese archaeologists will arrive in Kenya tomorrow to begin the search for an ancient shipwreck and other evidence of commerce with China dating back to the early 15th century. The three-year, £2m joint project will centre arou
Source: AP
July 23, 2010
McGill, a program officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will spend Saturday night in a cabin at Hobcaw Barony near the coastal community of Georgetown.
It will be the fifth night this year that he has slept on a cabin floor, trying to attract attention to the need to preserve the structures and the history they hold.
McGill, who is black, is also a reenactor with the 54th Massachusetts, the black Union regiment that fought at Battery Wagner on Charl
Source: BBC
July 23, 2010
Scottish ministers and officials have turned down a request to attend a US Senate hearing next week over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and the Scottish Prison Service's medical chief Dr Andrew Fraser were invited.
Senators also invited Westminster former justice secretary Jack Straw.
BP chief executive Tony Hayward was asked to attend after allegations that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's release was linked to an oil de
Source: BBC
July 25, 2010
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has made his first reported appearance outside Havana since handing over power to his brother in 2006.
Cuban television showed the 83-year-old visiting a mausoleum in Artemisa, south-west of Havana, which honours Cuban revolutionary fighters.
It is the latest in a number of recent appearances.
Until now, Mr Castro has made only sporadic appearances on TV or in public since he retired from public life.
Howeve
Source: BBC
July 25, 2010
The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
The Sunday Times claimed to have seen a letter from the US administration to the Scottish government before the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Salmond emphasised that the Scottish government had made public all of its own documents relating to the release of Megrahi.
He said th
Source: BBC
July 25, 2010
Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal is to issue a verdict in the trial of the former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch - the first from the court.
Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, ran the Tuol Sleng prison, where "enemies" of the regime were sent.
He has admitted overseeing the deaths of up to 15,000 people who passed through its gates and asked for forgiveness during the public hearings.
Duch, the first of five surviving senior figur
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 22, 2010
A crate of Scotch whisky that has been frozen in Antarctic ice for more than a century is being slowly thawed by New Zealand museum officials.
The crate of whisky was recovered earlier this year - along with four other crates containing whisky and brandy - beneath the floor of a hut built by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton during his 1908 Antarctic expedition.
Four of the crates were left in the ice, but one labelled Mackinlay's whisky was brought to the Canterb
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 25, 2010
Plans to honour colonial explorer Henry Morton Stanley in his home town in Wales have been criticised by objectors who say his expeditions were cruel, racist and exploitative.
Residents of Denbigh hope to celebrate his legacy with a £31,000 bronze statue, but have been told by academics that their plan is "appalling".
Stanley was the Victorian explorer who trekked to the heart of Africa and greeted a fellow Briton with the words “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 24, 2010
A multi-millionaire banker has lost a legal action against an Austrian magazine after a judge ruled its cover story that "linked" him to Hitler was not defamatory.
Julius Meinl V, 51, who is Jewish and whose family fled their Austrian homeland shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, was incensed when he saw what he claimed was a "doctored" photograph of himself on the front of Format magazine.
He claims the image was deliberately chang
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 26, 2010
Tens of thousands of secret American military documents have been leaked disclosing how Nato forces have killed scores of civilians in unreported incidents in Afghanistan.
The classified memos also reveal the secret efforts of coalition forces to hunt down and “kill or capture” senior Taliban and al-Qaeda figures.
And they document growing evidence that Iran and Pakistan is supporting the insurgency. Although many of the claims in the documents, of which there are mor
Source: Fox News
July 25, 2010
The Obama administration told Scottish officials last August that, although it opposed any release of the Lockerbie bomber, it would rather see him released in Scotland than transferred to a Libyan prison, according to a secret memo obtained by The Sunday Times in London.
The publication of the memo's contents comes just days after President Obama, at a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, said "all of us ... were surprised, disappointed and angry" b
Source: AP
July 25, 2010
Touring the site of Croatia's World War II concentration camp, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Sunday it was a demonstration of "sheer sadism" and that Iran's president, who has denied the Holocaust, should visit it.
Peres and Croatian President Ivo Josipovic toured Jasenovac, where a memorial honors about 85,000 of Jews, Serbs, Gypsies and anti-fascist Croats who died here in 1941-45 at the hands of Croatia's pro-Nazi regime. Thousands of people also were deported fro
