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: BBC
July 15, 2010
Two US TV networks have refused to air a controversial advert condemning plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.
The advert is funded by the National Republican Trust, a conservative group not affiliated to the Republican Party.
Entitled "Kill the Ground Zero Mosque", the video calls the proposed mosque a "monstrosity" that will invite further attacks on the US.
The advertisement has received over 1
July 15, 2010
Omar Bin Laden, the son of fugitive terrorist Osama Bin Laden, has said that he believes his father is still alive, although he does not know where he is.
Mr Bin Laden, 29, said he still loved his father, but he does not want to be like him.
Mr Bin Laden also spoke about his love of American culture, saying that he enjoys Jim Carrey films, American football, rock music and even Laurel And Hardy....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 15, 2010
More than 900 unexploded bombs from the Second World War have been found beneath a restaurant in Okinawa.
Construction workers on a road expansion project discovered the explosives with a metal detector and notified police, Kiyotaka Maedomari, a senior police official in Itoman city, said.
An army bomb disposal squad discovered the total of 902 unexploded munitions – including rocket bombs, grenades and motor projectiles – believed to have been made in the United Stat
Source: BBC
July 14, 2010
A huge outdoor art poster that blends Mickey Mouse's image with that of a swastika and a nude woman's body is causing a stir in Poland, where memories of the suffering inflicted by Nazi Germany remain strong.
The poster, which went up in June in the western city of Poznan just steps from a synagogue, is an Italian artist's take on what he calls the "horrors" of the American lifestyle and is one piece of artwork in a contemporary art exhibition opening in the fall.
Source: BBC
July 13, 2010
France will raise war pensions for its African war veterans to the same level as those of their French comrades, Nicolas Sarkozy has said.
Tens of thousands are still alive and will benefit from new pension laws.
Mr Sarkozy said his government had agreed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to introduce "perfect equality" of military pensions for veterans of French forces - regardless of what country they lived in.
France had previously resisted paying
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 13, 2010
Kathy Mills exposed the entrance to the secret chamber that had been hidden for centuries as she rehearsed a scene for an upcoming production of the musical Quasimodo at St Mary's Church, in Redgrave, Suffolk.
She dislodged a marble flagstone near the altar of the 14th century building and her foot vanished into a dark void below.
Mrs Mills, who is in her 60s, suffered a swollen ankle.
But she was amazed to be told she had uncovered a mystery tomb containin
Source: BBC
July 14, 2010
France has staged its annual Bastille Day parade, amid criticism at the presence of some African leaders.
Armies from former colonies celebrating 50 years of independence were invited to join the military parade.
A human rights group has said that some of the troops and leaders should instead be facing trial for war crimes.
Critics also said the move gave the false impression that France granted them independence, when many fought against French rule.
Source: Reuters
July 13, 2010
Just like his Medieval counterparts 600 years ago armourer Tomasz Samula has hardly any time to outfit his knights before battle commences....
Saturday, thousands of re-enactors will become the knights, infantry, artillerymen and other combatants of the Polish-Lithuanian army and the Teutonic Knights who they defeated in a massive battle on a field near this Polish village in 1410....
The fashioning and fixing of armor in time for the battle has put a smile on the faces
Source: BBC
July 14, 2010
Researchers have discovered the skull of a 29 million-year-old animal that could be a common ancestor of Old World monkeys and apes, including humans.
It indicates that apes and Old World monkeys diverged millions of years later than previously thought, say the scientists.
The discovery was made in Saudi Arabia by researchers from the University of Michigan.
They described the primate, Saadanius hijazensis, in the journal Nature....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 14, 2010
A 900-year-old drainage system has saved a city in south China from severe floods that have left over one hundred people dead and a million homeless across the region.
Torrential rain and flash floods have caused £1.9 billion of damage in China. Nearly forty people were killed this week alone in a series of landslides.
But the 100,000 residents of the ancient city of Ganzhou, in Jiangxi province, are safe and dry, thanks to two drains built during the Song dynasty (96
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 14, 2010
Secret government memos suggest that Tony Blair ordered the Foreign Office to allow British terrorism suspects to be transported to Guantanamo Bay.
The documents were released as part of the civil court case being pursued by Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantanamo prisoner.
They reveal that Mr Blair, then Prime Minister, personally overruled the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s demand for consular access to British prisoners....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 14, 2010
The North Iowa branch of the Tea Party has replaced a billboard comparing Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin, admitting the sign was a bad decision.
Workers papered over the sign in downtown Mason City at the request of an anti-tax tea party group in the state of Iowa.
The roughly 200-member tea party group had the original sign put up last week. It showed photographs of Mr Obama, Hitler and Lenin beneath the labels "Democrat Socialism," "N
Source: AP
July 14, 2010
A British gallery says a restoration project for Leonardo da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks" has revealed new details and suggest the artist may have painted all the picture himself, instead of with his assistants as previously thought.
The National Gallery says the 18-month project removed some yellowing varnish, enabling experts to take a closer look at the painting's brush strokes and styles.
It said Wednesday that research affirmed that the Renaissance artis
Source: Xinhua
July 14, 2010
A 900-year-old Byzantine church has been unearthed in south Turkey, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.
Professor Engin Akyurek from Istanbul University's Art History Department said that this well-preserved Byzantine church had been found 6 meters below ground level at the Myra ancient city located in Demre town of the Mediterranean province of Antalya.
Akyurek said the 5-meter wide and 10-meter high temple's dome had been partially destroyed; ho
Source: BBC News
July 14, 2010
Taipei secondary school student Lai Wei-li swayed awkwardly while trying to make music with a Saisiyat tribal instrument of dangling bamboo tubes strapped to her back.
"It's really cool and interesting. It's harder than it looks. I have to control my footsteps, sway my body back and forth, and co-ordinate with others," said Lai, while playing the "tapangsan".
Half Han-Chinese and half indigenous, it is not often that Lai gets to experience indigenous
Source: WaPo
July 14, 2010
The story of the last cataclysmic American oil spill has evolved over time into a straightforward tale of cause and effect: In 1989, a hard-drinking skipper ran his tanker aground in Alaska, and Exxon was unable to prevent crude from spreading along hundreds of miles of pristine shoreline.
But the full story of the Exxon Valdez wreck is far more complex, and it offers striking parallels to today's events in the Gulf of Mexico -- including a central role played by a consortium led by
Source: Inside Higher Ed
July 14, 2010
Proponents of the Google Books project have argued that the effort to scan every printed book in the world into a digital database will be a game-changer for scholarship. Now Google is trying help digital humanities scholars prove it.
The company plans to announce today that it is bankrolling 12 university-based research projects designed to demonstrate the potential value to scholarship of its growing digital vault.
Google has been scanning books from cooperating libra
Source: Discovey News
July 12, 2010
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed the most ancient written document ever found in the Holy City – a tiny fragment of a letter thought to be addressed to Akhenaten, the “heretic” pharaoh who ruled Egypt during the 14th century B.C.
Discovered outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the document consists of a minuscule clay fragment -- about one square inch -- covered with cuneiform script in ancient Akkadian.
Thought to date back some 3,400 years, the fragment app
Source: Oxford Mail
July 13, 2010
THE hot dry weather is revealing some of Oxfordshire’s Bronze Age history normally hidden from view.
Hot air balloon pilot Michael Wolf, of Reading Road, Wallingford, was training another pilot near North Stoke when they spotted several dark circles in a farmer’s field.
Crops had grown at different speeds because of ancient ditches hidden beneath the soil which once surrounded prehistoric burial mounds.
The site dates back 3,500 years but is hidden under
Source: BBC
July 12, 2010
Council workers cleaning up at Sutton Green have discovered an old disused air raid shelter from the Second World War.
The workers noticed a five metre hole in the ground and it is thought to be the roof of a buried air raid shelter which has collapsed.
The only council records mentioning the public bomb shelter are that three large shelters capable of housing 450 people were constructed in the area in 1939/1940.
However, there are no photographs or recor
