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)
June 8, 2010
Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the leader of Iran's opposition green movement was involved in the massacre of more than 10,000 political prisoners in 1988, according to a report.
Mr Mousavi, the defeated candidate in last June's presidential election, served as Iran's prime minister when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the regime's spiritual leader, issued a fatwa that sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death without trial, according to the report by one of Britain's leading human ri
Source: BBC
June 9, 2010
Scientists have shed light on Jewish history with an in-depth genetic study.
The researchers analysed genetic samples from 14 Jewish communities across the world and compared them with those from 69 non-Jewish populations.
Their study, published in Nature, revealed that most Jewish populations were "genetically closer" to each other than to their non-Jewish neighbours.
It also revealed genetic ties between globally dispersed Jews and non-Jewish
Source: BBC
June 9, 2010
A former UK ambassador to Israel has been named as the government's first envoy for post-Holocaust issues.
Sir Andrew Burns has held a number of positions during his diplomatic career and is a former chairman of the Anglo-Israel Association.
He will be involved in a wide-range of Holocaust issues including the implementation of a multi-state declaration on the restitution of looted Holocaust-era assets....
Source: BBC
June 9, 2010
MSPs have voted to allow women to benefit from a Stirlingshire care home that has been restricted to men since it opened 150 years ago.
The William Simpson's Home in Plean looks after men with drink-related mental health problems.
It was established in 1864 to help older men with links to the armed forces.
The charity needed an act of parliament to change its rules so it could offer help to women and the under-40s....
Source: AP
June 9, 2010
American historian Natalie Zemon Davis accepted Norway's 4.5 million kroner ($680,000) Holberg Prize Wednesday for her narrative approach to history.
The awards committee said the 81-year-old Detroit native, who received the award in a ceremony in Bergen, won for her work showing "how particular events can be narrated and analyzed so as to reveal deeper historical tendencies and underlying patterns of thought and action."
The Holberg Prize was created in 2003
Source: Fox News
June 9, 2010
What were the fashion-conscious cave-dweller wearing 5,500 years ago? Archaeologists may just have found out.
A perfectly preserved shoe, 1,000 years older than Egypt's Great Pyramid and 400 years older than Stonehenge, has been found -- buried in sheep dung in a cave in Armenia.
The 5,500 year-old shoe was discovered by a team of archaeologists in a cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia, on the Iranian and Turkish borders. The shoe is the oldest piece of leather
Source: Live Science
June 9, 2010
Recently discovered beehives from ancient Israel 3,000 years ago appear to be the oldest evidence for beekeeping ever found, scientists reported.
Archaeologists identified the remains of honeybees — including workers, drones, pupae, and larvae — inside about 30 clay cylinders thought to have been used as beehives at the site of Tel Rehov in the Jordan valley in northern Israel. This is the first such discovery from ancient times.
The hives have a small hole on one sid
Source: BBC
June 4, 2010
Vandals have targeted the ancient Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire by spraying part of it purple.
Officers from Thames Valley Police were called to the 3,000-year-old chalk monument at about 2200 BST on Thursday.
They found the head and eye of the horse had been sprayed with purple paint. A banner that read "fathers 4 justice stop the secret family courts" was recovered from the scene.
New Fathers 4 Justice and Real Fathers for Justice both
Source: USA Today
June 7, 2010
Waiting in line at the drive-through may be a drag, but it sure beats what our ancestors had to do for fast food. Try take-out lion. A Spanish team reports Neanderthals likely hunted and ate a big cat at a cave site.
In the current Journal of Archaeological Science, a team led by Ruth Blasco of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, describes lion bones found at the Gran Dolina site in Sierra de Atapuerca. The cave contains hundreds of animal bones, largely red deer a
Source: Press and Journal (UK)
June 10, 2010
ARCHAEOLOGISTS yesterday began the latest stage in a hunt for traces of a long-lost mediaeval monastery in the north-east.
The experts want to excavate the home of the Book of Deer, which was written by Scottish monks around the 10th century.
The gospel book contains the earliest examples of Gaelic literature and is thought to be the oldest-surviving manuscript in Scotland.
It is now on display at Cambridge University and is held up as a highly-significant
Source: CNN
June 10, 2010
Potentially hundreds of American veterans and their family members who were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery were misidentified or mislocated, including troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new Army investigation.
The investigation culminated in a change in leadership at the historic cemetery that has been home to U.S. veterans since 1864.
McHugh launched the Army inspector general's investigation last fall after reports of cremated re
Source: CNN
June 10, 2010
The hotel manager who saved the lives of more than 1,200 Rwandans during the 1994 genocide has warned that the country remains in the grip of ethnic tensions that could "erupt anytime."
Sixteen years after the killings in which an estimated 800,000 to one million Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus died, Paul Rusesabagina says lessons have not been learned from past mistakes.
During the genocide, Rusesabagina, the real-life inspiration for the 2004 film "H
Source: CNN
June 10, 2010
Seven former high-ranking Bosnian Serb military and police officials were convicted Thursday for their roles in the notorious 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the war crimes tribunal in The Hague said.
The men were found guilty of a range of crimes including genocide, extermination, murder, and persecution, according to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The trial was the largest one to date held at the tribunal, the ICTY said.
M
Source: CNN
June 10, 2010
Fearing for people's safety, Iranian opposition leaders canceled a demonstration planned for the anniversary of last year's disputed presidential election, according to a statement posted on Facebook Thursday.
The protests were to have taken place Saturday. Iranians went to the polls a year ago on that day, and when word of fraud surfaced, so did public outrage. Widespread unrest gripped the Islamic republic as protesters clashed with police.
But the hard-line governme
Source: Fox News
June 10, 2010
Standing in front of a wall-to-wall mural featuring a who's who of revolutionaries, including Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and boldly displaying the motto Patria o Muerte, Venceremos!!! (Fatherland or Death, We Shall Overcome!!!), a group of teachers, students, parents and community activists in the Los Angeles Unified School District gathered last month for an unusual field trip — to Arizona, to protest that state's controversial immigration law.
A video posted on You
Source: AP
June 10, 2010
For thousands of Catholics, the 13th-century Italian Saint Rose of Viterbo had miraculous powers that allowed her to raise someone from the dead and survive the flames of a burning pyre.
Scientists examining the saint's mummified body now say she had a congenital heart defect that may have ultimately killed her as a teenager.
Ruggero D'Anastasio of the G. d'Annunzio University in Chieti, Italy, and colleagues analyzed pictures and X-rays of the medieval saint's preserve
Source: Fox News
June 10, 2010
The fallout over longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas' comments about Jews and Israel has led at least two organizations to reconsider whether their prestigious awards should bear her name.
Thomas' alma mater, Wayne State University, has already made its decision. The school announced Wednesday that it will keep the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in the Media award, despite what it described as her "wholly inappropriate comments."
But the Society
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 10, 2010
More than 10,000 workers who say they suffered health problems over their exposure to toxic dust at Ground Zero have renegotiated a new settlement in which they will be paid $712.5 million (£486 million)
After months of renegotiations, New York city's insurer, the WTC Captive Insurance Company, has agreed to increase the payout, up from the original settlement which was between $575 million and $657 million.
The victims' lawyers have also agreed to reduce their fees t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 10, 2010
A Swedish millionaire with alleged far-Right sympathies has been accused of being behind the theft of the Auschwitz sign amid claims he planned to sell it to fund a terrorist attack.
The accusations against Lars Goran Wahlstrom were made by Anders Hoegstrom, 34, who is in custody in Poland for his alleged role in the robbery.
Polish prosecutors investigating the crime made no comment about Mr Hoegstrom’s allegations but confirmed they had asked Sweden for additional h
Source: BBC
June 9, 2010
Before World War II, Poland was home to about 3.5 million Jews, the largest Jewish community in Europe.
Some 90% of them were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Today there are only a few thousand Jews left in Poland to look after the country's 1,400-or-so Jewish cemeteries, most of which are overgrown or in ruins.
But now prisoners have volunteered to take part in a nationwide programme organised by the prison service and the Foundation for the Preservation
