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 7, 2010
The 66th anniversary of the D-Day landing has been marked in France with commemorations for the Second World War heroes who died during the conflict.
Veterans and those grateful for their sacrifices yesterday paid tribute to those who fought during the invasion on the beaches of Normandy that is said to have turned the tide of the war.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said Gerald Howarth, a junior defence minister, attended a wreath-laying service at the cathedr
Source: Science Daily
June 6, 2010
The Yangtze River in China is 40 million years older than was previously thought, according to new research.
A study of minerals by a team led by Durham University reveals that the Yangtze River began to cut the Three Gorges area around 45 million years ago, making it much older than previously believed.
The Yangtze River, the third-longest river in the world, has played a central role in the development of Chinese culture, and the Three Gorges, which separate the Sichu
Source: Slate
June 3, 2010
It's been an unpleasant year for Pope Benedict XVI, so much so, one feels moved to ask: Are there any papal practices he takes refuge in that are more fun than, say, celibacy? We know of at least one: saint-making. In his going-on-five-year-old reign, the pontiff has canonized at least 29 souls, according to the Holy See's Web site—10 in 2009 alone. The newly sainted didn't include Mother Teresa, everyone's top seed, but they did include one friar, Bernardo Tolomei, born in the 13th century, who
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
June 6, 2010
As the nation today marks the 66th anniversary of what many historians call the most complex amphibious assault in history -- the Allied D-Day invasion of Normandy, France -- debate simmers among policymakers and military analysts over whether the United States should maintain its ability to conduct such a campaign.
The Navy and Marines on Friday completed the largest amphibious-training exercise since 9/11 on the West Coast. Military members, scholars and historians say those who p
Source: Boston Globe
June 5, 2010
The late Edward M. Kennedy, a champion of liberal causes who represented Massachusetts in the US Senate for 47 years, was remembered fondly today in a ceremony at the state Democratic convention.
"The simple truth is this: His greatness was that he fought for the people and the principles of Massachusetts. And in that half-century where he never grew tired and he never gave in, he became one of those few, one of those rare and happy few, who bend the course of history itself,&q
Source: The Economist
May 27, 2010
THE doormen outside the headquarters of Shanghai’s Municipal Education Commission have a new colleague these days. On Friday evenings and Saturday mornings they are joined by a young Mandarin-speaking Israeli, who keeps an eye on comings and goings. The ivy-covered compound, built in the 1920s, is also the home of Ohel Rachel, one of Shanghai’s last surviving synagogues. This month, for the first time in almost 60 years, it reopened for regular Sabbath services.
That Ohel Rachel was
Source: Knox News
June 6, 2010
For most, Fort Sanders is a neighborhood of Victorian homes, hospitals and college housing near the University of Tennessee. But for historians and Civil War enthusiasts, it's the site of an 1863 battle that helped seal the Confederate defeat in East Tennessee.
"So many people I talk to think it's just the name of a neighborhood like you'd name a subdivision," says East Tennessee Civil War Alliance President Steve Dean. "I am not exaggerating when I say that when I sp
Source: CS Monitor
June 7, 2010
Iran’s hard-line leadership warned the opposition movement against serving as “soldiers of the bullying powers” as the one-year anniversary looms next week of Iran’s disputed presidential election.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei told Iranians Friday to be watchful for opponents who had strayed from the path of the 1979 Islamic revolution and the directives of one of the Islamic Republic’s most sacred icons, its late founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – known affectio
Source: LA Times
June 6, 2010
You'd think there would be at least one Republican pragmatist running for governor — a pragmatic conservative.
Some wannabe governor willing to spend big for a worthy cause, raise taxes if needed, protect the environment from exploiters chanting "economic growth," be tolerant on social issues, even support amnesty for hard-working illegal immigrants.
Too bad such a gubernatorial candidate probably couldn't be nominated by GOP voters in California.
Source: WaPo
June 7, 2010
The Greeks' offer was a gracious one: The giant pieces of sculpture for Washington's new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial needed to be transported from China. Perhaps Greece, with its large shipping industry and admiration for the civil rights leader, could arrange for vessels to move the monument for free.
Officials planning the $120 million King memorial on the Tidal Basin were delighted. The cost savings would be substantial. And the connection to Greece and its ancient culture w
Source: CNN
June 5, 2010
Ray Midgett hunts the Corolla beaches on the Outer Banks of North Carolina almost every day.
Midgett drives his pickup truck right onto the beach using the access road near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. With a metal detector and shovel in tow, he's uncovered everything from antique coins to wedding rings.
Yet his biggest discovery came in December when he located the remains of a historical shipwreck.
The wreckage, hidden under the sand for centuries,
Source: Science Daily
June 4, 2010
Using sophisticated genomic analysis, scientists have probed the ancestry of several Jewish and non-Jewish populations and better defined the relatedness of contemporary Jewish people. The research, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, may shed light on the question, first raised more than a century ago, of whether Jews are a race, a religious group or something else.
The genetic, cultural and religious traditions of contemporary Jewish people origi
Source: Independent
June 6, 2010
Archaeologists investigating an ancient Roman burial site in Britain have identified what may be the world's best preserved remains of gladiators and other arena fighters who entertained audiences through bloody confrontations with wild animals.
Eighty skeletons have been unearthed at the site in Driffield Terrace, south west of the centre of York, over the past decade. One man appears to have been killed by a large carnivore – almost certainly a lion, tiger or bear. Others have wea
Source: BBC
June 6, 2010
A special service has been held in Kent to thank the people of south Wales who took in hundreds of child evacuees from the South East of England during World War II.
More than 100 former evacuees attended the thanksgiving event at St Mary The Virgin Church in Cannon Street, Dover.
The congregation sang the Welsh hymn Cwm Rhondda and waved Welsh flags during the service on Sunday.
Hundreds of children were evacuated from Kent in the summer of 1940.
Source: BBC
June 4, 2010
The earliest surviving complete census of all of Ireland is now available at the click of a mouse.
More than 4.5 million records made by 850,000 households on census night in 1901 have been put online for the public to access.
The census provides personal details including religion, profession, and if the person spoke Irish or English.
It was launched on Thursday by the Republic's Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin.
Source: BBC
June 6, 2010
One of Britain's rarest stamps has been sold for £400,000 by a Jersey-based stamp dealer.
The 1904 6d Pale Dull Purple (I.R. Official) was sold to an anonymous private buyer by Stanley Gibbons Investment.
The stamp was issued on 14 March 1904, but was withdrawn almost immediately after issue.
Only 19 sheets were ever printed and on withdrawal, almost all were destroyed.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 6, 2010
A Tiananmen square activist has been released by Japanese authorities after he was arrested for allegedly trying to force his way into the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo on the anniversary of the military crackdown.
Wu'er Kaixi, 42, who allegedly jumped over a small steel fence in front of the embassy on Friday, was quickly overpowered by Japanese police and arrested.
A Tokyo police spokesman confirmed the release of Wu'er, now a Taiwanese citizen, but declined to give furth
Source: AP
June 6, 2010
Despite sharing the chancellor's East German past and devotion to democracy, the opposition pick to be Germany's next head of state, Joachim Gauck, is turning out to be Chancellor Angela Merkel's latest threat.
Although the 70-year-old former priest from the gritty port city of Rostock is the underdog in the race for Germany's presidential office, it was his deeply lined face, not that of the chancellor's candidate featured in the nation's most influential news weeklies on Sunday.
Source: CNN
June 6, 2010
Protestors gathered in lower Manhattan mid-day Sunday to demonstrate against plans to build a mosque near the site of Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.
Protest organizer Pamela Geller, a conservative blogger, and her group, "Stop the Islamicization of America," planned the event because, according to the group's website, "Building the Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious
Source: Aol News
June 6, 2010
The long-standing mystery over exactly what famed poet Walt Whitman saw streaking though the sky 150 years ago has apparently been solved by a team of bookworm astronomers.
Following a trail that began with a 19th century painting and led to hundreds of newspaper reports, the researchers discovered that the "strange huge meteor-procession" mentioned in Whitman's noted collection "Leaves of Grass" indeed refers to a rare procession of earth-grazing meteors that oc
