Japan reacted quickly and angrily to the Russian president's visit to a disputed island in the Kuril chain. The territorial dispute has overshadowed Russo-Japanese relations since the end of World War II.

As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday made a brief tour of Kunashir - or Kunashiri to the Japanese - government officials in Japan wasted no time expressing strong displeasure.

Speaking at a parliamentary committee session, Prime Minister Naoto Kan reiterated that the Russian-held islands are Japanese territory....

JAMES CITY — A Hampton historian and author on Thursday filed a lawsuit to halt the deletion of a controversial passage from a fourth-grade history textbook that scholars say mischaracterized the role of African-American soldiers in the South during the Civil War.

Veronica Davis, author of "Here I Lay My Burdens Down," a study of black cemeteries in and around Richmond, filed the injunction against the book's publisher, Five Ponds Press, as well as the state Board of Education and Williamsburg-James City County Schools.

Shortly after the offending passage was brought to light last week by a College of William and Mary history professor, the Connecticut-based publishing company announced it would provide blank stickers to cover the assertion that "thousands" of black soldiers fought for the south, including two battalions under Stonewall Jackson....

HARRISBURG -- More than 1,800 historic artifacts, including a Civil War-era rifle and an eight-century-old Turkish gold ring, are missing from the state's collection, according to an audit released today.

State Auditor General Jack Wagner attributed the losses to lax oversight and an antiquated inventory system used to track the state's 4.5 million artifacts.

Other items were found to be damaged, including some that had been suspended from overhead pipes or stored in humid basements.

"The missing artifacts are pieces of Pennsylvania history that are likely lost forever, either through mishandling or theft," Mr. Wagner said....

Allied military intelligence indicated Adolf Hitler had built an underground Alpine fortress to house “the elite of Nazi Germany” in a desperate, final stand in World War II, according to documents released today.

Intelligence reports from 1944 and 1945, the last two years of the war, suggested that leading Nazis would seek refuge from an allied invasion of Germany in a vast underground network of tunnels and caves in a “Nazi National Redoubt” hidden within the Austrian Alps, the secret files published by the U.K.’s National Archives in London showed....

The Falbygden area of central Västergötland in southwestern Sweden is home to one of northern Europe's greatest concentrations of megalithic graves from the New Stone Age (approx. 4000-1500 BC). A new archaeology thesis from the University of Gothenburg now shows that these “passage graves” were not designed to be visible across wide areas – instead they seem to be almost hidden within the landscape.

Tony Axelsson, doctoral student and archaeologist at the Västergötland Museum, has investigated what the Stone Age landscape in Falbygden actually looked like, and how the people of the time related to their surroundings.

Using a geographical information system (GIS) into which he entered relics in the form of passage graves, settlements and stray finds, he has been able to produce digital maps of the prehistoric landscape. His analyses reveal, among other things, that the passage graves do not seem to have been designed to be seen from great distances....

Archeologists from Poland’s southern city of Rzeszow have discovered the tomb of a young prince dating back to 6,000 BC at the A4 motorway.

The scientists who were carrying out excavations on the route of the future A4 motorway near Szczytna hoped to find traces of Neolithic settlements but the discovery exceeded their expectations....

Precious views of Hampton Court Palace will be destroyed forever if permission is given for a hotel on the riverbank opposite, campaigners said, in what one leading historian has described as "an international scandal".

The campaigners oppose plans passed by Elmbridge council to develop the site in west London, which is directly across the Thames from the 16th Century palace, which was built for Cardinal Wolsey and once belonged to Henry VIII.

Permission was granted to build a multi-storey hotel up to 76ft (23m) high, a large underground car park, 61-bed care home and further housing but the council was accused of misleading its members over objections from heritage organisations....

A Virginia collector has donated to the Library of Congress the largest trove of Civil War-era photographs depicting average soldiers that the institution has received in at least 50 years, officials said last week.

The stunning photographs - small, elegant ambrotypes and tintypes - show hundreds of the young men who fought and died in the war, often portrayed in the innocence and idealism before the experience of battle.

The pictures, almost 700 in all, make up the bulk of the collection of Tom Liljenquist, 58, of McLean, who operates a chain of Washington area jewelry stores and with his sons has been buying Civil War photographs for 15 years....

GETTYSBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Days before Halloween on a darkened street Dwight Stoutzenberger aimed his digital camera at a wall not far from where a guide was telling ghost stories to a group of tourists.

Gettysburg, a historic Civil War town, is famous for ghosts and reportedly haunted sites where uniformed soldiers mysteriously walk through closed doors, or ornaments shift positions on a mantelpiece.

As Stoutzenberger scrolled through his photos he found several exposures showing a bright light amid a fuzzy white oval shape apparently hovering near the wall down the street....

TWO IRISH heroes of Chile’s struggle for independence were honoured yesterday with commemorative postal stamps issued in both countries.

Bernardo O’Higgins, whose father was from Sligo, was once supreme ruler of Chile and is known as the country’s founding father, while John (Juan) MacKenna was born in Monaghan but went on to serve as commandant general of the Chilean army.

The 82 cent stamps are being issued in the context of the bicentenary of Chile’s independence and feature both men in full military dress....

(CNN) -- The brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge during the 1970s brought Cambodia to its knees. Pol Pot and his cadres persecuted anything they regarded as middle-class or intellectual -- from pop musicians to tennis players.

Former tennis coach turned journalist Robert Davis told CNN of the extremes to which the Khmer Rouge were willing to go.

"When the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh and Cambodia, anyone who was elite or academic was exterminated," said Davis.

As a child, Tep Rithivit learned tennis with his father at Le Cercle Sportif club, which now houses the U.S. embassy. His father was captain of the national tennis team. When the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh in 1975, the family fled into exile....

Just more than a week ago, the SugarHouse Casino opened about two miles from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.

And the opening has those behind plans for a gaming venue near Gettysburg pointing to other Pennsylvania casinos that have opened near historic locations -- a major criticism against the Adams County proposal.

"A lot of focus has been placed on our proximity to the national park," said Mason-Dixon spokesman David La Torre. "People really aren't paying attention to the fact that licenses have already been approved in areas where there are similarly significant and sacred sites."

Washington, DC --- River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe, Michigan, was officially announced as the 393rd park in the National Park System. The War of 1812 battlefield was set aside by Congress with legislation (P.L. 111-11) signed by President Obama on March 30, 2009.

NPS Director Jon Jarvis called the new park “an important addition to the National Park System. The War of 1812 is often forgotten, remembered only for the birth of our national anthem, but it was as significant as any war in our history,” said Jarvis. “At the Battle of the River Raisin in January, 1813, American forces suffered one of the worst defeats of the War of 1812. When the battle was over, Indian allies of the British killed wounded American prisoners, so enraging Americans that the phrase "Remember the Raisin" became a rallying cry for future engagements in the war. We should all know about this engagement for its significance and now as the newest park in the National Park System.”

Fought along the north bank of the River Raisin in Monroe, Michigan, from January 18th to January 23rd, 1813, the battle pitted American and British troops against each other in a contest for control of all of Michigan and the Lower Great Lakes. At stake were America’s independence and the futures of Frenchtown (known today as Monroe, Michigan), Canada, and Tecumseh's alliance of Native American tribes.

The British and their Indian allies destroyed an entire American army at the River Raisin and in the process raised Native Americans’ hopes that their alliance with the British would result in the preservation of their land. Frenchtown was laid waste, and the Ohio frontier was exposed to invasion and raids by the British and Indians. The Battle of the River Raisin was not a decisive turning point of the war, but it did have significant effects on the campaign for the Great Lakes. Following the defeat at River Raisin, American forces would struggle for nine months before they could regain their momentum.

The park visitor center is open from June through October on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. While the visitor center is closed November through May, the park grounds are open to visitors year-round. National Park Service personnel are already on site and will continue to work closely with the Monroe County Historical Society to make the battlefield more available to the public.

A Pennsylvania English professor whose anti-Israel rhetoric and denial of the Holocaust as a historic certainty have ignited controversy is citing academic freedom as his defense.

Kaukab Siddique, associate professor of English and journalism at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, appeared last month at a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington, where he called the state of Israel illegitimate. “I say to the Muslims, ‘Dear brothers and sisters, unite and rise up against this hydra-headed monster which calls itself Zionism,’ ” he said at a rally on Sept. 3. “Each one of us is their target and we must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel -- if possible by peaceful means,” he added.

While many professors engage in anti-Israel rhetoric, Siddique is getting more scrutiny because his September comments prompted critics to unearth past statements that the Holocaust was a “hoax” intended to buttress support for Israel -- a position that the professor didn’t dispute in an interview Monday with Inside Higher Ed.

Siddique maintained that his comments should be placed in the framework of academic freedom, as an example of a questing mind asking tough questions. He also warned of dire consequences if universities can be intimidated by politicians and outside commentators. “That’s freedom of expression going up the smokestack here,” he said....

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Alexenia Dimitrova, a writer with a 25 year-long career in journalism. She has worked for one of Bulgaria’s biggest dailies, 24 Hours Daily, for the last 15 years. She is the author of 4 documentary books based on her intensive research in the Bulgarian and American secret service archives from the Cold War era. Since 2002 she has her own column in 24 Hours Daily about finding and reuniting long-lost family members and relatives all over the World. For this series, which is extremely popular in Bulgaria, she received in 2004 the most prestigious award for Journalism in Bulgarian named Tchernorizets Hrabar. The is the author of thenew book, The Murder Bureau, a book describing a total of ten cases of covert foreign operations of the Bulgarian Communist-era secret services against dissident émigrés. She can be contacted at: dimitrovabg@yahoo.com....

FP: Alexenia Dimitrova, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Tell us what inspired you to write The Murder Bureau and what it is about.

Dimitrova: Thanks Jamie.

Let me begin by defining the meaning of SMERSH for your readers: it is a Russian abbreviation and it means “Smert Shpionom” — Death to Spies. This was the name given to a counter-intelligence unit that was responsible for the neutralization of Soviet spies that existed within the Soviet Army in the early 40’s.

The inspiration to write my book came from the suspicions and rumors circulating many years in Bulgaria that a similar SMERSH unit also existed within the BulgarianIntelligence Services during the Cold War....

At the Ramat Rachel dig near Jerusalem, archeologists have uncovered an ancient royal garden nourished by an intricate irrigation system.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Heidelberg University in Germany have been working at Ramat Rachel, which is said to have been built by the Judeans. The newly discovered gardens date back to the 7th century B.C.

Features of the gardens include stone carved gutters, open channels, closed tunnels and the framework for waterfalls.

"We have uncovered a very rare find," said Oded Lipschits, a professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University. The find is to be described in a forthcoming article in Near Eastern Archeology.

Lipschits said the type of garden found at Ramat Rachel would have served a spiritual function as a place where people could find tranquility and a connection to nature...

There is in a secluded setting behind historic Ellwood Manor at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia a low stone monument that marks the spot where Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's left arm is supposedly buried. But is it really there? Was it ever there?

Stonewall Jackson was a military genius for the Confederate Arm, but how great he might have been, or how his tactical expertise might have altered the outcome of the war, was never known as he died in May 1863 10 days after being shot by “friendly fire” while scouting for Union lines.

In 1903, James Power Smith, who had been Stonewall Jackson’s aide-de-camp, had the monument erected in the family cemetery at Ellwood where the general’s arm supposedly was buried...

Prosecutors called Gary Condit to the witness stand Monday as the murder trial resumed for the man charged in the death of Chandra Levy, Ingmar Guandique.
Before he could begin his testimony, however, the court took a break.

The 2001 disappearance of the Washington intern drew national attention after her parents discovered a connection with Condit, who was then a sitting congressman.

Condit was never a suspect in the case, but was questioned intensively for details as to her whereabouts.

Her remains were discovered more than a year later off a jogging trail in Rock Creek Park.

As the court's day began, and before the jury was seated, prosecutors tested the sound system and played audio recordings that resembled messages left on an answering machine or voice mail. The voices could not be immediately recognized.