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
April 30, 2010
An apparent attempt to remove a replica Stone of Destiny from Scone Palace in Perthshire has been unsuccessful.
Tayside Police said the stone was taken and replaced with another sometime between Wednesday and Thursday.
The replica stone was later found dumped in the grounds of the palace although its brass plaque was missing.
The real stone, on which Scottish monarchs were crowned, was removed by Edward I in 1296 and fitted into a wooden chair at Westmins
Source: BBC
April 30, 2010
To many people, thoughts of maps conjure up images of dusty classrooms and geography teachers.
But a new exhibition at the British Library, Magnificent Maps, aims to put the art back into how we view, and use, these often beautiful examples.
More than simply a topological survey of a country or continent, the maps on display are as diverse as their decorative features - from hunting dogs to sea monsters and cherubs blowing the winds across the ocean.
Source: BBC
April 30, 2010
It's 65 years since Hitler drafted his will before committing suicide. The men who translated it were renegade Germans who fled to Britain to take up arms against their own country. Two new memoirs shed light on this little-known group.
The outbreak of World War II saw thousands of people across Europe volunteer for military service, in a bid to do their duty for their respective countries.
But among those who stepped forward for Britain were 10,000 German and Austrian
Source: BBC
April 30, 2010
A Russian businessman who set up a Josef Stalin museum in the city once named after the Soviet dictator has been beaten to death by attackers.
Vasily Bukhtienko was attacked by three men on a tennis court in Volgograd (formerly known as Stalingrad), in southern Russia, officials said
In 2005, Mr Bukhtienko founded a Stalin museum near an imposing monument commemorating the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad, which is considered by many historians as a turning point in World
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 29, 2010
Thomas Swan apparently hurled his British War Medal out of a train window soon after being presented with it in 1921 as he wanted to forget the horror of the trenches.
Mr Swan, a father-of-four, worked as a milkman in north London after the war and rarely talked about his experiences in northern France before he died aged 55 in 1935
The medal lay undisturbed until it was found in November 1999 by Bob Sheppard, who was out with his metal detector in a field close to th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 29, 2010
A new television mini-series on the Kennedys masterminded by the rightwing creator of '24' has outraged American liberals and historians who have branded it a "political character assassination" concentrating on sex and scandal.
The series will be broadcast on the History Channel and is being created by Joel Surnow, a political conservative who was behind the globally successful drama in which Kiefer Sutherland plays Jack Bauer, a special agent hunting down terrorists.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 30, 2010
Vietnam marked the 35th anniversary of the end of its war Friday with a dramatic re-enactment of the day tanks smashed through the gates of the former Presidential Palace and ousted the US-backed government.
A crowd of 50,000, many waving red and gold communist flags, lined the parade route, which was adorned with a massive poster of Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnam's revolution.
Friday's celebration featured patriotic songs, some of them put to a pulsing disco beat.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 30, 2010
On a remote island in the Pacific, a group of villagers are counting down the days until they welcome their “god” the Duke of Edinburgh back to his rightful home.
The people of Yaohnanen on the island of Tanna believe a man descended from one of their spirit ancestors will return next month to live among them. While he was away he lived in a vast palace, but when he comes home he will sleep in a hut and hunt wild pigs with his tribe.
The villagers’ belief seems to cen
Source: AP
April 30, 2010
German police said a couple of hungry pigs digging for food came nose-to-nose with a long-buried World War II anti-tank weapon. Police said Friday the two pigs found the single-shot "panzerfaust" on private land southwest of Dresden. The pigs' owner secured the animals in their stall then called police who were able to remove the weapon and destroy it.
Source: CNN
April 29, 2010
A blue-eyed Eagle Scout from Iowa and an athletic daredevil from Massachusetts hold a place in history that no one wanted for them.
On April 29, 1975, Lance Cpl. Darwin L. Judge, 19, and Cpl. Charles McMahon, 21, became the last Americans killed in action in the Vietnam War.
After the U.S. withdrawal in 1973, about the only Americans left in South Vietnam were a few dozen Marines assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and four consulate offices in other cities.
Source: CNN
April 30, 2010
After 161 years of treating survivors of major catastrophes, from the sinking of the Titanic to the attacks of September 11, and leading early HIV treatments, New York's St. Vincent's Hospital closed Friday.
Faced with financial troubles and mounting debts, the historic hospital was forced to shutter its operations. By Friday, no patients were left, and about 3,500 employees were laid off.
There were a few community rallies to keep the private nonprofit hospital open, b
Source: CNN
April 30, 2010
This is a story about a girl and her tree -- a tree that helped keep hope alive, even as the world closed in on her.
Three times in Anne Frank's widely read diary, the young Holocaust victim wrote about a tree. She could see it from the attic window of the secret annex where her family hid for two years, before being betrayed.
The tree that reminded Frank of the promise of life still looms high above the courtyard behind the Anne Frank House, now a museum in Amsterdam,
Source: Guardian (UK)
April 30, 2010
In February 2008, Nasa sent the Beatles song, Across the Universe, across the universe. Pointing the telescopes in its Deep Space Network towards the north star, Polaris, astronomers played out their short cosmic DJ set, hoping that it might be heard by intelligent aliens during its 430-year journey to the star.
The hunt for intelligent species outside Earth may be a staple of literature and film – but it is happening in real life, too. Nasa probes are on the lookout for planets out
Source: NYT
April 29, 2010
The World’s Fair may have lost the luster it brought decades ago to world capitals like Paris. But China has dusted off the concept in an attempt to give its second city, Shanghai, the same coming-out party that the 2008 Summer Olympic Games were for Beijing.
China has spent $45 billion — even more than it devoted to remake Beijing for the Olympics — to mount an elaborate World Expo, inviting 189 countries to showcase a polished, vibrant Shanghai that it envisions as a financial cap
Source: NYT
April 29, 2010
VATICAN CITY — As the sexual abuse crisis continues to unfold in the Roman Catholic Church, with more victims coming forward worldwide and three bishops resigning last week alone, it is clear the issue is more than a passing storm or a problem of papal communications.
Instead, the church is undergoing nothing less than an epochal shift: It pits those who hold fast to a more traditional idea of protecting bishops and priests above all against those who call for more openness and acco
Source: LiveScience
April 29, 2010
Humans today could be part Neanderthal, according to a new study that found our ancestors interbred with an extinct hominid species some millennia ago.
Neanderthals walked the Earth between about 130,000 and 30,000 years ago. While they co-existed with modern humans for a while, eventually they went extinct and we didn't. There has been intense scientific debate over how similar the two species were, and whether they might have mated with each other.
"The issue has
Source: Medieval News
April 28, 2010
One of the most important collections of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts – for centuries kept at Corpus Christi College – has been entirely digitised, making it the first research library to have every page of its collection captured.
The Parker Library was entrusted to the College in 1574 by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth from 1559 until his death in 1575, and one of the primary architects of the English Reformation.
From today, the Library's tr
Source: Medieval News
April 29, 2010
An 1150-year-old Viking necklace has been discovered in a cave in Burren National Park, which is located in western Ireland. The discovery has surprised archaeologists, as their has been little evidence of Norse settlements in this region.
The find was announced this week by Dr. Marion Dowd, an archaeologist from the Institute of Technology Sligo, who is leading the excavation of Glencurran cave in the Burren National Park. She said to reporters, "The necklace is the largest Vi
Source: Jewish Chronicle
April 29, 2010
A groundbreaking Second World War website launched to counter Holocaust denial will be launched next week.
The site is the brainchild of the historian and documentary filmmaker Laurence Rees, former creative director of BBC Television History.
Mr Rees has also written seven history books about different aspects of the war, including one to accompany his acclaimed television series Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution.
Since that book and programme ap
Source: Discovery News
April 26, 2010
Even though it happened more than 20 years ago, the world's worst nuclear disaster is still a serious hazard.
President Viktor Yanukovych Monday warned that Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant remains an urgent threat due to lagging safety measures, on the 24th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
The plant's fourth nuclear reactor still presents an active danger after work to replace an aging sarcophagus around the facility was delayed due to a shortage of
