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)
April 11, 2010
At the height of their fame The Beatles enraged the Roman Catholic Church by famously declaring they were bigger than Jesus.
Their enthusiastic pursuit of the sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle also did little to convince the Vatican they were anything other than a thoroughly bad influence.
But now in a move sanctioned by Pope Benedict XVI, the Catholic Church has offered the Fab Four its official seal of approval, forgiving them their various excesses and even la
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2010
One of the original members of the 'Filthy Thirteen', a crack US Army unit that inspired the Hollywood film The Dirty Dozen has died at the age of 88.
Jack Agnew belonged to the unofficial unit which operated behind enemy lines and was known for the less than respectful behaviour of its members.
Its soldiers refused to salute officers, or mop barracks, and were famed for brawling, drinking and spending time in the stockade. Some even wore Mohawk haircuts and donned war
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2010
The black dress worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, for her first official appearance with the Prince of Wales shortly before their engagement in 1981 surfaces at auction this summer.
It was rumoured that the Princess had destroyed the black taffeta gown - but it turned up recently in a wardrobe at the studio of dress makers David and Elizabeth Emanuel.
Now the iconic dress is set to fetch up to £50,000 when it appears at Kerry Taylor Auctions in London on June 8.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2010
La Bella Principessa has been touted as Leonardo’s missing masterpiece, but the experts beg to differ.
'Picture kept in a drawer 'is £100m da Vinci’.” That’s how the article in The Sunday Times on July 27, 2008 breathlessly reported the incredible story of how the Paris-based American dealer Peter Silverman discovered a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.
Silverman’s discovery made a thrilling story, but it was a complete fabrication, and the first of several versi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2010
Romeo and Juliet has been given a 21st-century makeover on Twitter - with Shakespeare's classic lines replaced with the likes of: ''Jules is over and out!! Xxx''.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production - Such Tweet Sorrow - began this morning and continues over the next five weeks.
A cast of six RSC actors are improvising a story, loosely based on Shakespeare's classic romance, over real-time on micro-blogging site Twitter.
The actors have been as
Source: AP
April 12, 2010
Israel used the solemn occasion of Monday's annual Holocaust memorial day to call on the world to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and to draw new attention to the plight of the dwindling number of survivors.
The wail of air raid sirens pierced the air for two minutes as the country came to a standstill in a yearly ritual remembering the 6 million Jews who perished in World War II. People stood at attention and traffic halted during the moment of silence, as radio statio
Source: AP
April 12, 2010
Thousand of young Jews and Holocaust survivors are marching at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz to remember those who perished in the Holocaust and honor Poland's late president.
Many marchers are wearing black armbands, and black ribbons top their white-and-blue Israeli flags, in memory of Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria who were killed Saturday with other top officials en route to WWII-era observances in western Russia.
Source: Reuters
April 12, 2010
Egyptian archaeologists carrying out excavations at the site of a planned youth center have found 14 tombs dating back to the third century BC, including one with a female mummy adorned with jewelry.
The Greco-Roman tombs, in Bahariya Oasis, 300 km (190 miles) southwest of Cairo, were discovered during probes that indicated they may be part of a much larger necropolis, Egypt's Culture Ministry said in a statement Monday.
A 97-cm (38-inch) tall female mummy, found in the
Source: AP
April 12, 2010
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour drew criticism for proclaiming April as Confederate Heritage Month without mentioning slavery, the second governor this month to come under fire for the omission.
Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who is black, said Monday that people need to learn about the "abhorrent, violent, depraved actions of slavery."
Virginia's Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, also named April as Confederate History Month but his original proclamation di
Source: National Parks Traveler
April 12, 2010
Manzanar National Historic Site will host the 41st annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 24. The pilgrimage, organized by the Los Angeles-based Manzanar Committee, includes weekend activities designed to commemorate the unjust World War II internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans in ten war relocation camps.
The camps were in remote areas spread among seven states including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Manzanar NHS is located in an isolated area o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 11, 2010
The far-Right has taken more parliamentary seats in Hungary’s national elections than at any time since the Second World War.
Fidesz, Hungary's centre-Right party, won 52.77 per cent of the vote, based on 99 per cent of votes counted, in a blow to the Socialist government.
Jobbik, a far-Right party, gained entry into parliament for the first time after winning 16.71 per cent of votes, behind the ruling Socialists who took 19.29 per cent.
Hungary's largest J
Source: Deutsche Welle (Germany)
April 11, 2010
Survivors and others commemorated the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi-run Buchenwald concentration camp on Sunday. The names of thousands of people who died there have now been published online.
Survivors of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald gathered with dignitaries and US Army veterans to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the liberation of one of the largest Nazi concentration camps on German soil.
From 1937-1945, about 250,000 people were impris
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2010
Social workers have been accused of behaving like the authorities of "Stalin's Russia or Mao's China" by a judge over moves to permanently remove young children from their mothers.
Lord Justice Wall said the failure of social workers in the London borough of Greenwich to support a mother trying to make changes to her life and get back her two children, who are in care, was ''quite shocking''.
The judge said what occurred would do little to dispel the perceptio
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 12, 2010
The son of late dictator Idi Amin has been charged with attacking a man hours before he was due to be deported from Britain.
Faisal Wangita, 28, is accused of being one of eight men who beat another deportee at an immigration centre.
The 23-year-old victim, from South America, suffered multiple injuries in the attack at the Colnbrook Detention Centre, near Heathrow Airport.
Unemployed Wangita, of north London, travelled to England from Uganda with his mothe
Source: Science Daily
April 6, 2010
A team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, along with a team of Syrian colleagues, is uncovering new clues about a prehistoric society that formed the foundation of urban life in the Middle East prior to invention of the wheel.
The mound of Tell Zeidan in the Euphrates River Valley near Raqqa, Syria, which had not been built upon or excavated for 6,000 years, is revealing a society rich in trade, copper metallurgy and pottery production. Artifacts
Source: Science Daily
April 9, 2010
Researchers from Cambridge, Glasgow and Greece have discovered a remarkable amount of plasticity in how transcription factors, the proteins that bind to DNA to control the activation of genes, maintain their function over large evolutionary distances.
The text books tell us that transcription factors recognise the genes that they regulate by binding to short, sequence-specific lengths of DNA upstream or downstream of their target genes. It was widely assumed that, like the sequences
Source: Science Daily
April 9, 2010
Argentinean and Spanish researchers have shown that indigenous societies in Patagonia, the southernmost region of the Earth inhabited by humans over the past 13,000 years, were not static and marginal as had always been thought, but in fact had high levels of social organisation. The latest study by this team, published in the journal Arctic Anthropology, breaks down false myths and gives these societies the historic recognition they deserve.
"Was Patagonia a desert?" Usin
Source: Science Daily
April 8, 2010
The discovery of a new fossil turtle species in Colombia's Cerrejón coal mine by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and the Florida Museum of Natural History helps to explain the origin of one of the most biodiverse groups of turtles in South America.
Cerrejonemys wayuunaiki takes its genus name from Cerrejón, and emys -- Greek for turtle. Its species name is the language spoken by the Wayuu people who live on the Guajira Peninsula in northeastern
Source: Science Daily
April 10, 2010
A cache of cuneiform tablets unearthed by a team led by a University of Toronto archaeologist has been found to contain a largely intact Assyrian treaty from the early 7th century BCE.
The 43 by 28 centimetre tablet -- known as the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon -- contains about 650 lines and is in a very fragile state. "It will take months of further work before the document will be fully legible," added Harrison. "These tablets are like a very complex puzzle, involv
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 11, 2010
The far-Right is poised to take parliamentary seats for the first time since the Second World War, in Hungary's national elections.
Fidesz, Hungary's centre-right party, is expected to sweep out the unpopular Socialist government and Jobbik, a far-right party is predicted to take second place after Sunday's elections.
Hungary's largest Jewish organisation warned that the vote was "the first occasion that a movement pursuing openly anti-Semitic policies" has
