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: CNN
April 9, 2010
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced his retirement Friday, has served as a central liberal voice on the high court, at times leading negotiations to sway opinions on critical cases -- and ultimately having a remarkable impact on the court and on society at large.
After joining the court in 1975, the choice of President Gerald Ford, a Republican, Stevens went on to become "an unexpected liberal -- someone who moved to the left as the court moved to the right,&
Source: Ottowa Citizen (Canada)
April 8, 2010
Canadian archeologists in Turkey have unearthed an ancient treaty written in cuneiform that could have served as a model for the biblical description of God's covenant with the Israelites.
The tablet, dating from about 670 BC, is a treaty between the powerful Assyrian king and his weaker vassal states, written in a highly formulaic language very similar in form and style to the story of Abraham's covenant with God in the Hebrew Bible, says University of Toronto archeologist Timothy
Source: Indiana University News
April 7, 2010
A visit to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson near Charlottesville, Va., is a trip back into the world just as Jefferson knew it. Or not.
Over the centuries various landscaping efforts have obscured and buried features of the original Monticello landscape, so today, members of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology at Indiana University Bloomington are working with Monticello archaeological staff to help restore Monticello to its appearance as it was during Jefferson's l
Source: BBC News
April 9, 2010
Germany has charged a former member of the radical far-left Red Army Faction (RAF) militant group over the 1977 murder of a federal prosecutor.
Verena Becker, 57, was arrested last August for her suspected role in the ambush of Siegfried Buback. Two men escorting him were also shot dead.
Ms Becker is accused of being an accessory to the murder - one of the RAF's most notorious attacks.
The RAF, also called the Baader-Meinhof gang, killed more than 30 people
Source: Deutsche Welle
April 8, 2010
Adolf Hitler never made it as an artist, but his drawings and paintings have garnered increasingly high bids at auction. Apparently it's not neo-Nazis who are buying, but history buffs and art collectors.
It's no surprise when works by famous artists sell for prices in the tens of thousands. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that drawings and watercolors by Adolf Hitler have commanded similar prices at recent auctions.
The British auction house Mullock's offered 15 pi
Source: Metro (UK)
April 7, 2010
Witness statements from 1944 have been uncovered which detail the violence unleashed on residents of a north Italian village.
The accounts were taken down by Sgt Charles Edmonson, a British policeman who was determined to bring the culprits to trial.
Retelling the start of the murders, he wrote: ‘Refugees, mostly women and children, were awakened by the sound of machine gun fire.
‘The Germans knocked on the doors and ordered everyone outside.
‘
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 8, 2010
The first pictures have been released of two-million-year-old fossils which could help scientists understand how man evolved from our apelike ancestors.
The two partial skeletons, found in a South African cave, are a previously unknown species, say the team who discovered them.
They contain elements of both the apelike hominids from which man is believed to be descended, known as Australopithecus, and modern humans.
Experts described the find as “rare” and
Source: BBC News
April 7, 2010
Global culture officials are meeting to discuss how to recover ancient treasures which they say have been stolen and displayed overseas.
Twenty countries are represented at the two-day conference in Cairo.
It has been organised by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), which wants many pharaonic items returned by Western museums.
The SCA said the forum would discuss "the protection and restitution of cultural heritage."
Represe
Source: The Local (Germany)
April 8, 2010
Berlin's main international airport Tegel had to briefly halt operations for an hour after a World War II-era bomb was discovered on a building site, officials said.
Police bomb disposal experts were called in late on Wednesday afternoon to defuse the 250 kilogramme aerial bomb that was discovered by labourers in a northern section of the airport, Berlin airports spokesman Ralf Kunkel said.
Operations were suspended just before 6:00 pm "for safety reasons," Ku
Source: Scripps News
April 6, 2010
What began as a casual hallway conversation between two Minneapolis lawyers has turned into a small-scale international search for Danish fishermen who helped rescue Jews during World War II.
The obstacles include the passage of time -- 67 years to be exact -- and a well-deserved cultural reputation for stoicism and modesty.
In October 1943, in German-occupied Denmark, Danish Jews were about to be rounded up and deported to concentration camps. But, in one of the few up
Source: BBC News
April 8, 2010
China and Nepal have agreed a solution to a long-running disagreement over the height of Mount Everest.
They agreed that the world's highest mountain - which traverses the border of the two countries - should be recognised as being 8,848m tall.
The Chinese previously argued it should be measured by its rock height. Nepal said it should be measured by its snow height - this is four metres higher.
During talks in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, China accepted that
Source: CNN
April 7, 2010
A rare letter evincing a display of affection between President Theodore Roosevelt and his youngest son is up for sale by a dealer who obtained it from a Roosevelt family friend.
Roosevelt sent the letter to his 6-year-old son, Quentin, during a trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1903. It is the only letter from the trip to his family to reach the market, and its existence was unknown to scholars and institutions until its discovery in the possession of a family friend, said Natha
Source: CNN
April 7, 2010
An African-American Virginia lawmaker said Wednesday that he is not yet ready to accept an apology from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, suggesting McDonnell’s misstep regarding Virginia’s confederate history is part of a pattern which calls the governor’s sincerity into question.
The Republican governor apologized earlier Wednesday after coming under criticism for issuing a proclamation that declared April to be Confederate History Month in the state but which made no mention of slaver
Source: WaPo
April 7, 2010
Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, reviving a controversy that had been dormant for eight years, has declared that April will be Confederate History Month in Virginia, a move that angered civil rights leaders Tuesday but that political observers said would strengthen his position with his conservative base.
The two previous Democratic governors had refused to issue the mostly symbolic proclamation honoring the soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. McDonnell (R) revived a pract
Source: NYT
April 6, 2010
Long before this town existed, there were Indians of that name who lived, camped, hunted, fished and grew maize in the woods and fields along the shoreline.
Now, archaeological evidence of the Narragansetts’ early presence in Rhode Island has ignited a debate over private development on a site that some consider to be culturally and historically significant. The state maintains it has the regulatory authority to stop development on the site. The developer says this amounts to a tak
Source: The Independent
April 6, 2010
Scholars translating a Roman victory stele, erected in the Temple of Isis at Philae in Egypt in 29 BC, have discovered the Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus’ name inscribed in a cartouche – an honour normally reserved for an Egyptian pharaoh
Octavian’s forces defeated Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and captured Alexandria soon afterwards. Historians believe that although Octavian ruled Egypt after the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC, he was never actually
Source: Discovery News
April 7, 2010
In an unprecedented diplomatic show, the Russian and Polish prime ministers on Wednesday honored 22,000 Poles murdered 70 years ago by Soviet forces in the Katyn Forest.
Russia's Vladimir Putin and Poland's Donald Tusk are the first leaders of their countries to attend a joint ceremony honoring victims of the notorious World War II massacre ordered by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The event has cast a long cloud over their bilateral relations.
The two leaders laid the
Source: Discovery News
April 7, 2010
The first detailed analysis of sandals buried with the boy king suggest the sometimes elaborate footwear was made to accommodate his club foot.
King Tutankhamun might have worn some sort of orthopedic shoes specially designed to cope with his club foot condition, an investigation into the pharaoh's footwear has suggested.
Published in the book, "Tutankhamun's Footwear: Studies of Ancient Egyptian Footwear," the research is the first detailed analysis of the 3,
Source: Slate
April 6, 2010
Bob McDonnell, the Republican governor of Virginia, is bringing back a long-running right wing tradition by declaring April 2010 “Confederate History Month” — at the request of the neo-Confederate group “Sons of Confederate Veterans,” described by Civil War historian James M. McPherson as a white supremacist organization.
The two previous governors of Virginia (Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine) refused to issue similar proclamations, but the Sons of Confederate Veterans knew they
Source: BBC
April 7, 2010
A search to find those who wore the christening robes of Peter Pan author JM Barrie has been launched by the National Trust for Scotland.
Barrie's mother Margaret lent the white gown to dozens of other families living in Kirriemuir, Angus in the years following her children's christening.
The search is part of the town's plans to mark the 150th birthday of Barrie.
The robe will be unveiled, along with the descendants of those who may have worn it, on 9 Ma
