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: WaPo
March 18, 2010
Historians criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum Tuesday, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state's borders....
"The books that are altered to fit the standards become the best-selling books, and therefore within the next two years they'll end up in other classrooms," said Fritz Fischer, chairman of the National Council for History Education, a group
Source: AP
March 17, 2010
Israeli archaeologists have announced that ruins long thought to be of an ancient synagogue are actually the remains of a palace used by Muslim caliphs 1,300 years ago.
The site on the banks of the Sea of Galilee was identified as a synagogue in the 1950s because archaeologists found a carving of a menorah, a seven-armed candelabra, that is a Jewish symbol. But scholars say in a new report that the identification was an error....
Source: Die Spiegel (Germany)
March 17, 2010
Germans are popular in India and Pakistan, but not always for the right reasons. Many in South Asia have nothing but admiration for Adolf Hitler and still associate Germany with the Third Reich. Everyday encounters with the love of all things Nazi makes German visitors cringe.
Pakistan is the opposite of Germany. The mountains are in the north, the sea is in the south, the economic problems are in the west and the east is doing well. It's not hard for a German living in Pakistan to
Source: BBC News
March 18, 2010
A Polish court has convicted three men for stealing the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from the former Auschwitz death camp last December.
The trio, two of whom are brothers, were given jail sentences ranging from 18 months to two-and-a-half years.
The court in Krakow said the men had admitted the theft, and so the case did not have to go to trial.
Two other Poles remain in custody over the theft of the 5m (16ft) wrought-iron sign, which was qu
Source: BBC News
March 18, 2010
Up to 25,000 people died in the Allied bombing of Dresden during World War II - fewer than often estimated, an official German report has concluded.
The Dresden Historians' Commission published its report after five years of research into the 13-15 February 1945 air raid by Britain and the US.
The study was aimed at ending an ongoing debate on the number of casualties in the German city.
Germany's far-right groups claim that up to 500,000 people died.
Source: Voice of America
March 17, 2010
Russian nationalists in Crimea have burned Ukrainian history textbooks to protest what they say are distortions of the past by the administration of former President Viktor Yushchenko. The recent transfer of power in Kyiv has raised hope among Russian nationalists and fear among Ukrainians.
On Sunday, Russian nationalists in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, threw Ukrainian history textbooks into boxes at the foot of a local monument to Russian
Source: WaPo
March 17, 2010
Texas has been here before, here being in a mess with its American history curriculum and textbooks.
The great state is in the spotlight now because its state board of education pushed through some silly and historically inaccurate revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum which historians say pervert American history.
There is, for example, a new requirement for students to study both Abraham Lincoln’s and Jefferson Davis’ inaugural addresses, as if they had equ
Source: NYT
March 17, 2010
In the dried mud of the Irrawaddy Delta, workers are welding together the final pieces of a natural-gas pipeline that the country’s ruling generals say will keep the lights on in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, after years of debilitating blackouts.
The pipeline near Pyapon will help keep Yangon's lights on.
Residents who for years were lucky to get eight hours of power a day may soon have the luxury of refrigerators that stay cold and televisions that stay on.
Source: AP
March 17, 2010
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is opening a new permanent exhibit exploring human evolution over 6 million years.
The nearly $21 million Hall of Human Origins opens Wednesday. It will include more than 285 fossils and artifacts, including the only Neanderthal skeleton in the United States.
Source: LifeSiteNews
March 16, 2010
It is an inconvenient fact.
According to a pamphlet unearthed by the pro-life group Live Action, back in 1952, Planned Parenthood - today the largest abortion provider in the United States - told women that having an abortion was a danger to their lives, health, and fertility, and kills a baby.
Live Action’s investigative journalists have uncovered the pamphlet from Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) that emphatically espoused an anti-abortion position, wh
Source: USA Today
March 16, 2010
An archaeologist reports the ingredients of "Maya Blue" pigment beloved by Central America's ancients may have been widely mined, not traded as previously suggested.
In the Journal of Archeological Science report, Leslie Cecil of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, reports on "palygorskite" minerals, the chief ingredient in the bright and long-lasting pigment, found at the archaeological site of Ixlú in the Petén region of Guatemala. Maya B
Source: AP
March 17, 2010
Israeli archaeologists have announced that ruins long thought to be of an ancient synagogue are actually the remains of a palace built by Arab caliphs 1,300 years ago.
The site, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, was identified as a synagogue in the 1950s because archaeologists found a carving of a menorah, a seven-armed candelabra that is a Jewish symbol. But scholars said in a report published this week that the identification was an error, and that the site was a winter palace u
Source: The Washington Post
March 17, 2010
Historians criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum Tuesday, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state's borders.
The changes, which were preliminarily approved last week by the Texas board of education and are expected to be given final approval in May, will reach deeply into Texas history classrooms, defining what textbooks must include and what teachers must cov
Source: BBC
March 17, 2010
A stolen souvenir from the Battle of Waterloo has been returned to the Borders home of Sir Walter Scott.
The silver bowl, known as a quaich, was taken from Abbotsford House near Melrose in 1994.
However, it was spotted late last year in a French antiques market by silver expert Wynyard Wilkinson who identified it and arranged for its return.
The Waterloo Tree Quaich, one of many historic relics collected by Scott, will go on public display this weekend.
Source: BBC
March 17, 2010
Ukrainian archaeologists say they have identified the remains of HMS Prince, a British naval vessel that sank off Balaclava during the Crimean War.
The sinking, with all 150 men on board, caused outrage not only for the human toll, but because thousands of badly needed winter uniforms were also lost.
The ship had not been found since it sank during a storm in November 1854.
Other underwater expeditions have found parts of the ship, but it is the first pos
Source: BBC
March 17, 2010
Families of some British soldiers lost in action during World War I who thought their bodies had at last been found have had their hopes dashed.
Relatives of the soldiers thought to have been killed in the 1916 battle of Fromelles gave DNA samples after the bodies were exhumed last year.
But it has not been possible to identify all the 250 Allied soldiers found buried in the mass grave.
It has only been possible to say that three of the soldiers were Brit
Source: BBC
March 17, 2010
A painting owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Art Foundation, which was at the centre of a dispute about its Nazi-era history, is to go under the hammer.
Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto is being offered with a pre-sale estimate of between £30m-£40m - the highest for any work of art ever offered in Europe.
It was expected to fetch up to $60m (£37.6m) at auction in 2006, but the sale was blocked at the last minute.
The dispute surrounding the 1903 work was
Source: BBC
March 17, 2010
The Vatican has announced a commission to investigate claims that the Virgin Mary appears on a daily basis in a town in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Six children first reported the apparition in the town of Medjugorje in June 1981.
However, the sightings have not yet received official recognition from the Catholic Church.
The 20-strong commission will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the top doctrinal body.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 17, 2010
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may die within three years, according to a senior US envoy.
Kurt Campbell, the assistant US Secretary of State, told ambassador Kathleen Stephens, a South Korean politician and activists in a closed-door session that he doubted the 68-year-old leader would live beyond 2013, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.
Mr Campbell based his estimate on medical information, the report said, citing unidentified sources.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 17, 2010
A photograph taken more than 40 years ago showing a young Barack Obama as a schoolboy in Indonesia has been found, days before he begins his presidential visit to the country.
The picture was given to Associated Press by Hadi Surya Dharma, a childhood friend of Mr Obama's, who sits beside the future president in the black and white photo.
Mr Obama, who was born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, moved to Indonesia when he was seven – after his mother married an
