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)
February 3, 2010
An Alberto Giacometti bronze sculpture has become the most expensive piece of art to sell at auction after it was sold in London for more than £65million.
The sculpture, considered to be one of the most important by the 20th century Swiss artist, was estimated to sell for between £12 million and £18 million.
The previous record was a Picasso painting, Boy with a Pipe, which was his haunting Rose Period portrait of a youngster called "Little Louis", who used
Source: AP
February 3, 2010
John Demjanjuk's trial in Germany was postponed Wednesday after doctors reported that the 89-year-old defendant was experiencing medical problems.
Presiding Judge Ralph Alt said the doctors at the prison hospital where Demjanjuk is being held reported he was suffering from dangerously low hemoglobin levels and needed treatment.
However, doctors thought the proceedings would be able to resume Thursday as scheduled, Alt said.
Source: AP
February 3, 2010
An Iraqi appeals court Wednesday suspended a ban imposed on hundreds of candidates for suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing them to run in next month's election, an official said.
The move could temporarily defuse a major source of tension ahead of key March elections, but leaves the ultimate issue of a political blacklist unresolved.
The list — which has more than 450 names — was widely criticized by Sunni political leaders who claimed it was being used
Source: CNN
February 3, 2010
Newburgh, New York, was a main military headquarters for George Washington during the American Revolution. More recently, authorities say, it was the birthplace of a foiled terrorist plot.
If Mayor Nick Valentine gets his way, the town of 30,000 will host the terror trial of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices.
About 60 miles up the Hudson River from New York City, Newburgh struggles with poverty, unemployment and crime. In 2004,
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
February 2, 2010
Researcher Lorianne Updike Toler was intrigued by the centuries-old document at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: "We The People. . . ."
They had been scribbled upside down by one of the Constitution's framers, James Wilson, in the summer of 1787. The cursive continued, then abruptly stopped, as if pages were missing.
Source: Charlotte Observer
February 3, 2010
BOSTIC, N.C. -- Note to aspiring saints and office-holders: You'll know you've achieved "legendary" status when whispered tales are attached to your life story with question marks. The higher you rise, the more there are.
Consider Abraham Lincoln. There are tales about him in Washington, where the 16th president saved the Union and was assassinated. Likewise in Springfield, Ill., the closest to a normal "home" the self-made Lincoln had.
Likewise in t
Source: Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA)
February 3, 2010
An Orange County Circuit Court judge will hear preliminary arguments today from national groups and local residents who oppose the planned 240,000-square-foot commercial development featuring a new Walmart on the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange....
The proposal is for a 140,000-square-foot Walmart and an additional 100,000-square-feet for commercial development. The site proposals are adjacent to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, established by Congress in
Source: NYT
February 2, 2010
The building bears little resemblance to the extravagantly sumptuous “wonder theater” that wowed audiences in 1929.
The rusting, dirt-caked marquee that hangs outside the Loew’s Kings Theater over a bustling commercial stretch of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn last promoted a film in 1977. Years of neglect have left the interior rotted by time, stripped by thieves and desecrated by vandals and pigeons.
New York City, which seized the building decades ago in lieu of back ta
Source: AFP
February 1, 2010
Parliament amended Egypt's antiquities law on Monday to bring in stiffer punishments for the theft and smuggling of relics while granting patent rights to the country's antiquities council.
The amendment requires Egyptians who have antiquities to report their possessions to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zahi Hawass, in six months. The sale of antiquities is still banned.
"Parliament agreed on article eight that forbids trade in antiquities but allow
Source: Honolulu advertiser
February 1, 2010
The Navy said today that a sunken vessel found in the Philippines' Balabac Strait has been identified as the World War II submarine USS Flier.
The Flier, which departed Pearl Harbor in January 1944 for its first war patrol, had seen extensive action by the time it struck a mine and sank on Aug. 13, 1944.
Seventy-eight crewmen were lost when the submarine went down.
Fourteen crewmen escaped, but only eight survived the long swim to reach shore. After making
Source: NYT
February 2, 2010
When President Obama signed a law on Monday to clear the way for the largest privately held archive of papers relating to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be donated to Roosevelt’s presidential library, it was to be the culmination of a five-year effort to finally make the documents available to the public....
The documents, which belonged to Roosevelt’s last personal secretary, Grace Tully, have been in legal limbo for years because of an ownership dispute involving the National
Source: SoMdNews.com
January 27, 2010
From a British invasion to a recruitment camp for African-American Civil War troops, the sleepy little hamlet that is present-day Benedict has seen its share of action.
The county's cultural resource study of Benedict highlights the importance it played in both local and national history and recommends ways to ensure that the town receives recognition during the state's 200th anniversary celebration of the War of 1812.
Completed in the fall, the 234-page study will be u
Source: Coventry Telegraph (UK)
February 2, 2010
I’m standing in the middle of a derelict wasteland that was once the place where hundreds of Coventry folk flocked to work.
Armed with just a torch I jump over fences, dodge barbed wire and wade through mud just to observe a part of the city’s heritage that will soon be levelled by developers.
I’m joined by a young man, probably in his early 20s, who I know very little about.
There’s a reason for that. This man – known to some by his online name “Dweeb” – i
Source: Science Daily
February 2, 2010
Researchers excavating an ancient Roman cemetery made a surprising discovery when they extracted ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from one of the skeletons buried at the site: the 2,000-year-old bones revealed a maternal East Asian ancestry.
The results will be presented at the Roman Archeology Conference at Oxford, England, in March, and published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
According to Tracy Prowse, assistant professor of Anthropology, and the lead author o
Source: AFP
January 29, 2010
A thousand-year-old stone sarcophagus discovered in southern Mexico could provide clues to the reason for decline of Mayan culture, the archaeologist responsible for the find has said.
The tomb was discovered in November by specialists from the National Institute of Archaeology and History, known as INAH, in the Mayan city of Tonina in Chiapas state on the border with Guatemala.
The stone sarcophagus and the gravestone accompanying it dates to a period from 840 to 900 A
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 2, 2010
A Picasso masterpiece unseen in public for 43 years fetched more than twice its expected price at auction when it sold for £8.1 million.
Tete de Femme (Jacqueline), a 1963 portrait of the artist's second wife, had not been seen in public since 1967 and was expected to fetch £3 million to £4 million, Christie's said.
The portrait had never been offered at auction and had remained in the same collection since 1981.
It was the the most talked-about lot of a
Source: CNN
February 2, 2010
Several senators announced legislation Tuesday that would cut off funding for the federal trial of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accused accomplices, saying the five should be tried in a military court.
The bill would withhold funding from the Department of Justice to prosecute the five in civilian court, a plan that has recently been criticized.
President Obama believes the trial should take place in a criminal court instead of before a milita
Source: CNN
February 2, 2010
Mir Hossein Moussavi, the Iranian opposition leader and symbol of anti-government fervor, lashed out against Iran's Islamic Republic Tuesday, saying remnants of the "tyranny" and "dictatorship" that prevailed under the toppled Shah of Iran's regime persist today.
The regime is marking the anniversary of the shah's overthrow with a series of events that began this week and culminate on February 11. Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, another Iranian opposition leader, hav
Source: Medieval News
February 2, 2010
Scientists have used 70 tons of liquid sugar to preserve the remains of three Medieval bridges found near Leicester. Experts from the University of Leicester immersed the 11th century bridges – whose ruins were so heavy they had to be carried in sections by eight-man teams – in tanks of sugar solution....
The venture is the second time sugar has come to the rescue of curators, echoing a method known as sucrose impregnation which was used by the Waterfront Museum in Dorset to conserv
Source: NYT
February 1, 2010
After decades of ethnic strife, political wrangling and fruitless diplomacy, leaders of Cyprus’s divided communities began meetings Monday with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, months before elections that could further complicate the quest for a settlement.
Mr. Ban arrived Sunday for his first visit to Cyprus, which has been split in two since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 after a coup attempt by Greek Cypriots seeking union with mainland Greece. Since then, unto
