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: AP
December 17, 2009
Archaeologists on Thursday hoisted a 9-ton temple pylon from the waters of the Mediterranean that was part of the palace complex of the fabled Cleopatra before it became submerged for centuries in the harbor of Alexandria.
The pylon, which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis, is to be the centerpiece of an ambitious underwater museum planned by Egypt to showcase the sunken city, believed to have been toppled into the sea by earthquakes in the 4th century.
Div
Source: Science Daily
December 15, 2009
A biblical expert at the University of Chicago, Margaret M. Mitchell, together with experts in micro-chemical analysis and medieval bookmaking, has concluded that one of the University Library's most enigmatic possessions is a forgery. The book, a copy of the Gospel of Mark, will remain in the collection as a study document for scholars studying the authenticity of ancient books.
Scholars have argued for nearly 70 years over the provenance of what's called the Archaic Mark, a 44-pag
Source: BBC News
December 31, 2069
A US man has become the longest-serving prisoner to be freed after DNA evidence proved he was innocent of the crime he was convicted of three decades ago.
James Bain spent 35 years in jail after being found guilty of kidnapping and raping a nine-year-old boy in 1974.
On his release from prison in Florida on Thursday, he told the BBC he was not angry and his faith had helped him.
He has always maintained his innocence, but was only allowed a review of his
Source: BBC News
December 31, 2069
The infamous Arbeit Macht Frei sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland has been stolen.
The wrought iron sign, whose words mean "Work Sets You Free", was unscrewed and pulled down from its position above the gate in the early hours of Friday.
Polish authorities denounced the theft, while Israel's Holocaust museum branded it an "act of war".
More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Na
Source: Live Science
December 15, 2009
Genetic changes that apparently allow humans to live longer than any other primate may be rooted in a more carnivorous diet.
These changes may also promote brain development and make us less vulnerable to diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia.
Chimpanzees and great apes are genetically similar to humans, yet they rarely live for more than 50 years. Although the average human lifespan has doubled in the last 200 years - due largely to decreased
Source: BBC
December 16, 2009
A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has for the first time charged two former Khmer Rouge leaders with genocide.
A court official said the charges against Ieng Sary and Nuon Chea relate to their treatment of Cambodia's Vietnamese and Muslim minorities.
The two men are already in pre-trial detention charged with crimes against humanity, but it is thought their trial will not start until 2011. The two men were both high-ranking members of Po
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 16, 2009
One of Spain's most enduring mysteries has remained unsolved after archaeologists exhumed a mass grave without finding the remains of Federico Garcia Lorca.
The project on a remote hillside outside the southern city of Granada was intended to trace of the nation's most celebrated modern poet and playwright.
But the two-month excavation of an area of parkland about the size of half a football pitch will come to an end this week and as yet no human remains have been une
Source: Guardian (UK)
December 15, 2009
Millions of White House emails that went missing during the Bush administration have been recovered following an extended court battle.
Around 22m messages spanning more than 90 days were declared missing in 2007, shortly after a scandal arose over the decision to fire nine federal prosecutors who had not toed the White House line.
The Obama administration said that its computer technicians had successfully recovered the lost data, in what campaigners called a victory
Source: BBC
December 15, 2009
Proof that pre-historic people placed bunches of flowers in the grave when they buried their dead has been found for the first time, experts have said.
Archaeologists have discovered a bunch of meadowsweet blossoms in a Bronze Age grave at Forteviot, south of Perth.
The dark brown heads were found, along with a clump of organic material which archaeologists now say is the stems of the flowers.The bunch had been placed by the head of the high-status
Source: BBC
December 15, 2009
Letters written by the Yorkshire Ripper to a woman in Birmingham are to be sold at auction.
The 44 letters were sent by Peter Sutcliffe from Broadmoor high-security hospital in Berkshire to a woman in Birmingham between 1985 and 1990.
Sutcliffe, 63, murdered 13 women across northern England in the 1970s and 80s.
The son of one of his victims has criticised the auction by Manchester-based Trafford Books. The auctioneers declined to comment.
Source: Fox News
December 15, 2009
The "tea party" movement that gained steam shortly after President Obama took office is seeing a surge in popularity, with a string of candidates and officials willing to take up its cause and a political infrastructure that's starting to mirror that of an actual political party.
What started as a conservative protest klatch has evolved into a political force with enough muscle to potentially alter the course of the 2010 mid-term elections.
The tea party act
Source: BBC
October 15, 2009
On 15 December 10 years ago, Venezuela suffered its worst natural disaster of modern times when a wall of water, boulders and debris came down the side of the Avila mountain.
The exact number killed in the tragedy is hard to know, as many bodies were buried under the mud or washed into the sea.
But there are estimates that between 10,000 and 30,000 people lost their lives. Tens of thousands more were made homeless.
The Avila mountain has become even more
Source: BBC
December 15, 2009
An ivory and gold toothpick once owned by Charles Dickens has sold at auction in New York City for $9,150 (£5,625).
The item is engraved with the English author's initials. It was sold by heirs to the Barnes and Noble family.
The pre-sale estimate was $3,000 to $5,000. The auctioneer, Bonhams, said the buyer did not want to be named.
An authentication letter from Dickens's sister-in-law says the author of Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol used the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 15, 2009
China has angrily rejected calls by the US and the EU to release the prominent intellectual dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Mr Liu is facing up to 15 years in jail for organising a pro-democracy petition and writing essays critical of the ruling Communist Party.
The case of the 53-year-old former literature professor, who is accused of "inciting subversion of state power", is now attracting a growing international outcry from governments and civil rights groups campai
Source: Sky News
December 14, 2009
The Nobel Peace Prize winner told Oprah Winfrey that helping to steady the economy and building plans for the withdrawal from Iraq were highlights of his first 11 months in office.
The US President, who took office on January 20, added there was still work to be done.
"B+ because of the things that are undone. Health care is not yet signed," Mr Obama said.
"If I get health care passed, we tip into A-."
Mr Obama said his admi
Source: Times (UK)
December 16, 2009
On one page Napoleon peeks through a set of curtains to spy on cavorting nudes. On another the Duke of York is in carnal embrace with his diminutive wife. A third depicts George III defecating into a hat.
The bound volume of cartoons by James Gillray, the 18th and 19th century artist whose satirical etchings were the forerunner of modern political cartoons, was once considered so obscene that it was seized by police.
Yesterday the pornography and obscenity team at the
Source: History Today
December 14, 2009
What if Mitterrand’s alleged opposition to German unification was no more than a myth? Was Thatcher thus the only leader opposed to German unification? How far did Thatcher's views represent those of Britain as a whole? Maybe her alleged opposition to unification too was merely a legend? Or maybe these are the wrong questions to ask? If German unification was inevitable, perhaps the questions to be posed are slightly more complex.
These were some of the questions raised by an impres
Source: BBC
December 15, 2009
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the former UK ambassador to the UN, said the entire mission was "rushed" and did not have enough international input.
He told the Chilcot inquiry the UK was a "minor partner" and did not have enough clout to affect key decisions.
The broadcast of Tuesday's hearing was cut off for more than a minute by its chairman on national security grounds.
Source: BBC
December 15, 2009
The painting, by Maurice Quentin de La Tour, has hung in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery since it was bought for £22,000 in 1994.
Now a leading expert believes the pastel might be Prince Henry Benedict instead of Charles Edward Stuart.
The gallery said it was not uncommon for re-attributions to be made.
It follows a two-year row over the identity of the man in the painting since London art dealer Bendor Grosvenor claimed it was not Bonnie Prince C
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 15, 2009
As a new exhibition in the western German city of Cologne shows, the Nazis tried to skew the Christmas story to do away with the Jewish baby Jesus and impose their racist ideology and propaganda on the popular festival.
"Celebrating the birth of a Jewish baby was unthinkable for the Nazis," said Juergen Mueller, the chief researcher behind the exhibition.
"But Christmas was too popular to be banned. They therefore decided to corrupt it."
