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: Time (for the week of Oct 26th)
October 19, 2009
Anyone walking through Prashant Thakare's freshly planted cotton field in the central Indian village of Takarakhede Shambhu could easily mistake a 65-ft.-wide (20 m) pool of murky water for, well, a pool of murky water. Yet that simple pond has transformed Thakare's 22-acre (9 hectare) farm and, indeed, his life.
Thakare, like nearly all the farmers in this arid region of Vidarbha in the state of Maharashtra, is dependent on India's annual monsoon to provide the water necessary to
Source: NYT
October 18, 2009
FRANKFURT — As China extends its economic reach, it has also increased efforts to promote its culture, or “soft power,” to counter Western influence and improve its image in the wider world.
Yet if Chinese goods are accepted everywhere, its arts and literature, embattled at home after decades of censorship and state control, are proving harder for the government to export.
After years of delicate preparations, China was the “honored guest” this past week at the Frankfu
Source: NYT
October 18, 2009
BERLIN — Culture lovers reveled in the reopening of the Neues Museum in the heart of Berlin on Friday, the culmination of decades of efforts to renovate the site, which was destroyed during World War II.
But the celebrations have been marred by a growing dispute between the German and Egyptian governments over the star of the show: the 3,500-year-old limestone-and-stucco bust of Queen Nefertiti, a wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten.
Nefertiti has been in Germany since 1913. But
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors on Monday.
Two Justice Department officials said prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.
The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insist
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
The British Museum is to be asked to open up its archives to allow teams of Chinese investigators to document "lost" Imperial treasures which China claims were taken from Beijing's Old Summer Palace when it was burned and looted by British troops almost 150 years ago.
The teams will form part of an international mission to demand the inspection of 1.5 million artefacts mostly held by museums in Britain and France.
China has moved to reassure countries that th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
An Italian art expert says he is on the verge of discovering a long-lost Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece hidden in a secret cavity behind a palace wall.
Maurizio Seracini, a university professor, claims a cryptic message in a huge artwork in Florence's historic Palazzo Vecchio suggests Leonardo's The Battle of Anghiari is hidden behind.
He believes it was painted over with the fresco which can be seen today – The Battle of Marciano in the Chiana Valley – by another Rena
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
"It was curiosity born of great innocence," recalled Kurt Starke, 70, a sociologist and sex expert in Leipzig, eastern Germany.
"Couples went to sex shops, sometimes with grandmothers holding a child by the hand. We wanted to discover everything the West had to offer."
Under the totalitarian state in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), as Communist East Germany was known, pornography and prostitution were serious taboos.
"The s
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
In his most outspoken comments since he resigned as the last Soviet leader in 1991, Mr Gorbachev fiercely criticised the ruling United Russia party led by Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, and said that genuine political debate was now confined to Russia's tiny liberal press.
"In the eyes of everybody, elections have been turned into a mockery of people and a symbol of disrespect for their choices," he said.
"The electoral system has been maimed."
Source: Independent (UK)
October 19, 2009
The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have accused the former Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair of "trying to rewrite history" with his autobiography, in which he praises the actions of the two armed officers who shot dead the Brazilian electrician.
Extracts from Sir Ian's book, Policing Controversy, appeared in a Sunday newspaper yesterday. In passages referring to the day Mr de Menezes was killed in Stockwell Tube station in south London, Sir Ian said the de
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
The five boys from Auckland Grammar School face disciplinary action over the pictures, taken during an outing to a museum display that commemorated the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.
The pictures, in which the boys were wearing school uniform, appeared on the Facebook website but were taken down when the school became aware of them at the weekend.
Robin Klitscher, president of the Returned Services Association, which represents former members of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
More than 150 items that had belonged to the former president of the Elvis Presley fan club went on the block at Chicago's Leslie Hindman auctioneers.
The most expensive items included a red ultrasuede shirt worn by Presley, which was sold for $34,000, and a monogrammed cream-colored shirt that sold for $62,000, according to the auction house's listing of post-auction sale prices.
Two concert-worn scarves sold for a combined $2,318. A set of concert-used handkerchiefs
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 19, 2009
The image, which was accompanied by the words "Hitler is not dead", had been condemned by foreign diplomats as "utterly tasteless".
Somporn Naksuetrong, the manager of the Louis Tussaud's Waxworks in Pattaya, apologised on Sunday. "We did not mean to cause any offence," he said. "We think he is an important historical figure, but in a horrible way."
The billboard had been up for several weeks on the main road from the capital Bang
Source: BBC
October 19, 2009
The teams will be looking for precious items stolen from Beijing's former Summer Palace nearly 150 years ago.
Chinese experts believe 1.5 million items could have been taken from the site, which was destroyed by British and French troops.
Over recent years, China has become increasingly active in its efforts to raise the issue of stolen treasures.
Source: BBC
October 19, 2009
The Science Museum is investigating the 450-year-old portrait, thought to be of Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Florence, holding a golden timepiece.
Curators have sent their findings to renaissance experts at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, and are awaiting their comments.
The painting is being shown as part of the museum's Measuring Time gallery.
The first watches appeared shortly after 1500 in Germany and horologists believe the picture, painted by renais
Source: NYT
October 17, 2009
Somalia isn’t just a nagging geopolitical headache that won’t go away. It is also a cautionary tale. Few countries in modern history have been governmentless for so long, and as the United States has learned, it would be nice to think you could ignore this wild, thirsty, mostly nomadic nation 7,000 miles away. But you can’t
Al Qaeda is working feverishly to turn Somalia into a global jihad factory, according to recent intelligence assessments, and the way the United States chooses t
Source: NYT
October 17, 2009
WASHINGTON — From presidential confidants in the White House Situation Room to anchors on cable television to ruminators at the city’s think tanks, the view has settled in: Afghanistan is an ungovernable collection of tribes that has confounded every conqueror since Alexander the Great. Like a lot of received wisdom, it may well be correct.
But as President Obama debates whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan, and whether, more pointedly, he might be sending them down a
Source: NYT
October 17, 2009
The Obama administration, which would seem to have its hands full with a two-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan, opened up a third front last week, this time with Fox News.
Until this point, the conflict had been mostly a one-sided affair, with Fox News hosts promoting tax day “tea parties” that focused protest on the new president, and more recently bringing down the presidential adviser Van Jones through rugged coverage that caught the administration, and other news organizations
Source: Reuters
October 9, 2009
France will return five segments of an ancient Egyptian tomb mural held by the Louvre museum, committee, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Friday.
The provenance of the fragments, which Mitterrand said were acquired in good faith by the Louvre between 2000 and 2003, was called into doubt in 2008 after the discovery of the tomb from which they were believed to have been taken.
Mitterrand said in a statement the decision to return the murals underlined France's de
Source: Discovery News
October 15, 2009
Swiss researchers have succeeded in mummifying a body part using the salty recipe of the ancient Egyptians.
One of the goals of the project is to find out how much the mummification process damages the DNA.
The experiment, which has been running for more than four months, takes inspiration from a 1994 study by Ronald Wade, director of Maryland's State Anatomical Board, and Bob Brier, one of the leading experts on mummies and Egyptology.
During that study,
Source: BBC
October 16, 2009
Meeting the ancestors took on a whole new meaning for a group of Northern Ireland filmmakers and scientists.
They found themselves travelling to Cairo as they searched for the story of a famous Belfast immigrant, Takabuti, the Ulster Museum mummy.
When the museum closed in 2006 for refurbishment, experts used the opportunity to find out more about her history. Takabuti was first brought to Belfast from Egypt by boat in 1834 by a wealthy
