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: Asia News
October 13, 2009
Kirkuk (AsiaNews) - For 1600 years, Iraq has been "a country of martyrs", which finds in the “Holy Spirit and the Eucharist" the strength to bear witness to the faith “despite persecution”. So says Mgr. Louis Sako, archbishop of Kirkuk, on the eve of a week of celebrations to mark 1600 years since the massacre of Iraqi martyrs. A long series of past and present violence, but one which has not stopped "the sacred history of the Christians ... and their journey."
Source: Arkansas Business
October 13, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. - Orange County officials asked a judge Tuesday to dismiss an attempt to block Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from building a Supercenter near an endangered Civil War battlefield.
The filing by the Board of Supervisors contends preservationists and residents who filed the legal challenge have no standing in the issue and defended the county's Aug. 25 vote approving the store near the Wilderness Battlefield.
Source: National Geographic
October 1, 2009
The big news from the journal Science today is the discovery of the oldest human skeleton—a small-brained, 110-pound (50-kilogram) female of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, nicknamed "Ardi." She lived in what is now Ethiopia 4.4 million years ago, which makes her over a million years older than the famous Lucy fossil, found in the same region 35 years ago.
Buried among the slew of papers about the new find is one about the creature's sex life. It makes fascinating read
Source: Telegraph (UK)
October 14, 2009
Italy, France, Portugal and even Scotland are among those who have claimed Christopher Columbus as their own over the years, citing a range of spurious links.
But American researchers say the mystery over the explorer's true origins has finally been solved after a thorough investigation of his writings.
A study of the language used in the official records and letters of the Great Navigator apparently proves he hailed from the Kingdom of Aragon in northeastern Spain and
Source: Yahoo News
October 12, 2009
LONDON (AFP) – Up to 100,000 pilgrims are expected to flock to the mother church of Roman Catholics in England for the culmination of a tour of the relics of a 19th century French nun which arrived in London Monday.
The heavy jacaranda wood casket containing the relics of St Therese of Lisieux was to be on show in Westminster Cathedral until Thursday, the high point of a month-long tour of England and Wales.
The relics, made up of portions of her thigh and foot bones, h
Source: Google News
October 13, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's personnel chief said Tuesday the military has completed its best recruiting year since 1973, meeting all its goals and bringing in a better educated group of young people.
The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps met goals for active duty and reserve recruiting during the budget year ended Sept. 30 — the first time that has happened since the all-volunteer force was established, said Defense Department head of personnel Bill Carr...
... He
Source: BBC
October 9, 2009
A late Roman period body unearthed in Gloucester has stunned experts after tests suggested it was a Goth warrior from eastern Europe.
The man, aged 25 to 30, who was dug up north of Kingsholm Square in 1972, had always baffled archaeologists.
His elaborate silver belt fittings, shoe buckles and inlaid knife were believed to be from an area between the Balkans and Southern Russia.
Chemical tests now prove he was from east of the River Danube.
Th
Source: Los Angeles Daily News
October 12, 2009
On the grounds of the old Ambassador Hotel where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, officials on Saturday dedicated a site of national tragedy that had turned into one of potential local triumph.
Two of Kennedy's grandchildren were among those who witnessed ribbon-cutting ceremonies for a new elementary education facility featuring two pilot schools.
"This is sacred ground," labor leader and Kennedy friend Dolores Huerta told about 500 people who atte
Source: Fox News
October 13, 2009
SOUTHEAST, NY — An archaeologist has found ancient tool fragments and other artifacts at the site of a suburban New York sewer construction project...
... It's believed the artifacts are about 1,000 years old. They're being donated to the Southeast Museum in Brewster. The dig was required by state and federal historic preservation acts.
Source: NYT
October 13, 2009
A few weeks ago, a hearse left Tom Amorosi’s brownstone in Park Slope with the remains of 36 people who died in the 1840s and 1850s. The remains were on the final miles of a dizzying journey out of history. Mr. Amorosi, a forensic anthropologist, had been hired by the state to study them.
The old bones spoke, but did not give direct answers. “I’d look at some of them, and think, ‘How the heck did you get up in the morning?’ ” Mr. Amorosi said, tracing the ravages mapped in the bones
Source: Irish Central
September 2, 2009
A mystery revolving around President Barack Obama’s Irish roots was solved when a tomb containing the remains of Obama’s Irish ancestor was discovered in the Irish medieval city of Kilkenny.
After a painstaking search, film maker Gabriel Murray, who is in the process of making a documentary on Obama's Irish roots, finally found “Obama’s Lost Tomb” inside the 13th century St. Canice’s Cathedral.
Murray, along with Cathedral assistant Frances Moore, used a centuries-old m
Source: Science Daily
October 15, 2009
Contestants on TV shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen know that their meat-cutting skills will be scrutinized by a panel of unforgiving judges. Now, new archaeological evidence is getting the same scrutiny by scientists at Tel Aviv University and the University of Arizona.
Their research is providing new clues about how, where and when our communal habits of butchering meat developed, and they're changing the way anthropologists, zoologists and archaeologists think about our evol
Source: Digital Journal
October 2, 2009
Archaeologists have found a cellar in the university town of Pécs in southern Hungary, which they believe to have belonged to Wallachian Duke Vlad III, more commonly known as "Dracula."
Tamás Fedeles, tutor of medieval and early modern history at Pécs University said his research showed that Vlad III Tepes alias ”Dracula,” lived in a two-story town house on what is now the city’s central square.
Fedeles says the Duke of Wallachia (modern-day southern Rumania)
Source: Yahoo News
October 9, 2009
The volcanic explosion that obliterated much of the island that might have inspired the legend of Atlantis apparently triggered a tsunami that traveled hundreds of miles to reach as far as present-day Israel, scientists now suggest.
The new findings about this past tsunami could shed light on the destructive potential of future disasters, researchers added.
The islands that make up the small circular archipelago of Santorini, roughly 120 miles (200 km) southeast of Gree
Source: Daily Press
October 10, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. - With a milestone approaching, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb is seeking more federal dollars for Civil War battlefield preservation.
The Virginia Democrat has asked the chairman of four Senate committees to match the $9 million funding proposal of their counterparts in the House...
... The American Battlefield Preservation Program has helped set aside more than 15,300 acres on Civil War battlefields in 14 states.
Source: Nature News
October 12, 2009
An independent study has cast more doubt on a controversial theory that a comet exploded over icy North America nearly 13,000 years ago, wiping out the Clovis people and many of the continent's large animals.
Archaeologists have examined sediments at seven Clovis-age sites across the United States, and did not find enough magnetic cosmic debris to confirm that an extraterrestrial impact happened at that time, says the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (P
Source: MSN Money
October 12, 2009
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - An Indian tribe says plans to build a commercial wind farm in western Ohio pose a threat to an ancient burial mound and the state should put a barrier around it to keep it from being disturbed.
The Piqua Shawnee Tribe asked that the mound be protected in a motion it filed with the Ohio Power Siting Board regarding EverPower Wind Holdings Inc.'s proposal to build the 70-turbine farm near Urbana.
Gene Park, an elder of the Alabama-based Shawnees and an
Source: Jordan Times
October 15, 2009
AMMAN - Ancient burial chambers in the Jordan Valley are being threatened by modern development and may be demolished, according to an international report released this week.
The dolmens foothills of Damiyah were listed among 77 endangered sites around the world on the World Monuments Fund (WMF) annual watch list.
Damiyah, located in the northern Jordan Valley, is home to hundreds of dolmens, megalithic table-shaped block formations, which some experts believe may date
Source: Google News
October 13, 2009
TOPEKA, Kan. — A Kansas priest already under consideration for sainthood has won the endorsement of the Army's top civilian leader to receive the Medal of Honor.
The Rev. Emil Kapaun was a captain and chaplain in the Army in Korea and taken prisoner in 1950 when the Chinese captured his unit. Kapaun continued to serve the men's needs, risking his life to provide them with food and water amid squalid conditions.
Kapaun, a Roman Catholic, died in a prison camp in 1951.
Source: Fox News
October 14, 2009
BAGHDAD — At least 85,000 people lost their lives from 2004 to 2008 in Iraq's violence, according to the first official report by the Iraqi government on the death toll since the war begun.
The report, released by the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry late Tuesday as part of a larger study on the country's human rights situation, said 85,694 people were killed from 2004-08, and 147,195 were wounded during the same period.
The Associated Press reported in April that just over
