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: Edwin Black at the TheCuttingEdgeNews.com
July 1, 2009
“Russia is showing its contempt and disdain for international law, the American judicial system, and basic principles of fairness and justice,” said Nathan Lewin, attorney for the world-wide Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
The remark was in response to Russia’s surprise announcement, filed with the federal court in Washington, D.C. in recent days. In an epic legal and diplomatic contest that dates back to the World War I, Russia is defiantly refusing to release some 381 spiritual manuscr
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 1, 2009
The Turin Shroud was faked by Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci
using pioneering photographic techniques and a sculpture of his own
head, a television documentary claims.
The artefact has been regarded by generations of believers as the face
of the crucified Jesus who was wrapped in it, but carbon-dating by
scientists points to its creation in the Middle Ages.
American artist Lillian Schwartz, a graphic consultant at the School
of Visual Arts in New York who came to promine
Source: CBS News blog
June 26, 2009
Despite the president's claim at a joint appearance this afternoon that "I like Chancellor Merkel a lot," President Barack Obama and Germany's Angela Merkel are widely believed to have a somewhat frosty relationship. The biggest perceived rift between the two? How best to respond to the global financial crisis.
Mr. Obama, of course, has pushed through a massive stimulus package and pressed for greater government spending worldwide to end the recession. Merkel, who helms t
Source: AP
July 1, 2009
As Congress takes on President Obama's call for overhauling health care, the
desire for change will be tested _ by the expense, by politics, by
resistance from doctors and private insurers, and by the general fear by
some of"socialized medicine."
The terms of the debate are as old as the debate itself.
Since Franklin Roosevelt considered national health care in the 1930s,
virtually every president has sought to expand or universalize medical
coverage. Public support has been as cons
Source: American Scientist
July 1, 2009
Even by archaeological standards, Blombos Cave is a modestly sized shelter. Yet artifacts recovered from just 13 cubic meters of deposit inside transformed our understanding of when our species developed behavioral attributes we associate with “modern” humans. From this cramped hole in a sandstone cliff on the Southern Cape coast of South Africa, Christopher Henshilwood and his colleagues unearthed evidence of symbolic expression, in the form of abstract designs (carved ochre bars) and personal
Source: NYT
June 29, 2009
Judge Sotomayor, famously, was one of three judges on an appellate panel who applied their federal circuit’s settled precedent to rule in New Haven’s favor. Like that decision or hate it, cheer Monday’s ruling or deplore it, one thing that is clear from reading the Supreme Court’s 89 pages of opinions in the case is that Judge Sotomayor and her colleagues played by the old rules, and the court changed them. Although “Sotomayor Reversed” was a frequent headline on the posts that spread quickly ac
Source: NYT
June 29, 2009
On Avenue of the Americas, there is a block where the first cellphone call was completed in 1973; on West 125th Street, where the old Blumstein’s department store stood, nothing marks the place where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was stabbed in 1958.
Then there is the spot on Fifth Avenue where Winston Churchill, crossing against the light, was struck by a car in 1931 and nearly killed....
Andrew Carroll, 39, an amateur historian, is embarking this week on a 50-st
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 30, 2009
Forty-six countries have vowed to increase efforts to return art and property stolen from Jews during the Holocaust. Delegates are to sign a non-binding declaration in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
"A major accomplishment" was how Stuart Eizenstat, head of the American delegation to the Prague Holocaust Assets Conference, described the outcome of the five-day event.
Source: Jerusalem Post
June 29, 2009
As the fourth annual week devoted to the cooperation of the IDF and the Israel Antiquities Authority in preserving the country's environment and antiquities gets into full gear, archeologists and IDF officials are hailing the progress made on the issue over the past few years.
This year's program, which began on Sunday and will end on Thursday, July 2, includes a series of lectures - attended by all the commanders involved in the joint effort - with the last day to focus primarily
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 30, 2009
A legal dispute surrounding an antique golden vase being held in a museum vault in Mainz shines light on the surprisingly important role Germany plays in the often shady world of antiques trading.
The case sounds more like an esoteric crime novel than a simple legal tussle, involving as it does archaeologists, rare-coin dealers, customs officials, and the Iraqi embassy in Berlin.
At its heart is a golden vase just six centimeters high that may or may not have its origin
Source: http://www.thestate.com
June 28, 2009
HILTON HEAD — An archaeologist who’s been digging at the Topper Site in Allendale County for 11 years is uncovering new evidence that could rewrite America’s history.
University of South Carolina archaeologist Albert Goodyear found artifacts at this rock quarry site near the Savannah River that indicate humans lived here 37,000 years before the Clovis people. History books say the Clovis were the first Americans and arrived here 13,000 years ago by walking across a land bridge from
Source: Fox News
June 30, 2009
Just in time for the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, NASA may have found the long-lost original Apollo 11 videotapes.
If true, as Britain's Sunday Express reports, the high-quality tapes may give us a whole new view of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's lunar strolls.
Back on July 20, 1969, the raw video feed from the moon was beamed to the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in southeastern Australia, and then compressed and sent to Mission Control in Houston
Source: Reuters
June 29, 2009
Madrid's city hall Monday stripped former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco of his title as honorary mayor and adopted son of the capital, 33 years after his death began the transition to democracy.
Councilors of all political colors unanimously voted to remove the titles, as well as medals Madrid conferred on the right-wing general, a spokesman for the council said.
"The capital of Spain is now clean of support for dictators," left-wing Councilor Milagros He
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 29, 2009
French archaeologists said they had been forced to stand in front of earthmovers to prevent Korean contractors building a road through a historic gorge.
Excavations show people have lived at Cheshm-e-Shafa since at least the fourth century BC, when the area was ruled by a Persian dynasty eventually swept away by the Greek invaders.
The French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (DAFA), said it had been told engineers would use dynamite to put the road through the g
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 30, 2009
The British recession was much more severe than first thought in the
first three months of the year, with the economy suffering its
sharpest quarterly contraction in more than 50 years, official figures
showed on Tuesday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy actually
shrank by 2.4pc in the first quarter compared with the final three
months of 2008, much more sharply than its first estimate of 1.9pc.
ONS records show that the last time the British economy c
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
June 29, 2009
Pagans and partygoers drummed, danced or gyrated in hula hoops to stay awake through the night, around 36,500 people greeted the summer solstice at the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge (Wiltshire, England). Despite fears of trouble because of the record-sized crowd, police said the annual party at the mysterious monument was mostly peaceful.
Source: CBS News
June 30, 2009
State Still Has About 4,000 Unclaimed Medals, Struck in 1866; Available to Descendants of Vets.
The medals are all that remain of an order for 26,000 medals for veterans that the state placed just after the war, Division of Culture and History historian Greg Carroll said. While several states struck medals after the war, West Virginia is one of the few that has any left.
Each of the remaining medals bears the name of a veteran and his military unit. Most are for an hon
Source: BBC
June 30, 2009
A tree which had been thought to have died out two million years ago is being grown in the north west Highlands.
The grove at Inverewe Garden is claimed to be the most northerly planting of Wollemi Pine.
Owners the National Trust for Scotland said the tree, which dates from Jurassic times, could survive for up to 1,000 years. They were cultivated from trees found to have survived in a single isolated grove in Australia.
Th
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
June 29, 2009
The ruins of the oldest human settlement in the Aegean found so far have been unearthed in archaeological excavations by a team of Greek, Italian and American archaeologists on the island of Limnos (Greece), headed by Thessaloniki Aristotle University (AUTH) professor of Prehistoric Archaeology Nikos Efstratiou.
The excavation began in early June and the finds brought to light so far, mainly stone tools of a high quality, are from the Epipaleolithic Period approximately 14,000
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 29, 2009
The human remains in an ancient Roman tomb may belong to Saint Paul, Pope Benedict XVI revealed in a surprise announcement. Now the Vatican wants to open the sarcophagus and conduct further tests.
The marble coffin in Rome's St. Paul's Basilica has never been opened, but, according to tests conducted thus far, the tomb contains pieces of human bone that have been dated to the time of Saint Paul.
Pope Benedict shared the findings Sunday at a service outside the church ma
