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
April 27, 2009
In February 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, killing a 19-year-old private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a devastating epidemic, President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost of $135 million (some $500 million in today's money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the vaccine. By April, more t
Source: UPI
April 24, 2009
An archaeologist says a rock used to mark a parking lot at a church in Sweden is actually a 1,000-year-old runestone.
Stockholm County Museum runic expert Lars Andersson said a rock used to help mark the lot's boundaries is thought to date back to the Viking Age in Sweden, The Local said Friday.
Andersson said in a museum statement the discovery of runic inscriptions on the rock thanks to rainy weather was akin to a "religious experience."
Source: The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
April 25, 2009
Terracotta artefacts at the Paharpur Buddhist Monastery, a world heritage site, are on the verge of ruination due to sheer negligence of the Department of Archaeology.
The Monastery, one of the most important archeological sites in South Asia, was declared as a protected site dates back to 1919 during the British colonial rule.
Custodian of the ancient site Abdul Latif Pramanik said lack of proper maintenance, shortage of manpower, fund constraint, soil salinity and hea
Source: Peterborough. Net (UK)
April 28, 2009
Archaeologists excavating beneath Cathedral Square in Peterborough have found the remains of ancient medieval buildings.
One of the buildings, which probably stood until the 17th Century, may be part of the old Butter Cross – a building in the market place where butter, eggs and meat were sold.
Up to six archaeologists a day have been working on the site for several weeks in preparation for the main square improvement works, which are being delivered by Opportunity Pe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 28, 2009
The Queen expressed her thanks to the Yeomen of the Guard as she honoured the founder of the famous royal bodyguards.
More than 70 Yeomen - resplendent in their distinctive red and gold tunics, large white ruffled collars, scarlet stockings and flat brimmed black Tudor hats - gathered in Westminster Abbey in tribute to King Henry VII.
Henry VII created the Queen's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth.T
Source: China View
April 28, 2009
Chinese archaeologists say they have identified the country's earliest known carving -- a deer antler sculpted into the shape of a bird -- dating back 12,000 to 15,000 years.
The fossilized grey figurine, which is 2.1 centimeters long, 1.2 centimeters high and 0.6 centimeters thick, was found in Xuchang County in China's central Henan Province in March.
It is made from evenly-heated antler, and vividly carved with amicrolithic cutting tool.
Source: JoongAng Daily (Korea)
April 29, 2009
The Korean military said yesterday it has excavated the remains of scores of soldiers who likely fell in South Korea’s southeastern coastal region during the Korean War nearly six decades ago.
“They are believed to be either North or South Korean troops,” an official in the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that the remains of four South Korean marines were among the 79 discovered on a mountain in Pohang, a port city about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southeast of Seoul.
Source: United Press International
April 28, 2009
Construction workers clearing the way for the expansion of a department store in Ireland's oldest city found the bones of as many as 30 people, police said.
Police were immediately called to the site in Waterford, where they determined the skulls and bones were too old to be of forensic interest, The Irish Times reported.
Jack Burchill, a Waterford historian, said the area where Egan's, a historic pub, stood until recently was once a Dominican abbey. The abbey, like man
Source: Macedonian International News Agency
April 27, 2009
Total 4,300 mediaeval coins dating back to the second half of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th centuries have been unearthed at the Carevi Kuli archaeological site overlooking Strumica.
The coins contained in two ceramic bowls have made one of the largest and most important mediaeval findings so far, according to Archaeologist Zoran Rujak, the head of the ongoing archaeological excavations.
Coins dating from different historical periods have been found at the site
Source: Science Daily
April 25, 2009
A fragment of a limestone plaque bearing several letters of ancient Hebrew script was discovered while sifting soil that was excavated in the vicinity of the Gihon Spring, within the precincts of the “Walls around Jerusalem National Park”.
The excavation is being carried out on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, under the direction of Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the IAA, and is sponsored by the ‘Ir David Foundation.
The s
Source: United Press International
April 24, 2009
An archaeologist says a rock used to mark a parking lot at a church in Sweden is actually a 1,000-year-old runestone.
Stockholm County Museum runic expert Lars Andersson said a rock used to help mark the lot's boundaries is thought to date back to the Viking Age in Sweden, The Local said Friday.
Andersson said in a museum statement the discovery of runic inscriptions on the rock thanks to rainy weather was akin to a "religious experience."
Source: AP
April 26, 2009
Thomas Richardson II was a wealthy 18th century Newport merchant and captain, a slave trader and member of the city's privileged elite who, researchers say, manufactured rum on his waterfront property and ventured to the Caribbean and Africa.
A team of excavators who have already spent two summers at the Richarson property, digging up everything from Chinese porcelain to animal bones, will return this summer to complete their work at the site.
The researchers are hoping
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 28, 2009
The Prime Minister has wanted to visit the infamous Nazi death camp, where an estimated 1.5 million people died, for some time, having taken an interest in the Holocaust since childhood. A clergyman's son, his father was involved with a church group which supported the foundation of the state of Israel.
The combined camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau saw the biggest loss of life in the Second World War, with hundreds of thousands of prisoners, the majority Jewish, killed in gas chambe
Source: Independent (UK)
April 27, 2009
Gerry Adams has sparked surprise after admitting that his religious beliefs are more compatible with Protestantism than Catholicism.
The Sinn Fein president has revealed that he has not gone to confession “in years”, preferring to speak directly to God.
In an interview with Gay Byrne for his new Meaning of Life show on Ireland's RTE1, which aired last night, the republican leader also told how he had to run from his own wedding, spent most of his time living in other
Source: BBC
April 27, 2009
Lawyers for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, said judges at his trial heard insufficient evidence to convict him beyond reasonable doubt.
Megrahi, 57, will not be present at the appeal in Edinburgh, which is expected to last at least four weeks.
A total of 270 people died when the plane exploded over Lockerbie in 1988.
Source: BBC
April 27, 2009
The message, written in pencil and dated 9 September 1944, bears names, camp numbers and home towns of seven young inmates from Poland and France.
At least two survived the Nazi camp, an Auschwitz museum official said.
The bottle was buried in a concrete wall in a school that prisoners had been compelled to reinforce.
The school's buildings, a few hundred metres from the camp, were used as warehouses by the Nazis, who wanted them protected against air ra
Source: BBC (audio report)
April 24, 2009
Mark Whitaker reports from Washington DC on the recent policy of the United States army to embed anthropologists and other social scientists with combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The hope is that they will teach the military to behave in more 'culturally appropriate' ways and reduce the need for lethal force. However, three young academics have died during the 18 months that the policy has been operation, and the American Anthropological Association has condemned the initiat
Source: Bloomberg
April 24, 2009
Iraqi commandos smashed a smuggling ring, recovering 235 looted Babylonian
and Sumerian artifacts that they turned over to the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.
The soldiers arrested a gang of seven thieves who were preparing to smuggle the objects outside of
Iraq, according to a statement e-mailed today by the U.S. military in Baghdad. They were tipped off
by residents in the southern Iraqi towns of Abu al-Kahsib, Bab al-Tawael and al-Amir.
Source: Foxnews
April 26, 2009
For three months, President Obama has been on TV just about every day. He's held campaign-style rallies and press conferences whenever a critical piece of his agenda was on the line.
He's communicated regularly with his constituents via YouTube and the White House Web site, and he's traveled abroad to rebuild America's image.
Nearly 100 days into his administration, Obama has locked down his reputation as a skilled communicator and has even scheduled a press conferenc
Source: AFP
April 26, 2009
Sri Lanka's government may be close to declaring final victory over Tamil Tiger rebels, but the roots of the ethnic conflict run deeper than the bloody decades of armed struggle.
More than 70,000 people have been killed since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) took up arms in 1972 to fight for their own homeland in the northeast of the Sinhalese-majority island.
The British colonial regime, which ended with independence in 1948, was marked by a policy of "
