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: The Art Newspaper
April 15, 2009
The Indonesian minister for culture and tourism was forced to make a public apology after the government ignored urgent warnings and failed to halt a controversial new museum and visitor centre in Mojokerto, East Java, which caused extensive damage to important archaeological remains at Trowulan. The site is the capital of the Majapahit kings, Hindu rulers of the largest empire ever established in Southeast Asia.
The village of Trowulan in Mojokerto was added to Unesco’s World Her
Source: CNN
April 14, 2009
Roughly 70,000 beads said to provide clues to the social structure and wealth of people from the 17th century Spanish empire have been excavated by a team of scientists, an archaeologist said Tuesday.
Since 1974, scientists at the American Museum of Natural History have been digging beneath the Santa Catalina de Guale Mission, a remote outpost of the Spanish empire on St. Catherines Island off the coast of Georgia and "the largest repository ever from Spanish Florida," mus
Source: BBC
August 14, 2009
Almost 100 years after it dipped below the waves of the Atlantic, the supposedly unsinkable ocean liner still exerts a powerful hold on our collective imagination. It was heralded as an engineering triumph, yet succumbed to the forces of nature on its maiden voyage. Among the 1,517 who perished were the rich, the poor, and those in between.
The fascination is such that recently an enthusiast wrote to [Millvina Dean ], offering 100 pounds for a lock of hair. Even she - a veteran of t
Source: AP
April 15, 2009
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"...
Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that...
Source: Newsweek
April 20, 2009
[T]here is a dirty secret about unemployment. We may feel united by a common anxiety about losing our jobs, but we are not all in this together. Unemployment is not a scythe that cuts equally through different sectors of society, felling white collar and blue collar, African-American and Hispanic, male and female, in equal measure. Young, minority men working in jobs that didn't pay much to begin with are suffering more than their white-collar counterparts. The unemployment rate for those over 2
Source: 4-15-09
December 31, 2069
The 20th anniversary of the death of reformist Chinese leader Hu Yaobang has passed without being marked in China.
The anniversary is seen as the start of an ultra-sensitive period for Beijing, in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
It was Hu's death that set in motion the chain of events leading to the 4 June crackdown.
Meanwhile students in Hong Kong are holding a vote on whether China should apologise for the Tian
Source: Spiegel Online
April 15, 2009
One of Berlin's most famous landmarks, the Brandenburg Gate, is being exploited by actors wearing Cold War-era uniforms who are lowering the tone by posing for tourists for money, some Berlin politicians are saying.
"It's inappropriate and out of place," Rainer Klemke, the Berlin city official in charge of managing public memorial sites, told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper.
Michael Braun, the cultural affairs spokesman of the conservative Christian Democ
Source: CNN
April 14, 2009
A statue of former President Ronald Reagan will be placed in the U.S. Capitol in June, as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan will join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at the statue's unveiling on June 3.
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Source: Times (UK)
April 16, 2009
Anti-tax protests modelled on the "Boston tea party" were staged across the United States yesterday as Republicans sought to stir moribund conservatives into action against President Obama's big-spending policies.
Yesterday's demonstrations, styled on the 1773 revolt against British colonial taxes when cases of tea leaves were tipped into Boston harbour, were billed a "new day for the freedom movement". Although they featured cups of tea, iced tea - and even tea
Source: Times (UK)
April 16, 2009
The strains of the French Resistance anthem filled the air yesterday as the country paid tribute to its author, Maurice Druon, a Second World War hero, writer and Anglophile who became the defender-in-chief of the French language.
Mr Druon, who broadcast to France from wartime London, died on Tuesday just short of his 91st birthday.
President Sarkozy, whose colloqial French appalled Mr Druon, paid tribute to him as “a great writer, Resistance fighter, political figure
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 15, 2009
Wrapped in parchment and delicately tied with string, the cake is thought to be the only surviving piece from the wedding celebrations of Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, and the Marquis of Lorne.
The 1871 wedding caused outrage among the Royals, especially the Prince of Wales, because it was the first Royal marriage to someone deemed a commoner since 1515.
But Queen Victoria pushed the marriage through for one of the most lavish ceremonies ever seen in the
Source: AFP
April 14, 2009
An obsessive passion to revive a nearly forgotten music enjoyed by China's elite more than a thousand years ago has cost Li Kai his wife, his job and most of his savings.
Li said that 60 years ago, when the People's Republic was founded following decades of civil war and revolution, there were 50 groups practising this music in Shaanxi.
Now, after the ravages of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s which sought to wipe out China's ancient traditions, only 12 g
Source: UCA News
April 14, 2009
Dr. Reinaldo (Dito) Morales Jr., assistant professor of art history at UCA, has confirmed a major discovery in the world of rock art: an ancient rock painting at a burial site from the Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru.
Morales announced his discovery today at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Atlanta and plans to submit a manuscript about his discovery, New Rock Art at Old Machu Picchu, to a scholarly journal.
Dr. Jeff Young, chair of the D
Source: Live Science
April 14, 2009
The powerful Habsburg dynasty that ruled Spain for nearly 200 years came to an abrupt end in 1700 with the death of King Charles II, who left no heirs to the throne.
The termination of that royal lineage may be the result of frequent inbreeding of the line, which may have left Charles II ill and infertile, a new study suggests.
The House of Habsburg was one of the major royal houses of Europe for many centuries. The Habsburgs ruled over Austria for more than six centu
Source: BBC
April 15, 2009
Millions of old newspaper reports and magazines articles from Wales, dating as far back as the 18th Century, are to be made available online.
Included in the £2m project by the National Library of Wales will be first-hand accounts from the Chartist march on Newport and the Rebecca riots.
Up to 300 titles will be available at the click of a button by 2012.
Last October, the library began digitising its collection of books, historical documents and works o
Source: BBC
April 15, 2009
A travel company is to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with a cruise following the route, it has announced.
The Titanic, built in the Belfast shipyard of Harland and Wolff, sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
The Balmoral, operated by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, whose parent company now owns H&W, will recreate the voyage.
The 97th anniversary of the sinking was marked with a ceremony
Source: BBC
April 15, 2009
Archaeologists are to search three sites in Egypt that they say may contain the tomb of doomed lovers Anthony and Cleopatra.
Excavation at the sites, which are near a temple west of the coastal city of Alexandria, is due to begin next week.
Teams working in the area said the recent discovery of tombs containing 10 mummies suggested that Anthony and Cleopatra might be buried close by.
The teams also found a bust of Cleopatra and coins carrying her image.
Source: AP
April 15, 2009
North Korea celebrated the birthday of late founding father Kim Il Sung on Wednesday while the isolated regime prepared to restart its nuclear reactor by expelling U.N. inspectors.
There was no official North Korean response to the international criticism Wednesday, which was celebrated nationwide as the "Day of the Sun" — a holiday honoring Kim Il Sung's birth 97 years ago.
Kim Il Sung ruled North Korea for more than four decades until his death from heart fa
Source: AP
April 15, 2009
A lawyer for the Cleveland area man accused of being a Nazi death camp guard says the elderly suspect needs chemotherapy and is unfit for trial.
John Demjanjuk was released from federal custody late Tuesday, just hours after immigration officers took him from his Ohio home in a wheelchair. He'd been scheduled for deportation to Germany to face a possible war crimes trial.
An appeals court is giving the 89-year-old another chance to argue that deportation would amount to
Source: CNN
April 15, 2009
Armed with signs reading "no taxation without deliberation" and "stop bankrupting America," tens of thousands of people spent national tax day at organized "tea party" demonstrations across the country, protesting what some view as excessive government spending and bailouts.
In Massachusetts, hundreds cheered as people dressed in 18th-century style wigs and clothes tossed crates of tea into Boston Harbor, harkening back to pre-Revolutionary War protests
