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: NYT
April 7, 2009
Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg is the last grand duke anywhere in the world. Yet he insists he is not an endangered species, and to a great extent he helped stir up the furor that threatens to curtail his ducal powers.
“The title is historic,” he said, receiving a visitor in the castle of Berg, a faux Gothic residence that his great-grandfather built of reinforced concrete before World War I. “But of course we are now a constitutional monarchy.”
Henri’s role here has la
Source: Civil War News
April 7, 2009
Sites threatened by mining, erosion, commercial and residential development and road widening lead the Civil War Preservation Trust’s 2009 edition of “History Under Siege,” the annual report on the most endangered Civil War battlefields.
In addition to the country’s 10 “most endangered” battlefields, another 15 are cited as “at risk.” They face threats from the usual development, as well as airport expansion, wind energy development, artificial wetland, railroad switching yard and a
Source: Press Release--Secular Coalition for America
April 8, 2009
Washington, DC – The Secular Coalition for America heartily endorses the words spoken by President Barack Obama during a press conference in Turkey this week: “One of the great strengths of the United States is... we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation; we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”
Although the President has previously described America as a nation of not only Christians but Je
Source: New York Times
April 7, 2009
Thirty years after the killing stopped, Cambodia suffers from a particularly painful generation gap — between those who survived the brutal rule of the Communist Khmer Rouge and their children, who know very little about it.
“I used to tell my children the stories, but they only believed a tiny bit, like nothing,” said Ty Leap, 52, who sells noodles and fruit drinks from a roadside stall. “I don’t like it, but what can you do? It really is unbelievable that those things happened.”
Source: The Boston Herald
April 6, 2009
The Old North Church in Boston, where two lanterns signaled the departure of British regulars to Lexington, has been immortalized for what happened atop its 277-year-old Medford bricks. But far below, in a dark and dusty crypt where the public rarely visits, the stories of hundreds of early Bostonians have long lay dormant and forgotten.
But now, thanks to the Old North Foundation and the groundbreaking work of a funerary archeologist, those stories are beginning to be resurrected
Source: Wall Street Journal
April 8, 2009
UNITED NATIONS -- The United States ambassador to the U.N., during a emotional ceremony here marking the 1994 Rwandan genocide, said that the U.S. government had failed to prevent the mass killings that began 15 years ago on Tuesday.
"Rwanda did not suffer from 'ancient hatreds' between Hutu killers and Tutsi victims," Ambassador Susan Rice said. "It suffered from modern demagogues, from ... those who were willing to kill in the warped name of ethnic difference, from
Source: NYT
April 7, 2009
The Stonewall rebellion of 1969, in which protesters clashed with the authorities after a violent police raid on a Greenwich Village bar, is a defining moment in the history of the gay rights movement. Now New York City officials hope to capitalize on the 40th anniversary of the uprising, this June, by promoting the city as a gay tourist destination.
Announcing a new marketing campaign under the slogan “Rainbow Pilgrimage,” tourism officials said Tuesday that they would seek to port
Source: AP
April 8, 2009
HANOI, Vietnam -- Sen. John McCain paid a quiet visit to the "Hanoi Hilton" prison where he was held for more than five years during the Vietnam War on Wednesday, making a few deadpan remarks as he made his way through dark corridors and past musty cells.
McCain allowed reporters to follow him while he escorted Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina through the prison.
Vietnam's communist government has turned the facility in
Source: BBC
April 8, 2009
Bangladesh is set to announce plans to investigate and prosecute alleged war crimes during the country's war of independence nearly 40 years ago. The government says those accused of collaborating with the Pakistani army in the killing and rape of thousands of civilians will be put on trial.
The party which fought for independence in 1971, the Awami League, has been returned to power with a majority.
The probe is opposed by one of the main opposition parties, Jamaa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 7, 2009
The Duke had seen the recently felled 10sq ft wood during a carriage drive and declared it a "bloody eyesore" for visitors coming through the nearby Blacknest Gate.
But when Crown Estate staff tried to clear the site by dousing the woodpile with petrol and setting it alight, they came close to disaster.
Fifteen-foot flames risked spreading to Windsor Great Park's famous oaks in the southern area of the Royal estate, near to Ascot.
Unable to cont
Source: BBC
April 8, 2009
Sun Wenguang said he had been trying to pay his respects to the late communist leader Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for supporting the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
Mr Sun, 75, had visited Mr Zhao's grave annually, but this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
The Chinese government treats its crushing of pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square as taboo.
Source: NYT
April 6, 2009
There were the Dukes and the Scorpions, the Hellbenders, Baby Beacons, Baldies and Green Lanterns. Among the most notorious were the Egyptian Kings. In El Barrio, in northern Manhattan, the Dragons and the Viceroys reigned.
Teenage members of the "Dragon" gang were brought to New York police headquarters in 1957 for questioning.
It was post-World War II New York and the children of Latino immigrants were flooding into neighborhoods that whites and African-Amer
Source: L.A. Times
April 7, 2009
In its latest effort to return wayward ancient artworks to their rightful owners, the J. Paul Getty Museum will send a Roman fresco fragment to Italy. The fragmentary panel, a roughly 36-by-32-inch section of a wall painting made in the third quarter of the 1st century BC, joined the museum's collection in 1996 as a gift of New York collectors Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman.
The museum --- which has returned 39 antiquities to Italy since 2007 -- listed the fragment as "at some
Source: AP
April 6, 2009
CAIRO – Travelers to Egypt will soon be able to explore the inner chambers of the 4,500-year-old "bent" pyramid, known for its oddly shaped profile, and other nearby ancient tombs.
The increased access to the pyramids south of Cairo is part of a new sustainable development campaign that Egypt hopes will attract more visitors but also to avoid some of the problems of the urban sprawl that have plagued the famed pyramids of Giza...
Dahshur's bent pyramid is famo
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
April 7, 2009
SAN SIMEON, Calif. -- Three 16th century oil paintings that have been hanging in William Randolph Hearst's famous castle at San Simeon belonged to a Jewish couple who were forced to give them up during the Nazi reign in Germany, authorities said Tuesday.
Two of the three paintings, visible to guests and millions of tourists at Hearst Castle since 1935, will be returned Friday to the heirs of the rightful owners, both of whom died during the war, one in the death camp at Auschwitz.
Source: Click Liverpool
April 6, 2009
Roadworks have stirred interest among office workers and amateur archaeologists after examples of hewn stone were found in the area where Liverpool Castle once stood.
The sandstone slabs - which appear to have visible chisel marks - were unearthed by contractors laying cables on James Street opposite the Victoria Monument.
Liverpool Castle was demolished in the early 18th Century and its site was last subjected to major historical excavation in the 1920s.
N
Source: Science Daily
April 6, 2009
"Foot-shaped" structures have been revealed in the Jordan valley and are among the earliest sites that archeologists believe were built by the ancient people of Israel. The structures are thought to be symbolic of the biblical concept of ownership.
"The 'foot' structures that we found in the Jordan valley are the first sites that the People of Israel built upon entering Canaan and they testify to the biblical concept of ownership of the land with the foot," said
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 6, 2009
The third-century Baths of Caracalla in Rome were damaged by the earthquake that struck near L'Aquila, central Italy, on Monday, a city archaeological authority told reporters.
The baths "suffered some damage," Angelo Bottini said, adding that the results of an initial inspection had "not yet been precisely evaluated".
The red-brick ruins, which cover some 11 hectares (27 acres) at the foot of Rome's Aventine Hill, are the frequent site of opera pr
Source: The Virginian-Pilot
April 5, 2009
It's not quite Eleanor Dare's jewelry box, but the artifacts that archaeologists recently dug up at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site might hold some historic dazzle.
"We definitely found a historic site from the Colonial period," said Nick Luccketti, a founding member of the nonprofit First Colony Foundation. "It's a candidate for the first permanent English settlement on Roanoke Island, but I certainly wouldn't want to bet on it at this point."
L
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 7, 2009
One of Spain's most enduring historical mysteries is close to being solved as experts undertake a project to decipher more than 10,000 Arabic inscriptions adorning the walls and ceilings of the Alhambra palace in Granada.
Researchers armed with digital cameras and 3D laser scanners are for the first time cataloging and translating the intricately carved words that have fascinated centuries of visitors at Spain's most popular tourist attraction.
Many inscriptions consis
