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: AP
February 27, 2009
A rare 1776 copy of the Declaration of Independence belongs to a Virginia technology entrepreneur, not the state of Maine, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday. Richard Adams Jr. of Fairfax County purchased the document from a London book dealer in 2001 for $475,000. But the state of Maine claimed it belongs to the town of Wiscasset, where it was kept by the town clerk in 1776.
Virginia's high court said that a lower court did not err in its ruling in Adams' favor because Maine d
Source: Time
March 2, 2009
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat, according to a memo released Monday.
Many of the actions discussed in the Oct. 23, 2001, memo to then White House counsel Alberto Gon
Source: NYT
March 2, 2009
Preparing for the 50th anniversary next Tuesday of a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule, Beijing authorities issued a white paper on Monday presenting their interpretation of Tibetan history, comparing the abolition of "serfdom" in Tibet under Chinese rule to the emancipation of slaves in the United States. The Dalai Lama and other Tibetan leaders have accepted that traditional Tibetan society had shortcomings, but contend that Beijing has long exaggerated the plight of Tibe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 3, 2009
The Obama administration has thrown open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets, revealing nine memos written by the Justice Department to justify controversial techniques in the fight against terrorism. The opinions showed that after the September 11, 2001 attacks former President George W Bush's administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were discussing ways to wiretap US conversations without
Source: AP
March 1, 2009
Italy on Sunday returned ownership to Russia of an Orthodox church named after St. Nicholas in a goodwill gesture toward Moscow and the Orthodox faithful.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev traveled to the southern Italian city of Bari for the hand-over, which was aimed at boosting ties between the two countries and improving often-tense Roman Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations.
Source: AP
February 27, 2009
STOWE, Vt. – Should a wooden piece of history have a place in Stowe's future?
That's the question facing voters in this Vermont ski town, which is asking for permission to raze a 170-year-old former church that has fallen into disrepair. Town officials, who've been trying to decide what to do with the former Congregational Church for more than 20 years, believe its time has come.
But a small group of preservation-minded residents say the 1839 Greek Revival-style buildin
Source: AP
March 3, 2009
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Debbie Harris knew the military dog tag and small metal emblem of a Navy fighter squadron she recently found in the sand near her home on an Alabama beach belonged to a Blue Angels pilot who was killed when his jet crashed there a half-century ago.
But she wanted to find out more about Cmdr. Robert Nicholls Glasgow and what happened , so she turned to her aunt and uncle, who live in Pensacola, home of the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Their search led them to the mu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 3, 2009
The German government is in the embarrassing position of having to decide whether or not to bail out an industrial giant accused of using the hair from Jews murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz to make textiles at its factories in Nazi occupied Poland during World War II.
The Schaeffler group is lumbered with close to £14bn worth of debt after buying out the major European auto parts and tyre maker Continental last year in a hostile takeover.
When the global crunc
Source: AFP
March 3, 2009
Japanese archaeologists have unearthed an Egyptian noblewoman's 3,000 year-old tomb in the necropolis of Saqqara south of Cairo, the antiquities department said on Tuesday.
The Japanese team believes the tomb belongs to Isisnofret, a granddaughter of Ramses II, the famed 19th Dynasty pharaoh who reigned over Egypt for about 68 years from 1304 to 1237 BC, and who is said to have lived to the age of 90.
Source: VOA
March 2, 2009
Tourism is bringing economic benefits to the Laotian city of Luang Prabang, the spiritual, religious and cultural capital of Laos for centuries. But with commercialism on the rise, some are worried the town is losing its identity.
Nestled deep in a Mekong River valley, Luang Prabang was cut-off from the outside world by decades of war and political isolation. A fusion of traditional Lao dwellings, French colonial architecture and more than 30 monasteries, the whole town was declare
Source: Stone Pages Archaeo News
February 28, 2009
It's a mystery that could shed light on life in Hampshire (Southern England) 6,000 years ago. Four Stone Age axes are giving clues to the origins of settled human life in the county. They were found at Hill Head and Titchfield, near Fareham, and at Beaulieu, in the New Forest, and Bartonon-Sea. The tools, which are now in Winchester City Council's collection, have been analysed and found to originate in the north Italian Alps from around 4,000 BCE. They had been carried for many miles before the
Source: Archaeo News Stone Pages
February 28, 2009
Mexican authorities unveiled a stunning collection of 8,000 pre-Hispanic antiquities, some dating back 3,000 years, donated to the state by a private collector. "It literally took my breath away as I opened case after case to discover these objects in tortoiseshell, jade, serpentine and gold," Xochicalco archeology director Marco Antonio Santos said. Experts say it is the most spectacular private collection ever unveiled in Mexico given the number of artifacts, their variety and their
Source: CNN
March 3, 2009
President Obama on Tuesday overturned a last-minute Bush administration regulation that many environmentalists claim weakened the Endangered Species Act.
The regulation, issued a few weeks before George W. Bush left office, made it easier for federal agencies to skip consultations with government scientists before launching projects that could effect endangered wildlife.
By doing overturning the regulation, Obama said during an enthusiastic reception at the Interior Dep
Source: The Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg)
March 3, 2009
The exact location of the house in southern Stafford County where George Washington grew up was long a mystery. The building itself disappeared nearly two centuries ago. Successive occupiers of the former plantation, known as Ferry Farm, found little evidence of Washington's boyhood home, and many of them muddied the record.
George's mother, Mary Ball Washington, stayed at Ferry Farm until 1772, when she moved across the Rappahannock River to 1200 Charles St. in Fredericksburg, whe
Source: Daily Times (New Mexico)
March 3, 2009
Archaeologists are excavating ancient human remains of at least seven people discovered during construction of the Aztec wastewater treatment plant.
Studying pottery and other artifacts found near the graves, scientists estimate the skeletons are at least 700 years old, and potentially older.
Further research likely will confirm the genders and ages of the dead and potentially a cause of death for some. Following the archaeological assessment, the remains and artifacts
Source: Reuters
March 2, 2009
A Chinese art collector identified himself on Monday as the winning bidder in last week's Paris auction for two sculptures looted from Beijing in the 1800s but said that, as a patriot, he had no intention of paying.
Christie's, which had triggered Chinese anger by holding the sale, would not say what action it would take against the bidder, only that the bronze sculptures of the heads of a rat and a rabbit would not be released until it had been paid.
Cai Mingchao, a co
Source: Yahoo News
March 1, 2009
Belgian archaeologists have rediscovered an ancient Egyptian tomb that had been lost for decades under sand, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said on Sunday.
In 1880 Swedish Egyptologist Karl Piehl uncovered the tomb of Amenhotep, the deputy seal-bearer of the Pharaoh King Tuthmosis III, in the city of Luxor, about 600 km (375 miles) to the south of the capital Cairo.
"It later disappeared under the sand and archaeologists kept looking for it to no avail unti
Source: Times Online (UK)
March 2, 2009
One of Egypt’s most noted Pharaohs is once more standing tall and looking out across the Nile Valley, by the efforts of an international team and a little help from the British Museum. A colossal statue of Amenhotep III, grandfather of Tutankhamun and ruler of Egypt for more than 36 years, has been raised and given back his head.
The red quartzite statue, one of a set that stood around the courtyard of his funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan, near Luxor, fell centuries ago. In the ear
Source: BBC
March 3, 2009
The Vatican is sponsoring a five day conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.
The subject is the compatibility of evolution and creation.
It is one of two separate international academic conferences being sponsored by the Vatican this year.
They aim to re-examine the work of scientific thinkers whose revolutionary ideas challenged religious belief: Galileo and Charles Darwin.
Scienti
Source: BBC
March 3, 2009
Cuban leader Raul Castro has announced a major cabinet reshuffle that includes the removal of two of the country's most prominent politicians.
State television said Cabinet Secretary Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque are among 10 officials who are stepping down.
It said the move was in line with the president's plan to improve efficiency.
It is the first big reshuffle since Mr Castro took over as president from his ailing older brother,
