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
March 21, 2007
LONDON -- A French-made piano that Frederic Chopin brought to London late in his life has been identified in a collection in England, the owner of the instrument said Wednesday.
The piano built by the Paris company of Camille Pleyel, Chopin's favored piano-maker, is in the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, an assemblage of antique keyboard instruments housed in an 18th century house southwest of London, Alec Cobbe said.
He said the connection was established a year ago by
Source: AP
March 21, 2007
SANTIAGO, Chile -- Authorities on Tuesday began exhuming the remains of dozens of victims of repression under the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in a renewed effort to determine their identities.
The remains of 13 people were unearthed with help from three foreign experts on the first day of exhumations ordered by Judge Carlos Gajardo. Some of the remains are being uncovered for a second time after the coroner's office acknowledged last year that the misidentified rem
Source: Telegraph
March 22, 2007
It is curt, undiplomatic and written on a slightly crumpled piece of paper -- but it marked the beginnings of three of the most dramatic months in recent British history.
The note, dictated over the radio and ordering a group of Argentinians to leave the remote island of South Georgia at once, has now gone on show for the first time [at the National Army Museum in central London].
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of the delivery of the note by Rex Hunt, the Governor o
Source: Independent
March 22, 2007
During Liz Hurley's glamorous wedding to Arun Nayar this month, the small Cotswolds town of Winchcombe teemed with the world's media.
This spring, the 5,000 residents of this corner of Gloucestershire have another celebration to mark, though it is unlikely to attract a single red-top reporter or autograph hunter.
When the bells ring out in Winchcombe this May, they will be marking the anniversary of a long-forgotten municipal oddity.
One thousand years ago,
Source: AP
March 21, 2007
AUSTIN -- Slave ownership and Confederate figures spilled into a tense debate on the [Texas] House floor Wednesday over a bill aiming to safeguard historical markers against possible removal or renaming.
Emotions over the bill, which its author ultimately pulled after two hours of debate, peaked when two lawmakers were separated during a spat over how the bill even made it to the House floor.
Under the bill, statues of figures like Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee or buil
Source: Boston Globe
March 20, 2007
EDINBURGH -- On A winter’s day in 1707, this old, stone town saw the Scottish Parliament sign itself and the independence of Scotland out of existence by voting for a treaty of union with England that created Great Britain. Today, 300 years later, polls suggest that Scots who would undo all that seem poised for a significant victory in a restored Scottish Parliament during elections in May.
Source: PR Newswire
March 21, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress today announced that "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers" is debuting online with more than 226,000 pages of public domain newspapers from California, Florida, Kentucky, New York, Utah, Virginia, and the District of Columbia published between 1900 and 1910.
The text of the newspapers is fully searchable, and search terms can be limited to a particular state, a specific newsp
Source: Twin Falls (Idaho) Times-News
March 21, 2007
JEROME, Idaho -- More than 60 years ago, 13,000 Americans of Japanese descent were kept behind barbed wire at the Minidoka Relocation Camp during World War II.
Today, just 73 acres of the original camp make up the Minidoka Internment National Monument east of Jerome and north of Eden.
On Monday, Idaho Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson introduced legislation that would expand the site, according to a press release from the leaders...
The legislation autho
Source: AP
March 21, 2007
MONROE, Conn. --Two antique iron chests recently discovered on Monroe Historical Society property are safeguarding their secrets a bit too well.
The 300-pound safes, discovered behind a furnace in an old farmhouse owned by the society, might hold treasures that help shed light on the 184-year-old town's rich history.
Or, they could be empty.
But it'll remain a mystery until the historical society finds someone who can coax open the old locks, the combinatio
Source: UPI
March 21, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia officials began what the mayor called "digging for the truth" for the memorial to the first presidential home and the slaves who lived there.
While completion of the $5.2-million memorial to the house shared by Presidents George Washington and John Adams when Philadelphia was the nation's capital is months away, Wednesday's groundbreaking starts three to six weeks of archaeological research, the first ever done on that section of Independence M
Source: UPI
March 21, 2007
ROME -- A collection of Europe's most representative artworks will be on display in Rome to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome.
The treaty established the forerunner of the European Community, now part of the European Union.
The exhibition of works from the Stone Age to the 20th century is at Rome's Palazzo Quirinale, the official residence of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who asked the 27 European Union heads of state to each lend a
Source: UPI
March 21, 2007
TOKYO -- A study of the history of relations between China and Japan has ended because of different ideas on how to approach the project, a report says.
Japanese participants in the study said Tuesday the joint project was ending because both nations were unable to reconcile their positions on how to approach the study of international relations in Asia, the Japan Times reported.
Time constraints also played a significant part in the decision, involved historians said.
Source: Media Matters
March 20, 2007
On the March 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Rush Limbaugh highlighted a March 19 Los Angeles Times op-ed that described Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as"running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination -- the"Magic Negro" -- a term used by critics of pop culture to describe certain benevolent African-American characters.
Limbaugh stated:"The term 'Magic Negro' has been thrown into the political presidential
Source: NYT
March 21, 2007
The former inspector general of the Smithsonian Institution says Lawrence M. Small, the institution’s top official, tried to head off an audit of the organization’s business ventures division.
In a telephone interview yesterday, the former official, Debra S. Ritt, said Mr. Small called her in April 2006, soon after she announced plans for the audit, to say that “he did not think it was a good use of our resources, and that we were being manipulated by disgruntled employees.”
Source: AP
March 21, 2007
MUNICH -- Just blocks from where Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels ordered the destruction of Munich's main synagogue on Kristallnacht, the city is opening an $18-million museum dedicated to the heritage and future of its growing Jewish community.
The cube-shaped museum by Saarbruecken architects Wandel Hoefer Lorck is part of the new complex in the central Jakobsplatz square that also houses a new synagogue and community centre.
It's a sign of the revitalization
Source: AP
March 21, 2007
HAVANA -- Work to restore Ernest Hemingway's Cuban hideaway probably won't be finished until the end of 2009, held up in part by efforts to build a garage to house the author's long-lost Chevy convertible, museum officials say.
Hemingway lived at Finca Vigia, or Lookout Farm, on Havana's southeastern outskirts from 1939 to 1960. He wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" and children's fables at the home, which he shared with nearly 60 cats and at least 10 dogs.
Follo
Source: BBC News
March 20, 2007
If you have ever signed a petition, worn a charity wristband or taken part in a demonstration you owe something to Thomas Clarkson.
The preacher's son from Cambridgeshire is one of the great unsung heroes of the fight to abolish slavery and the slave trade.
But what is even less well known is the extent to which Clarkson and his fellow abolitionists set the template for all future protest movements.
Every modern campaigning technique -- from celebrity endor
Source: Telegraph
March 20, 2007
Councils should work harder to preserve the character of the suburbs, where more than eight out of 10 people live, English Heritage said yesterday.
The Government's conservation advisers said special historical and architectural character was at risk of being eroded by insensitive developments, such as "garden grabbing" to build blocks of flats.
Other threats include plastic windows, inappropriately designed extensions and the conversion of front gardens to ca
Source: AFP
March 20, 2007
NEW DELHI -- One paints a dispassionate view of the man better known as Mahatma Gandhi, the other stirs controversy about his murder. Both are fuelling renewed interest in the humble father of modern India.
Two newly-released chronicles of Gandhi's life and death, written by his descendants, have sold more than 10,000 copies each in nearly a month since they were launched. In India, a non-fiction book can become a bestseller with more than 7,000 copies sold.
Publishers
Source: Fox News
March 20, 2007
An anti-smoking group called on the U.S. National Slavery Museum to return a donation from tobacco giant Philip Morris USA, saying the company targets children "for another form of slavery."
Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, sent a letter to the museum's executive director, Vonita Foster, last week. Myers said the association with the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer would counter the museum's goal of educating children.
