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: Chronicle of Higher Education
March 1, 2007
International relations scholars find a remarkable consensus on the most pressing foreign-policy issues of today, according to a survey of the discipline by four researchers at the College of William and Mary.
According to the study -- which was based on the responses of 1,112 international-relations professors -- experts across the ideological spectrum "agree far more on current policy and future threats than they disagree." That consensus is especially striking when it c
Source: Boston Globe
February 21, 2007
While Leona W. Martin's forebears were fighting for the British during the Revolutionary War, the freed slave that genealogist David Lambert counts as an adopted ancestor was performing heroically for the patriots at Bunker Hill.
For that, Salem Poor was honored in 1975 with his image on a 10-cent postage stamp. Details of Poor's life after the Revolution -- his troubled marriage, his death as a pauper -- were unknown, however, until Lambert pieced them together over the past decade
Source: AP
March 1, 2007
PITTSBURGH -- Local preservationists and lawmakers have worked for more than a dozen years to get an area of the city known for its steel history designated a national historic site. Many believe this could be the year it finally happens.
U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., have introduced legislation in the Senate and Rep. Mike Doyle has introduced a companion bill in the House that would designate the Steel Heritage National Historic Site in Pittsburgh. The area
Source: by Brian Lowery, Variety
March 1, 2007
Although this provocative special features a few voices of skepticism, Discovery doesn't bother to qualify the title with, say, a question mark at the end, and why should it? Anything pertaining to Jesus -- in this case, the assertion that his family tomb was found in 1980 on the site of what now houses a Jerusalem apartment complex -- is going to stir up a response, and one suspects that's precisely what the channel wanted. As for the merits of the show itself (which bears director James Camero
Source: AP
March 1, 2007
BOSTON -- The USS John F. Kennedy returned to the 35th president's home state Thursday for the last time before it goes out of service later this month.
"Big John," as the aircraft carrier is called, will stay in Boston for five days before heading to Mayport, Fla., for decommissioning. It will be maintained on inactive status in Philadelphia.
About 500 people braved a chill to watch the Kennedy cruise into Boston Harbor with sailors lining its deck. Fireboats
Source: AP
March 1, 2007
BUDAPEST -- A court said Thursday the 1944 conviction and sentencing of a former Hungarian armed police captain for crimes committed during World War II cannot be enforced.
Sandor Kepiro, 93, was convicted but never punished for his role in killings committed by Hungarian forces in Novi Sad, Serbia, during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia in World War II, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center...
The Budapest Municipal Court issued a statement saying the 1944 ruling
Source: NYT
March 1, 2007
Japan's nationalist prime minister denied Thursday that the country's military forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, casting doubt on a past government apology and jeopardizing a fragile detente with his Asian neighbors.The comments by Shinzo Abe, a member of a group of lawmakers pushing to roll back a 1993 apology to the sex slaves, were his clearest statement as prime minister on military brothels known in Japan as ''comfort stations.''
Histori
Source: Space.com
March 1, 2007
The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been discovered in coastal Peru, archeologists announced today.
The 2,300-year-old ceremonial complex featured the Towers of Chankillo, 13 towers running north to south along a low ridge and spread across 980 feet (300 meters) to form a toothed horizon that was used for solar observations. [See aerial photo
here.]
Researchers excavated the solar observatory be
Source: Guardian
March 1, 2007
A previously unpublished letter by Richard Wagner to a firm of Milanese couturiers offers the intriguing possibility that the great composer was, in fact, a cross-dresser.
The letter is published for the first time today in the inaugural edition of the Wagner Journal. In it, the composer of the Ring des Nibelungen details the cut of an outfit, ostensibly intended for his wife, Cosima.
Requesting "something graceful for evenings at home" he continues: "The
Source: Telegraph
March 1, 2007
Italy is bracing itself for an unseemly court battle over who has the right to call himself the head of the country's royal family.
While the titles and honours of the Italian royal family have not legally been recognised since 1946, when the republic was founded, Prince Victor Emmanuel, 70, has ruled over the House of Savoy since the death of his father, Umberto II, in 1983. [See
Savoy family tree.
Source: Telegraph
March 1, 2007
Russian spy maps of the UK produced by the KGB during the Cold War have been released for the first time.
They were produced by the Russian military between 1950 and 1997 as part of a worldwide strategy for global domination.
The maps feature details not present on Ordnance Survey maps because of political and military sensitivities at the time.
Using aerial photos, satellite images, local knowledge and even spies to compile their maps, the Russians mapped
Source: Times (of London)
March 1, 2007
TOKYO -- To one furious Japanese politician it is “a matter of national pride and honour”. Another urged an “information war against the rest of the world”. Other MPs in Tokyo described an “atmosphere of crisis” between Japan and China.
It is not the usual kind of dispute over underwater oil-fields or military spending, but a battle over a series of forthcoming films about an atrocity a lifetime ago.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the notorious Rape of Nanking,
Source: http://www.lasvegasnow.com
March 1, 2007
One of the valley's most important cultural sites is under assault by unknown vandals. The place is known as Little Red Rocks and it's home to petroglyphs that date back thousands of years.
Unlike most cultural sites, this one is on private property. The owner has spent a bundle to protect the area but nothing seems to work. Now a new partnership has been formed that is designed to protect what's left.
"At one point we put boulders across Charleston, I mean big bou
Source: Korea Times
March 1, 2007
President Roh Moo-hyun has urged Japan to respect historical truth and be more sincere about addressing pending bilateral issues, including Japanese leaders' repeated visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war criminals.
In a speech marking the 88th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, the South Korean president said Japan should abstain from glorifying or justifying its colonial history and respect globally-accepted principles of conscientio
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com
March 1, 2007
West Boynton--Piece by piece, year after year, relics that tell the history of Palm Beach County are vanishing.
Development along the coast and expanding westward has paved over countless sites once home to Florida's earliest civilizations. The sites that remain along the western edge of the county are being pillaged by thieves, who've dug up centuries of unrecorded history in search of lucrative clay pots, tools and jewelry that can be sold to collectors.
It's a practi
Source: BBC
February 28, 2007
Investigators have uncovered a major example of Scottish industrial archaeology in the middle of Edinburgh.
They have found the remains of the capital's original gasworks, which was opened almost 200 years ago.
The site, which was discovered during redevelopment of the area, lies to the east of Edinburgh's Waverley station.
Edinburgh City Council's archaeologist, John Lawson, said Edinburgh's history was more normally associated with medieval times.
Source: AP
February 27, 2007
NEW YORK -- To resolve the question of whether the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene may have rested in two limestone boxes discovered in a Jerusalem suburb, the filmmakers of a new documentary took novel approaches —- including turning to statisticians.
Some religious scholars and archaeologists, however, have not been convinced by the numbers.
Filmmakers showed the two boxes on Monday while promoting their documentary,"The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by Oscar-winn
Source: BBC
February 27, 2007
A First World War hero's letter from the trenches has been sold at auction for more than £1,000.
The son of the Bishop of Liverpool, Captain Noel Chavasse, became the most decorated serviceman in British military history, winning the VC twice.
The army medic was killed while serving with the 10th (Liverpool Scottish) Battalion of the King's Regiment.
The letter was not in mint condition and was sent to a friend of Chavasse's said auctioneer John Crane.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
February 27, 2007
The ancient Anasazi carved out an existence in the hills outside Kanab. They dug pits, hunted elk and grew maize.
Now, St. George developer Milo McCowan wants to carve out a subdivision on those same slopes. He wants to build homes, sculpt trails and erect an amphitheater.
Oh, and he wants to save - and even capitalize on - many of those American Indian ruins.
"We are dedicating 20 acres in the project for long-term archaeological excava
Source: Stone Pages
February 27, 2007
Once again Stonehenge is the focus for protest - this time three men dressed as cartoon characters Fred Flintstone scaled the ancient stones, with the help of a ladder. The men draped a placard across a lintel and posed for camera shots atop the lintel, vowing to stay on the stones all night with their three days supply of food. Luckily this was not the case, and they came down the same day.
They represent the organisation "Fathers 4 Justice", an organisation which ha
