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
May 5, 2006
One of the abiding curiosities of the Bush administration is that after more than five years in office, the president has yet to issue a veto. No one since Thomas Jefferson has stayed in the White House this long without rejecting a single act of Congress. Some people attribute this to the Republicans' control of the House and the Senate, and others to Mr. Bush's reluctance to expend political capital on anything but tax cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq. Now, thanks to a recent article i
Source: NYT
May 5, 2006
The Greek authorities said Thursday that they would press charges against Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, for illegal possession of 29 ancient artifacts police officers found this spring in her Greek villa.
George Gligoris, head of a special police unit that investigates antiquities smuggling, said that the scope of the charges would hinge on archaeologist appraisals of the objects. If their value is determined to be less than
Source: NYT
May 5, 2006
The projected cost of building the World Trade Center memorial complex at ground zero has soared to nearly $1 billion, according to the most authoritative estimate to date.
Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking — "beyond reason" in the words of one member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board — and it is sure to set off another battle over development at the 16-acre site, with calls to cut costs, scale back the design or even sta
Source: Bloomberg
May 4, 2006
France and Germany plan to unveil a new common history book for high-school students, going from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the French and Dutch rejection of the European Constitution last year. French publisher Nathan released today the French version of the manual's first volume, realizing a project agreed on in 2003 by former German Chancelor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.
The manual, the first such project, was unveile
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
May 5, 2006
As Barry Bonds chases Babe Ruth's treasured spot in home run history, with only Hank Aaron on the horizon, it's worth wondering where Josh Gibson might fit in this illustrious group. He was the preeminent home-run hitter in the Negro Leagues, a stout catcher whose displays of power rivaled Ruth's.Neither Ruth nor Gibson competed against players of all ethnicities. Ruth swatted his 714 home runs before the major leagues became integrated. Gibson, widely known as "the bla
Source: NYT
May 4, 2006
In their demonstrations across the country, some Hispanic immigrants have compared the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s struggle to their own, singing "We Shall Overcome" and declaring a new civil rights movement to win citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
Civil rights stalwarts like the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia; Julian Bond and the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery have hailed the recent protests as the natural progression of the
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
May 3, 2006
Three decades of war have devastated Afghanistan's cultural heritage. Warlords bombed and pilfered the national museum in the early 1990s. Looters plowed archaeological sites into moonscapes. And the Taliban committed the most monstrous act by demolishing two colossal ancient Buddhas carved into the cliffs in the Bamiyan valley.
The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, still busy fighting Islamic extremists more than four years after the Taliban were expelled, has devoted scant resour
Source: Ryan Lizza in the New Republic
May 4, 2006
It's hard to make out, because the video is fuzzy. The copy I obtained was originally recorded off a television using VHS in 1993 and then transferred to a second tape, further degrading the quality. But, once you know what it is, it makes sense. It sits folded on a bookcase of trophies and bric-a-brac behind George Allen, who is seated at a desk in his home office. It's right there next to the fax machine. You can see the red field. You can make out the diagonal blue bar. And you can see what l
Source: Rocky Mountain News
May 4, 2006
TOWAOC - Though wildfires burned more than half of Mesa Verde National Park in the past decade, most of its famed cliff dwellings escaped serious damage, according to the latest results from the first comprehensive survey of those sites.
The southwestern Colorado park, near Cortez, is visited by about 500,000 people each year. Tourists are drawn mainly to the multistory masonry structures built in shady recesses, called alcoves, beneath overhanging sandstone cliffs.
Only a
Source: BBC
May 3, 2006
Many archaeologists believe they are a vital part of their work, while some dismiss them as mere treasure hunters. Now a new code of conduct is recognising the role of metal detector enthusiasts in mapping the UK's history.
Source: Toledo, Ohio Blade
May 3, 2006
A group of Toledo peace activists will take part tomorrow in ceremonies marking the 36th anniversary of the 1970 shootings at Kent State University.
Members of the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition, which initially was formed to oppose the blanket bombing of Afghanistan, were to take about 2,700 tombstones to Kent, Ohio, and display them during tomorrow’s events.
The tombstones are to be placed on the Kent State soccer field where four students protesting the Vietnam War w
Source: NYT
May 3, 2006
Elma Gardner Farnsworth, who helped her husband, Philo T. Farnsworth, develop television and was among the first people whose images were transmitted on TV, died Thursday in Bountiful, Utah. She was 98.Her death was reported by Mary Rippley of the Avalon Care Center, where Ms. Farnsworth lived.
The Farnsworths married in 1926, and Ms. Farnsworth worked by her husband's side, then fought for decades to assure his place in history after his death in 1971.
Source: Boston Globe
April 23, 2006
The Marine opens with a line from ''Hamlet."
''I could a tale unfold," Matthew Bogdanos tells the 200 people gathered at Concordia College to hear how he stormed across war-torn Iraq with a handpicked band of brothers, all for the sake of stolen art.
As usual, Bogdanos doesn't use a microphone. It's too restrictive. His voice booms through the auditorium, a skill mastered during years as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. He paces the room, clicking throu
Source: NYT
April 30, 2006
OGAMA, Japan — This mountain village near the Sea of Japan, withered to eight aging residents, concluded recently that it could no longer go on.
So, after months of anguish, the villagers settled on a drastic solution: selling all of Ogama to an industrial waste company from Tokyo, which will turn it into a landfill.
With the proceeds, the villagers, mainly in their 70's, plan to pack up everything, including their family graves, and move in the next few years to yet un
Source: Tampa Tribune
April 30, 2006
Jim said to David, "My nephew caused the shooting.'' He said Terry Norman was toting a camera on campus May 4th but also a gun. He was working as an FBI informant, taking photographs of student protesters. The students figured this out during the protest as he snapped pictures. They hated him. Some rushed him as he was taking photographs. Terry fired a warning shot into the air. Then the Guardsmen volley erupted.
As David was telling me about his conversation with Jim, I thoug
Source: allafrica.com
May 3, 2006
On Sunday April 16, a gigantic pot was found in Kano city. It is about 129cm in height, 99cm in diameter, with a depth of 139cm, and the size of the flip is 50cm. It is estimated to have been buried over one thousand years ago. It was discovered in Gwammaja quarters of the Dala local government in Kano state. Charcoal, bones, suspected to belong to that of the cat family, clay and pot sherds were found in the pot, when it was excavated, and about 20 people gathered to remove it from the hole in
Source: Thanh Nien
May 3, 2006
Hunters and collectors are raiding the Lang Vac archaeological site in the central province of Nghe An on the rumor that a valuable bronze statue found there sold for millions of dong.
Over the past two months, hundreds of people in Nghia Hoa commune, Nghia Dan district made their way to Dong Hieu rubber tree plantation located in Lang Vac (Vac Village) to hunt for antiques.
The wave of collectors began after a rumor that a person found a pair of ancient elephant statu
Source: BBC
April 28, 2006
Libya is home to some of the world's best preserved archaeological sites, showcasing tales of Roman, Byzantine, and Greek civilisations.
This historical wealth is Libya's main tourist attraction, but that wealth is increasingly under threat from looters.
Officials in Libya's archaeological department have become frustrated, saying the lack of security is the result of government under-funding.
Tripoli Museum contains fragments of Libya's ancient and mode
Source: Yahoo News
May 3, 2006
Nearly seven dozen Montana residents convicted of sedition during World War I are finally getting official pardons from the governor, years after their deaths.In a ceremony Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the grandson of German-Russian immigrants, planned to sign posthumous pardons for 78 men and women convicted in 1918 and 1919 for criticizing the U.S. government or its war effort.
Relatives of some of those being pardoned were expected to attend.
Source: NYT
April 30, 2006
When the French look back today, they generally trace the stirrings of national glory to François I in the mid-16th century or perhaps to Louis XIV 150 years later. And when Parisians look around, they see mainly the city reshaped into broad avenues by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 19th century.
This week, they were reminded of a far earlier Paris, one that was still called Lutetia. On a Left Bank hillside, which carries the name of Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of Pari
