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: Yahoo News
April 26, 2006
VIENTIANE, Laos - The remains of a centuries-old temple, along with thousands of historical artifacts, have been uncovered in and around the Lao capital during excavations for the upgrade of a major road, a newspaper said Wednesday.
Lao archaeologists believe the temple Vat Yotkeo dates back to the 1548-1571 rule of King Sai Setthathirat, the Vientiane Times said. Fittingly, the ruins have been found on what is now called Setthathirat road. The temple was destroyed by the Thais, wh
Source: Fox News
April 26, 2006
Amid the many scandals at the United Nations, a new mystery now looms. What happened to the world organization’s unique and valuable postal archive — in effect, the U.N.’s own stamp collection, one of the crown jewels of its past and a popular point of contact with the global public? Auditors from the U.N.’s investigative arm, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), are currently putting the last touches on an investigative report that has taken months to complete,
Source: Wa Po
April 27, 2006
The proud new owner of the Confederate belt plate embossed with an eagle held out his treasure on his dirt-caked palm.
A man with a long beard and flannel shirt whistled low. "That's $12,000 right there."
It was the prize find of a three-day relic hunt called Diggin' in Virginia, one of a new breed of organized digs in the history-rich state. More than 200 relic hunters hauled metal detectors up and down the hills of a Culpeper County farm one weekend this s
Source: BBC
April 27, 2006
A body found in Orkney was likely to have been a murder victim dating back as far as 2,000 years, it has emerged. The skeleton of the man was found during an Iron Age site excavation at Mine Howe, Tankerness.
Tests have now revealed that the body met with a violent death and had been dumped in a shallow grave.
Source: Independent (UK)
April 27, 2006
Humans have exploited east London ever since hungry Mesolithic fishermen ventured down to the banks of its marshy pools in search of food.
The Romans drove a fast road through the land, only for the rebellious English queen Boudica to exploit it to wreak her violent revenge on the invaders.
In the Middle Ages it was the turn of the Knights Templar. Their water mills established a thriving industrial zone, paving the way for some of the most important technological deve
Source: BBC
April 27, 2006
Secret weapons from World War II, including two prunes, sold for £2,700 when they went under the hammer. Richard Marshall, from Crook, in County Durham, sold the memorabilia which belonged to his great-aunt, Doreen Mulot, a British agent. The prunes had their stones removed and replaced with miniature maps or other documents which were smuggled to prisoners of war in occupied countries.
Source: MSNBC
April 26, 2006
As gasoline prices have spiked above $3 a gallon throughout the country, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that the public’s view of President Bush’s job, the economy and the nation’s direction have continued to decline. But with the midterm elections just six months away, the biggest drop in the survey — 11 points in one month — is in the approval rating of Congress, which is locked in a bitter debate over what do about these gas prices, immigration, Iraq and a host of other is
Source: NYT
April 26, 2006
Mourners laid red carnations -- symbols of grief -- in the shadow of the ruined Chernobyl power station on Wednesday as they marked the 20th anniversary of the world's worst civil nuclear accident.
Hundreds filed past a memorial wall engraved with the names of the local fire crew. They were among the first to perish when Chernobyl's reactor No. 4 blew up on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive dust across Europe.
Source: Wa Po
April 26, 2006
WACO, Tex. -- Two memorials stand on the site of one of the most notorious incidents in the history of this central Texas city. One commemorates the 114 lives lost in the tornado of 1953; the other, the 1897 shootout between a newspaper editor and a local judge who offended the journalist's Baptist sensibilities.
But Heritage Square, as the downtown plaza is known, is also where 17-year-old Jesse Washington was tortured and lynched on May 15, 1916. The act of mob violence was so gru
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
April 26, 2006
Policies of the major archaeology associations against the publication of information about artifacts that come to light without proper documentation should be changed because they obstruct research and the advance of knowledge of the ancient world, a number of scholars say in a "Statement of Concern" that has been circulating by e-mail and online.
More than 100 archaeologists and other scholars who deal with texts and other materials from the ancient Near East and the Me
Source: Berkeley
April 1, 2006
Some lectures from historians at Berkeley are being putting online.
They are available for free through the iTune store.
Click on the Source link above to see the list.
Source: Romanesko
April 26, 2006
From Mark (Deep Throat) Felt's Tuesday "Larry King Live" appearance:
KING: What about when you would read in the papers, this person's Deep Throat or that person's Deep Throat or...?
M. FELT: I'd clip it and put it in a book.
KING: You saved items?
M. FELT: Yes.
KING: About who Deep Throat might be?
M. FELT: Yes.
KING: Why did you come out?
M. FELT: Well, because with politics moving the way they did, I had no choice, really,
Source: AP
April 26, 2006
The government improperly sealed hundreds of previously public CIA, Pentagon and other records by reclassifying them as secret on questionable grounds, an internal review said Wednesday.
The National Archives' audit of thousands of records withdrawn from public view since 1995 contends that one of every three was resealed without justification.The investigation covered historical records held by the National Archives. But it comes amid broader debate
Source: National Security Archive
April 26, 2006
Washington D.C., 26 April 2006 - Today the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) released an audit report of the secret historical document reclassification program conducted at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and other government agencies since at least 1999. The reclassification program was exposed in February 2006 when independent historian Matthew M. Aid confronted NARA about the explana
Source: ThinkProgress.org
April 26, 2006
In an op-ed titled “Do Not Attack Iran,” former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski today makes the case against launching an air strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. First on his list:
"In the absence of an imminent threat (with the Iranians at least several years away from having a nuclear arsenal), the attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the Presi
Source: INLA Website
March 26, 2006
Iraqi National Library and Archives has opened a website.
Immediately after the collapse of the Saddam regime and in the middle of the ensuing chaotic situation (9-12 April 2003), some arsonists set fire to various parts of the INLA’s main building, causing considerable structural damages. Almost all the equipments were destroyed or carried away. Most importantly, serious damages were inflicted upon the INLA’s collections of book, journals, files, records, photographs and maps. The
Source: Christian Science Monitor
April 26, 2006
Looters are taking mementos and other valuable relics at the rate of $500 million a year.
In Italy, they are called tombaroli - tomb raiders - and punished with decade-long jail sentences and million-dollar fines.
In America, they plunder virtually unnoticed, stripping parks and historical sites of their cultural bounty without fear of getting caught.Indeed, US officials say the brazen looting of ancient native-American artifacts, Civil War m
Source: Washington Times
April 26, 2006
A man publicly labeled as "Hitler's pope" instead deserves to have his historical reputation cleared, according to a spate of recent scholarship on World War II and Pope Pius XII. Indeed, the wartime pope should be recognized as a "righteous gentile" at Israel's most important Holocaust memorial, said scholar Ronald J. Rychlak, who made his case last year in his book "Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Saved Half
Source: AP
April 24, 2006
BENTON, Ill.
Just outside town, Bob Rea stands on a muddy, scrubby swath of land and calls it hallowed -- the place where 119 coal miners, in the flash of a blast hundreds of feet below him, lost their lives in a 1951 disaster.
The insurance man, bent on turning the 10-acre patch into a tourist-drawing memorial and museum, knows he has his work cut out for him. The land already is a graveyard -- one of rusty hulks of junk cars, discarded furniture and shattered glass.
Source: Sanitago Times (Chile)
April 26, 2006
Literary minds from Peru and Chile made a united plea to the government of President Michelle Bachelet this week – asking that Chile repatriate valuable books, documents and jewels taken from Peru’s National Library during the sacking of Lima in 1881 when the two countries fought the “War of the Pacific.”“The devolution of the books is necessary for a sense of justice,” said former Peruvian Education Minister Nicolás Lynch. “The books, documents and museum treasures were rob
