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: CNN
March 20, 2006
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) -- A 2,500-year-old sarcophagus with vivid color illustrations from Homer's epics has been discovered in western Cyprus, archaeologists said Monday.
Construction workers found the limestone sarcophagus last week in a tomb near the village of Kouklia, in the coastal Paphos area. The tomb, which probably belonged to an ancient warrior, had been looted during antiquity."The style of the decoration is unique, not so much from an artis
Source: CNN
March 21, 2006
New York workers have discovered a trove of Cold War-era supplies within the masonry of the Brooklyn Bridge, a cache meant to aid in survival efforts in the event of nuclear attack.City Department of Transportation employees were conducting maintenance on the structure Wednesday when they found the cache on the top floor of a three-floor space inside the bridge's base, agency spokeswoman Kay Sarlin said.
Some containers were marked with two dates notorious
Source: Reuters
March 21, 2006
After years of delays, legal wrangles and cost overruns, Greece hopes to open its Acropolis Museum by the end of 2007, Culture Minister George Voulgarakis said on Tuesday."It is our ambition that by 2007 the museum will be open to visitors," he told journalists after touring the half-finished building near the ancient hilltop temples of the Acropolis.
Greece had hoped to open the museum before the 2004 Olympics to push its claim for the return of
Source: Canada.com
March 21, 2006
Canada's cultural treasures -- including religious objects from Quebec and aboriginal artifacts -- are "racing out of the country" because government controls are ineffective and Canada's border agency isn't interested in enforcing them, Canadian Heritage has been told."It should be pointed out that the recent creation of the (Canada Border Services Agency) as a result of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has resulted in a significant reduction in
Source: Guardian (UK)
March 20, 2006
A collection of paintings by Gustav Klimt, stolen by the Nazis in 1938, has been restored to its heir in California after an eight-year legal battle. The five works, together worth £170m, now belong to 90-year-old Maria Altmann, who fled the Nazis following the annexation of Austria.Altmann has lent the paintings to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a temporary exhibition. She hopes that the exhibition, which opens on April 4, will attract a buyer. "My wish, and
Source: The Boston Globe
March 21, 2006
In 1629, colonists landed in Salem bearing the Royal Charter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, granting permission "for the planting, ruling, ordering, and governing of Newe England in America." Massachusetts, as we know it, was born. And now, that mother of all real estate contracts, not to mention a foundational document in US history, could be up for sale.The Salem Athenaeum has made preliminary inquiries about selling its copy of the Massachusetts Bay Charter
Source: Andrew Bernstein article on HNN's homepage
March 21, 2006
A Seattle-area columnist has drawn the fire of more than a thousand complaining readers upset with her suggestion that African-Americans should be grateful their ancestors were enslaved and brought to America.
The column, by Adele Ferguson, was published in the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal (KPBJ) on March 13, 2006. In the article Ferguson argued that black Americans should abandon the Democratic Party, claimingf it doesn't have their true interests at heart.
Source: BBC News
March 20, 2006
The future of a museum dedicated to the US naval hero John Paul Jones is in jeopardy due to a lack of funds. The cottage birthplace of the Solway sailor at Arbigland, near Kirkbean, is operated by a group of trustees and attracts about 3,000 visitors a year.The trust's chairman has warned that it could close if extra resources for the museum could not be found.
Jones played a key part in the US War of Independence and was regarded as the "father of t
Source: BBC News
March 20, 2006
Police are investigating a vandal attack on the final resting place of Robert Burns in Dumfries.
Windows were smashed at the mausoleum in St Michael's Cemetery - the latest in a series of attacks on churches. It has prompted calls for the introduction of CCTV cameras to tackle the problem in the area.
Police said they were stepping up patrols around churches and have issued descriptions of three teenagers in connection with the incident.
Source: BBC News
March 20, 2006
A WWII minesweeper and a torpedo boat are among 10 sunken vessels being raised from the entrance to the Forth and Clyde Canal. The £1.5m clean up aims to transform and revitalise Bowling Harbour in West Dunbartonshire by April.
British Waterways Scotland described the wrecks as "a safety hazard" and said they would be broken up.
Propellers from some of the boats will go on display on the harbour side when the improvements are completed.
Source: NYT
March 20, 2006
MUNISING, Mich., March 19 — A man who beat Rosa Parks and took $53 from her in a break-in at her Detroit home in 1994 says he dreams of redemption.In a prison interview published Sunday in The Detroit News, the man, Joseph Skipper, 40, repeatedly apologized for the attack and said he cried when he learned that Ms. Parks had died in October.
Mr. Skipper is serving an 8- to 15-year sentence at the Alger Maximum Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula of Michi
Source: Wa Po
March 20, 2006
Under the presidential library system, libraries receive operating subsidies from the government but are built through private donations, sometimes with help from state and local governments. The Nixon project marks the first time that Uncle Sam is providing funds for new construction before it pays any operating expenses.
As recently as last March, Allen Weinstein, head of the National Archives, told library officials in a letter,"The Nixon Foundation is responsible for securing funds for th
Source: Inside Higher Ed
March 20, 2006
A new study — soon to be published in PS: Political Science & Politics — finds that students are the ones with bias, attributing characteristics to their professors based on the students’ perceptions of their faculty members’ politics and how much they differ from their own.he authors of the study say that it backs the claims of proponents of the Academic Bill of Rights that students think about — and are in some cases concerned about — the politics of their profes
Source: scotsman.com
March 2, 2006
TIAN CHUNSHENG, 76, has gone to a Chinese court to sue a Japanese company for being forced to work in a World War Two labour camp, state media said on today.
Chunsheng is the first person to try to bring such a case before a Chinese court, Xinhua news agency said.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 20, 2006
A family of New Mexico Indians is suing the producers of a Steven Spielberg television series, claiming a stylist violated tribal customs by cutting a girl's hair to make her look like a boy.A lawsuit filed by the girl's father, Danny Ponce, of the Mescalero Apache tribe, seeks $250,000 (£142,000) for emotional distress and $75,000 (£42,000) in damages from an unnamed stylist and Turner Films, the makers of Into the West.
"It's part of our culture not to cu
Source: scotsman.com
March 5, 2006
NEWLY-RELEASED papers show the scale of suspicion and fear around the British High Command during the Second World War.
It has emerged that intelligence chiefs faced a dilemma over how many aristocrats with Nazi sympathies they should arrest, amid fears that interning too many would inflate their importance. Documents released today at the National Archives in Kew show MI5 spied on a god-daughter of the late King George V, Dowager Viscountess Doroth
Source: scotsman.com
March 5, 2006
FOR AT least two years, Britons nervously watched the seas and skies of the English Channel for a Nazi invasion fleet that never came.
But remarkable, newly-released British secret service documents reveal that Hitler planned an invasion of an entirely different kind from the extreme north of Scotland. Instead of ships, troops and tanks, the Nazi dictator wanted to introduce lethal bacteria to Shetland, from where they would spread death and panic a
Source: People's Daily Online
March 9, 2006
Cambodia has discovered the remains of a wooden ship and pottery possibly dating back to the seventh century, local media reported on Thursday. Cambodian naval divers discovered the remains of a sunken sail ship and a range of pottery in late February in 20-to-30-meter- deep waters off the coast of Koh Sdech island in Koh Kong province.
Samples of the pottery were taken to the provincial department of culture and then sent to the National Museum in Phnom Penh f
Source: BBC News
March 14, 2006
A Canadian tribe has recovered a totem pole that was taken from them in the 1920s and was on display in Sweden. The nine-metre (30-foot) high artefact is one of most significant treasures of the Haisla nation of British Columbia.
Source: scotsman.com
March 13, 2006
A LITTLE-known fact about Mary, Queen of Scots was that she enjoyed sport. Mary would swing a golf club or tennis racket from time to time and she was a spectator at sporting competitions. But did she also play football – Scotland's national sport?During an excavation project inside Stirling Castle in the mid-1970s, workers came upon a small round object tucked behind the thick oak-panelled walls of the bed chamber once used by Mary. What they found was a leather
