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
September 12, 2010
There are the bicentennial buses. Bicentennial roads. A bicentennial marathon. A bicentennial song. The bicentennial digital library. A bicentennial video game. Even a bicentennial bird, the mountain trogon, and plant, the owl agave. And of course the bicentennial fireworks extravaganza, planned to be the largest the country has ever seen.
What appears to be missing is bicentennial enthusiasm.
By accident of timing, as Mexico approaches the 200th anniversary on Thursday
Source: NYT
September 11, 2010
ALL cities change over time, but Chicago may be in a class by itself. It took a measure of sheer willpower to transform the “hog butcher for the world,” as Chicago was known around the middle of the last century, into one of the most forward-looking of cities, with an abundance of public art and green space alongside an ever-expanding skyline.
The greater part of the transformation took place over the last two decades, under the command of Mayor Richard M. Daley, who manifested his
Source: AFP
September 12, 2010
The small Bulgarian town on the Greek border was isolated for decades under communist rule -- and Greece was very much considered an enemy at the time, remembers Pavlov, now 67.
But now the town is banking on a newly opened border crossing to boost tourism and cultural links with its neighbour.
Now Bulgaria's government hopes the new link will attract tourists, drawn by the region's heritage and unspoilt nature....
Source: New York Times
September 11, 2010
William H. Goetzmann, who in a Pulitzer Prize-winning book overturned the idea of Western exploration in the 19th century as a series of random thrusts into the hinterland, finding instead that it was a far more systematic effort, died on Tuesday at his home in Austin, Tex. He was 80.
The cause was congestive heart failure, his wife, Mewes, said.
Mr. Goetzmann’s book “Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West” (Knopf, 1
Source: BBC
September 12, 2010
A French legal team has arrived in Rwanda to begin a week-long inquiry into the killing of President Juvenal Habyarimana 16 years ago.
The plane carrying Mr Habyarimana was shot down in April 1994, triggering the Rwandan genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.
An earlier French investigation blamed forces close to current President Paul Kagame, and caused Rwanda to break off diplomatic ties with France in 2006.
Relations were
Source: BBC
September 12, 2010
Art historians are one step closer to discovering the identity of a royal painter thanks to scientific research.
Analysis by the National Portrait Gallery of two renowned portraits of Elizabeth I has shown they were painted on wood from the same two trees.
The 16th century paintings have been associated with artist Nicholas Hilliard for many years.
Curator Tarnya Cooper said the research meant the work is probably that of Hilliard or someone working with hi
Source: BBC
September 11, 2010
Competing demonstrations have been held in New York on the anniversary of 9/11 over plans for an Islamic cultural centre close to Ground Zero.
Hundreds of people attended both demonstrations which became heated but passed off without violent incident.
The radical Dutch politician Geert Wilders addressed one demonstration, calling for an end to the plans.
The demonstrations were held after ceremonies honouring those killed in the World Trade Center nine year
Source: BBC
September 9, 2010
A rare copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America, billed as the world's most expensive book, is to go on sale at Sotheby's, it has been announced.
Only 119 complete copies of the 19th-century book are known to exist, and 108 are owned by museums and libraries.
A separate edition of the wildlife book sold for a record-breaking price of $8.8m (£5.7m) a decade ago.
The copy going under the hammer in December comes from the collection of Lord Hesketh....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 12, 2010
The Muslim cleric behind plans to build a mosque close to the Ground Zero site has blamed politicians such as Sarah Palin for fuelling a "growing Islamophobia" that led to the burning of Korans on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The Reverend Terry Jones abandoned his "international burn a Koran day" in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday but there were isolated instances in Tennessee and New York of the Muslim holy book being set alight.
Source: AP
September 12, 2010
The movie that Mexican director Luis Estrada is putting out for his country's bicentennial is bluntly named "Hell."
Like many Mexicans, Estrada says there is little to celebrate in Mexico today, with its violence, corruption and inequity. Yet in another way, the harshly critical movie shows how far the country has come — it was made with government funding, and nobody tried to censor it.
The bicentennial marks the 1810 uprising led by Catholic priest Miguel Hi
Source: Scotsman
September 9, 2010
IT IS one of the most evocative sites in Scotland's turbulent history - the place where Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots before his victory over the English at Bannockburn.
The ancient mound known as the Moot Hill in the ground of Scone Palace was once the site of the "lost" abbey of Scone, founded in 1114 by Alexander I, where Scottish kings are believed to have assumed the mantle of power on the Stone of Destiny.
It was revealed yesterday that arc
Source: New York Daily News
September 10, 2010
...St. Paul's, where not one window broke that day nine years ago when the twin towers fell, protected by an old sycamore tree in the cemetery.
A recent discovery at St. Paul's serves as a reminder that the chapel, indeed the city, survived a disaster that took place - not on 9/11, but in 1776.
About six months ago, Omayra Rivera, a Trinity exec who was then St. Paul's program director, became curious about what was in the church steeple, as first reported in the Tribec
Source: Science Daily
September 10, 2010
Professor Marc Waelkens' archaeological team has discovered the oldest Roman baths in Asia Minor known to date in Sagalassos, Turkey. Sagalassos was inhabited as a city until the 7th century AD, when it was destroyed by earthquakes. Waelkens has directed excavations at the sight every summer for the past 21 years.
Until now, the Capito Baths in Miletus, built during the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD), were considered the oldest known Roman bathing complex in Asia Minor. This s
Source: BBC
September 10, 2010
A celestial event seen by the ancient Greeks may be the earliest sighting of Halley's comet, new evidence suggests.
According to ancient writers, a large meteorite smacked into northern Greece between 466BC and 467BC.
The writers also described a comet in the sky at the time the meteorite fell to Earth, but this detail has received little attention, say the researchers.
Comet Halley would have been visible for about 80 days in 466BC, researchers write in th
Source: BBC
September 10, 2010
A plan of the Battle of Culloden drawn two years after Bonnie Prince Charlie's defeat to a government army in 1746 is to go on display in Inverness.
The National Library of Scotland (NLS) will bring the 1748 map to the city's Farraline Park as part of a road show.
Historic books and documents will also be on display from Monday to Wednesday.
As well as the battle plan, an engraving thought to date from 1797 showing a scene from the Battle of Culloden will b
Source: BBC
September 10, 2010
A photo of a little-known World War II spy who sang for Adolf Hitler while concealing secret documents in her knickers is to be sold at auction.
Wigan-born Margery Booth was a renowned singer with the Berlin Opera after moving to Germany before the war.
She was allowed to perform for British prisoners of war and, unknown to the Nazis, ferried secret information out.
The picture is one of a series taken at Stalag IIID PoW camp in Berlin that will be auctione
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 10, 2010
The terrorism chief who was running the White House situation room on September 11, 2001, has told for the first time how his staff tried to phone home after being told as many as 11 hijacked aircraft could be heading for the West Wing.
Richard Clarke, who was President Bush's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, said he and around a dozen colleagues left in the White House thought they were going to die as unaccounted for aircraft – including one that was hijacked – flew towards the cap
Source: Telegraph (UK)
September 10, 2010
Polish plans for children to take part in a re-enactment of the wartime extermination of Bedzin's Jewish ghetto have been shelved following criticism from Jewish groups.
Jewish community groups condemned the involvement of young children in role-play depictions of the 1943 destruction of the southern Polish city's ghetto saying they should have no place in the re-creation of the "mass murder" of thousands of people.
But Adam Szydlowski, the organiser of the e
Source: Fox News
September 9, 2010
Nine years have passed since Al Qaeda orchestrated the deadliest attack ever on U.S. soil, claiming nearly 3,000 lives.
But reports from the New York State Health Department suggest the carnage may not have ended that day.
More than 800 responders to the World Trade Center ruins have died -- some, advocates say, from illnesses related to their heroic efforts. One advocate says the actual total of deaths is likely higher -- and growing.
The data is a sober
Source: AP
September 10, 2010
More than 230,000 Japanese citizens listed in government records as at least 100 years old can't be found and may have died long ago, according to a government survey released Friday.
In August, the Justice Ministry ordered a review of records that found about 77,000 people who would be at least 120, and 884 people who would be 150 or older. The head count followed a flurry of reports about how elderly people are falling through the cracks in Japan as its population ages rapidly and
