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: Vancouver Sun
July 18, 2010
A star-studded group of history advocates trying to secure an original copy of "Canada's birth certificate" is drawing some inspiration for the patriation project from Australia, where former prime minister Bob Hawke led a controversial — and somewhat underhanded — battle with British archives for his country's founding document 20 years ago.
Canada's former national archivist, Ian Wilson, doesn't expect to precisely emulate the Australian example in the quest he's leading
Source: LC Sun News
July 16, 2010
For the first time in more than a century, one of the counterfeit bank notes proven to be in the sequence passed by Billy the Kid and his gang has found its way back to Lincoln County.
U.S. Marshal Historian Dave Turk of Washington, D.C., and retired Federal Criminal Investigator Steve Sederwall of Capitan began the hunt to find the sample of the counterfeit bank notes passed by the Kid. They knew that at least one would have been preserved after the trials were over that convicted
Source: ABC (AU)
July 17, 2010
Archaeologists say a rock painting in Arnhem Land is the nation's oldest dated picture showing Aboriginal people's first contact with the outside world.
The rock painting is a picture of a sailing boat and it is located at a remote shelter in north-west Arnhem Land.
Archaeologist Paul Tacon says there are telling signs it is a depiction of a Perahu - a boat popular in Indonesia and Malaysia around the 17th century....
Source: The Independent
July 19, 2010
More than 300 looted antiquities, estimated to be worth more than EUR15 million, were displayed to the press this morning in Rome, having been repatriated to Italy after they were discovered in a warehouse in Switzerland.
It was a scene slightly reminiscent of a Victorian detective novel, in which the robber and his looted candlesticks is unveiled before an impressed gathering of country house guests.
Only today's unveiling took place inside the Colosseum rather than
Source: BBC
July 19, 2010
Salt was a booming trade along the Solent coast up to the middle of the 19th century.
Now the secrets of Lymington's salt industry are set to be revealed by Mr Green and a team of archaeologists and volunteers.
The area around the country's last two remaining sea salt boiling houses in the town is being excavated.
The New Forest National Park Authority and Wessex Archaeology is organising the archaeological excavation beside the Lymington-Pennington mars
Source: Tehran Times
July 20, 2010
Smugglers of cultural heritage have looted a Sassanid structure located in the Baghmalek region in northeast Khuzestan Province.
Members of the Baghmalek Cultural Heritage Enthusiasts Society, who recently visited the ruins of site, found shards scattered around the illegal excavations dug by the Smugglers, society director Yunes Shafiei told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Sunday.
The structure, known by the locals as the Dalkhuni Fort, was used by loc
Source: The Observer
July 18, 2010
Howard Carter spent years documenting the thousands of artefacts from Tutankhamun's tomb. Now, thanks to the efforts of an Oxford archaeologist, this remarkable archive of pictures and notes can be viewed online.
A total of 5,398 objects were found in the tomb, covering every aspect of ancient Egyptian life, from weapons and chariots to musical instruments, clothes, cosmetics and a treasured lock of the royal grandmother's hair. A few, like Tutankhamun's gold burial mask, are instan
Source: BBC
July 19, 2010
A tiny neolithic figurine from Orkney has missed out on a prize at this year's British Archaeological Awards.
The 5,000-year-old Orkney Venus, which was discovered during excavations in the island of Westray in August last year, is the earliest representation of the human form found in Scotland.
It was up for Best Discovery at British Museum awards in London.
But the title went to the Staffordshire Hoard - the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold - discov
Source: BBC
July 19, 2010
The UK's oldest person has died just a month before her 112th birthday.
Eunice Bowman, who was born in 1898 and has seen six monarchs on the throne, died peacefully in her sleep at Hillside Grange Care Home in Gateshead.
Eunice was born in Lancashire on 23 August 1898, the second of 12 children.
When World War I broke out she went to work for the Armstrong munitions factory in Newcastle and the money she earned was used to help her family....
Source: BBC
July 19, 2010
Croatia could withdraw a genocide lawsuit filed against Serbia if relations between the two countries are improved, the Croatian president says.
President Ivo Josipovic raised the possibility during his first trip to Belgrade since his election this year.
The government of Croatia still wants Serbia to punish individuals accused of war crimes during the 1990s war.
But both nations now say reconciliation is possible, years after the the break-up of the for
Source: BBC
July 19, 2010
Fossil hunters in Australia have discovered a cave filled with the 15-million-year-old remains of prehistoric marsupials.
The rare haul of fossils includes 26 skulls from an extinct, sheep-sized marsupial with giant claws.
The finds come from the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil field in north-west Queensland.
The beautifully-preserved remains have been described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The giant-clawed, wombat-sized marsupi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 19, 2010
Manuscripts and drawings by Franz Kafka that have been hidden in the vaults of Swiss bank UBS for more than 50 years are to be extracted amid a lawsuit over ownership rights of the estate.
Four safes holding manuscripts and drawings by the author are to be opened on Monday, according to the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
UBS declined comment when contacted by AFP.
The move in Zurich follows similar action at two Tel Aviv banks last week, after they
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 19, 2010
David Cameron is refusing to see senior American senators who have requested a formal meeting to discuss the release of the Lockerbie bomber while the Prime Minister is in Washington this week.
Four senators have written to Downing Street requesting that Mr Cameron makes time in his schedule to discuss the growing row over the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.
BP is facing accusations that it lobbied the previous Government to introduce a pris
Source: CNN
July 19, 2010
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has called plans to build a community center and mosque near the site of the 9/11 terror attack in New York City an "unnecessary provocation."
The former Republican vice presidential nominee also posted a plea asking "peaceful New Yorkers" to "pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real."
Plans to build a $100 million, 13-story center h
Source: CNN
July 19, 2010
Anti-establishment candidates are capitalizing on widespread anti-incumbent fervor and proposing term limits as a way to bring the power back to the people.
Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul said that if elected, he can't see himself serving more than two terms. In Rhode Island, Democratic congressional hopeful Bill Lynch has proposed a 12-year cap in the House and Senate. And in Maryland, Republican Andy Harris has assured voters that, should he go to the U.S. House,
Source: Foreign Policy
July 19, 2010
[Simon] Bolivar is the second former leader who's been rudely awakened this year. The body of Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos was stolen by grave robbers for a number of weeks, prompting a nation-wide cadaver-hunt . Because of Papadopolous' hardline Cypriot nationalist politics, a political motive was suspected, but it turned out the crooks were just after ransom....
Then there is the perennial debate over Lenin's Tomb in Red Square, which Russian leaders acknowledge "does
Source: DW World
July 15, 2010
The Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation no longer pays out compensation to victims of Nazi forced labor in 2007. But it hasn't stopped working to publicize the former forced workers' suffering.
The Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation (EVZ) began paying compensation to victims of Nazi forced labor in 2000. Funded by the German government and about 6,500 German companies, EVZ paid 4.4 billion euros ($5.7 billion) to 1.7 million former forced workers o
Source: AP
July 19, 2010
The remains of a World War I soldier left in a mass grave for more than 90 years were moved by four-horse cart to a new cemetery for reburial with full honors Monday in a ceremony attended by Prince Charles, relatives and high-ranking government officials.
German machine guns and artillery left more than 5,500 Australians and more than 1,500 British killed, wounded or missing in under 24 hours at the Battle of Fromelles, the first Australian combat operation on the Western Front.
Source: Fox News
July 16, 2010
The installation of a memorial bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in Bedford, Va., next to Western Allied leaders in World War II has ignited a firestorm of controversy and threatened to tear apart the small town 200 miles south of the nation's capital.
Opponents of the bronze sculpture say it has no right to be placed in the National D-Day Memorial next to the busts of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill because Stalin's mur
Source: Yahoo News
July 16, 2010
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the tea party have hurled accusations of racism at each other all week, sparking off a media frenzy that has made it difficult at times to keep track of the debate.
Yesterday, the fight took a pretty bizarre turn: Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams posted an imaginary letter to President Abraham Lincoln on his personal website that accused the NAACP of being racist for using the word "colored" i
