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: AP
February 7, 2008
A man credited with helping save hundreds of Jews during World War II has agreed to repay a fellow Holocaust survivor that he and his wife were accused of swindling out of about $260,000.
Aron Bell, 80, and his wife, Henryka, 58, were charged last year with scheming to defraud 90-year-old Janina Zaniewska, exploitation of the elderly and theft.
In a plea deal, the Bells agreed to repay Zaniewska $260,000, according to court documents released Tuesday. Authorities said
Source: http://www.thenewanatolian.com
February 6, 2008
Turkish archaeologists unearthed a 2000-year-old lighthouse at the ancient Roman port of Patara, near southern town of Kas, Antalya, discovering probably the oldest such structure that managed to remain intact.
The 12-meter-high lighthouse was built under the reign of Emperor Nero who ruled from 54 to 68, Professor Havva Iskan Isik, head of the excavation team reported.
Source: http://www.portsmouth.co.uk
February 7, 2008
Skeletons which have been dug up in the city during developments, some dating back to the Bronze Age, will now form a vital part of new research into TB.
Academics from Durham and Manchester universities have asked permission to remove bits of bone and teeth to analyse as part of their research project into how tuberculosis evolved through the ages.
Source: http://www.presstv.ir
February 7, 2008
The owners of the mine where the Zanjan salt men were discovered have renewed their contract with Iran's Mines and Industries Ministry.
The contract will enable the company to resume salt exploitation for another ten years, beginning this week, which could severely damage and ultimately destroy invaluable information about the historic mine.
As very few salt mummies have been found, Iran's salt men are considered extremely unique with the mystery surrounding the manne
Source: Reuters
February 8, 2008
Italian police are investigating an anti-Semitic blog listing the names of more than 150 "Jewish university professors," which was removed from the Internet after protests from politicians and Jewish leaders.
The blog, by an anonymous author, listed the names and workplaces of university professors which it accused of "publicly and politically" supporting Israel.
It was taken down in the early afternoon on Friday, said Emanuele Fini, one of the head
Source: National Coalition for History blog
February 8, 2008
On February 7, 2008, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing to discuss the length of time it was taking for the completion of the compilation and annotation of the papers of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams and two projects encompassing the period prior to and during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, as well as his post-presidency. Also at issue was the limited public accessibility to the finished products, especially via the internet.
In late-De
Source: Newsweek
February 9, 2007
Suddenly, faith, once an entirely private affair, has infused the [French] president's political discourse. In Riyadh on Jan. 14, [Nicolas] Sarkozy referenced the Lord 13 times in a speech to Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council, evoking a "transcendent God who is in the thoughts and the heart of every man." That was news to France's estimated 15 million atheists and agnostics, a quarter of the country.
The revival has touched a nerve among a large swath of the French popul
Source: Joshua Altman for HNN. Mr. Altman is an HNN intern.
February 10, 2008
Should the United States designate the first week in May as “American Religious History Week?” It should, says Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) and he has introduced a resolution to give the idea an official stamp of approval. The measure has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Karen Lightsoot, Communication Director for the Committee, told HNN that at present there are no plans to move the resolution forward. Nonetheless, a small group of critics have mo
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 9, 2008
The disgraced French far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was given a three-month suspended sentence yesterday for calling the Nazi occupation "not particularly inhuman".
The founder of the National Front was found guilty of denying a crime against humanity and complicity in condoning war crimes.
Le Pen was also fined around £7,400. His lawyer said that the 79-year-old would appeal against the sentence.
Source: NYT
February 10, 2008
Seeing a good possibility that the Democratic presidential nomination will not be settled in the primaries and caucuses, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are lavishing attention on a group that might hold the balance of power: elected officials and party leaders who could decide the outcome at the convention in August....
Should they ratify the decision by regular delegates and vote for the candidate who is ahead in June, no matter how small the lead? Are they obliga
Source: NYT
February 10, 2008
WITH his high-pitched giggle and his gentle ways, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is not someone you would expect to be used as a blunt-force weapon in a political campaign.
But, used he was, to great effectiveness, in Pennsylvania in 1986. The story is this.
The Maharishi, who died last Tuesday, was the man who introduced transcendental meditation to the West. The Beatles were his most famous disciples, but another was William W. Scranton 3d, who went to Europe in 1970 to study
Source: http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com
February 8, 2008
It seemed unbelievable that the two men hadn't yet met.
Their careers had collided in the most public way, shaping the way Americans understood the Vietnam War and the freedom of the press. But when Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and Nixon-era whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg first shook hands, it was in the green room at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center last night.
Their lives intersected in 1971 when Ellsberg leaked thousands of pages of documents to The New Yor
Source: Newsweek
February 11, 2008
In the summer of 2003, Warren Bass, an investigator for the 9/11 Commission, was digging through highly classified National Security Council documents when he came across a trove of material that startled him. Buried in the files of former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, the documents seemed to confirm charges that the Bush White House had ignored repeated warnings about the threat posed by Osama bin Laden. Clarke, it turned out, had bombarded national-security adviser Condolee
Source: Space.com
February 8, 2008
On the night of Feb. 20, the full moon will pass into Earth's shadow in an event that will be visible across all of the United States and Canada.
The total lunar eclipse will be made even more striking by the presence of the nearby planet Saturn and the bright bluish star, Regulus.
Eclipses in the distant past often terrified viewers who took them as evil omens. Certain lunar eclipses had an overwhelming effect on historic events. One of the most famous examples is the
Source: WaPo
February 7, 2008
Add another date to crowded spring calendar. The founders of the Newseum, a state-of-the-art museum about the news industry, will announce today that they plan to open April 11, about six months later than originally announced.
"That is when everything will be done," said Charles L. Overby, the chief executive officer of the museum. By everything Overby means the seven levels with 250,000 square feet of exhibition space, including 15 theaters, 14 galleries, two broadcast s
Source: ANSA (Italy)
February 10, 2008
Christopher Columbus wasn't responsible for the spread of lice in the New World, according to US and French researchers.Teams in Marseilles and Florida have separately examined two lice-ridden Peruvian mummies dating back to the early 11th century - almost 500 years before the Italian explorer arrived in the Caribbean.
''The DNA from these parasites showed that the animals predated the arrival of Columbus by hundreds of years,'' said David L. Reed of the F
Source: CSM
February 8, 2008
Katrina Browne was studying at seminary when her grandmother sent her a booklet she'd written on their family history. As she read it, one sentence stunned her: It mentioned the DeWolfs' slave-trading business out of Bristol, R.I."The first shock was as if finding out for the first time the horror of being descended from slave traders," she says. "But within moments, I realized I already knew, and yet had completely buried it."
It was that se
Source: NYT
February 7, 2008
After more than 50 failures and almost 50 years, the United States Senate is finally poised to again produce a president.
With the Democratic race for the nomination reduced to a two-senator battle between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and Senator John McCain tightening his grip on the Republican nod, it is becoming more likely that a member of the current Senate will do something no other senator has done since 1961: move straight from Congress to the White House.
Source: http://www.ft.com
February 7, 2008
BBC Radio 4 is to produce a 90-part history of the US aimed at altering UK perceptions of the country. "The US has become a stranger country to the British sensibility, so to try to do a contemporary version of US history would be a sensible thing to do," Mark Damazer, Radio 4's controller, said yesterday.
The series, timed to mark the centenary of the birth of Alistair Cooke, who broadcast from America for 67 years, will consist of 15-minute programmes delivered by Prof D
Source: USA Today
February 6, 2008
The discovery of an ancient Roman cave has unearthed a debate about its historical purpose and delved into a deeper question for scholars: Can archaeology prove mythology?
The cave was found when a camera was lowered through a hole in Rome's Palatine Hill during restorations of the palace of the Emperor Augustus, who ruled from the late first century B.C. until his death in A.D. 14. The Palatine Hill was a seat of power in ancient Rome; today it is home to the fragile remains of pal
