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: Guardian
May 14, 2007
ROME -- A planned hi-tech driverless underground railway line set to bring desperately needed transport links to the historic heart of Rome has run into a minefield of Roman remains.Planners aim to send the new C line under the city centre at a depth of 30 metres, well beneath the archaeological treasures that litter Rome. Stations will also be built deep underground, but even the simple task of digging entrances and exits is proving a headache and could mean the scrapping o
Source: New York Times
May 14, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Tex. -— The prospect of the George W. Bush Presidential Library’s being built on the campus of Southern Methodist University received a lift over the weekend when voters in this Dallas suburb passed a proposition that paves the way for the city to sell a piece of parkland to the university.
The ballot proposal —- passed on a vote of 1,782 to 420 on Saturday —- will allow this city of some 23,000 residents to sell Potomac Park, an undeveloped strip that could prove i
Source: Niicholas Kristof in the NYT Book Review of Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
October 23, 2005
If Chairman Mao had been truly prescient, he would have located a little girl in Sichuan Province named Jung Chang and "mie jiuzu"- killed her and wiped out all her relatives to the ninth degree.
But instead that girl grew up, moved to Britain and has now written a biography of Mao that will help destroy his reputation forever. Based on a decade of meticulous interviews and archival research, this magnificent biography methodically demolishes every pillar of Mao's claim t
Source: International Herald Tribune
May 7, 2007
CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- A sunburned craftsman leans over to mix slaked lime and cement, and slaps the traditional mortar mix onto the sagging base of a 200-year-old temple in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. Cars and noisy motorized rickshaws buzz past the temple while nearby shops emblazoned with "Nokia" sell the latest mobile phones.
The temple, like the Lanna culture that originally created it, is under siege from the modern world, and the craftsman is an icon of the nasc
Source: Columbia News Service
May 11, 2007
After digging around James Madison's sprawling Virginia estate, Matthew Reeves, an archaeologist, has determined that the former president spent a lot of time and money preparing for guests to arrive.
Anticipating visits from hundreds of academics and dignitaries once he returned home from the White House, Madison undertook massive efforts to revamp his estate. He directed his slaves to build an artificial lawn, almost unheard of at the time, by moving thousands of tons of earth.
Source: University of Manchester press release
May 9, 2007
Scientists examining documents dating back 3,500 years say they have found proof that the origins of modern medicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocrates and the Greeks.
The research team from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester discovered the evidence in medical papyri written in 1,500BC -- 1,000 years before Hippocrates was born. "Classical scholars have always considered the ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the
Source: Press Association
May 12, 2007
Baroness Thatcher met Falkland veterans and unveiled a commemorative arch in Hampshire on Saturday to mark the 25th anniversary of the conflict.
The former Conservative Prime Minister led the country during the 1982 crisis when Argentina invaded the islands. A total 255 British and around 649 Argentinians lost their lives in the 74-day battle.
Hundreds of residents lined the streets for the Iron Lady's guest-of-honour appearance in Fareham, Hampshire. The town is close
Source: Times (of London)
May 13, 2007
China has sent its navy to protect marine archeologists on an expedition that salvaged more than 10,000 pieces of antique porcelain from a sunken junk in a campaign against looters and art smugglers.
It is believed to be the first time that China has deployed its armed forces to stop the plunder of its undersea cultural heritage along the ancient shipping routes, which are known in Chinese as the “silk road of the seas”.
Source: Reuters
May 12, 2007
TOKYO -- A film celebrating Japan's wartime "kamikaze" suicide pilots and written by Tokyo's nationalist governor opened in theatres on Saturday, sparking more of a pacifist than a patriotic response from audiences.
The movie comes as Japan's government edges towards a vote on revising the U.S.-drafted constitution that has strictly limited the country's military activities for six decades following its World War Two defeat.
"For Those We Love," writ
Source: Chicago Tribune
May 11, 2007
The first American astronauts captured the imaginations of a proud country nearly 50 years ago when they were selected to be part of Project Mercury, the first of a series of manned spacecraft missions.
But a lesser-known group of aspiring astronauts never was given a chance to join the program for one primary reason: They were women.On Saturday, the 13 women, all renowned pilots, will be granted honorary degrees at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh for the
Source: Times (of London)
May 13, 2007
Spain is being forced to look again at the bitter schisms created by its civil war, as thousands of bodies are exhumed from the mass graves of republicans killed without trial. But will unearthing the past lead to reconciliation? Report by Christine Toomey
There is a place of eerie silence close to the centre of Malaga. Outside its walls, the roar of traffic tearing at speed to tourist destinations is almost constant. But inside this sad oasis of calm, the only sounds are the delica
Source: New York Times
May 12, 2007
On a recent sunny Sunday morning, Michael M. Honda was kicking back at his 90-year-old mother’s house here, some green tea and rice crackers within arm’s reach. She was off to church, and his younger brother had dropped by to fix the plumbing.
“Oh yeah, I ran across a buddy of yours — he says he golfs with you — a big-set hakujin guy,” Mr. Honda told his brother, using the Japanese word for Caucasian.
Mr. Honda, a Democratic congressman and third-generation Japanese-Ame
Source: Washington Post
May 12, 2007
Walter McKenzie's assignment toward the end of the Cold War was to mop up after mishaps at a nuclear weapons factory. With a crew of other laborers from rural Georgia, he swabbed away leaks and spills inside the secret buildings, until one day his body became so contaminated with radiation that alarms at the factory went off as he passed.
"They couldn't scrub the radiation off my skin -- even after four showers," McKenzie, 52, recalled of his most terrifying day at the Sav
Source: Independent
May 12, 2007
The new Ireland of good neighbourliness continued to assert itself over the old Ireland of historical dispute when the Rev Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland's new First Minister, ventured south of the border to one of the most hallowed sites of Protestantism and Unionism.
In the latest in a remarkable series of highly symbolic events, Mr Paisley visited the river Boyne, where in 1690 a Protestant king defeated a Catholic monarch in a major military clash. Each year in Northern Ireland, tens of th
Source: Washington Post
May 12, 2007
JAMESTOWN, Va. -- With a procession of flags and the world premiere of a symphony saluting the English settlement of North America, the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown kicked off tonight.
Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine welcomed the thousands of visitors gathered on the Jamestown's Anniversary Park grounds to what he predicted"will be a magical and memorable weekend."
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Source: Telegraph
May 12, 2007
ELBA, Italy -- Napoleon's will to succeed even in exile and defeat has been revealed with the first full restoration of his two villas on the island of Elba.The French despot was banished to the island, 12 miles off the [Tuscany] coast, in 1814 after abdicating following his defeat by Britain and her continental allies.
Lord Liverpool, the prime minister, said Napoleon's exile had hit the Corsican "as hard as one can, and in the most vulnerable place".
Source: New York Times
May 12, 2007
LOS ANGELES -— The J. Paul Getty Museum inched a step closer to relinquishing ownership of one of its most prized artifacts, a 2,400-year-old statue of a goddess [often called 'Aphrodite of Morgantina'] claimed by Italy, at a conference of international experts to discuss the artifact this week, its director [Michael Brand] said.The Getty has not reached a formal conclusion based on the conference, which was convened at the museum on Wednesday and was closed to the public. B
Source: Telegraph
May 12, 2007
WARSAW -- Poland's constitutional tribunal has blown a hole in a controversial law aimed at purging former communist agents from public office after it ruled that much of the law was unconstitutional.
Speaking to a crowded court, the head of the tribunal, Janusz Niemciewicz, listed a lengthy litany of points which the 11-judge panel deemed at odds with the constitution.
The law required some 700,000 people, including school directors and board members of public companie
Source: Times (of London)
May 12, 2007
DELHI -- India has begun reconstructing the 1,000-mile Stilwell Road connecting it to China via Burma, more than six decades after the route was built to supply Chinese forces fighting Japanese occupation.
Work began on the Indian section last month and the whole road is scheduled to re-open by 2009, providing the fastest land route between India, Southeast Asia and China.
The road –- named after Joseph Stilwell, the American general who supervised its construction -– p
Source: AP
May 11, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Seven years after the Confederate flag was moved from South Carolina's Statehouse dome, it still shadows visiting presidential candidates.
The banner -- a symbol of Southern pride to some and racism to others -- continues to fly near the Capitol, just feet from one of this city's busiest streets...[It is] never more visible to the rest of the nation than every four years when White House hopefuls troop through this early primary state and field
