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
March 27, 2007
NEW YORK -- The family of Harry Houdini's widow wants to block a plan to exhume the escape artist's remains, saying a disinterment to determine whether he was murdered smacks of sensationalism."It is our firm belief that Bess Houdini would never approve of this," said a statement from her grandnephews, John and Jeffrey Blood."The family believes this is likely being done to promote sales of a recent book on Harry Houdini, suggesting he may have been murdered."
A spokesma
Source: Press Release -- University Newswire
March 23, 2007
The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center has opened
materials from Watergate journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's on Mark Felt, the source known as Deep Throat, to researchers, scholars and the public.
A selection of the Deep Throat materials can be viewed in an online exhibition at http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/online ,
and portions of the materials from the Felt file will be displayed on the first floor of the Ransom Center from Friday,
Source: BBC News
March 27, 2007
A £20m bid for lottery funding to build a theatre dedicated to the Bard's links with Merseyside has been launched.
Shakespeare North wants to create an education and community arts complex, including an Elizabethan cockpit-style theatre, in Prescot, Knowsley.
William Shakespeare spent time in the area, staying with the Stanley Family, the Earls of Derby, at Knowsley Hall.
School pupils and local residents are being invited to a series of drama workshops to
Source: Press Release -- University Newswire
March 26, 2007
Just as it fought the spread of Communism during the Cold War, the United States must do more to develop and support networks of moderate Muslims who are too often silenced by violent radical Islamists, according to a RAND Corporation report issued today."The struggle in much of the Muslim world today is a war of ideas," said Angel Rabasa, a RAND senior policy analyst and the lead author of the report."This is not a war of civilizations; it's not Islam versus the West. It's a struggle within
Source: CNN
March 26, 2007
Maryland lawmakers approved an apology Monday for the state's role in the slave trade, expressing "profound regret" that it once "trafficked in human flesh."
Maryland follows Virginia in issuing a formal apology.
The vote in the House of Delegates makes the apology official, because a resolution doesn't require the governor's signature. The state Senate already approved it.
The resolution notes that slavery "fostered a climate of op
Source: Discovery News
March 27, 2007
Thin may be in now, but prehistoric men 15,000 years ago prefered full-figured gals, suggest dozens of flint figurines excavated from a Paleolithic hunting site in Poland.
Since almost identical depictions have been found elsewhere throughout Europe, the figurines indicate a shared artistic tradition existed even then.
The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Antiquity.
Co-author Romuald Schild explained that the artifacts offer "
Source: BBC News
March 26, 2007
Ancient pollen could lead scientists to the kilns where the figures in China's terracotta army were made.
The 2,200-year-old clay army of 8,000 soldiers, 300 horses and 200 chariots guards the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China.
Soils from different regions contain distinct pollen "signatures", reflecting variations in vegetation.
This could help solve the mystery of where the clay figures were made, says the Journal of Archaeologica
Source: BBC News
March 27, 2007
A French court has overturned a ruling that ordered the state railway to compensate the family of World War II Jewish deportees.
Appeal judges in Bordeaux ruled administrative courts could not decide the liability of the operator SNCF.
Last June a court ruled SNCF must pay 61,000 euros ($81,300; £41,400) to the Lipietz family, whose members were taken to a camp near Paris in 1944...
The Lipietz family said it would now go to the highest administrative cour
Source: Independent
March 26, 2007
Blink and you'll miss it. The tiny obelisk on the road out of the Hertfordshire village of Wadesmill hardly presents itself to the world, yet it is one of the most important monuments in British history. It marks the spot where the slavery abolitionist Thomas Clarkson had an epiphany: on that day in June 1785, on a journey from Cambridge to London, he committed his life to ending the transatlantic slave trade.
That marker serves as an appropriate symbol for the hidden history of the
Source: Times (of London)
March 27, 2007
DELHI -- Hindu groups are launching an international campaign today to halt India’s plans to create a shipping channel by dredging the sea between India and Sri Lanka.
They say that the project will destroy an ancient chain of shoals known as Adam’s Bridge, which Hindus believe was built by an army of monkeys to allow Lord Rama to cross to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife. They are also protesting on environmental grounds, arguing that the 30-mile string of limestone shoals, also k
Source: Telegraph
March 27, 2007
The Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 was caused by a "failure of intelligence" equal to that leading up to the invasion of Iraq, according to Lord Carrington, who resigned as Foreign Secretary for his role in allowing the Falklands to be invaded.
As the crisis over the Falklands developed in the early spring, Lord Carrington, who as Foreign Secretary had overall responsibility for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, was told by intelligence chiefs that
Source: Guardian
March 27, 2007
TOKYO -- Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, apologised yesterday for Japan's use of wartime sex slaves but stopped short of acknowledging that they had been forced into it by the Japanese military.
Mr Abe said he echoed a 1993 statement of apology to the victims - known as comfort women - issued by the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono. The statement expressed the government's "sincere apologies and remorse" for its role in forcing an estimated 200,000 mainly Chine
Source: American Oriental panel and resolutuion circulated on the Internet by IraqCrisis newsletter
March 26, 2007
This year's special panel "Where Have all the Tablets Gone" was
organized by Robert Englund and included panelists Jerrold Cooper, Steven Garfinkle and Micah Garen. Among the news that was generated by the presentation was the information that a relatively modest outlay of funds (about 5 million) could help protect the more aggressively looted sites (Umma among them). After some discussion and debate a resolution was formulated that was presented at the business meeting to the
Source: Fox News
March 26, 2007
Iain Macpherson cares so deeply about teaching civics that the 61-year-old Scottish immigrant turned himself into a show-and-tell project.
He arranged for a federal judge to perform his own citizenship ceremony in front of his fifth-graders, hoping to show what it means to be an American citizen. "I wanted them to know what the experience is like," Macpherson said.
Macpherson and other social studies teachers say they have to shoehorn civics lessons into their
Source: AP
March 26, 2007
Former dictator Antonio Oliveira Salazar was chosen as the greatest Portuguese of all times by viewers of a TV show.
Salazar, prime minister of a repressive right-wing regime also known as the New State from 1932 to 1968, received 41 percent in Sunday evening's final of "Great Portuguese."
The show, broadcast by state-owned RTP, asked viewers to choose people who had contributed to the greatness of Portugal's history. Ten figures were selected for voting, from
Source: Times (of London)
March 26, 2007
A shy spinster who spent her life amassing an extraordinary collection of fine watercolours worth millions of pounds has bequeathed them to the nation.
Dorothy Scharf was so reticent that she relied on her mother, who lived next door, to communicate on her behalf.
The collection of paintings that she built up until her death two years ago has astonished the art world. Eight masterpieces by Turner, along with paintings by Gainsborough and Constable, are among 51 importan
Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com
March 25, 2007
A music teacher hopes he can convince state lawmakers to adopt a new state song to replace "Old Folks at Home," the 1851 Stephen Foster tune that has been criticized as racist.
Temple Terrace music teacher Stephen Ulrey is pitching a version of "I Want to Wake Up in the Morning Where the Orange Blossoms Grow" to replace the current state song, also known as "Swanee River."
Critics have said Foster's minstrel show tune is racist. They also
Source: Baltimore Sun
March 26, 2007
"What happens to people after the war is somewhat neglected. The story doesn't end in 1945," says Michael Haley Goldman, project coordinator for the Holocaust Museum's Registry of Holocaust Survivors. "We're trying to complete the historical record."
Since the museum's opening in 1993, its central mission has been to advance knowledge of the Holocaust and to preserve the memory of survivors through comprehensive records and individual stories. It's a daunting if
Source: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk
March 24, 2007
AN ancient castle which has been off limits to the public since it was built in 1088 is about to reveal its secrets for the first time.
Aberlleiniog Castle, located on the south east corner of Anglesey, has been witness to a long and fascinating series of owners and events.
The little-known castle has been the site of a murder mystery, love triangles and even fatal duels, but few people are aware of its significance and no one has been allowed to visit for almost a thou
Source: Times (of London)
March 24, 2007
BERLIN -- The intimate details of a royal love affair were exposed yesterday when seven erotically charged letters between Tsar Alexander II and his mistress went on sale in Germany. "I am expecting to make love three times tomorrow," writes Ekaterina Dolgorukaya in a letter to the Tsar dated 1871.
She goes on to describe, in remarkably free terms, how she was preparing to sleep with the Russian emperor. "I want to drink your juices," she says, slipping a Russian
