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: National Geographic News
March 16, 2007
Gruesome evidence found in ancient burial chambers reveals a period of violence and instability in Stone Age Britain, according to archaeologists.
Signs of bloody massacres and fractured societies are emerging from research that used new dating techniques to age prehistoric skeletons and burial sites in southern England.
Source: AP
March 20, 2007
WASHINGTON -- More than $300 million in previously unpaid insurance claims were awarded to 48,000 Holocaust survivors for harm they suffered during World War II, an international commission said Tuesday.
The International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims concluded its claims and appeals process after a worldwide outreach campaign began in 1998 to ensure that insurance companies fulfilled their obligations.
Its review was able to match those survivors submitting claims with more
Source: AP
March 21, 2007
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Eighteen massive brass bells rescued from a Moscow monastery nearly 80 years ago during a Soviet-era crackdown on religion and donated to Harvard University are being returned to Russia...
In return, Harvard will receive 18 replicas, which are being cast at a foundry in Russia...
The bells, which have rung in the towers at Lowell House and Harvard Business School's Baker Library for decades, were cast in the 18th and 19th centuries and are decorated
Source: Independent
March 21, 2007
Their surname was one that Patrick Brontë, the father of the trio of literary sisters, in effect made up. But it proved so evocative of stories of passion and a wild Yorkshire landscape that it has since been adopted to brand everything from spring water to poultry-processing.
But now the cash-strapped Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, has decided that it too should be entitled to some of the money being made from the business of trading in the family's name.
Source: Telegraph
March 21, 2007
At 6ft 5ins, Charles Napoleon would have towered over his diminutive ancestor, Napoleon Bonaparte.
And the 56-year-old pretender to France's imperial throne has embraced a brand of politics that is decidedly out of character for a Bonaparte.
While both Napoleon I and Napoleon III seized power by force and held imperial courts in Fontainebleau's royal chateau, today His Imperial Highness Charles Napoleon -- or "Napoleon VII" -- plans to recapture this dynastic
Source: Baltimore Sun
March 21, 2007
Since the Smithsonian Institution was created by Congress in 1846, top lawmakers have held seats on its board, along with the chief justice and the vice president of the United States.
Now, after an audit found questionable spending by the Smithsonian's chief, watchdogs are wondering who's paying attention. In January, an internal audit found that since 2000, Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small had $90,000 in unauthorized expenses and charged the Smithsonian
Source: Tennessean
February 18, 2007
Luvenia Butler doesn't have photographs of her ancestors — among them cooks and masons — who lived as slaves at the Belle Meade Plantation some 150 years ago. But, she says laughing, she sees them every time she visits the premises. In her case, that's pretty often.
Butler is one of the newest members of the board of directors at the plantation — the very place where her great-grandmother Jenny White once lived in bondage.
"I've always been taught it's important to
Source: http://www.dw-world.de
March 18, 2007
A unique kind museum opened in Vienna this week. Everything inside revolves around contraception and abortions, and the museum attempts to go beyond any other collection in any other nation.
The initiator of this museum is Christian Fiala, a doctor who has directed a clinic for abortions and family planning in Vienna for the past 10 years. Fiala is seen as a missionary for women’s health and is the chairman of the International Association of Abortion and Contraception Specialists.
Source: Reuters
March 20, 2007
When Vladka Soudkova was nursing her baby in the autumn of 1989, she hoped the upheaval across central Europe she was watching on her television screen would bring freedom and choice to her tiny daughter.
She has not been disappointed.
Eighteen this year, Kristyna has opportunities that Vladka and her computer technician husband, Tomas, could only dream of and the chance to travel and study wherever she likes.
"My husband went out to demonstrate and I
Source: AP
March 20, 2007
VISALIA, Calif. -- Tulare County supervisors approved a permit Tuesday to build a pair of mammoth dairies next to a state historic park devoted to black settlers, but a deal was in the works to keep the farms far from the monument to a freed slave.
The plan to put more than 12,000 cows within two miles of Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park pitted Sam Etchegaray against environmentalists and park supporters who said the dairies would be an offensive neighbor, bringing stink, fli
Source: BBC
March 20, 2007
As the UK marks 200 years since it abolished the slave trade, Sierra Leone has decided to purge its capital, Freetown, of streets named after the British and replace them with the names of Africans who fought in the abolition movement.Freetown, as its name implies, was founded in 1787 as a home for freed slaves and many residents have welcomed the move to recognise African heroes on its streets.
"Since the British came and went, they have done nothing for u
Source: Reuters
March 19, 2007
ELMINA, Ghana -- For many, it was their last glimpse of Africa.
Pushed through the"door of no return", millions of Africans were shipped from places like this whitewashed fort in Elmina, Ghana, to a life of slavery in Brazil, the Caribbean and America...
As Britain marks the bicentenary of its abolition of the slave trade on March 25, Ghanaians are still coming to terms with slavery's impact on their country's development and the role Africans played in the capture and sale of fellow
Source: Times (of London)
March 20, 2007
Mighty rivers that inspired religions, civilisations and explorers are among the ten most threatened in the world.
Rivers such as the Nile, the Indus and the Ganges are dying because of stresses put on them by mankind, the [World Wildlife Federation] says in a report published today.
Each of the ten river systems identified in the report is beset by man-made problems, including water being siphoned off, dams destroying ecosystems and pollution. They flow across six continents and the
Source: AP
March 19, 2007
ATLANTA -- Georgia's governor sounded skeptical Monday about issuing a public apology for slavery, an idea that got a boost last week with the support of a Republican leader.
"Repentance comes from the heart," Gov. Sonny Perdue said Monday. "I'm not sure about public apologies on behalf of other people as far as the motivation for them."
A resolution acknowledging and apologizing for Georgia's role in the slave trade had been expected Monday but now
Source: AP
March 19, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- Administrators at a Los Angeles charter school fired two teachers after canceling a planned Black History Month presentation honoring Emmett Till, the slain black teenager whose death was pivotal in the civil rights movement.
Seventh-graders at Celerity Nascent Charter School had planned to read a poem based on the book, "A Wreath for Emmett Till," and lay flowers in a circle during the February program.
But school officials said the 14-year-old
Source: UPI
March 19, 2007
LONDON -- A screenplay has been commissioned for a movie about Margaret Thatcher, the strong-willed conservative former prime minister of Britain.
Brian Fillis has been hired to develop the screenplay, which is expected to key on Thatcher's decision to take Britain to war against Argentina over the Falklands in 1982 at a time when her popularity was at its lowest, Daily Variety said Monday...
The film project about Britain's so-called "Iron Lady" is being purs
Source: World Politics Watch
March 19, 2007
YEREVAN, Armenia -- Inside the tomb-like confines of the Armenian genocide museum, a haunting narrative of images and words unfolds. A list is posted at tour's end of Western nations that have officially recognized the tragedy, minus one major endorsement: the United States.
U.S. lawmakers have recently introduced non-binding resolutions that would declare up to 1.5 million Armenians victims of genocide at the hands of Turkish forces almost a century ago. Support is reported to be s
Source: Telegraph
March 20, 2007
PARIS -- Greece is putting pressure on the Louvre museum in its long-running campaign to retrieve the Elgin marbles from Britain.
The Greeks have refused to lend the French an ancient sculpture for an exhibition because, they say, it is too fragile to be moved from Athens.
But Louvre sources believe the bronze artwork is being used as a bargaining chip to pressure the museum into joining Greek calls for the Elgin marbles -- taken from Greece in the nineteenth century an
Source: UPI
March 19, 2007
LONDON -- Four watercolors going on exhibit in London this week are all that remain of a gold and enamel ring that once graced the hand of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The paintings are part of a Society of Antiquaries exhibition at the British Antique Dealers' Association Fine Antiques and Fine Art Fair, The Independent said Monday. It is the first time the paintings are being display in London since they were presented to the society two centuries ago...
Mary Queen of Scots,
Source: BBC News
March 20, 2007
Over 50 years since they appeared on London's streets, the Routemasters are still running -- but not everyone is delighted.
The veteran vehicle with its curvy design and its open platform has been called "the last bus to be a proper bus".
Many Londoners remember fondly how they used to hop on and off them and pull the string to ring the bell.
But a Disability Rights Commission spokesman says it is "a bashed-up old relic from a bygone age"
