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: CNN
March 19, 2011
Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday from complications of kidney and bladder cancer, his family said. He was 85.
As America's chief diplomat for four years during President Bill Clinton's administration, Christopher "eschewed confrontation in favor of negotiation with friend and foe alike," according to a profile posted on the State Department website.
In 1981, Christopher received the Medal of Freedom -- the nation's highest civilian awar
Source: Live Science
March 16, 2011
In 1845, two ill-fated British ships headed for the Canadian Arctic in the hope of discovering the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. More than two decades later, the nearly complete skeleton of one of the explorers was recovered from a shallow, stone-covered grave on King William Island in the Canadian Arctic.
The remains were then identified as those of Henry Le Vesconte, a lieutenant aboard one of the ships, the HMS Erebus. However, a modern analysis points to another identi
Source: Discovery News
March 17, 2011
Italy never saw so many national flags waving in the air as on March 17, 2011.
Posted across windows and balconies all over the country, thousands of green, white and red flags celebrated the 150th anniversary of the country’s unification.
As a nation-state, Italy is younger than the United States. The home of the ancient Roman empire became a nation as a whole just 150 years ago, on March 17, 1861.
On that day, Victor Emmanuel II became the first king of a
Source: Discovery News
March 18, 2011
God's wife, Asherah, was a powerful fertility goddess, according to a theologian.
God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar.
In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshiped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence due to the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now
Source: BBC
March 18, 2011
A festival of silent films is being held at Scotland's oldest surviving cinema.
The restored Hippodrome cinema in Bo'ness, near Falkirk, will screen a series of "rare and classic films" over the three-day event.
Silent film A-listers such as Clara Bow, Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton will all be making an appearance on screen, Falkirk Council said.
Audience members have been encouraged to come dressed in 20s style.
Festival direct
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 17, 2011
Haiti's ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was heading home on Thursday, ending his exile despite a warning from US President Barack Obama on his "destabilising" return ahead of a crucial election.
Mr Aristide was set to depart late Thursday from a small airport outside Johannesburg after living seven years in South Africa, ignoring intense US lobbying to prevent his return before Sunday's presidential run-off in the Caribbean nation.
Mr Obama personally ca
Source: AP
March 18, 2011
The arrest of a Croatian woman in small-town Kentucky for alleged war crimes two decades ago in the former Yugoslavia "brings her long run from justice to an end," a U.S. marshal said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert E. Wier appointed Azra Basic, 52, a lawyer Thursday and ordered her held without bond pending an April 1 status hearing. Prosecutors argued that no bail amount would guarantee Basic's presence in court.
This week, acquaintances were shocked to hear t
Source: The Northwestern (WI)
March 17, 2011
It's called the "Flying Fortress" and there's good reason for the nickname.
The rock solid B-17 bomber — an airplane that in many cases could take a hit and keep on going — played an integral role in World War II in helping defeat Nazi Germany and its Axis partners. The famed bomber is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.
Retired Col. Harold "Hal" Weekley, who flew the B-17 as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces, said its durability helped mak
Source: Ynet News (Israel)
March 17, 2011
The Israeli Tax Authority arrested a 41-year-old man from the northern town of Hatzor Haglilit on Thursday on suspicion he imported Nazi souvenirs, which is illegal in Israel.
The man is also accused of not paying taxes for other memorabilia he received dating back to WWI and WWII. Police suspected the man sold the items to collectors around the world, including a top soccer player in Britain.
A package sent from Germany arrived at Haifa's customs offices a few days ag
Source: Korea Herald
March 17, 2011
Almost 300 royal books from the Joseon Dynasty, looted during the 19th century French invasion of Korea, will make their official return to Seoul on a permanent lease starting March 28, the National Museum of Korea said Wednesday.
Officials of the National Museum signed an official pact on the return of 297 royal book with the National Library of France in Paris, where they are currently located.
The French library agreed to return the books in four installments from Ma
Source: Ahram Online (Egypt)
March 17, 2011
Sixteen of 54 missing artefacts from the Egyptian Museum were found yesterday, with arrests made.
With the help of Egypt’s military forces, the antiquities police succeeded in catching three of the thieves who broke into the Egyptian Museum on 29 January, finding with them 12 of the museum’s missing pieces.
Museum Director Tarek El-Awadi told Ahram Online that the recovered objects include seven statues, five made of bronze, the sixth of limestone. Five collars made of
Source: Reuters
March 16, 2011
A fight between the U.S. government and the St. Louis Art Museum over a death mask from ancient Egypt intensified on Wednesday as the government formally demanded the museum hand over the disputed object.
The 3,200-year-old mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, a 19th Dynasty noblewoman, sits on display in the basement of the museum.
The federal complaint contends the mask was stolen from Egypt before the museum obtained it for $500,000 in 1998.
The complaint, which incl
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 18, 2011
Neil Tweedie meets Denis Avey and hears his astonishing tale of breaking into the Nazi's most feared concentration camp - for a dare.
The music came from an orchestra hidden just out of sight: Wagner, wafting across the blasted ground. Denis Avey was 25 and a prisoner of war for more than two years. It was 1943 and this was the latest in a long line of PoW camps since his capture in North Africa, a collection of huts in the shadow of an enormous industrial complex in southern Polan
Source: BBC News
March 17, 2011
Haiti's former leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left South Africa to return to his home country after seven years in exile, officials say.
He is expected in Port-au-Prince early on Friday, two days before Haiti's presidential run-off vote.
The US is deeply concerned that his return could destabilise the country.
But Mr Aristide, a populist left-winger who was forced to flee in 2004 amid a rebellion, has said he will not seek an active role in politics.
Source: BBC
March 17, 2011
Two rare, carved altar stones found in East Lothian could shed new light about the Roman period in Scotland, it has been claimed.
The Roman stones were found during the redevelopment of a cricket pavilion in Lewisvale Park, Musselburgh.
Experts said they may help re-write the history books on the Roman occupation of Inveresk.
Although they were found in March 2010, it has only now become safe to fully inspect them.
Archaeologists said the ston
Source: BBC
March 17, 2011
Rare manuscripts by the Nottinghamshire writer DH Lawrence are going up for auction.
They include two short stories plus a letter Lawrence wrote to a friend, Henry Savage, in which he expresses regret at not having had any children.
They are being sold by Oxfordshire collector Roy Davids, who hopes for more than £18,500 for the items.
Mr Davids, who is selling 500 other lots, said the stories were subtly different from published versions....
Source: BBC
March 17, 2011
The US government has stepped into a row over an ancient Egyptian death mask, ordering the St Louis Art Museum to hand over the artefact.
Egypt claims the 3200-year-old mask of 19th Dynasty noblewoman, Ka-Nefer-Nefer, was stolen.
The museum paid $500,000 (£310,000) for the mask in 1998.
It has already sued the US government to try and block seizure of the object, stating they do not have enough evidence that it was stolen.
However, the federal
Source: The Local (Germany)
March 16, 2011
Hundreds of people met in the Latvian capital of Riga on Wednesday to remember World War II veterans who fought with Nazi Germany in the Waffen SS, after a court overturned a ban on the controversial annual gathering.
On Tuesday, a Riga court removed the city council’s ban on the “Legion Day,” allowing the veterans and their supporters to march through the city centre the next day.
They plan to commemorate the some 140,000 Latvian men who fought against the Russians wit
Source: BBC News
March 15, 2011
Books about the Third Reich throng the British bestseller lists, but is it a matter of genuine historical interest or odd fetish, asks Clive Anderson.
The late Alan Coren famously published a collection of humorous pieces in book form, called Golfing for Cats. And he put a swastika on the front cover. He had noticed the most popular titles in Britain in those days were about cats, golf and Nazis.
That was in 1975. Thirty-six years on - and now more than 60 years since t
Source: WaPo
March 15, 2011
A lowly corporal of long ago was buried Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery, ushered to his grave with all the Army’s Old Guard solemn pomp.
In a late-day chill, after hundreds of strangers had paid their respects in public viewings since the weekend, soldiers carried the former doughboy’s flag-draped coffin partway up a knoll and set it on polished rails above his plot, a stone’s toss from the grave of his old supreme commander, Gen. John J. “Blackjack” Pershing.
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