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: NYT
February 2, 2011
...Italy significantly trails European Union counterparts on equality indicators like employment of women or women in leadership positions, and indignant women say the latest scandal highlights a troubling message: the way for a woman to get ahead in Italy is to sell her soul, if not her body, to powerful men.
“I don’t feel it’s a model that mirrors me in any way,” said Martina Priori, 25, a saleswoman in a shoe store in downtown Rome. “The real world is different.”
Get
Source: Reuters
February 2, 2011
International museums are on high alert for looted Egyptian artifacts and some archaeologists have even offered to fly to the country to help safeguard its ancient treasures, museums said Wednesday.
Egypt has been rocked by an unprecedented nine days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule, and fears are high for the country's priceless heritage after looters broke into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last week.
The specter of the fall of Baghdad i
Source: Physorg
January 31, 2011
An archaeology team led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria discovered a major ceremonial monument less than one kilometre away from the iconic Stonehenge.
History is set to be rewritten after an archaeology team led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria discovered a major ceremonial monument
Source: CBC
January 28, 2011
...Nunavut archaeological sites threatened by climate change may be saved thanks to new high-tech equipment, says the territory's director of culture and heritage.
Doug Stenton said new 3D technology and a ground-penetrating radar system can be used to quickly map the surface and sub-surface, and could be used to deal with sites affected by coastal erosion and melting permafrost.
The University of Manitoba has received funding to buy the technology and plans to use it i
Source: LA Times
February 1, 2011
Nineteen University of California study-abroad students, along with a UCLA team of archaeology students and researchers, have been evacuated from Egypt, university officials said Tuesday.
The group, which was en route back to California, includes students from various UC campuses who were due to have started a semester-abroad program Jan. 31 at the American University in Cairo. Those plans were scuttled after days of massive anti-government protests in Cairo and across Egypt led to
Source: AP
February 2, 2011
A museum just days away from opening a long-awaited exhibit of mummies and other historical artifacts from China is gutting the display at the request of Chinese officials, the museum announced Wednesday.
The artifacts were part of "Secrets of the Silk Road," which is scheduled to open Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia. The exhibit has already traveled to museums in California and Texas without issue.
Source: BBC
February 2, 2011
Jack Straw has insisted that regime change in Iraq was "never" UK policy even though some within government may have wanted Saddam Hussein removed.
The former foreign secretary told the Iraq inquiry such a goal, in itself, would have been "palpably illegal".
In the last public hearing, he said the invasion was justified but he expressed "deep sorrow" for those who had died.
Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot said it would take &
Source: BBC
February 1, 2011
The story of a teenager who burgled Buckingham Palace and stole Queen Victoria's underwear sounds like it should be a work of fiction.
But Edward Jones's life was no fairytale and he was caught with the monarch's clothing down his trousers.
The story of possibly the original celebrity stalker has been fully chronicled for the first time.
Dr Jan Bondeson, a senior lecturer at Cardiff University, spent five years researching his subject.
He used
Source: BBC
February 2, 2011
A time capsule has been buried beneath concrete at the site of a new £15m Titanic museum in Southampton.
The Sea City Museum will open in 2012 - 100 years after the liner embarked on its ill-fated maiden voyage from the city to New York.
The development, at the former magistrates' court, is due to be the focal point of a new cultural quarter.
Among items in the capsule is a ticket from Southampton Football Club's FA Cup tie with Manchester United on Saturda
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 2, 2011
A group of Qataris suspected of conducting surveillance on the targets of 9/11, and providing "support" to the plotters of the atrocities, were due to fly to Washington on the eve of the attacks, the Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The disclosure, in US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, has raised suspicions that the three men were preparing to be a fifth suicide team, but aborted their attack at the last minute. Instead of boarding a domestic flight to the US capital
Source: AP
February 2, 2011
A male apprentice, longtime companion and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was the main influence and a model for the "Mona Lisa" painting, an Italian researcher said Wednesday.
But the researcher, Silvano Vinceti, said the portrait also represents a synthesis of Leonardo's scientific, artistic and philosophical beliefs. Because the artist worked on it at various intervals for many years, he was subjected to different influences and sources of inspiration, and the canva
Source: AP
February 2, 2011
Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered a 1,500-year-old church, including an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor with images of lions, foxes, fish and peacocks.
Amir Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority says the church in the hills southwest of Jerusalem was active between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D.
Archaeologists began digging after discovering that thieves were plundering the site. Ganor said archaeologists uncovered a mosaic "unique in i
Source: BBC
February 1, 2011
A former Serbian paramilitary suspected of taking part in the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995 has been arrested in south-eastern France.
Milorad Momic, 47, was detained close to Grenoble under an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia for crimes against humanity.
He was arrested on his way to work while using the false name, Guy Monier.
Mr Momic was allegedly part of the Scorpions unit, involved in the murder of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2011
Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of Amazonian natives to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible extinction.
The astonishing images, showing curious adults and children peering skyward with their faces dyed reddish-orange and toting bows, arrows and spears, were taken by Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).
Rights group Survival International, which accompanied the government agency on
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2011
Even before three men of Middle Eastern appearance had told cleaners to stay out of their room, staff at a Los Angeles airport hotel had become increasingly suspicious of what they were up to.
Pilots’ uniforms, laptops, a smashed mobile phone and lists of air crew names were hardly typical holiday luggage, but nor did the hotel workers feel it was enough to merit calling the police.
But the day after the guests checked out of the hotel, their odd behaviour suddenly se
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2011
A decades old feud over the true residence of composer Frederic Chopin and his French novelist lover when they spent a winter sojourn on the island of Majorca has finally been solved: thanks to a piano.
It has emerged that the piano claimed by a museum to be used by the composer while he stayed in an old monastic cell on the island could never have been played by the maestro as it was in fact manufactured after his death.
The Polish composer fled Paris to spend the wi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2011
The official 9/11 Commission report into the attacks made no mention of another team of potential hijackers - but did hint at a “support network of accomplices” who had eluded investigators.
Stretching to 600 pages and based on the evidence of more than 1,200 witnesses, the commission’s report was meant to be the final word on the atrocity when it was published in July 2004.
The commission spent nearly two years compiling evidence, including previously classified docum
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2011
A mother who lost her daughter in the Lockerbie attack has condemned the “cold, callous and brutal” behaviour of British ministers after WikiLeaks documents revealed how they secretly advised Libya on securing the successful early release of the bomber.
Documents obtained by the Daily Telegraph show that a Foreign Office minister sent Libyan officials detailed legal advice on how to use Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s cancer diagnosis to ensure he was released from a Scottish prison on com
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2011
The FBI has launched a manhunt for a previously unknown team of men suspected to be part of the 9/11 attacks, the Daily Telegraph can disclose.
Secret documents reveal that the three Qatari men conducted surveillance on the targets, provided “support” to the plotters and had tickets for a flight to Washington on the eve of the atrocities.
The suspected terrorists flew from London to New York on a British Airways flight three weeks before the attacks.
They
Source: CNN
February 1, 2011
Though he died nearly a century ago, the legendary illusionist Harry Houdini remains one of the best-known magicians of all time.
His infamous escapes -- from straitjackets while suspended high in the air, and from coffins, locked trunks and outsize milk cans -- made him a household name across the world at the beginning of the 20th century.
On view at the Jewish Museum are two diaries kept by Houdini, both of which are from private collections and have never been disp
