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
January 13, 2011
The words "tourism" and "Iraq" don't often get used in the same sentence these days, but if a new project to help preserve the historic ruins of Babylon pays off, archaeologists and officials say the country could soon be back on the international travel map.
So far, 2011 has been a good year for Babylon. Work funded by a $2 million U.S. State Department grant to restore two major structures has begun and one of two museums on the site damaged in the aftermath of
Source: Guardian (UK)
January 13, 2011
Julio Argentino Roca being removed from banknotes and street names for alleged role in exterminating indigenous culture.
For a century it was a name to inspire schoolchildren: Julio Argentino Roca, the military hero and statesman who tamed Patagonia's wilderness and made Argentina a modern nation.
He was George Washington and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one, a founding father who gazed from banknotes, adorned plinths and gave his name to avenues from Buenos Aires to San
Source: Newsweek
January 13, 2011
One hundred and fifty years after the start of the Civil War, we’re still fighting. This time it’s development vs. preservation—and development’s winning.
A casino could soon sit near the Gettysburg battlefield, the bloodiest encounter on American soil. A Walmart supercenter may shadow the Wilderness battlefield in Virginia where Gen. U. S. Grant kept his headquarters when he first fought Gen. Robert E. Lee. And Washington, D.C.’s suburban sprawl is slowly strangling the rural lands
Source: BBC
January 13, 2011
The US will help Bangladesh to stage "transparent" trials for crimes committed during its independence war, an American envoy has said.
Last year six people, including five leaders of the Islamic Jamaat-e-Islami party, were charged with war crimes.
Thousands of people are believed to have died in the 1971 war, which culminated in the country's independence from Pakistan....
Source: BBC
January 12, 2011
A French chateau that once belonged to African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa has sold for 915,000 euros (£760,000).
The dilapidated 'Chateau d'Hardricourt' was bought by an anonymous bidder at an auction in Versailles.
Bokassa spent several years living in the mansion in the western Paris suburb of Hardricourt after he was overthrown as leader of the Central African Republic (CAR) in 1979.
It has since fallen into disrepair and needs major refurbishment....
Source: BBC
January 13, 2011
A bid has been launched to buy two Victorian stained glass panels that were once part of the chapel at the fairytale Castell Coch near Cardiff.
Eighteen similar panels designed by architect William Burges are on display at Castell Coch and Cardiff Castle.
The whereabouts of the remaining two was a mystery until they failed to sell at an auction last year.
Welsh heritage organisation Cadw is trying to bring the panels back to their Welsh home....
Source: BBC
January 13, 2011
A campaign has been launched in the Borders to save a 200-year-old uniform from ending up in a private collection.
Museum supporters have set themselves a £4,850 goal to buy the uniform of an officer serving with the Peeblesshire Local Militia.
Such units were set up to protect the population in the event of an invasion from French military leader Napoleon.
The Supporters of the Chambers Institution Peebles (SCIP) have a 6 February deadline on their rescue
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 13, 2011
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has for the first time awarded Germany full marks in its annual "report card" on investigation and prosecution of war criminals, it said on Thursday.
The Los Angeles-based Nazi-hunting organisation said in its report for 2010 that Germany had joined the United States as the only countries to earn an "A" grade and that German policy changes had resulted in two convictions, three indictments and more than 100 new investigations.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 13, 2011
The woolly mammoth, extinct for thousands of years, could be brought back to life in as little as four years thanks to a breakthrough in cloning technology.
Previous efforts in the 1990s to recover nuclei in cells from the skin and muscle tissue from mammoths found in the Siberian permafrost failed because they had been too badly damaged by the extreme cold.
But a technique pioneered in 2008 by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama, of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, was s
Source: AP
January 13, 2011
Evidence is mounting that the pope will soon approve the miracle needed to beatify Pope John Paul II, setting the stage for a major celebration this year for a Catholic Church trying to recover from the clerical sex abuse scandal.
Italian news media have been reporting that in recent weeks Vatican-sponsored panels confirmed that a young French nun was miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease after praying to the Polish-born John Paul.
Pope Benedict XVI now must sign of
Source: Toronto Star
January 13, 2011
PASADENA, CALIF.—The Canadian director of The Kennedys says he made changes to the miniseries whenever the History Channel asked him to and was stunned by its recent decision not to air the shot-in-Toronto project.
“We were very surprised,” Jon Cassar said Tuesday night at a Fox network press event for TV critics. “The actual product takes no political stance one way or the other.”
Cassar, who was raised near Ottawa, was an executive producer on the Fox series 24....
Source: BBC News
January 12, 2011
An artist behind an iconic image of Barack Obama and the Associated Press news agency have agreed to settle copyright infringement claims.
As part of the deal, New York artist Shepard Fairey has agreed not to use another AP photo in his work without first obtaining a licence.
The two sides have also reached a financial settlement, the terms of which have not been disclosed.
The case relates to a picture of the US president taken in 2006.
Street
Source: Spiegel Online
January 12, 2011
A year after an earthquake devastated Haiti, the country is still in disastrous shape. Billions in aid seem to have only made the country a long-term patient of international donors and reconstruction has yet to begin in earnest. Much hope is riding on the coming election.
The sidewalks of Pétionville used to be Officer Jean Calas' pride and joy -- a last bit of order in a life that was drowning in chaos even then. The rules for the sidewalks were clear, he says: They were for pedes
Source: National Parks Traveler
January 13, 2011
One of the more interesting national park interpretive programs I've run across down through the years was a collection of oral histories that could be listened to in some homestead cabins in the Cataloochee area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
It was fascinating to hear the Cataloochee residents, in their own words, discuss the coming of the national park and life as they knew it in the valley.
Now, thanks to a $10,000 grant from the National Park Foundation, a
Source: Haaretz
January 12, 2011
United States Jewish leaders condemned Wednesday Sarah Palin's statement comparing the accusations against her in the wake of the shooting attack on Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to blood libel, a centuries-old claim that Jews use the blood of Christian children in religious rites.
The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) President and CEO David A. Harris said in a statement. "Perhaps Sarah Palin honestly does not know what a blood libel is, or does not know
Source: Reuters
January 13, 2011
BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour drew mixed reactions from analysts on Wednesday for his decision to push for a civil rights museum for his state ahead of a possible presidential bid.
Barbour urged the state's legislature during an annual address to build the $50 million museum in a state that became notorious during the 1950s and 1960s for violent enforcement of racial segregation and opposition to civil and voting rights.
Barbour, the
Source: Yahoo News
January 13, 2011
DETROIT – It took Air Force Col. James E. Dennany's family years to finally accept he would not be coming home alive from the Vietnam War, his 49-year-old son says.
Now, 41 years after Dennany's plane was shot down over Laos, his remains have been identified and he will finally be buried, along with those of the other Michigan airman who disappeared with him.
The Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office announced Wednesday that it had identified Dennany's remai
Source: BBC News
January 13, 2011
The presidential library commemorating the life of US President John F Kennedy is digitising every scrap of paper, video, audio and artefact it possesses.
The project is the largest undertaken by one of the 13 presidential library.
Materials already digitised include secret phone conversations about the Cuban missile crisis.
There are also recordings of meetings discussing Vietnam, civil rights and the space race, school report cards and letters from JFK to
Source: BBC News
January 13, 2011
The number of ongoing investigations into Nazi war criminals increased last year, says a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC).
From April 2009 to March 2010 there were 852 investigations being conducted worldwide, compared with 706 during the same period in 2008/09.
The SWC also awarded Germany an A-grade for its efforts to prosecute ex-Nazis.
This is the first time its top grade has been given to any country other than the United States.
Source: BBC News
January 13, 2011
A book billed as the sequel to JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has been banned from release in the US, according to reports.
Swedish author Fredrik Colting reached a settlement with Salinger's estate to end a lengthy copyright dispute over the book, Publishers Weekly said.
As part of the deal, the book cannot be published in the US or Canada. But it can be sold in other countries.
Colting must also stop calling his work 60 Years Later: Coming Through t
