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: Fox News LiveShots Blog
November 10, 2010
Major Ginnette Ruth studied the Holocaust in school but this Puerto Rican native never thought she would see Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with her own eyes.
“Walking through the actual grounds of this mass atrocity was overwhelming," she said.
It is estimated that around 1.1 million people were killed at Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp -- more commonly known as Auschwitz.
"I am a mother myself
Source: Physorg.com
November 12, 2010
With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists Leslie Reeder of Southern Methodist University, Torben Rick from the Smithsonian Institution, and Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk.
Writing in the Journal of Coastal Conservation and using California's Santa Barbara Channel as a case study, the researchers illustrate how quantifiable factors such as historical rates of shoreline change, wave
Source: GlobalPost
November 11, 2010
ROME, Italy — Tourists in Italy today were out of luck as workers at hundreds of museums, archaeological monuments, libraries and cultural sites went on strike.
But the Ministry of Culture hoped the massive labor action in protest of drastic budget cuts would do something to preserve those sites for generations to come.
“The meaning of this strike, which has very large participation, is to say to Italians, ‘Listen, people, wake up. This is our identity,’” said Ilaria B
Source: PressTV
November 12, 2010
A New York exhibition of ancient tablets has revealed the highly sophisticated mathematical practices and education in central-southern Mesopotamia.
Before Pythagoras: The Culture of Old Babylonian Mathematics displays thirteen Babylonian tablets which show that people of the region were math experts more than 1,000 years before Greek mathematicians were even born.
Held at the New York University's Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), the event exh
Source: Times of Malta
November 12, 2010
Peruvian archaeologists have discovered six mummified dogs, all dating from the 15th century and apparently presented as religious offerings at a major pre-Columbian site just south of Lima.
The dogs “have hair and complete teeth,” said Jesus Holguin, an archaeologist at the museum in Pachacamac, located some 25 kilometres south of Lima.
Mr Holguin said that experts were still trying to determine their breed....
Source: Huffington Post
November 12, 2010
When Crown Publishing inked a deal with George W. Bush for his memoirs, the publisher knew it wasn't getting Faulkner. But the book, at least, promises "gripping, never-before-heard detail" about the former president's key decisions, offering to bring readers "aboard Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq," and other undisclos
Source: Smithsonian Blog
November 10, 2010
My uncle Jay is a teddy bear of a man, with a fluffy beard, gentle eyes and a corny joke for every situation. He and my aunt even collect teddy bears. It’s always been hard for me to reconcile this cuddly image with the one of him carrying a grenade launcher during the year he spent in the U.S. Army as a combat infantry soldier in Vietnam.
Jay was drafted in 1966. He arrived in Vietnam on December 25, a few weeks after his 21st birthday. “The first thing I said was, ‘Even for a Jew,
Source: AOL News
November 12, 2010
(Nov. 12) -- Jewish leaders have condemned Glenn Beck for comments he made on Fox News accusing billionaire philanthropist George Soros -- a Jew -- of being complicit with the Holocaust as a child in Nazi-occupied Hungary.
On three TV programs this past week, the conservative commentator has focused on Soros, a Hungarian-born financier and democracy advocate, calling him a "puppet master" who is "notorious for collapsing economies and regimes all around the world.&quo
Source: BBC News
November 12, 2010
Palaeontologists have identified the oldest known dinosaur embryos, belonging to a species that lived some 190 million years ago.
The eggs of Massospondylus, containing well-perserved embryos, were unearthed in South Africa back in 1976.
The team writes in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology that the dino was an ancestor of the giant, plant-eating sauropods, such as Brontosaurus.
The study also sheds light on the dinosaurs' early development.
Source: BBC News
November 12, 2010
Polish composer Henryk Gorecki has died at the age of 76, the country's national orchestra has announced.
He was best known for his Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, which was composed in 1976 and sold more than a million copies following a 1992 re-release.
The symphony, re-issued to commemorate those who died in the Holocaust, featured vocals from US soprano Dawn Upshaw.
It was often played on radio station Classic FM when it launched in 1992.
Monu
Source: BBC News
November 12, 2010
Celebrations leading up to the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in 2015 have got under way.
Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger and Lord Chancellor Ken Clarke will address a public launch at a memorial site in Runnymede, Surrey, where King John sealed the document in 1215.
Exhibitions of the charter of rights are planned in the UK and Commonwealth.
The Magna Carta Trust is also campaigning for a national holiday and a commemorative stamp and coin.
Source: CNN
November 9, 2010
The vicious, swirling storm that battered the Great Lakes region in late October inspired talk of a similar gale that brought about one of the great mysteries of the 20th century.
The mighty ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald, one of the largest ships on America's inland seas, seemed invincible in its bulk and mass, but it was no match for a howling Lake Superior gale on November 10, 1975.
A day earlier, the 729-foot behemoth, operated by mineral company Oglebay Norton, had
Source: BBC News
November 11, 2010
Dino De Laurentiis, legendary producer of such cult films as Flash Gordon and Dune, has died in Los Angeles aged 91, his family has said.
He began his career in Italy working with Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini, winning an Oscar for producing the latter's 1954 film La Strada.
After moving to the US in the 1970s, he oversaw films such as Serpico, Death Wish and the 1976 remake of King Kong.
He also produced four films featuring the serial killer Han
Source: AP
November 11, 2010
A solemn ceremony at Paris' Grand Mosque has been held to honor the memory of Muslims who fought for France in World War I.
Defense Minister Herve Morin and Veterans Affairs Minister Hubert Falco took part in Thursday's ceremony, one of several official events marking the 92nd anniversary of the end of World War I.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy also revived the eternal flame on the tomb of the unknown soldier, beneath the Paris' Arc de Triomphe. Some 3,000 people tur
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2010
The last surviving British veteran of the First World War will not mark Remembrance Day today because he wants to forget the horrors of war, his family has said.
Since leaving the Navy in 1956 Claude Choules, now aged 109, has refused to march in Anzac Day parades in his adopted home of Australia and has become increasingly pacifist.
Daphne Edinger, his daughter, said that her father did not believe in war and did not want to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the
Source: BBC
November 10, 2010
Cuba has condemned the release of a new video game in which United States special forces try to kill a young Fidel Castro.
State-run media said the game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, attempted to legitimise murder and assassination in the name of entertainment.
The Cubadebate website said it would also turn American children into sociopaths.
It is expected to be one of the biggest selling video games of the year
The BBC correspondent in Havana, Mic
Source: BBC
November 11, 2010
The family of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is preparing to bring him home from hospital "within days", Israeli sources say.
The 82-year-old has been in a coma since 2006, when he suffered a massive stroke.
Sources told the BBC he could be moved to his farm in the Negev "as early as Friday" from his hospital in Tel Aviv.
Nicknamed "the bulldozer", the former general was seen as a strong leader by Israelis, but rev
Source: BBC
November 10, 2010
A private collection of work by Salford-born artist LS Lowry has reached more than £5m at auction.
Bookmaking tycoon Selwyn Demmy put up the collection of 21 paintings and drawings for auction.
Christie's, which held the auction in London, said the collection was "the most extensive overview of Lowry's work ever to come to auction".
An oil painting - The Steps, Irk Place, 1928 - raised the highest amount at £713,250.
The painting, sho
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2010
Military forensic experts are trying to identify the bodies of six British soldiers found in a Flanders field 96 years after they fell in battle during the First World War.
They were uncovered last month after a farmer's plough snagged on human remains in a potato field near the town of Comines-Warneton.
The men had been buried in their greatcoats, probably after being killed in action during fierce fighting near Ploegsteert forest in November 1914, during the First B
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2010
A Chinese vase discovered during a house clearance sold for a world record-breaking £53.1 million last night.
The 18th century Qianlong porcelain vase had been estimated to fetch between £800,000 and £1.2 million by Bainbridges, the provincial auction house handling the sale....
