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: Medieval News
Mar 29, 2010
Over £11 million of illuminated manuscripts will be sold at auction in July, including many medieval and Renaissance masterpieces. Christie's has announced that they will be holding a sale of the Arcana Collection: Exceptional Illuminated Manuscripts and Incunabula, on 7 July 2010 in London.
This private collection which has been assembled over the past three decades and which includes personal prayer books made for royalty, bishops, aristocracts and other important patrons from the
Source: National Geographic News
Mar 29, 2010
A 1,700-year-old sarcophagus found in an abandoned city near Rome could contain the body of a gladiator or a Christian dignitary, say archaeologists who are preparing to examine the coffin in the lab.
Found in a cement-capped pit in the ancient metropolis of Gabii, the coffin is unusual because it's made of lead—only a few hundred such Roman burials are known.
Even odder, the 800 pounds (362 kilograms) of lead fold over the corpse like a burrito, said Roman archaeologis
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 29, 2010
An invitation to the coronation of Charles II and restoration of the British monarchy after England ceased being a republic is to be auctioned 400 years on.
The handwritten letter was sent from Charles' trusted personal advisor to a nobleman and sets the date of the new king's restoration to the throne in 1661.
The parchment confirms arrangements for a royal procession through London, where Charles was welcomed back after years of exile while Oliver Cromwell was in po
Source: WaPo
Mar 29, 2010
The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again.
A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books.
The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday. That nu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 29, 2010
The first known portrait of a freed slave by a British artist could be saved for the nation after the Government ordered a temporary export ban.
The work, by renowned 18th century portraitist William Hoare, was sold at Christie's in December for £555,000.
Now Margaret Hodge, the Culture Minister, has agreed to a Temporary Export Bar to see if funds can be raised to keep it in Britain.
The 1733 painting shows Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, a highly-born and educa
Source: AP
Mar 29, 2010
Rare antiques from the ancestral home of Diana, Princess of Wales — including a 12 million pound ($18 million) Rubens portrait from the 17th Century — will be offered for sale this summer, an auction house said Monday.
Christie's auction house said it will sell about 20 million pounds ($30 million) worth of artifacts from Althorp House, in Northamptonshire, central England.
Other lots include English and French furniture, a mid-17th Century painting by Giovanni Francesc
Source: CNN
Mar 29, 2010
For the family of Air Force Maj. Curtis Daniel Miller, missing in action since 1972, that nightmare may finally be over.
On Monday, Miller's remains, identified in 2008, were buried in the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. He received full military honors, including an Air Force flyover.
There are more than 1,700 military personnel from the Vietnam War still considered missing in action, according to the Pentagon's Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Officer un
Source: Providence Journal (RI)
Mar 29, 2010
If you seek to discern the soul of Rhode Island in this census year of 2010, a visit to the Old State House is a good beginning. Here in this 246-year-old building, the state’s forbears were engaged in spirited debate in 1790, the first year that the federal government took count of the American people.
The General Assembly was divided on whether Rhode Island should become the last of the 13 former colonies to ratify the United States Constitution. Supporters of a strong centraliz
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Mar 29, 2010
Your poetry may be timeless, but as the name of a New Jersey Turnpike rest stop, your days may be numbered.
James Simpson, the new commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, is contemplating selling naming rights to the turnpike's rest stops as he scrambles for new revenue.
"The 'Nike Stop' . . . maybe that would be worth $10 million," Simpson said in a recent interview, pondering ways to wring more money out of turnpike concessions.
Source: Discovery News
Mar 29, 2010
The long-lost tomb of the 4,300-year-old Egyptian pharaoh Userkare may have been located.
The missing pyramid of an obscure pharaoh that ruled Egypt some 4,300 years ago could lie at the intersection of a series of invisible lines in South Saqqara, according to new astronomical and topographical research.
Connecting the funerary complexes raised by the kings of the 6th Dynasty between 2,322 B.C. and 2,151 B.C., these lines would have governed the sacred space of the Saq
Source: The Independent (UK)
Mar 29, 2010
A team of archaeologists have unearthed five chamber tombs at Ayia Sotira, a cemetery in the Nemea Valley in Greece, just a few hours walk from the ancient city of Mycenae. The tombs date from 1350 – 1200 BC, the era in which Mycenae thrived as a major centre of Greek civilization.
They contain the remains of 21 individuals who probably came from Tsoungiza, an agricultural settlement close to the ancient city. Despite the significant human remains, however, the team have found no e
Source: BBC
Mar 29, 2010
The Indian Supreme Court is currently considering whether a controversial tourist resort in the Andaman islands should close. The resort is near a forest reserve, which is home to the endangered Jarawa tribe. The BBC's Geeta Pandey, who has visited the area, reports from Delhi.
A handful of Jarawa tribesmen recently broke into a house in the village of Mathura in the Andaman islands. They left after taking away rice, sugar and coconut.
The first people to successfully
Source: The Boston Globe
Mar 29, 2010
It is where the government has hidden the most secret information: plans to relocate Congress if Washington were attacked, dossiers on double agents, case files about high-profile mob figures and their politician friends, and a disturbing number of reports about the possible smuggling of atomic bombs into the United States.
It is also where the bureau stowed documents considered more embarrassing than classified, including its history of illegal spying on domestic political organiza
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 29, 2010
Dr Ulrich Habsburg-Lothringen is barred from running for Austria's presidency by his country's republican constitution, drawn up when the last Habsburg Emperor Charles I was forced to abdicate power in 1918.
The 68-year old forester uses the name Lothringen, for the Lorraine branch of the imperial dynasty, when signing official documents.
Dr Habsburg, who has three children and six grandchildren, is angry that he and his descendants are discriminated against while can
Source: AP
Mar 29, 2010
Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the afterlife from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiquities authority said Monday.
These recessed niches found in nearly all ancient Egyptian tombs were meant to take the spirits of the dead to and from the afterworld. The nearly six-foot- tall slab of pink granite was covered with religious texts.
The door came from the tomb of User, the chief minister of Q
Source: BBC
Mar 29, 2010
Efforts to restore a castle in the Western Isles built in 1847 for a rich opium trader have secured £240,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
A further £2.6m of lottery funds could be awarded to Lews Castle if the restoration project's trust can produce detailed proposals within two years.
Lews Castle in Stornoway was constructed for James Matheson, who made his fortune from the opium trade.
Opium exported from China and India was often mixed with to
Source: AP
Mar 29, 2010
Forensic tests will be conducted on what two searchers believe are the remains of photographer Sean Flynn, son of Hollywood star Errol Flynn, who disappeared during the Cambodian War 40 years ago.
At least 37 journalists were killed or are listed as missing from the 1970-75 war, which pitted the U.S.-backed Lon Nol government against the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge.
Freelance "bone hunters" have also taken up the search for both missing journalists
Source: Times Online (UK)
Mar 28, 2010
At the headquarters of Human Rights Watch, more than 30 storeys above the noise and bustle of Manhattan, there is so much high-mindedness hanging in the air you can almost taste it. This is the epicentre of a certain type of socially smart, progressive activism — the kind that persuades Hollywood grandees, power lawyers and liberal financiers to dig deeply into their pockets.
When the story broke that one of the organisation’s most prominent and vocal members of staff might be a col
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 28, 2010
One of the last unspoilt quarters of traditional Beijing is facing demolition under a £500m "restoration" plan.
Conservationists argue that the plans will irrevocably damage one of the Chinese capital's social and architectural jewels.
The 30-acre development around the ancient Drum and Bell Towers, which were used to tell the time in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, will see traditional crooked courtyard houses and winding alleyways replaced with a themed
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 28, 2010
Having battled Islamic extremists, Irish Republican terrorists and Russian spies, some of the veteran intelligence officers of MI5 are encountering a foe they cannot master: information technology.
The Security Service is launching an unprecedented round of redundancies to improve the overall level of computer skills among its staff.
Despite an expanding budget, MI5 is laying off employees in order to hire new intelligence officers and support staff with better comman
