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: AP
Mar 25, 2010
A U.S. replica of the 19th century Cuban slave ship Amistad glided into the millpond-calm waters of Havana Bay and docked Thursday, a reminder of the countries' intertwined past and perhaps a small gesture toward a brighter shared future.
Built in Connecticut, the black-hulled, two-masted re-creation of the schooner, whose name means "Friendship," flew the flags of the United States, Cuba and United Nations. It was one of the few times a ship under Cuba's flag and the Star
Source: Medieval News
Mar 25, 2010
The severe epidemic of plague known as the "Black Death" caused the death of a third of the European population in the 14th century. It is probable that the climatic conditions of the time were a contributory factor towards the disaster.
"The late Middle Ages were unique from the point of view of climate," explains Dr Ulf Büntgen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) in Birmensdorf, Switzerland. "Significantly, there we
Source: Medieval News
Mar 25, 2010
Important work to safeguard the boundary wall of the historic Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds, England, is nearing completion thanks to a £100,000 grant from English Heritage.
Repairs to painstakingly rebuild and underpin the precinct north wall have been going on for seven weeks largely behind the popular aviary in the Gardens and away from public gaze.
It has involved carefully dismantling the top section of the flintwork above and adjacent to the aviary as well as s
Source: Ria Novosti
Mar 25, 2010
The organizing committee for the May 9 celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the victory over the Nazi Germany is not planning to use any images, videos or other promotional material involving Josef Stalin.
"This never happened, not even in the Soviet era," a committee source said. This year, the organizers have also asked the regional authorities to refrain from carrying Stalin's portraits. This primarily concerns Moscow, where his portraits would have been posted along
Source: CNN
Mar 25, 2010
Thurgood Marshall, Hattie McDaniel, the Tuskegee Airmen and Walter Morris -- all African-Americans who made history breaking the color barrier. But while America's first black Supreme Court justice, the first African-American Oscar winner and the U.S. military's first African-American pilots are well known, you may never have heard of Walter Morris or his role in American history.
The War Department, as the Defense Department used to be called, wanted it that way. On Thursday, a cer
Source: BBC News
Mar 25, 2010
President Hugo Chavez has added three days to Venezuela's Easter holiday to deal with a growing energy crisis.
The move - which will close government and public offices - means most Venezuelans will have a seven-day break starting on 1 April.
Mr Chavez said the aim of the measure was not to encourage "laziness, but to save energy".
Caracas says a drought has dropped water reserves at Venezuela's main hydroelectric dam to critical levels.
Source: BBC News
Mar 25, 2010
Questions are being raised about whether Pope Benedict was personally involved in covering up a case of child sex abuse by a Roman Catholic priest.
Documents seen by the New York Times newspaper suggest that in the 1990s, long before he became Pope, he failed to respond to letters about a US case.
Fr Lawrence Murphy, of Wisconsin, was accused of abusing up to 200 deaf boys.
Defending itself, the Vatican said US civil authorities had investigated and dropped
Source: Reuters
Mar 24, 2010
The Victorian Gothic novel Dracula is associated with the dense forests of Transylvania rather than the Georgian squares of Dublin, but the great great nephew of its Irish born author thinks that is an oversight.
In time for the centenary of Bram Stoker's death, which will be in 2012, Dacre Stoker has begun work to raise money to erect a memorial to his ancestor to join the statues and plaques commemorating Dublin's many other writers, such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
Source: BBC News
Mar 24, 2010
Sixty-five years after Burma Star-winner David Norman Davies helped liberate the country now known as Myanmar from Japanese occupation, he's returning to south east Asia to honour his fallen comrades.
"I wouldn't say I think about Burma every day or wake up dreaming about it every night - it was an awfully long time ago now.
"But a smell, a sound or something on telly can take you back there in a flash," said Mr Davies who lives in Cardiff.
&
Source: AINA
Mar 24, 2010
An Anglican Church pastor and his wife were assaulted by Security agents in Luxor on March 18, 2010, in order to evacuate them by force from their home and demolish Church property. Out of the nearly 3000 sq. meters of buildings attached to the Church, only the 400 sq. meter prayer hall was left standing.
Pastor Mahrous Karam of the Anglican Church in Luxor, 721 km from Cairo, said that the Church was still in negotiations with the Luxor authorities the day before regarding a replac
Source: WaPo
Mar 24, 2010
Much of the story has been told before: The dignitaries gathered by the Tidal Basin. First lady Helen Taft used a new spade to plant the first cherry tree. Among those present were Eliza Scidmore, who had helped bring the trees to Washington, and an Army grounds superintendent.
It was March 27, 1912, the event that gave birth to the National Cherry Blossom Festival. But almost a century later, little is ever said of the other two VIPs there that day -- Japanese Viscountess Iwa Chind
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 24, 2010
Drawings believed to be those that Adolf Hitler submitted in a failed attempt to gain entry into the Vienna Academy of Art are to be auctioned.
And a distinguished emeritus dean of art has studied them and said that today they would be considered only up to "moderate GCSE standard."
Some have speculated that Hitler's rejection from art college helped shape his character in later years.
He believed that it was a Jewish professor who had rejected h
Source: Discovery News
Mar 24, 2010
Yvan Arpa has put dust from the moon and rust from the Titanic in watches. This time, he has gone further by setting fossilized dinosaur excrement into his latest timepieces.
The price tag of 12,000 francs (8,365 euros, $11,265) for the watch, which looks rather rugged and comes with toad skin straps, is reasonable, according to Arpa, who noted that each is a "unique" work which contains a piece of history.
He said tests have shown that the excrement originate
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2010
Bolivia's army has begun using the revolutionary motto "Fatherland or death, we shall overcome!", angering some conservative former generals.
President Evo Morales introduced the slogan, which was popularised by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara - the leaders of the Cuban communist revolution.
It is seen as part of Mr Morales' effort to turn the army into guarantors of his socialist revolution.
Bolivian troops executed Che Guevara, who led rebels the
Source: BBC
Mar 24, 2010
Scientists have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human through analysis of DNA from a finger bone unearthed in a Siberian cave.
The extinct "hominin" (human like creature) lived in Central Asia between 48,000 and 30,000 years ago.
An international team has sequenced genetic material from the fossil showing that it is distinct from that of Neanderthals and modern humans.
Details of the find, dubbed "X-woman", have been pu
Source: ABC News
Mar 24, 2010
Archaeologists in Jerusalem are competing to unearth artifacts pointing to the ancient city's Jewish past, which are used to justify Israel's claim to all of it as the indivisible capital of the modern Jewish state.
But critics say some of "finds" are really just bending science to prove a "Biblical heritage" that is open to dispute.
With generous funding, including from religious groups intent on expanding Jewish settlement, archaeologists are diggi
Source: NPR
Mar 24, 2010
There's a plan afoot among evolutionary scientists to launch a big new project — to look back in time and find out how climate change over millions of years affected human evolution.
A panel of experts from the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., has given its blessing to the plan. They say it could unveil a whole new side of human history.
Anthropologist Rick Potts, who heads the human origins department at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, has
Source: The Economic Times
Mar 24, 2010
Archaeologists in China have found the ruins of a 2,000-year-old city dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, a report said Wednesday.
The site, located near Fujiacun village in Fengcheng city in Jiangxi province, covers about 18,000 square metres and is surrounded by a moat, Xinhua news agency reported.
About 30 metres of the wall surrounding the ancient city was still standing on its west and pieces of broken tiles were found scattered on the ground, it said.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 24, 2010
Palaeontologists have unearthed the partial remains of a new species of dinosaur buried in rocks in the western US state of Utah.
Buried by a collapsing sand dune an estimated 185 million years ago, the new dinosaur was probably a plant eater and an early relative of the giant animals later known as sauropods.
Named Seitaad ruessi, the species was 10-to-15 feet long and 3-to-4 feet high. Its bones were found protruding from sandstone at the base of a cliff, directly be
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 24, 2010
An ''outstanding'' collection of illuminated manuscripts previously owned by kings, bishops and the aristocracy is expected to fetch up to £16 million when it goes under the hammer.
The private collection, which Christie's described as the most valuable of its kind ever to be offered at auction, includes the personal prayerbooks of King Francois I of France and Elizabeth de Bohun, great-grandmother of King Henry V of England.
The Arcana Collection: Exceptional Illumin
