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: ABC News
Mar 17, 2010
American reality TV has left a trail of corpses, but we can still say this: No one appears to have been executed on any of the U.S. shows.
That's apparently not the case in France, where, according to a new French documentary series, people would be willing to kill their countrymen for their 15 minutes of fame.
Eighty people who thought they were participating in the shooting of a pilot for a French reality series were willing to deliver potentially lethal electric sho
Source: Reuters
Mar 17, 2010
From French poodles to German shepherds, domestic dogs likely trace most of their ancestry to the Middle East, as opposed to East Asian origins suggested by previous research, a genetic study reported on Wednesday.
The findings, published in the online edition of the scientific journal Nature, support an archeological record that closely links the domestication of dogs in the Middle East with the rise of human civilization there, scientists said.
The archeological recor
Source: UPI
Mar 17, 2010
Winter storms on the Outer Banks have uncovered the remains of what may be the oldest shipwreck on the North Carolina coast, experts say.
Investigators from the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch came to Corolla, N.C., to document the estimated 400-year-old wreck before it disappears, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday.
The wreck has already drifted two miles since storms uncovered it in December.
Source: AP
Mar 17, 2010
Israeli archaeologists have announced that ruins long thought to be of an ancient synagogue are actually the remains of a palace used by Muslim caliphs 1,300 years ago.
The site on the banks of the Sea of Galilee was identified as a synagogue in the 1950s because archaeologists found a carving of a menorah, a seven-armed candelabra, that is a Jewish symbol. But scholars say in a new report that the identification was an error....
Source: Die Spiegel (Germany)
Mar 17, 2010
Germans are popular in India and Pakistan, but not always for the right reasons. Many in South Asia have nothing but admiration for Adolf Hitler and still associate Germany with the Third Reich. Everyday encounters with the love of all things Nazi makes German visitors cringe.
Pakistan is the opposite of Germany. The mountains are in the north, the sea is in the south, the economic problems are in the west and the east is doing well. It's not hard for a German living in Pakistan to
Source: Voice of America
Mar 17, 2010
Russian nationalists in Crimea have burned Ukrainian history textbooks to protest what they say are distortions of the past by the administration of former President Viktor Yushchenko. The recent transfer of power in Kyiv has raised hope among Russian nationalists and fear among Ukrainians.
On Sunday, Russian nationalists in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, threw Ukrainian history textbooks into boxes at the foot of a local monument to Russian
Source: WaPo
Mar 17, 2010
Texas has been here before, here being in a mess with its American history curriculum and textbooks.
The great state is in the spotlight now because its state board of education pushed through some silly and historically inaccurate revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum which historians say pervert American history.
There is, for example, a new requirement for students to study both Abraham Lincoln’s and Jefferson Davis’ inaugural addresses, as if they had equ
Source: NYT
Mar 17, 2010
In the dried mud of the Irrawaddy Delta, workers are welding together the final pieces of a natural-gas pipeline that the country’s ruling generals say will keep the lights on in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, after years of debilitating blackouts.
The pipeline near Pyapon will help keep Yangon's lights on.
Residents who for years were lucky to get eight hours of power a day may soon have the luxury of refrigerators that stay cold and televisions that stay on.
Source: AP
Mar 17, 2010
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is opening a new permanent exhibit exploring human evolution over 6 million years.
The nearly $21 million Hall of Human Origins opens Wednesday. It will include more than 285 fossils and artifacts, including the only Neanderthal skeleton in the United States.
Source: AP
Mar 17, 2010
Israeli archaeologists have announced that ruins long thought to be of an ancient synagogue are actually the remains of a palace built by Arab caliphs 1,300 years ago.
The site, on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, was identified as a synagogue in the 1950s because archaeologists found a carving of a menorah, a seven-armed candelabra that is a Jewish symbol. But scholars said in a report published this week that the identification was an error, and that the site was a winter palace u
Source: The Washington Post
Mar 17, 2010
Historians criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum Tuesday, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state's borders.
The changes, which were preliminarily approved last week by the Texas board of education and are expected to be given final approval in May, will reach deeply into Texas history classrooms, defining what textbooks must include and what teachers must cov
Source: BBC
Mar 17, 2010
A stolen souvenir from the Battle of Waterloo has been returned to the Borders home of Sir Walter Scott.
The silver bowl, known as a quaich, was taken from Abbotsford House near Melrose in 1994.
However, it was spotted late last year in a French antiques market by silver expert Wynyard Wilkinson who identified it and arranged for its return.
The Waterloo Tree Quaich, one of many historic relics collected by Scott, will go on public display this weekend.
Source: BBC
Mar 17, 2010
Ukrainian archaeologists say they have identified the remains of HMS Prince, a British naval vessel that sank off Balaclava during the Crimean War.
The sinking, with all 150 men on board, caused outrage not only for the human toll, but because thousands of badly needed winter uniforms were also lost.
The ship had not been found since it sank during a storm in November 1854.
Other underwater expeditions have found parts of the ship, but it is the first pos
Source: BBC
Mar 17, 2010
Families of some British soldiers lost in action during World War I who thought their bodies had at last been found have had their hopes dashed.
Relatives of the soldiers thought to have been killed in the 1916 battle of Fromelles gave DNA samples after the bodies were exhumed last year.
But it has not been possible to identify all the 250 Allied soldiers found buried in the mass grave.
It has only been possible to say that three of the soldiers were Brit
Source: BBC
Mar 17, 2010
A painting owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Art Foundation, which was at the centre of a dispute about its Nazi-era history, is to go under the hammer.
Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto is being offered with a pre-sale estimate of between £30m-£40m - the highest for any work of art ever offered in Europe.
It was expected to fetch up to $60m (£37.6m) at auction in 2006, but the sale was blocked at the last minute.
The dispute surrounding the 1903 work was
Source: BBC
Mar 17, 2010
The Vatican has announced a commission to investigate claims that the Virgin Mary appears on a daily basis in a town in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Six children first reported the apparition in the town of Medjugorje in June 1981.
However, the sightings have not yet received official recognition from the Catholic Church.
The 20-strong commission will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the top doctrinal body.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 17, 2010
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may die within three years, according to a senior US envoy.
Kurt Campbell, the assistant US Secretary of State, told ambassador Kathleen Stephens, a South Korean politician and activists in a closed-door session that he doubted the 68-year-old leader would live beyond 2013, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.
Mr Campbell based his estimate on medical information, the report said, citing unidentified sources.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 17, 2010
A photograph taken more than 40 years ago showing a young Barack Obama as a schoolboy in Indonesia has been found, days before he begins his presidential visit to the country.
The picture was given to Associated Press by Hadi Surya Dharma, a childhood friend of Mr Obama's, who sits beside the future president in the black and white photo.
Mr Obama, who was born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, moved to Indonesia when he was seven – after his mother married an
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 17, 2010
Turkey has threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from the country in response to the US branding the First World War killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "genocide".
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said the position of the immigrants, many of whom have lived there as refugees for a generation, was being reviewed in the wake of the row.
Armenia claims more than 500,000 of its countrymen died in bitter in-fighting as the Ottoman Empire di
Source: Fox News
Mar 17, 2010
Tourist attraction that claims to be the world's first-ever leprechaun museum is dedicated to the mythical mischief-maker of Irish folklore.
The National Leprechaun Museum aimed to open up "a magical world full of fascinating folklore and enchanting stories" by providing an interactive experience, it said.
Visitors would enter a world where they would become one of the infamous miniature shoemakers, walking under a replica of the mystical Northern Irish landma
