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: AM New York
Feb 24, 2010
The goat bones and oyster shells tell us what our colonial forefathers ate. Stone jugs from Germany show where they traded, and stylish brass buckles and pointy leather shoes are a reminder that New Yorkers have always been fashion savvy.
These are among 65,000 historic artifacts that have turned up during construction at the South Ferry subway station, and offer a rare glimpse into colonial New York. Next month, a new exhibit will provide the public with a window into this vanished
Source: The Australian
Feb 24, 2010
THE remains of nearly half the 250 Commonwealth soldiers recovered from recently discovered mass graves in northern France have been reburied at a new military cemetery near the site of the World War I battle of Fromelles.
Soldiers from the Australian and British armies laid the first soldier to rest last month, in an individual grave, with full military honours, thanks to the work of 30 British and Australian specialists who recovered all 250 sets of remains from burial pits in ne
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2010
The black and white hand-stitched garments with crests are valued at £400.
They are thought to date from 1874, when she was in her mid-50s, and are believed to have been the monarch's favourite design during the 1870s.
The stockings will be auctioned as part of a fine antiques sale at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on March 24.
Source: WaPo
Feb 24, 2010
When Dirk Hannema declared he had discovered a previously unknown Van Gogh painting in 1975, he became the laughing stock of the art world.
The museum curator was well-known for his tall tales in the Dutch art community and was widely mocked for filling his personal collection with forgeries.
"This discovery is not an attribution but an absolute certainty," he assured his peers to guffaws.
But 25 years after his death, Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum
Source: IPS
Feb 24, 2010
Hajj Khodari lifts a defiant fist at the demolition machinery now just meters away from his front door.
"I will not be forced out of my home without fair compensation," the village elder vows as a hydraulic hammer reduces his neighbor’s brick home to rubble. "If they try to destroy my house I will lock myself inside it."
Khodari is the patriarch of an extended family of 14 who live in the two-storey house, its exterior walls adorned with paintings o
Source: Fox News
Feb 24, 2010
On the eve of the Obama administration's most aggressive push yet to pass a national health care plan, a 50-year-old audio recording of former President Ronald Reagan speaking out against "socialized medicine" has become a huge YouTube sensation.
On the eve of the Obama administration's most aggressive push yet to pass a national health care plan, a 50-year-old audio recording of Ronald Reagan speaking out against "socialized medicine" has become a huge You
Source: NYT
Feb 24, 2010
When Pawel looks into the mirror, he can still sometimes see a neo-Nazi skinhead staring back, the man he once was before he covered his shaved head with a yarmulke, shed his fascist ideology for the Torah and renounced violence and hatred in favor of God.
“I still struggle every day to discard my past ideas,” said Pawel, a 33-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew and former truck driver, noting with little irony that he had to stop hating Jews in order to become one.
“When I loo
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2010
Greece has greatly damaged its chances of an EU bail-out by lashing out at Germany over war-time atrocities and accusing Italy of cooking its books to hide public debt.
The escalating dispute came as a general strike in Greece spilled over into violent clashes between hooded youths and riot police in Athens. Chants of "burn the banks" are a foretaste of tensions once austerity measures bite in earnest later this year.
Theodoros Pangalos, deputy prime ministe
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2010
They are synonymous with the 1970s, but the fashion for platform heels began in the 16th century as a symbol of extreme wealth, a new exhibition reveals.
Impractically high heels, known as chopines, were worn by upper-class women in Italy and Spain during the late Renaissance era.
The higher the heel, the longer - and therefore more expensive - the dress needed to cover them, and the more servants needed to support the wearer.
The exhibition at the Bata Sh
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2010
The son of one of the founders of Hamas spied from inside the movement for Israel for more than a decade, providing intelligence that helped prevent dozens of suicide bombings, according to a report.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, 32, was one of the most valuable sources for Shin Bet, Israel's internal intelligence agency, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Wednesday.
His reports led to the arrests of Ibrahim Hamid, once the Islamic militant group's military chief in the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2010
When Dirk Hannema declared he had discovered a previously unknown Van Gogh painting in 1975, he became the laughing stock of the art world.
But 25 years after his death, Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum has said the notorious fantasist was right after all.
Yesterday experts said the anonymous work he bought for for 6,500 francs from a Paris dealer was almost certainly by the Dutch master.
Source: BBC News
Feb 24, 2010
Small dogs may all originate from the Middle East, according to research from the University of California.
A study published in the journal BioMed Central found a gene found in small dogs, IGF1, is closely related to one found in Middle Eastern wolves.
Archaeologists have found the remains of small dogs dating back 12,000 years in the region.
In Europe, older remains have been uncovered, dating from 31,000 years ago, but these are from larger dogs.
Source: Fox News
Feb 24, 2010
One of the nation's most highly decorated veterans was being laid to rest on Wednesday.
Ret. Colonel Robert L Howard, a Medal of Honor recipient who was awarded eight Purple Hearts for his service in the Vietnam War, was to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
Howard, who died on Dec. 23, was 70.
Howard was wounded 14 times during 54 months of combat duty — five tours — in Vietnam. He retired from the Army as a full colonel in 2006 aft
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2010
Edinburgh Castle was the most popular paid for visitor attraction in Scotland last year, new figures reveal.
The castle welcomed 1,196,481 visitors through its doors in 2009, a 6% increase on the previous year.
Stirling Castle was the second most popular paid for attraction, drawing 383,293 visitors, an increase of 2%.
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow was the most visited free attraction in Scotland, with 1,368,096 people passing through the
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2010
The fossilised remains of a gigantic 10m-long predatory shark have been unearthed in Kansas, US.
Scientists dug up a gigantic jawbone, teeth and scales belonging to the shark which lived 89 million years ago.
The bottom-dwelling predator had huge tooth plates, which it likely used to crush large shelled animals such as giant clams.
Palaeontologists already knew about the shark, but the new specimen suggests it was far bigger than previously thought.
Source: BBC News
Feb 24, 2010
German pen maker Montblanc has apologised unconditionally to a court in southern India for a luxury pen containing images of Mahatma Gandhi.
The firm told the court in Kerala state it would suspend sales of the $24,000 (£16,000) pen until a ruling on whether it could continue to sell it in India.
Opponents of the pricey pen argue that it is an inappropriate way of honouring a man who was known for his austerity.
The gold and silver limited edition pen inclu
Source: AP
Feb 24, 2010
John Demjanjuk served as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp in Germany during World War II, a former Soviet soldier who was taken prisoner by the Germans testified at his trial Wednesday.
However, witness Alex Nagorny cast doubt on the statement by saying that the man being tried at the Munich state court didn't look like his fellow guard at the Flossenbuerg camp.
Prosecutors allege that, like Nagorny, Demjanjuk agreed to serve the Germans and was trained at the Trawn
Source: Times Online (UK)
Feb 24, 2010
The exhibition, Turner and the Masters, which arrives in Paris after its inauguration at Tate Britain last autumn and before moving on to Madrid this summer, has sparked unprecedented fervour for the English landscape painter.
The French press has devoted pages to the “precursor of modernity”. At least four biographies of Turner have been published to coincide with the exhibition and the television channel Arte is to screen a documentary on him next week.
The French U
Source: Press Republican
Feb 23, 2010
Part of a stone foundation discovered next to one of the old Champlain Bridge pillars could be from a small French fort built in 1731.
The foundation is about a foot and a half from the side of a pillar on the Vermont shore, but archeologists don’t know if it’s from the fort or an early house.
The Champlain Bridge closed Oct. 16, 2009, and was destroyed by controlled explosives Dec. 28. A new bridge is scheduled to be constructed nearby starting this spring.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 23, 2010
An Irish journalist tried to place Tony Blair under citizen's arrest for war crimes on Tuesday night during a visit by the former prime minister to the European Parliament.
David Cronin, a reporter for the Inter Press Service news agency and a regular commentator for The Guardian, placed his hand on Mr Blair's arm and said: "This is a citizens' arrest. You are guilty of war crimes."
Mr Blair, speaking to MEPs about his role as EU and US envoy to the Middle Ea
