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: Times (UK)
Feb 18, 2010
A Red Army soldier who appeared in an iconic photograph of a Soviet flag flying from the ruins of Hitler’s Reichstag has died, aged 93.
Abdulkhakim Ismailov had fought all the way to Berlin from the Battle of Stalingrad three years earlier, where the destruction of the German Sixth Army turned the tide against the Nazi regime in the Second World War.
But he was only recognised half a century later as one of three soldiers raising the Hammer and Sickle flag in a pictur
Source: Irish Times
Feb 17, 2010
FORMER ATTORNEY general John Rogers SC, who lives in the Boyne valley, will be among the objectors to plans by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority (NRA) to build a bypass of Slane 500 metres from the Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex.
Today is the last day for making submissions to An Bord Pleanála, which will adjudicate on the scheme under the 2006 Strategic Infrastructure Act.
Depending on the number of objections, the board may decide to hold an
Source: Jakarta Post
Feb 17, 2010
A megalithic settlement has recently been unearthed at Skendal village, 10 kilometers from the town of Pagaralam in South Sumatra.
Irfan Wintarto, an official at the Lahat Culture and Tourism Agency's Historical and Archeological Preservation Department, said local residents had discovered around 36 types of rocks on a 150-by-300-meter plot in the middle of a 2-hectare coffee plantation. The site is currently being investigated by the Archeological Region Conservation and Heritage C
Source: New Scientist
Feb 17, 2010
...Until now, the accepted view has been that our ancestors underwent a "creative explosion" around 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, when they suddenly began to think abstractly and create rock art. This idea is supported by the plethora of stunning cave paintings, like those at Chauvet, which started to proliferate across Europe around this time. Writing, on the other hand, appeared to come much later, with the earliest records of a pictographic writing system dating back to just 5000 year
Source: Discovery News
Feb 17, 2010
When dinosaurs became extinct, some birds got fat and lost their ability to fly, concludes a new study that helps to explain the existence of modern hefty birds, like ostriches, rheas, kiwis, emus, and cassowaries.
The very basic process is that when an animal, or multiple species, die out, others can come in to fill the previously occupied ecological niche. (It makes me wonder what animal(s) would fill the ecosystem void left by humans, should we become extinct.)
Matth
Source: Discovery News
Feb 17, 2010
Some animals identified as being dinosaurs may have evolved from birds, according to a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Keep in mind that animals can evolve similar traits independently. The accepted transition from dinosaur to bird, or in this proposed case—bird to dinosaur—didn't necessary follow a simple path from large beast to tiny, feathered flier. For example, some dinosaurs are thought to have had feathers and beaks, traits we no
Source: AP
Feb 17, 2010
The Shroud sells.
That seems to be the early take on how major celebrations are shaping up in the Olympic city of Turin when the archdiocese this spring displays the Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as Jesus Christ's burial cloth but described by some as a medieval forgery.
At least 1 million reservations from around the world have already poured in to secure three to five minutes to admire the cloth that has fascinated pilgrims and scientists alike, organize
Source: New York Times
Feb 17, 2010
The discovery of the nearly intact Hindu temple was a reminder of the long religious trajectory of the country that now has the world’s largest Muslim population. In few places on earth have three major religions intermixed with such intensity and proximity as in Indonesia’s island of Java. If the sultan of Yogyakarta’s palace lies at the heart of this city, Java’s spiritual center, the world’s largest Buddhist monument, Borobudur, and one of its largest Hindu temples, Prambanan, stand in its ou
Source: AP
Feb 17, 2010
A home renovation in Jerusalem's Old City has yielded a rare Arabic inscription offering insight into the city's history under Muslim rule, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday.
The fragment of a 1,100-year-old plaque is thought to have been made by an army veteran to express his thanks for a land grant from the Caliph al-Muqtadir, whom the inscription calls "Emir of the Faithful."
Dating from a time when Jerusalem was ruled from Baghdad by the Abbasid empire
Source: AP
Feb 17, 2010
Federal prosecutors in Utah are disclosing more about the confidential informant at the center of a two-year federal investigation into the looting of Southwestern artifacts.
In federal court filings Tuesday, U.S. attorneys in Salt Lake City said they're giving defense attorneys copies of the informant's agreement with FBI investigators, records of his payments and a copy of his criminal background check.
Source: NPR
Feb 17, 2010
[I]s the D.C. dysfunction really so unusual? In a word, yes.
Historians and politicos alike say the current rancor on the Hill is, indeed, historic, and has been building over recent decades to a level unlike any in modern times. Some had to reach back to the late 1800s and the progressive movement to find comparable Capitol Hill acrimony. It exceeds that of the 1940s, when Harry Truman ran against a "do-nothing" Congress to win the White House, and the sharp partisanship
Source: LocalNet
Feb 17, 2010
President Nicolas Sarkozy is bringing a French plan to rebuild Haiti with him on Wednesday's visit to the Caribbean country, a trip officials hope will usher in a new era between France and its former colony.
Some Haitians are welcoming France's new interest in their earthquake-shattered nation as a counterbalance to the United States, which has sent troops there three times in the past 16 years.
But Sarkozy's visit, the first ever by a French president to what was its
Source: Der Spiegel International
Feb 17, 2010
The Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania has protested against the inclusion of a Romanian film about anti-communist partisans in the Berlinale festival program. They say the main character was fascist and anti-Semitic.
The Berlin International Film Festival is no stranger to controversy and, as it celebrates its 60th anniversary, another scandal may be brewing.
The Romanian film "Portrait of the Young Man as a Fighter," whi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 17, 2010
In a letter to the Pope, the scholars said that making Pius XII a saint could do grave damage to relations between the Catholic Church and Jews and that he had become a de facto "symbol of Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism".
Jewish groups have long claimed that Pius turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, but this is thought to be the first time that a group of Catholic theologians have issued such a strongly worded appeal to the Pope.
They endorsed deman
Source: AP
Feb 17, 2010
It turns out Egypt's beloved boy-king wasn't so golden after all — or much of a wild and crazy guy, for that matter.
But will research showing King Tut was actually a hobbled, weak teen with a cleft palate and club foot kill enthusiasm for a mummy that has fascinated the world for nearly a century?
Not likely, historians say, even though the revelations hardly fit the popular culture depiction of a robust, exotically handsome young pharaoh, or a dancing "how'd-you-
Source: BBC
Feb 17, 2010
Scientists have analysed the DNA of ancient giant European wild cattle that died out almost 400 years ago.
They have determined the first mitochondrial genome sequence from aurochs (Bos primigenius) from bone found in a cave in England.
The work was carried out at the University College Dublin's Animal Genomics Laboratory and Conway Institute using new technology that allows billions of base pairs of DNA to be sequenced.
The technology was similar to that
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 17, 2010
Catholic scholars from around the world have "implored" Pope Benedict XVI not to make a controversial wartime pontiff a saint before opening up to scrutiny secret Vatican archives.
In a letter to the Pope, the scholars said that making Pius XII a saint could do grave damage to relations between the Catholic Church and Jews and that he had become a de facto "symbol of Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism".
They endorsed demands made by Jewish grou
Source: AP
Feb 17, 2010
France's national anthem blared across the tarmac on Wednesday as Nicolas Sarkozy made the first visit ever by a French president to Haiti, once his nation's richest colony — offering aid to a country prostrate after a catastrophic earthquake.
He said his visit had particular resonance given France and Haiti's historical ties and acknowledged that the "wounds of colonization" were perhaps still fresh in the minds of many Haitians, some of whom blame France for the country'
Source: CNN
Feb 17, 2010
Peru's ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu should reopen April 1, more than two months after rain stranded hundreds of tourists at the popular spot, the government said.
Heavy rain in January unleashed mudslides that cut off roads and blocked a rail line between Machu Picchu and the nearby city of Cusco.
Water levels at the Vilcanota River have receded enough to allow repairs to the rail line, said Martin Perez, head of Peru's Ministry of Exterior Commerce and Tourism.
Source: Moscow Times
Feb 17, 2010
Forensic experts in St. Petersburg have confirmed that bloodstains found on a sofa on which the famed 19th-century poet and author Alexander Pushkin is said to have died were indeed left by the poet.
“The results of our medical research allow us to state that it is the poet’s blood on this historic sofa,” Yury Molin, deputy head of the Leningrad region’s legal and medical department, said at a news conference in the city’s Pushkin Apartment Museum earlier this month.
Pu
