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
Feb 2, 2010
Scientists have used 70 tons of liquid sugar to preserve the remains of three Medieval bridges found near Leicester. Experts from the University of Leicester immersed the 11th century bridges – whose ruins were so heavy they had to be carried in sections by eight-man teams – in tanks of sugar solution....
The venture is the second time sugar has come to the rescue of curators, echoing a method known as sucrose impregnation which was used by the Waterfront Museum in Dorset to conserv
Source: CNN
Feb 2, 2010
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to unveil the Pentagon's plan for rolling back the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gay and lesbian service members on Tuesday.
During last week's State of the Union address, President Obama made clear he wanted a change.
"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are,
Source: BBC News
Feb 2, 2010
A Polish court has issued a European arrest warrant for a Swede alleged to be behind the theft of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign from Auschwitz.
A court official in the southern city of Krakow said the warrant had been issued for Anders Hogstrom.
The metal sign was stolen in December from above the entrance to the notorious Nazi death camp. It was later recovered, cut into three pieces.
Five Polish men have already been arrested over the theft.
The European ar
Source: BBC News
Feb 2, 2010
US airline Continental and five individuals have gone on trial in France over the crash of an Air France Concorde nearly 10 years ago.
The jet took off in flames from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and crashed minutes later, killing 113 people.
The presiding judge began the proceedings by reading out the names of all those who died.
An official report said Concorde had hit a metal strip from a Continental plane that had taken off earlier.
But
Source: Stanford Report
Feb 1, 2010
French Professor Jean-Marie Apostolidès finds link between blood and ink in Ted Kaczynski's "Manifesto" – but should we listen to a killer?
Jack Hubbard
For French Professor Jean-Marie Apostolidès, briefly a penpal of the notorious Unabomber and a translator of his writings, these very questions are a scholar's terroir.
He was intrigued by the killer's anti-technology stance, and says that on that score, Theodore Kaczynski may have been right. "Tec
Source: Der Spiegel
Feb 1, 2010
Controversial Bishop Richard Williamson continues in his denial of the Holocaust, embarrassing both the Society of St. Pius to which he belongs and the Vatican. But the SSPX is becoming increasingly powerful despite the controversy and is attracting more and more supporters....
The world has become a smaller place for the notorious bishop. Since he denied the existence of the Holocaust on television more than a year ago, causing serious problems for Pope Benedict XVI and almost trig
Source: AFP
Feb 1, 2010
Parliament amended Egypt's antiquities law on Monday to bring in stiffer punishments for the theft and smuggling of relics while granting patent rights to the country's antiquities council.
The amendment requires Egyptians who have antiquities to report their possessions to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zahi Hawass, in six months. The sale of antiquities is still banned.
"Parliament agreed on article eight that forbids trade in antiquities but allow
Source: Honolulu advertiser
Feb 1, 2010
The Navy said today that a sunken vessel found in the Philippines' Balabac Strait has been identified as the World War II submarine USS Flier.
The Flier, which departed Pearl Harbor in January 1944 for its first war patrol, had seen extensive action by the time it struck a mine and sank on Aug. 13, 1944.
Seventy-eight crewmen were lost when the submarine went down.
Fourteen crewmen escaped, but only eight survived the long swim to reach shore. After making
Source: NYT
Feb 1, 2010
After decades of ethnic strife, political wrangling and fruitless diplomacy, leaders of Cyprus’s divided communities began meetings Monday with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, months before elections that could further complicate the quest for a settlement.
Mr. Ban arrived Sunday for his first visit to Cyprus, which has been split in two since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 after a coup attempt by Greek Cypriots seeking union with mainland Greece. Since then, unto
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 1, 2010
Nazi memorabilia collectors are expected to push the price for the diary and letters of the "Angel of Death" responsible for thousands of murders at Auschwitz to at least £40,000.
Infamous as Hitler's "Angel of Death", Mengele experimented on prisoners at the death camp without anaesthetic and became obsessed with twins, hoping to be able to clone perfect specimens of the Aryan race.
His diary's eclectic and often mundane contents include praise for
Source: Washington Post
Feb 1, 2010
Culpeper County public school officials have reversed an earlier decision to stop teaching a version of Anne Frank's diary that contains passages one parent found inappropriate.
School administrators said they would convene a committee this spring to review the book, in accordance with the school's policy of handling complaints about instructional materials. The earlier decision to exclude the book from classroom lessons had not followed the school system's policy.
&q
Source: MSNBC
Feb 1, 2010
More than 1,500 years before Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed to the New World, Native Americans had already domesticated turkeys twice: first in south-central Mexico at around 800 B.C. and again in what is now the southwestern U.S. at about 200 B.C., according to a new study.
The two instances of domestication appear to have been separate, based on DNA analysis of ancient turkey remains. However, the different Native American groups could have been in contact with each othe
Source: AP
Feb 1, 2010
A team of Polish scientists said Monday they have discovered three Neanderthal teeth in a cave,a find they hope may shed light on how similar to modern humans our ancestors were.
Neanderthal artifacts have been unearthed in Poland before. But the teeth are the first bodily Neanderthal remains found in the country, according to Mikolaj Urbanowski, an archaeologist with Szczecin University and the project's lead researcher.
Urbanowski said the teeth were unearthed in the
Source: Discovery News
Feb 1, 2010
One of history's greatest mysteries -- the family lineage of the boy pharaoh King Tut -- may soon be solved.
Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has announced on Sunday he would hold a press conference on Feb. 17 to reveal the results of DNA tests on the world's most famous pharaoh.
The long awaited announcement will be "about the secrets of the family and the affiliation of Tutankhamun, based on the results of the scientific examination
Source: BBC
Feb 1, 2010
Ministers were warned of a "serious risk" the military would not have all the equipment it needed to invade Iraq, the inquiry into the war has heard.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the head of the armed forces, said defence chiefs "simply didn't have enough time" to source everything they wanted.
It would have made a "significant difference" if the military had been given six months, rather than four.
A shortage of body
Source: BBC
Feb 1, 2010
This week, BBC News is running a series of articles about pioneering British computers and British computer pioneers. The series begins with a look at research into computers developed at GCHQ after the Second World War.
The influence of the 1939-45 war on the development of computers is well known. That conflict spurred the creation of pioneering machines such as Colossus at Bletchley Park and Eniac in the US.
Also, many of the engineers who contributed to wartime in
Source: CNS News
Feb 1, 2010
Next week’s anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution is shaping up to be a key indicator of the opposition’s resilience. The regime, in a continuing clampdown, last week executed two of 11 protestors who recently were sentenced to death.
On Saturday another 16 Iranians went on trial. They were arrested during the last round of protests, in late December, when hundreds of people were arrested and at least eight killed.
The semi-official Press TV news channel said that th
Source: CNN
Feb 1, 2010
The leading Republican in the Senate said Sunday that the previous Republican administration had been mistaken in ever trying alleged terrorists in civilian federal courts.
Instead of giving alleged terrorists civilian trials in federal court, McConnell said the administration should use the system of military commissions set up by Congress “for the specific purpose of trying foreigners captured on the battlefield.”
Asked whether he was ready to deny the White House the
Source: CNN
Feb 1, 2010
Fifty years ago Monday, McCain and three other freshmen at North Carolina A&T University took a stand by sitting at the lunch counter in the national chain's Greensboro, North Carolina, store.
The store had no qualms selling toothpaste or light bulbs to blacks, but a cup of coffee at the lunch counter? Out of the question. The Greensboro Four, as they came to be known, were fed up.
McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond were refused service Februa
Source: CNN
Feb 1, 2010
The last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, former Cpl. Frank Buckles, turns 109 on Monday and is still hoping for a national memorial in Washington for his comrades.
Buckles is expected to deliver remarks during a quiet celebration Monday afternoon at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia.
But the old "Doughboy" -- as World War I American infantry troops were called -- has already been outspoken in recent years, urging congressional lawmakers to give fe
