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: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 19, 2010
An unnamed man in Castellammare di Stabia in the south of Italy has claimed he was inexplicably healed from incurable prostate cancer after he prayed to the wartime pope. After examining the patient's medical records the Vatican has asked the Archbishop of Sorrento, Felice Cece, to set up a diocesan tribunal to investigate the claims further.
If the Vatican ultimately approves a miracle the way will be clear for the beatification of Pius, after which he will be declared "Blesse
Source: AP
Jan 19, 2010
Is this tradition "nevermore"?
A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer's birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.
"I'm confused, befuddled," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. "I don't know what's going on."
The tradition dates back to at least 1949, according to newspaper accounts from the
Source: BBC
Jan 19, 2010
A skeleton has been uncovered by builders carrying out refurbishment work at Yorkshire Museum.
The skeleton was found in a shallow grave as work was carried out on the museum's drains.
The remains have been removed by archaeologists. They will be examined by experts to try to work out how long the skeleton had been there for.
The museum was built on the site of the medieval St Mary's Abbey. A 4m (13ft) deep well was also discovered.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 19, 2010
One of the last remaining survivors of the Nazi concentration camp at Sobibor told the trial of John Demjanjuk yesterday that he still had nightmares about his time there.
Thomas Blatt, 82, whose parents and brother were among the 250,000 people estimated to have perished there during the Second World War, said: "I go there in my dreams. They are so real. In them I am still there. I can't get it out of my head. This is the price I paid for getting out."
He to
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 19, 2010
US marines are being issued with rifle sights carrying thinly-veiled references to Bible passages, it has been disclosed.
Troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing weapons with coded inscriptions including 2COR4:6 and JN8:12, which relate to verses in the books of Second Corinthians and John respectively.
The secret markings do not sit comfortably US government rules forbidding its forces from spreading any religious faith during deployments to the two Islami
Source: Fox News
Jan 19, 2010
Though the tea party movement has attracted criticism for its supposed lack of diversity, minority activists who are involved say the movement has little to do with race, and that it is attracting a more diverse crowd every day.
Despite the enthusiastic involvement of black conservatives in the tea party rallies and trips, Obama still enjoys seemingly unshakable support from the majority of black Americans. A recent poll from Gallup put Obama's approval rating among blacks at 91 pe
Source: AP
Jan 19, 2010
A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer's birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.
The tradition dates back to at least 1949, according to newspaper accounts from the era, Jerome said. Since then, an unidentified person has come every Jan. 19 to leave three roses and a half-bottle of cognac at Poe's grave in a church cemetery in downtown Baltimore.
The
Source: Artdaily.org
Jan 19, 2010
A 1000-year-old stele with the sculpted image of a Mayan ruler was found in the archaeological area of Lagartero in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.
In the bas-relief sculpture the Mayan ruler rises above an individual who lies at his feet, "a scene representing the seizing of power by one Maya group from another," INAH said, adding that the archaeological area of Lagartero will be open to the public th
Source: Times of India
Jan 19, 2010
How to retain the pristine glow of the Taj Mahal? From application of mud pack to planting herbal hedge, authorities have in past, tried all tricks in the beauty book to arrest aging of the 350-year-old Mughal mausoleum.
Now comes another attempt from the ASI. The agency has ambitious plans up its sleeves — to cover with glass casing the famous intricate lapidary inlay work of the inner chamber, housing false sarcophagi of the emperor Shah Jehan and his consort Mumtaz Mahal, to ens
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 19, 2010
Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche, who went on to become a prominent supporter of Adolf Hitler, systematically falsified her brother's works and letters, according to the Nietzsche Encyclopedia.
Christian Niemeyer, the publisher, said he wanted to clear the revered thinker's reputation by showing the "criminally scandalous" forgeries by his sister had tainted his reputation ever since.
"Förster-Nietzsche did everything she could – such as telling stories about
Source: The Independent (UK)
Jan 19, 2010
The remains of a temple of Queen Berenike - wife of King Ptolemy III - have been discovered by archaeologists in Alexandria, Egypt.
Dr. Zahi Hawass said the remains discovered are 60 meters by 15 meters, and extend under Ismail Fahmy street. About 600 Ptolemaic statues - amongst which are beautiful depictions of the cat goddess Bastet - were also unearthed....
Early studies on site revealed that the temple’s foundation can be dated to the reign of Queen Berenike - the
Source: Times Online (UK)
Jan 19, 2010
A Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 offered to sell his story to the media when he was released from prison yesterday.
But hopes that Mehmet Ali Agca would reveal details of an alleged Soviet-era plot behind the St Peter’s Square assassination attempt receded after he issued a statement calling himself “the Christ eternal”.
His lawyer, Haci Ali Ozhan, said that more than 50 foreign publishers and film-makers had offered to buy his story. He is
Source: UKPA
Jan 18, 2010
A 51-year-old man from West Sussex has been arrested by police investigating the alleged plundering of valuable archaeological artefacts.
Police said some of the artefacts were suspected of being stolen by "nighthawking" from an undisclosed site in the Chichester area and elsewhere recently.
The items found so far include medieval and Roman coins, ivory and silver, and one gold Iron Age coin, brooches, buttons and horse equipment of similar ages.
Source: Times Online (UK)
Jan 18, 2010
Evidence for the world’s earliest seafaring has emerged from an archaeological survey in Crete. Tools of Lower Palaeolithic type, at least 130,000 years old, have been found on the Greek island, which has been isolated by the Mediterranean Sea for at least the past five million years, so that any human ancestors must have arrived by boat. At this date, they would have been of a pre-modern species: the earliest Neanderthalers or even Homo heidelbergensis, the species to which Boxgrove Man belonge
Source: AP
Jan 18, 2010
The NAACP will make a stronger push to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse, the president of the civil rights organization said Monday.
Benjamin Jealous wouldn't go into details, but said by the summer the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People would bring more publicity to its economic boycott of South Carolina. The campaign calls for blacks to not vacation in the state and spend as little money as they can within its bo
Source: Times of India
Jan 18, 2010
[A historical] conference [in Mysore] witnessed literary fireworks when a historian presenting his paper on Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, their conquests and defence works, tried to segregate Indian history into Hindu India, Muslim India and British India.
Historians who remained deeply divided over the subject were seen involved in a heated argument. Things cooled down only when the president of the final session on the final day of the conference and former vice-chancellor of Calicut
Source: Talking Points Memo
Jan 18, 2010
The conservative bloc on the Texas State Board of Education won a string of victories Friday, obtaining approval for an amendment requiring high school U.S. history students to know about Phyllis Schlafly and the Contract with America as well as inserting a clause that aims to justify McCarthyism.
Outspoken conservative board member Don McLeroy, who reportedly spent over three hours personally proposing changes to the textbook standards, even wanted to cut "hip-hop" in fav
Source: Der Spiegel (Germany)
Jan 18, 2010
The trial of John Demjanjuk in Munich may not be Germany's last major war crimes prosecution. Authorities are investigating Samuel K., 88, a retired German civil servant accused of being a death camp guard in World War II and of helping to kill at least 430,000 Jews. Public prosecutors may file charges soon.
Germany may stage a further spectacular Holocaust trial in addition to the one currently taking place in Munich against alleged SS helper John Demjanjuk.
The Centra
Source: The Capital (Annapolis, MD)
Jan 18, 2010
Cold winds may be blowing and the ground is definitely frozen, but the weather isn't slowing archaeologists in their decades-long effort to document Annapolis' past.
The scientists have merely moved indoors to their lab at the University of Maryland, where they continue to make sense of the pieces of bone, shards of china, bits of spice bottles and slivers of metal that have been unearthed in Annapolis.
Right now, the scholars in the Anthropology Department are looking
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 18, 2010
[A] survey suggested that nearly two in ten children thought Fagin played football for Manchester United rather than picked pockets in Dickens's Oliver Twist. And Moby Dick is, according to nearly half the children asked, a pop star not a man-eating whale.
The study asked 100 pupils, aged between eight and 10, some basic questions about children's literature, as well as asking 2,000 parents what stories they had read their children....
It found that 17 per cent of chil
