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: AP
Jan 5, 2010
Iraqi police on Tuesday seized a small cache of ancient statues and other artifacts in the south of the country that officials said were set to be smuggled abroad and sold.
Iraq, home to relics of the world's most ancient urban civilizations, has had its priceless heritage plundered and sold to collectors abroad in the chaotic years since the U.S.-led invasion.
The 39 artifacts were discovered stashed in a hole near a shrine outside the southern city of Nasiriyah, said
Source: LA Times
Jan 5, 2010
Given the plight of so many unemployed Americans, President Obama did not want to spend a lot of money on a lavish redecoration of the Oval Office.
But he did want to make it his own. So Obama asked California decorator Michael Smith to work with him to change the look of the Oval Office to better reflect his interests.
Now, the Associated Press has had a tour of the makeover. The changes are striking.
Obama opted to keep the Resolute desk that was a gift i
Source: Global Times
Jan 5, 2010
The question of how to verify the authenticity of historic remains believed to be that of Chinese warlord Cao Cao remains unanswered even after DNA tests were considered but were not done because they were deemed useless.
The remains, excavated since 2008 in Anyang, Central China's Henan Province, are a source of intrigue.
A large tomb complex with 1800 years of history was dug up in 2008, and officials from the cultural relics administration of Henan Province said Sund
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 5, 2010
A series of photographs reveals how Barack Obama has stamped his mark on the Oval Office since becoming President almost a year ago.
In the White House's most famous room, metal gadgets and American Indian pottery have replaced the decorative china plates favoured by former President George W Bush.
A bust of Martin Luther King Jr and a framed programme from the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered his "I have a dream" speech, adorn the walls.
Source: Fox News
Jan 5, 2010
In new book, Michael Steele says the GOP should acknowledge where "we most glaringly compromised our principles" in the past decade and hold its elected officials accountable.
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele offers a simple explanation for why the GOP may have lost touch with some Americans since the Ronald Reagan era: "We screwed up," he claims in a new book offering a blueprint for the party's resurgence.
That "we" includes the l
Source: AP
Jan 5, 2010
Britons will be getting an extra public holiday in the summer of 2012 to celebrate the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson says that Tuesday, June 5, has been picked to mark what is called the queen's Diamond Jubilee. Together with another holiday June 4, that will create a four-day weekend.
The queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977 and her Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Source: AP
Jan 5, 2010
A human skull that apparently was turned into a ballot box for Yale's mysterious Skull and Bones society is going on the auction block.
Christie's estimates the skull will sell for $10,000 to $20,000 when it is auctioned on Jan. 22. Fittingly, the auction house has agreed to keep the seller's name a secret. On Monday, it described the person only as a European art collector.
The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the fa
Source: BBC News
Jan 5, 2010
Archaeologists in Egypt have said they have discovered the largest known tomb in the ancient necropolis of Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.
The tomb dates back 2,500 years to the 26th Dynasty and contains important artefacts, including mummified eagles.
It is one of two newly discovered tombs found by an Egyptian team working close to the entrance of Sakkara, the burial ground for Egypt's ancient capital.
The tomb consists of a big hall hewn out of the limes
Source: Americas Program
Jan 4, 2010
Argentine courts have launched an investigation into crimes committed at the ESMA Navy Mechanics School during the nation's military dictatorship. The landmark human rights trial is one of the most far-reaching attempts to bring crimes of Latin America's bloody past to justice.
For more than three decades, survivors and their families awaited the trial that finally began on Dec. 11, 2009. During Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship, the ESMA Navy Mechanics School served as a clandesti
Source: New York Times
Jan 4, 2010
The soaring steeple, airy flying buttresses and steep slate roof of the 19th-century parish church that dominates this town in western France is — like many other village churches in France — scheduled for demolition, a victim of its size, its condition and, ultimately, municipal budget concerns.
Although the church, dedicated to St. Peter, is arguably the sole architectural jewel in this town of 2,400 people, the town has decided to tear it down and replace it with a new one that w
Source: Discovery News
Jan 4, 2010
If a dinosaur is small, how can you tell whether it died young or was just tiny?
This question has puzzled dinosaur experts studying the 3.3-foot-long dino Lesothosaurus diagnosticus, but the mystery may have just been solved.
Fabien Knoll, Kevin Padian and Armand de Ricqles studied the remains of Lesothosaurus and other fabrosaurid dinosaurs. (Maybe it's just me, but I like the fact that a scientist named Fabien studies fabrosaurids.) These were beaked, plant-eating
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 4, 2010
This online supplement is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia), which takes sole responsibility for the content.
Vasily Kononov is surrounded by his family in an apartment outside Riga. His daughter by his side, this 87-year-old WWII veteran maintains a sense of humour despite the many tragedies he has experienced. The European Court of Human Rights is to rule on an event that happened in 1944, with potential repercussions for all veterans across Europe.
Source: National Post (Canada)
Jan 4, 2010
For 20 years during the pioneering age of Canadian aviation, an aluminum-bodied bush plane soared over northern forests and remote lakes as part of a government mission to map and monitor the country's uncharted backwoods.
Now, 80 years after Canadian forestry officials purchased the U.S.-made Hamilton Metalplane from a Boeing plant in Wisconsin, the meticulously refurbished and flyable aircraft -- the only one of its kind in the world -- is expected to sell for at least $1-million
Source: National Geographic
Jan 4, 2010
Hundreds of circles, squares, and other geometric shapes once hidden by forest hint at a previously unknown ancient society that flourished in the Amazon, a new study says.
Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers).
(Related: "Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via 'Crop Circles.'")
Now researchers estimate that nearly ten
Source: BBC
Jan 4, 2010
TV footage showed the doll hanging by a noose in front of a red, white and blue sign that reads "Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President".
Witnesses said the effigy had President Obama's name on it.
Plains Mayor LE Godwin III said the fire department had been called to take it down.
Source: BBC
Jan 4, 2010
A US appeals court has upheld the conviction and sentence of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
The only person charged in the US over the attacks, Moussaoui had originally pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
In 2005 he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in planning the attacks that killed nearly 3,000.
The appeals court in Virginia rejected his claim his conviction was invalid as the government had failed to provide evidence he could have used in d
Source: BBC
Jan 4, 2010
Archaeologists in Egypt have said they have discovered the largest known tomb in the ancient necropolis of Sakkara, to the south of Cairo.
The tomb dates back 2,500 years to the 26th Dynasty and contains important artefacts, including mummified eagles.
It is one of two newly discovered tombs found by an Egyptian team working close to the entrance of Sakkara, the burial ground for Egypt's ancient capital.
Source: CNN
Jan 4, 2010
Bobby DeLaughter -- the prosecutor who secured the conviction in the infamous Medgar Evers Mississippi murder case -- is himself now headed to prison.
It was DeLaughter's dogged 1994 prosecution and the subsequent conviction of Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith that helped trigger the reopening of dozens of civil rights cold cases.
DeLaughter became an instant hero of the civil rights movement. Alec Baldwin portrayed him in the 1996 movie, "Ghosts of Missis
Source: AHA
Jan 4, 2010
In advance of the annual meeting, we are publishing the annual job report online a bit earlier than the rest of the January issue of Perspectives on History. It offers troubling news for job seekers, the history doctoral programs conferring their degrees, and the discipline as a whole.
In the 2008–09 academic year job advertisements fell by 23.8 percent—from a record high of 1,053 openings in 2007–08 to 806 openings in the past year. This was the smallest number of positions adverti
Source: LA Times
Jan 3, 2010
Robert Bohrn cannot forget the black Union soldier whose bones he and another Civil War relic hunter uncovered on Folly Island, S.C., more than 20 years ago.
"It's one thing to find a coin, a slave tag, a person's ring," Bohrn said. "It's way different to turn your shovel blade over and see a human being."
Feeling as though he is a caretaker for that soldier and the 18 others whose skeletons were found at the lonely outpost, Bohrn, 53, now is working
