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
Jun 4, 2009
Florida deep-sea explorers who raised an estimated $500 million treasure from the 200-year-old wreck of a Spanish galleon should give all the loot back to Spain, a federal magistrate judge said.
But the two-year tug-of-war over the 17 tons of silver coins and other artifacts from what is believed to be the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes y las Animas is likely far from over.
Odyssey Marine Exploration said it will oppose Wednesday's written recommendation by U.S. Magistr
Source: AP
Jun 4, 2009
The Organization of American States cleared the way for Cuba's possible return to the group by lifting a 47-year ban on the communist-run country, a move backed by Washington despite initial objections.
The vote by acclamation Wednesday to revoke a 1962 measure suspending the island from the body not only toppled a Cold War landmark but was the latest sign of the end of Cuba's isolation in a region increasingly governed by leftist leaders.
Even traditional U.S. ally El
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
The Spanish government has won a two-year legal battle against commercial marine archaeologist firm Odyssey, which Spain accused of plundering its national heritage.
The Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered 17 tons of gold and silver from a sunken vessel they code-named the"Black Swan" in March 2007. The Nasdaq-listed company refused to reveal the location of the wreck insisting that it had been found in international waters and therefore beyond the legal jurisdiction of any one c
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 4, 2009
Around 200 witch bottles have been found in the past but this is thought to be the first time one with its contents intact has been discovered.
Scientists have analysed the contents of the former wine jug after it was discovered by builders redeveloping a site in Greenwich, south east London.
Source: AP
Jun 4, 2009
As the Kremlin presses a campaign to recast Russia's 20th century history in a more favorable light, a research paper published Thursday on the Defense Ministry's Web site blamed Poland for starting World War II.
The unorthodox reading of history appears to be the latest effort by Russian historians to defend the Soviet Union and its leaders, especially their role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
Russia has angrily rejected claims that a Stalin-era famine
Source: Wired
Jun 4, 2009
It didn’t have a TV special, book deal or media-friendly pimping from the mayor of New York City, but a 12 million-year-old skull recently unearthed in Spain just might end up actually deserving the label of “missing link.”
The skull possesses a combination of primitive features previously unseen in a primate, along with a flat, anatomically modern face — the earliest such face in the fossil record. These characteristics qualified it as the founding member of a new genus and species
Source: NYT Week in Review
Jun 4, 2009
The country of Mother Jones, John L. Lewis and Walter Reuther certainly has had a rich and sometimes militant history of labor protest — from the Homestead Steel Works strike against Andrew Carnegie in 1892 to the auto workers’ sit-down strikes of the 1930s and the 67-day walkout by 400,000 G.M. workers in 1970.
But in recent decades, American workers have increasingly steered clear of such militancy, for reasons that range from fear of having their jobs shipped overseas to their se
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2009
Neil Armstrong missed out an "a" and did not say "one small step for a man" when he set foot on the Moon in 1969, a linguistic analysis has confirmed.
The researchers show for the first time that he intended to say "a man" and that the "a" may have been lost because he was under pressure.
They say that although the phrase was not strictly correct, it was poetic.
There is also new evidence that his inspirational firs
Source: CNN
Jun 3, 2009
Twenty years after China's bloody crackdown on demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the United States is urging the government to come to terms with its violent actions.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement saying the 20th anniversary of the "violent suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square by Chinese authorities" should be a time for reflection on the loss of hundreds of innocent lives and the meaning of events that preceded that fateful
Source: NYT
Jun 3, 2009
Senior Israeli officials accused President Obama on Wednesday of failing to acknowledge what they called clear understandings with the Bush administration that allowed Israel to build West Bank settlement housing within certain guidelines while still publicly claiming to honor a settlement “freeze.”
The complaint was the latest in a growing rift between the Obama administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to move forward to achieve peace in the M
Source: Slate
Jun 3, 2009
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Western media characterize the incident as a brutal government crackdown on peaceful protesters. What does the Chinese government say about it?
Very little. Neither the 1989 protests nor the ensuing massacre is included in Chinese textbooks, and many students today have never heard of these events. For the most part, the government avoids discussing the issue at all. The government does acknowledge that the
Source: AP
Jun 3, 2009
Connecticut became the second northern state to apologize for slavery, segregation and other racist policies its lawmakers once condoned after an unanimous vote late Wednesday by the state Senate.
The resolution expresses "profound contrition" for the General Assembly's role in perpetuating slavery and other practices. The House approved it last week.
New Jersey last year became the first northern state to apologize for slavery. Five other states—Alabama, Flor
Source: WaPo
Jun 3, 2009
The large house at 619 D St. SE dates to 1795; its windows are boarded up, moss grows on its bricks. The Maples, also known as Friendship House, is one of six locales announced yesterday on the D.C. Preservation League's annual list of "Most Endangered Places."
Since 1996, the league has compiled a list of sites it considers to be of historic, cultural and architectural significance that are threatened by neglect, demolition or other pressures. Some of the previous listing
Source: Christopher L. Eisgruber in Forbes
Jun 3, 2009
Presidents have submitted just over 150 Supreme Court nominations to the Senate, and about 80% of the nominees have been confirmed. A closer look at the numbers shows that the odds of confirmation depend on some basic political facts. Not surprisingly, fewer nominees--less than 60%--get confirmed when the president's party does not control a majority in the Senate. By contrast, when the same party controls the White House and the Senate, the confirmation rate rises to over 85%.
Two
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 3, 2009
Watson's Hotel, a crumbling remnant of one of the grandest relics of the British Raj, has been forced to shut down more than 140 years after it was shipped over from England.
The Mumbai housing authority has urged the Grade II–A heritage structure to be evacuated before the onset of the monsoon next week and has registered the 138-year-old building in the "most dilapidated" category of its pre-monsoon survey of dangerous structures.
Built in 1871, the hotel wa
Source: CNN
Jun 3, 2009
An emotional Nancy Reagan helped unveil a statue of her late husband, President Reagan, on Wednesday, calling the 7-foot figure "a wonderful likeness."
The statue is one of two from California in the National Statuary Hall Collection donated by states to honor significant figures.
Nancy Reagan stood arm-in-arm with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio to pull down the curtain from the statue. She thanked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California for makin
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jun 3, 2009
The 25-year-old Ukrainian Avraham Radbil and 28-year-old Hungarian Zsolt Balla were handed their certificates on Tuesday at the new synagogue in Munich. The ceremony was attended by senior German political figures and Jewish leaders.
The two newly-ordained rabbis were trained at a seminary in Berlin, which began courses in 2005. They have positions awaiting them in the cities of Leipzig and Cologne.
A "small miracle"
The president of the Central C
Source: CNN
Jun 3, 2009
India's lower house of parliament elected a woman as its speaker
Wednesday, a first in the male-dominated chamber's history.
Meira Kumar was nominated by the ruling Congress party.
Meira Kumar is also a member of the"untouchable" Dalit class, the
lowest rung in the centuries-old caste system in the country.
The speaker conducts the proceedings of the house. She will preside
over 543 elected members, of which 58 are women.
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2009
China has boosted security in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, ahead of Thursday's anniversary of the killings in 1989.
Many dissidents say they have been told to leave Beijing or are confined to their homes.
Xiang Xiaoji, now a US citizen, was trying to come to Hong Kong on Wednesday to join commemorative events being held to mark the anniversary. But he was refused entry and returned to New York.
Another prominent protest leader, Wu'er Kaixi, flew from his h
Source: Times Online (UK)
Jun 3, 2009
It is an arresting, surreal image: a group of Aborigines emerge slowly from the desert, walking over a red sand dune, tall, black, semi-naked silhouettes seen through the barren spinifex bushes in the middle of Western Australia.
It is September, 1964 — the Beatles had just finished their first sell-out tour of North America and Goldfinger had just opened in UK cinemas — and yet across the other side of the world these desert-dwelling indigenous Australians were about to see a whit
