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: Australia Network News
Mar 5, 2009
Malaysian archaeologists say they have found the site of an an ancient kingdom in northern Kedah state, which predates Cambodia's Angkor temples and may be one of the oldest civilisations in Asia.
Lead researcher Professor Mokhtar Saidin says the discovery could lead to the rewriting of history books on the region.
He says buildings found in two palm oil plantations in northern Kedah last month appear to have been part of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Bujang, which exist
Source: AP
Mar 5, 2009
CAIRO -- A team of Egyptian and European archaeologists has discovered two large statues of an ancient pharaoh who ruled Egypt some 3,400 years ago, the country's archaeology chief said Thursday.
The two statues of Amenhotep III were found while the excavation team was clearing out a temple dedicated to him on the west bank of the Nile in the southern city of Luxor, according to a statement by Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Hawass said one stat
Source: Bloomberg
Mar 5, 2009
The German government said it will help Cologne to recover and restore documents damaged when the building housing the municipal archives collapsed on March 3.
Emergency services are seeking two people still missing after the collapse, which may have been caused by building work on the city’s subway. Treasures in the archives included medieval housing records and certificates, and manuscripts from writers including Heinrich Boell and composers such as Jacques Offenbach, German press
Source: AP
Mar 5, 2009
People and horses have trekked together through at least 5,500 years of history, according to an international team of researchers reporting in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
New evidence, corralled in Kazakhstan, indicates the Botai culture used horses as beasts of burden — and as a source of meat and milk — about 1,000 years earlier than had been widely believed, according to the team led by Alan Outram of England's University of Exeter.
"This is signif
Source: TPM (Liberal blog)
Mar 5, 2009
Quite a few readers [of Talking Points Memo] have written in recent days with questions about the Republicans' ability to filibuster the $410 billion spending bill that's currently on the Senate floor, which is expected to come to a final vote late tonight or tomorrow morning.Can you filibuster this spending bill? Yes -- because it's not a budget resolution,
Source: Foxnews
Mar 5, 2009
A Vatican-backed conference on evolution is under attack from people who weren't invited to participate: those espousing creationism and intelligent design.
The Discovery Institute, the main organization supporting intelligent design research, says it was shut out from presenting its views because the meeting was funded in part by the John Templeton Foundation, a major U.S. nonprofit that has criticized the intelligent design movement.
Organizers of the five-day confere
Source: International Herald Tribune
Mar 5, 2009
NEW YORK -- After intense protests from the Indian government and press, Mohandas Gandhi's eyeglasses and some of his other belongings were sold Thursday afternoon for $1.8 million after last-minute attempts to halt the auction of the items.
The buyer was identified as Vijay Mallya, an Indian liquor and airline executive who owns the company that makes Kingfisher beer. A representative for Mallya, Tony Bedhi, did the bidding and later announced that the belongings would be returned
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Mar 5, 2009
A new national survey of faculty members shows that the proportion of professors who believe it is very important to teach undergraduates to become"agents of social change" is substantially larger than the proportion who believe it is important to teach students the classic works of Western civilization.
According to the survey, 57.8 percent of professors believe it is important to encourage undergraduates to be
Source: International Herald Tribune
Mar 5, 2009
PERPIGNAN, France: In the courtyard of an ancient convent here, the Wall of the Disappeared lists the names of about 2,700 "pieds-noirs" - black feet, as the white French colonists in Algeria were called.
Pieds-noirs - the term's origins are obscure, but perhaps had something to do with black boots - emigrated to Algeria mostly from Spain, Italy, Germany, Malta and other European countries, often as laborers and farmers. They became French citizens during the 130-odd years
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 5, 2009
The Russian government is to outlaw criticism of Soviet military tactics during the Second World War in the latest example of its heavy-handed approach to dissent.
The controversial plan comes after a television documentary exposed the scale of human losses during one of the conflict's bloodiest battles.
The programme stirred deep emotions in a country that has traditionally glorified the heroic exploits of ordinary soldiers during the 'Great Patriotic War' but has oft
Source: BBC
Mar 5, 2009
A 4,000-year-old axe, two World War II helmets and a 19th Century boat have been found on the Olympic Park site.
Archaeologists have examined findings at the 500-acre site as building work continues for the 2012 Games.
Medieval pottery, a Roman coin and four prehistoric skeletons were also uncovered at the east London site.
The Museum of London is documenting the discoveries. Senior archaeologist Kieron Tyler said they revealed a "previously unknown
Source: BBC
Mar 5, 2009
The Indian government says it will do everything possible to bring back the personal effects of Mahatma Gandhi which are to be auctioned in New York.
Culture Minister Ambika Soni said the government would bid for the items if they were unable to stop the auction.
Antiquorum Auctioneers are to sell Gandhi's iconic round glasses, a pocket watch, leather sandals and some other items in a few hours time.
The planned auction has led to an uproar in India.
Source: AFP
Mar 5, 2009
A mass grave, believed to hold the bodies of as many as 300 Nazi collaborators from Slovenia or Croatia who were killed after World War II, has been discovered in eastern Slovenia, the authorities said Wednesday. Investigators and historians discovered the remains when they removed concrete walls built after World War II to close off a cave near Lasko, 55 miles east of Ljubljana, the capital.
Source: BBC
Mar 4, 2009
In a peaceful graveyard in a Denbighshire village, five soldiers' graves have for decades attracted interest from both locals and historians.
They lie amongst 85 of their Canadian comrades who were buried at St Margaret's church in Bodelwyddan during World War I.
But these five soldiers were not killed battling the enemy or by the flu pandemic that claimed the lives of many of their fellow troops.
They were killed during riots in the town's Kinmel Camp i
Source: http://www.heritageaction.org
Mar 4, 2009
"LOUGH GUR, one of Europe's most important archaeological sites and located in Co Limerick, could soon be awarded world heritage status."
One of Ireland's most important archaeological sites, Lough Gur, has been put on the tentative list of World Heritage sites. The application was made by Limerick County Council. The Lough Gur site dates back to the Neolithic period and there are many megalithic remains beside the lake. It boasts the largest stone circle in Ireland at Gra
Source: BBC
Mar 4, 2009
So-called "Boche babies" - the illegitimate offspring of occupying enemy troops - are speaking openly for the first time about their family secret and hunting for long-lost German fathers.
Spurred by a 2004 investigative book, Enfants Maudits (Accursed Children), and a television documentary that came out at the same time, hundreds of men and women in their 60s have contacted the army archives department in Berlin to find out more about their lost parents.
T
Source: Chicago Tribune
Mar 4, 2009
Legal experts said Tuesday they were taken aback by the claim in the latest batch of secret Bush-era memos that the president alone had the power to set the rules during the war on terrorism.
Yale law professor Jack Balkin called this a "theory of presidential dictatorship. They say the battlefield is everywhere. And the president can do anything he wants, so long as it involves the military and the enemy."
The criticism was not limited to liberals. &q
Source: Salon
Mar 4, 2009
The Senate Judiciary Committee has been holding hearings Wednesday on whether to proceed with the idea of a different kind of committee -- a truth commission, to be exact, one that would investigate the activities of the Bush administration. And the Republican senators on the committee have been giving us a pretty good preview of the kind of opposition to the idea that we can expect to see coming from that side of the aisle.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking member of the Judic
Source: NYT
Mar 4, 2009
Well, that didn’t take long. Just 44 days into the job, and President Obama is going gray.
It happens to all of them, of course — Bill Clinton still had about half a head of brown hair when he took office but was a silver fox two years later, and George W. Bush went from salt and pepper to just salt in what seemed like a blink of an eye.
But so soon? “I started noticing it toward the end of the campaign and leading up to inauguration,” says Deborah Willis, who, as co-au
Source: NYT
Mar 4, 2009
Signs of simmering resistance abound: Just last week, many of China’s six million Tibetans chose not to celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, in order to mourn Tibetans who suffered during last year’s clashes. Monks have held rallies in parts of Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces. Last Friday, a monk from Kirti Monastery in Sichuan lighted himself on fire in a market, prompting security officers to shoot at him, according to Tibetan advocacy groups. Local officials deny the shooting.
Ch
