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: Daily Mail (UK)
Feb 28, 2009
For the old Kurdish shepherd, it was just another burning hot day in the rolling plains of eastern Turkey. Following his flock over the arid hillsides, he passed the single mulberry tree, which the locals regarded as 'sacred'. The bells on his sheep tinkled in the stillness. Then he spotted something. Crouching down, he brushed away the dust, and exposed a strange, large, oblong stone.
The man looked left and right: there were similar stone rectangles, peeping from the sands. Calli
Source: BBC
Feb 28, 2009
The Peruvian government has come under under fire for rejecting a $2m (£1.4m) donation from Germany to build a museum for victims of Peru's civil conflict.
The government in Lima initially failed to respond to the offer, saying the money would be better spent tackling poverty and hunger.
But the decision has been criticised by human rights groups and intellectuals.
Some 70,000 people died in the conflict between the military and Maoist rebels in the 1980
Source: Wall Street Journal
Feb 28, 2009
STOCKHOLM -- In neat script, blue ink on white letterhead, Fredrik von Dardel began writing to the stepson he had long been told to leave for dead: "Dear beloved Raoul."
It was March 24, 1956. He always wrote at his living-room table, his wife, Maria, looking on from a corner of the couch by the phone. On a chest, a spray of flowers she kept fresh stood beside a picture of her son, Raoul Wallenberg.
Mr. Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who safeguarded 20,000 J
Source: CBS News (video)
Feb 28, 2009
CBS News' Randall Pinkston chronicles the history of the Pullman car porters, African American train car employees who worked virtually nonstop in the hopes of fulfilling the American Dream.
Source: BBC
Feb 28, 2009
A sketch found in one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks could be an early self-portrait, experts believe.
The drawing had been obscured by handwriting for 500 years before being discovered by Italian scientific journalist Piero Angela.
After months of restoration work, the image was aged using criminal investigation techniques and compared with older self-portraits of Leonardo.
The findings will be revealed on Italy's RAI television channel.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 28, 2009
DNA tests have proved that Alex Haley – the black American author whose book Roots traced his family origins from the slave plantations of the US back to Africa – was of Scottish ancestry.
The tests have established that Haley – whose work is credited with helping transform the self-image of millions of black Americans – is directly descended from a Scottish paternal bloodline.
The findings came after a sample of DNA from Haley's nephew Chris Haley matched that of his
Source: Times of London
Feb 28, 2009
A father is suing the Turkish Education Ministry for forcing his 11-year-old daughter to watch a "racist" and "disturbing" film countering claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915 with graphic allegations of Armenian atrocities against Turks.
The landmark case takes on what human rights activists have called the state's militarist policy of brainwashing Turkey's schoolchildren to the point of racist paranoia, aiming to preserve a nat
Source: BBC
Feb 27, 2009
Plans to turn the birthplace of the longest surviving member of the Charge of the Light Brigade into a sex shop have been approved.
Edwin Hughes, otherwise known as 'Balaclava Ned', was born in Wrexham and died in Blackpool in 1927 aged 96.
He rode in the infamous charge in the Crimean War in 1854, which led to the deaths of 272 British soldiers.
One critic said Balaclava Ned would be "spinning in his grave". The company behind the plans refused
Source: BBC
Feb 27, 2009
The US collector who this month sold rare belongings of Mahatma Gandhi has apologised in Delhi for "unintentional hurt" to Indian sentiments.
James Otis said the money raised from the auction would go to groups promoting Gandhian values.
He said the items had not arrived in India because of a row over taxes.
"I need to apologise because it hurt me that anyone would see my name and think I was doing it for profit," Mr Otis said in the
Source: The Hindu News (India)
Feb 27, 2009
A piece of ironware excavated from a Turkish archaeological site is about 4,000 years old, making it the world's oldest steel, Japanese archaeologists said on Thursday.
Archaeologists from the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan excavated the 5-centimetre piece at the Kaman-Kalehoyuk archaeological site in Turkey, about 100 kilometers southeast of Ankara, in 2000. The ironware piece is believed to be a part of a knife from a stratum about 4,000 years old, or 2100-1950 B.C., acco
Source: IHT
Feb 27, 2009
For some Japanese, the national flag — a red sun on a white background — is a patriotic symbol. For others, it is an abhorrent relic of Japan’s past imperialism.
The longstanding debate came to a head Thursday, when a Tokyo court rejected a lawsuit filed by teachers who say they were unjustly punished for refusing to salute and sing the national anthem at school functions.
Since 2003, the Tokyo Board of Education has required public school teachers to stand and face the
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 27, 2009
The hunt for Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader wanted in connection with the massacre of an estimated 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995, found itself centred on an idyllic Kenyan beach.
The great sweep of Bamburi beach, its sands lapped by the Indian Ocean north of the Kenyan port of Mombasa, is a world away from the hills and valleys of Bosnia.
Outwardly there is little to suggest that the Blue Lagoon watersports centre, which offers glass-botto
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 27, 2009
Kenyan police in the port city of Mombasa arrested a Croatian passport holder on allegations that he was linked to war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, police and diplomats said Friday.
A diplomatic official said that the man's name was Igor Majeski, who ran the watersports business at the luxury Sarova Whitesands Resort north of Mombasa. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the man, arrested Thursday morning, was being brought to Nairobi for questioning.
A Serbian offi
Source: AFP
Feb 27, 2009
Irish archaeologists excavating a prehistoric tomb north of Dublin
have discovered that ancient 'vandals' left graffiti on the stonework,
Environment Minister John Gormley said. Scientists have been working
for almost 40 years to unlock the secrets of the megalithic tomb of
Knowth in County Meath, believed to date back to about 3 000 BCE.
Gormley said that the names of 15 or 16 early 'vandals' who had
carved their names into the stones had been translated using ancient
Source: AP
Feb 27, 2009
STOWE, Vt. – Should a wooden piece of history have a place in Stowe's future?
That's the question facing voters in this Vermont ski town, which is asking for permission to raze a 170-year-old former church that has fallen into disrepair. Town officials, who've been trying to decide what to do with the former Congregational Church for more than 20 years, believe its time has come.
But a small group of preservation-minded residents say the 1839 Greek Revival-style buildin
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com
Feb 27, 2009
The home of Franklin Kameny, a longtime activist for gay rights, was designated by the Historic Preservation Review Board as a local landmark at a hearing on Thursday.
The site, located at 5020 Cathedral Ave. NW, is the first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender site listed in D.C.’s inventory of historic sites.
During the 1960s and the early 1970s, Kameny’s home and office served as a meeting ground for planning gay civil rights campaigns and strategies.
Source: History Today
Feb 27, 2009
The auction of Gandhi’s glasses, pocket watch and sandals, as well as a bowl and plate, by Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York on March 4th and 5th was announced a couple of weeks ago. The sale of the personal belongings of a man renowned for his ascetic lifestyle and life philosophy sparked, however, considerable controversy. The announcement fuelled opposition in India, where some of Gandhi’s followers have requested that the buyer put the objects in the public domain and a group of MPs have de
Source: NYT
Feb 27, 2009
What does Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor who has dedicated his life to fighting hatred and intolerance, think about Bernard L. Madoff?
“ ‘Psychopath’ — it’s too nice a word for him,” Mr. Wiesel said in his first public comments on Mr. Madoff and the Ponzi scheme he is accused of perpetrating on thousands of individuals and charities, including the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.
“ ‘Sociopath,’ ‘psychopath,’ it means there is a si
Source: NYT
Feb 27, 2009
The rise of Colorado’s capital city and the rise of The Rocky, as it affectionately or scornfully became known, were intertwined from the beginning. The city was founded in late 1858, The Rocky the following April, as gold strikes were making the place a destination.
“Without The Rocky, Denver would not be the city it is today,” said Tom Noel, a professor of history at the University of Colorado in Denver.
On Friday, ashes were mostly all that was left of that legacy as
Source: Reuters
Feb 27, 2009
Poland has appealed for international donations to preserve facilities and exhibits at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz where more than one million Jews perished during World War Two.
The Auschwitz site, near the city of Krakow in southern Poland, comprises 155 camp buildings, 300 ruined facilities and hundreds of thousands of personal belongings and documents scattered over more than 200 hectares.
In a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday, Polish Prime Minister
