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: NYT
Feb 24, 2009
[A] weathered sign next to a garbage pile briefly describes the rise and fall of Nueva Cádiz, by 1515 a slaving center and the flash point for Latin America’s first frenzied commodities boom, built around pearls. By 1541, the sign says, “The depleted oyster beds put a final end to the city.”...
Nueva Cádiz is now largely forgotten, even in Venezuela. Scholars occasionally drop by for a glimpse into the dawn of the Spanish conquest, and archaeologists sometimes obtain permits to dig
Source: NYT
Feb 24, 2009
Previous economic downturns have often led to decreased enrollment in the disciplines loosely grouped under the term “humanities” — which generally include languages, literature, the arts, history, cultural studies, philosophy and religion. Many in the field worry that in this current crisis those areas will be hit hardest.
Already scholars point to troubling signs. A December survey of 200 higher education institutions by The Chronicle of Higher Education and Moody’s Investors Serv
Source: NYT
Feb 24, 2009
The District of Columbia took a significant step toward winning a full vote in the House on Tuesday as the Senate cleared the way for legislation that would permanently expand House membership for the first time in almost a century.
The Senate voted 62 to 34 to begin debating a measure that would also grant an additional House seat to Utah, enlarging the House to 437 seats. In 2007 supporters of the bill fell three votes short of overcoming a Senate filibuster against it.
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
A Paris judge yesterday gave the go-ahead to the controversial sale of two Chinese bronzes looted more than a century ago by British and French troops and now part of the collection amassed by the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
The decision means that the auction planned for Wednesday morning at Christie's in Paris can proceed and the two Ching dynasty sculptures - a rabbit and a rat's head - are expected to fetch between €8m and €10m ($12.7m, £8.8m).
The que
Source: Yahoo News
Feb 24, 2009
Maintenance workers at Egypt's Giza Pyramids have found an ancient quartzite statue of a seated man buried close to the surface of the desert, the culture ministry said on Tuesday.
The statue, about life-size at 149 cm (five feet) tall, was found north of the smallest of Giza's three main pyramids, the tomb of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Mycerinus, who ruled in the 26th century BC, the ministry said in a statement.
The man was wearing a shoulder-length wig and was seated
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2009
Investigators in Peru say they have for the first time successfully used DNA to identify victims of the country's civil conflict in the 1980s and 1990s.
The technique identified 23 victims, who were buried in Peru's largest mass grave in 1984.
The director of the Peruvian forensic anthropology team, Jose Pablo Baraybar, said they expected to identify several more victims in the next few weeks.
Some 70,000 people died in the conflict between the military
Source: Foxnews
Feb 24, 2009
A long-running dispute between two men who both claim to own the "sniper's perch" in the JFK assassination returns to court next month.
They both claim ownership of the sixth-floor window from the Texas School Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald hid out to shoot President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
Caruth Byrd, 67, of Van, Texas, sued 81-year-old Aubrey Mayhew, of Nashville, Tenn. over who owns the "real" window after both had been posted for sal
Source: Wall Street Journal
Feb 24, 2009
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Anybody want some top-secret seagoing vessels? The Navy has a pair it doesn't need anymore. It has been trying to give them away since 2006, and they're headed for the scrap yard if somebody doesn't speak up soon.
One is called Sea Shadow. It's big, black and looks like a cross between a Stealth fighter and a Batmobile. It was made to escape detection on the open sea. The other is known as the Hughes (as in Howard Hughes) Mining Barge. It looks like a floating fi
Source: Washington Post
Feb 24, 2009
NEW DELHI -- Indians are expressing outrage over a New York auction that is set to sell some of the most personal belongings of India's great independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi -- the gaunt, bare-chested man whose ascetic life defied materialism.
The auction is a travesty for many Indians, for whom Gandhi is a godlike figure, and some in India's Parliament have called for the government to either stop the auction or put in the highest bid to get back the nation's iconic mementos
Source: BBC
Feb 24, 2009
A museum commemorating the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami has opened in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
It has been designed as a symbolic reminder of the disaster, as well as an educational centre.
It will also serve as an emergency disaster shelter in case the area is ever hit by a tsunami again.
Aceh was home to more than half the 240,000 people who died in the disaster. The outpouring of aid which followed was the largest in history.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
The former 'First Lady' of the Khmer Rouge has told her accusers at Cambodia's genocide tribunal they would be 'cursed to the seventh circle of hell'.
Ieng Thirith, 76, who is facing trial for crimes against humanity under the communist regime, at first told the court that defence lawyers would speak on her behalf during her appeal against detention, saying: "I am too weak".
But she later erupted at the prosecution's suggestion that she was aware of atrocitie
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
The Queen has unveiled a £2 million statue of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother just a few feet from the imposing sculpture of George VI.
The Prince of Wales, in a moving speech in the presence of all senior members of the Royal Family described the 9ft 6in sculpture in The Mall as a fitting tribute to his "darling" grandmother.
The unveiling by the Queen of the 9ft 6in bronze statue was a poignant reminder of the simple ceremony she performed in tribute to he
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
In an exclusive interview with Telegraph TV, ahead of a speech at Chatham House on Wednesday, Morris Reid, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said: “The special relationship (with the UK) is over and dead. It’s a different day.”
Reid’s speech entitled “Europe must show leadership and stop waiting on the United States” will make the point that “it is not smart for European politicians to think the American President needs to care about their concerns. And it is also not sma
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 24, 2009
Two men claim to own the sixth-floor "sniper's perch", where Oswald propped the telescopic rifle that he used to assassinate America's 35th president on Nov 22, 1963.
Caruth Byrd, 67, claims that he inherited the window in 1986 from his father, Col Harold Byrd, who once owned Texas School Book Depository, the Dallas building from which Oswald shot Kennedy.
Mr Byrd says that his father had the window removed six weeks after the assassination, fearful that it wo
Source: AP
Feb 23, 2009
As former President George W. Bush works on his memoir, his detractors are doubting the candor of an unpopular leader famous for giving himself the highest of approval ratings.
Bush has signed with Crown Publishers for "Decision Points," a survey of fateful choices from running for president to invading Iraq. The book is scheduled for 2010, and while Bush said recently that "absolutely, yes," he would question some of his decisions, he added that he would make cl
Source: Foxnews
Feb 23, 2009
More than half a million young people from Maine to California are finalizing written reports, editing documentaries and polishing original performances - all in hopes of gaining a trip to the nation's capital and perhaps winning a scholarship as a finalist in National History Day's annual student competition.
Now in its 30th year, National History Day is a year-long program aimed at stimulating interest in history among middle and high school students and their teachers. Following
Source: AP
Feb 23, 2009
A Chicago-based Serb group said Monday it is offering a $100,000 reward for anyone who can locate the grave of a World War II guerrilla leader executed as a traitor by the Communists.
The burial site of Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic has been unknown since his execution in 1946 by the postwar Communist authorities. Mihailovic was convicted of collaboration with the Nazi occupiers in a hasty trial orchestrated by the new government.
The Serbian National Defense Council of Am
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 23, 2009
Noble titles awarded by the late dictator General Francisco Franco should be withdrawn, an association seeking recognition for the victims of the Spanish Civil War and ensuing fascist regime has said.
The socialist government of Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose own grandfather was shot by fascist forces during the three year conflict, has faced fierce criticism after it emerged that one of the most controversial titles bestowed by Franco was renewed last month.
Source: BBC
Feb 23, 2009
A Chinese director is planning to stage a musical based on the founding text of communism, Karl Marx's Das Kapital.
The plot will revolve around a group of office employees who find out they are being exploited by their boss.
China's communist leaders still praise Karl Marx, although they now shy away from his economic theories.
But those involved in the production say that Marx is still relevant today, particularly in a world gripped by an economic cris
Source: AP
Feb 23, 2009
Connecticut legislators are considering making their state the first in New England to apologize for slavery and other racist policies of old.
The resolution says slavery was practiced in Connecticut from the 17th through 19th centuries. There were about 5,100 slaves in the Connecticut colony by the mid-1770s. That's about 3 percent of the population at the time.
The resolution also urges schools and organizations to acknowledge Connecticut's evolution from a colony to
