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: Stone Pages Archaeo News
Feb 22, 2009
A Saudi-German team of archeologists has discovered the 13 km-long remains of buildings during excavations at Tayma in northeastern Saudi Arabia. The team from the German Archeological Institute (GAI), which has an agreement with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) to continue excavations in Tayma for five years, is researching the relationship between the settlement at Tayma - which dates back to 3,000 BCE - and the civilizations of Sham, Egypt and Iraq. According to Dr. Ali
Source: MSNBC
Feb 22, 2009
A group of students from Idaho have taken an unusual field trip to Connecticut for a special reunion.
On Saturday, the 14 students will meet in Middletown with the family members of former soldier Anthony J. Malone to return to them the helmet he wore in World War II.
Their mission was to find out the history behind the Army helmet Mansfield’s father had given to him 40 years ago.
Inside the helmet was Malone’s name and a serial number.
After a
Source: AP
Feb 22, 2009
As her spending habits, wardrobe choices and overall behavior became fodder for public outrage, the young princess became the object of gossip, backbiting and derision that ultimately led to her gruesome downfall.
Sex, lies, but no videotape for Marie Antoinette, the legendary French queen seen by Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch as an 18th-century version of modern-day celebrities stalked by paparazzi and splashed across supermarket tabloids.
"I thou
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 22, 2009
Never before seen memos about an unknown Tory politician called Margaret Thatcher, which singled her out for prominence because she was "very pretty" and dressed attractively, have been unearthed in the BBC archive.
The collection of documents also include a series of long forgotten television and radio interviews with Baroness Thatcher which charts her gradual transformation from suburban housewife to a major player on the world stage as the Iron Lady by the end of the 1
Source: CNN
Feb 22, 2009
The notorious Iraq prison once called Abu Ghraib has reopened under Iraqi government control. And the Ministry of Justice has launched a public-relations campaign to show it has changed since the days when prisoners were tortured there -- first under Saddam Hussein, and later by American troops.
It is now called Baghdad Central Prison, and has water fountains, a freshly planted garden and a gym -- complete with weights and sports teams' jerseys on the walls.
Rooms have
Source: AP
Feb 22, 2009
Protests that have nearly shut down the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique are not just about demands for lower prices and higher wages: For demonstrators they are no less than a battle against the vestiges of slavery.
Afro-Caribbean islanders — most of whose forbears toiled in the sugarcane fields under the yoke of slavery more than 160 years ago — not only resent France's handling of the global economic crisis, they have long resented that slaveholders' descenda
Source: Observer (UK)
Feb 22, 2009
The spot where US soldiers forced naked Iraqis to form a human pyramid now smells of fresh paint and disinfectant. The prison wing where hundreds more were executed during Saddam Hussein's regime is silent and empty, but for a few desks and documents that stand testament to his sadism.
There are signs of new beginnings at the reborn Abu Ghraib jail as it prepares to open its doors again to prisoners; there are greenhouses under construction, a rehabilitated sports yard, a barber sho
Source: Independent (UK)
Feb 22, 2009
This week’s dramatisation of the fall of Margaret Thatcher shows her as a more human figure than often supposed. As the Iron Lady is re-evaluated on TV, we asked some of those who were prominent in the 1980s how they regard her now.
Sir Max Hastings Editor of The Daily Telegraph in the late 1980s
She regenerated the capitalist system in Britain and was right to privatise large areas of state ownership, but failed to reform such vital sectors as education and health whic
Source: Independent (UK)
Feb 22, 2009
They returned from war hailed as heroes. But the demobbed British Jews who won medals defeating Hitler were horrified to see fascist salutes on the streets of Britain.
Oswald Mosley, whose British Union of Fascists preached anti-Semitism before the war, was released from internment in 1946. His Blackshirts, dressed like Nazi stormtroopers, were revived. Jewish houses were daubed with the letters PJ – Perish Judah. Jews were beaten and taunted in the streets: “Not enough Jews were b
Source: Times (UK)
Feb 22, 2009
IT IS the Queen Mother as she is most fondly remembered. At the races, sitting with her corgis in the garden and, most poignantly, looking the East End in the eye during the London blitz.
The scenes in bronze relief accompany a 9 and a half foot statue of the Queen Mother, seen here for the first time, resplendent in her Order of the Garter robes and with a faint smile.
The memorial, which has been kept secret, will be unveiled by the Queen on Tuesday. It stands in fron
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 22, 2009
The Fuhrer dreamed of his troops goose-stepping down the Golden Mile and unfurling the Swaztika on top of Blackpool Tower, it was revealed.
His invasion plans of Great Britain included making the Lancashire resort a headquarters for his paratroopers and also a "playground" for him and his men.
The plan explains why Blackpool escaped almost unscathed from the Luftwaffe'as bombing blitz despite the fact the RAF built hundreds of Wellington bombers in the town an
Source: AP
Feb 21, 2009
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is harshly criticizing Russia's political system, saying that the nation's leaders have steadily rolled back the democratic achievements of his rule.
Gorbachev accused Russia's current government of trying to consolidate its grip on power and stifle opposition voices, but avoided specific mention of President Dmitry Medvedev or his predecessor Vladimir Putin, who is now prime minister.
Gorbachev says Russia's tightly orchestrated p
Source: BBC
Feb 21, 2009
A wail of sirens brought Israel to a standstill on Tuesday morning for a two-minute silence to remember the victims of the Holocaust.
At a ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Holocaust deniers would never be allowed to carry out another Holocaust of the Jewish people.
Remembrance ceremonies were held across the world, including at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in Poland.
Thousands of young Jews and elderly survivors took park in th
Source: BBC
Feb 21, 2009
Serdar Kaya is 43 and has never been to court before; now he's suing the Turkish ministry of education.
The father of an 11-year old girl, Mr Kaya is angry that she was forced to watch what he calls a "very bloody propaganda film" at school.
Sari Gelin, or "Blonde Bride", was commissioned by the Turkish General Staff and distributed in recent months by the education ministry.
It is an attempt to counter what Turkey calls "baseles
Source: http://www.sbindependent.org
Feb 21, 2009
Special Collections and University Archives at Stony Brook University recently acquired a letter written by George Washington to his Setauket-based spy ring during the Revolutionary War. Kristen Nyitray, head of Special Collections, placed the winning bid of $48,000 for the letter. The letter had been projected by Christie’s, a Manhattan auction house, to go for a price of $25,000 - $35,000.
The letter, dated Sept. 26, 1780, was sent from the famed American general and president to
Source: NYT
Feb 21, 2009
As recession-wary Americans adapt to a new frugality, Japan offers a peek at how thrift can take lasting hold of a consumer society, to disastrous effect.
The economic malaise that plagued Japan from the 1990s until the early 2000s brought stunted wages and depressed stock prices, turning free-spending consumers into misers and making them dead weight on Japan’s economy.
Today, years after the recovery, even well-off Japanese households use old bath water to do laundry,
Source: China Central Television
Feb 21, 2009
Murals over two thousand years old still retaining their colors: that's an amazing find in a tomb in the suburbs of Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province.
A ramp leads to the tomb chambers. Murals decorate both the vault and the brick walls.
Cheng Linquan, director, Institute of archeology, said, The upper part is painted with celestial signs and the lower part is painted with life scenes. We see here is a woman carrying a baby, while leading another chi
Source: Newsweek
Feb 21, 2009
Has America's even-tempered new president already ruffled feathers in the land that spawned Borat and Benny Hill? That's certainly how the spiky British press responded after the White House sent back to the British Embassy a bust of Sir Winston Churchill that had occupied a cherished spot in President Bush's Oval Office. Intended as a symbol of transatlantic solidarity, the bust was a loaner from former British prime minister Tony Blair following the September 11 attacks. A bust of Abraham Linc
Source: Deutsche Welle
Feb 21, 2009
Christian Bouchacourt, South American superior for the Society of St. Pius X in Buenos Aires, told the newspaper La Nacion on Saturday, Feb. 21, that British-born Richard Williamson would comply with the government order within the given deadline.
The ultra-traditionalist bishop had been told he had 10 days to leave the country. If Williamson refused to leave voluntarily, he would be forcibly deported, officials said. He could, however, still appeal the decision.
Under
Source: Deutsche Welle
Feb 21, 2009
In an interview with the Hanover daily Neue Presse, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews Stephan Kramer said, "Mr.Schroeder is greatly damaging the reputation of Germany and the German government."
Kramer said that by meeting the Iranian president, Schroeder was supporting Ahmadinejad and his government, and appealed for the former chancellor to cancel his engagement, "on the grounds of human rights."
Just hours before he was due meet Ahm
