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
Apr 11, 2008
With the state desperate for cash to balance its budget, one lawmaker has come up with a solution worthy of Blackbeard or Captain Kidd.
Rep. Juan Zapata wants to plunder Florida's booty.
One of the world's largest publicly owned collections of Spanish treasure - doubloons and other coins, some gold and silver ingots and chains - belongs to the state.
"We have some interesting goodies in the closet," said the Miami Republican. "Why not have an inter
Source: AP
Apr 11, 2008
Polish lawmakers honored the memory of the more than 200 young Jewish fighters Friday who led the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi soldiers in 1943.
In its resolution, the lower house of Poland's parliament said the ghetto fighters were defending human dignity. Lawmakers paid homage to "all the victims and heroes of the uprising, whose sacrifice merits the highest admiration, respect and memory."
Poland will hold national observances of the 65th anniversary
Source: Arab News
Apr 11, 2008
An ancient burial cave was discovered in the Philippine island of Mindanao, south of Manila, and officials have sealed the site to prevent looting of artifacts, many of them jars made from clay.
It was not immediately known whether there are other treasures in the cave which was accidentally discovered by quarry diggers yesterday in Maitum town in Sarangani province.
The latest discovery in the village of Pinol was near another ancient burial site discovered in 1991 whe
Source: CNET
Apr 11, 2008
Just in time for cherry blossom season in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress on Saturday plans to open a new exhibit, called the Library of Congress Experience, at its historic Thomas Jefferson Building--and online at a new Web site, MyLOC.gov.
At about two dozen touch-screen kiosks sprinkled throughout otherwise analog exhibits, visitors will be able to zoom in on pages from historic bibles, "flip" through books from Thomas Jefferson's vast library, learn about the
Source: NYT
Apr 11, 2008
In the summer of 1996, President Bill Clinton delivered on his pledge to “end welfare as we know it.” Despite howls of protest from some liberals, he signed into law a bill forcing recipients to work and imposing a five-year limit on cash assistance.
As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton supported her husband’s decision, drawing the wrath of old friends from her days as an advocate for poor children. Some accused the Clintons of throwing vulnerable families to the winds in pursuit o
Source: BBC
Apr 11, 2008
A rare 2,000-year-old Roman skull has been returned to the cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales where it was discovered by divers in 1996.
Archaeologists were called in after cave divers unearthed human bones in what is believed to be one of the most important cave discoveries ever made.
The skull dates to the 2nd Century and is that of a local woman in her 50s.
Source: Discovery News
Apr 11, 2008
In seventh century England, a woman's jewelry-draped body was laid out on a specially constructed bed and buried in a grave that formed the center of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, according to British archaeologists who recently excavated the site in Yorkshire.
Her jewelry, which included a large shield-shaped pendant, the layout and location of the cemetery as well as excavated weaponry, such as knives and a fine langseax (a single-edged Anglo-Saxon sword), lead the scientists to belie
Source: AP
Apr 11, 2008
Russian officials on Friday unveiled a monument to Laika, a dog whose flight to space more than 50 years ago paved the way for human space missions.
The small monument is near a military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika's flight to space on Nov. 3, 1957. It features a dog standing on top of a rocket.
Little was known about the impact of space flight on living things at the time Laika's mission was launched. Some believed they would be unable to survive th
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 11, 2008
An island used as a naval base by the Germans in both world wars and flattened by the British Army is to rise again from the sea as a German tourist paradise.
Heligoland, a tiny North Sea island 40 miles off the German coast, was the target of reputedly the largest single non-nuclear explosion in history, when Britain detonated 6,800 tons of left-over ordnance there in 1947.
The aim was to shatter its reinforced submarine base and tunnel network, and end a colourful mil
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 11, 2008
Serb prisoners had their internal organs removed and sold by ethnic Albanians during the Kosovo war, according to allegations in a new book by the world's best known war crimes prosecutor.
Carla Del Ponte, who stepped down in January as chief prosecutor at the Hague tribunal for crimes committed in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, said investigators found a house suspected of being a laboratory for the illegal trade.
A senior adviser to Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's prime ministe
Source: NYT
Apr 11, 2008
After the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the demise of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on a reconnaissance mission in World War II has long ranked as one of aviation’s great mysteries. Now, thanks to the tenacity and luck of a two amateur archaeologists, the final pieces of the puzzle seem to have been filled in.
The story that emerged about the disappearance of Saint-Exupéry, the French aviator, author and émigré from Vichy France, proved to contain several narratives, a complexity tha
Source: NYT
Apr 11, 2008
In the slow-paced towns of Vermont, musty archive vaults are getting a curious amount of foot traffic this year.
With magnifying glasses to decode old handwriting and tissues for dust-induced sneezing, citizen volunteers are poring over record books with a common, increasingly urgent purpose: finding evidence of every road ever legally created in their towns, including many that are now impassable and all but unobservable.
The point is to comply with a 2006 state law th
Source: WaPo
Apr 11, 2008
In Thomas Jefferson's day, the books he lovingly collected were almost as famous as he was.
Leather-bound tomes on topics as varied as whist, beekeeping and philosophy were gathered from across Europe and colonial America, then brought to Monticello to help fulfill Jefferson's vow to amass the whole of human knowledge. They eventually became the foundation for the Library of Congress, although two-thirds were lost in a fire in 1851.
For the past decade, a small group of
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com
Apr 10, 2008
Look at the figures from one angle, and the majority of land - about 80 percent - within the 6,000-acre boundary of the Gettysburg National Military Park is owned, and therefore protected, by the federal government.
From a different perspective, however, that means one out of every five acres within those same boundaries is considered private property without conservation easements and therefore subject to potential development.
Given the conclusions of a report release
Source: Reuters
Apr 10, 2008
Germany's chief Nazi prosecutor is now more likely to be consoling the grandchild of a war criminal than chasing Adolf Hitler's murderous henchmen.
More than 60 years after World War Two ended, Nazi hunters are running out of targets and increasingly becoming historians who shine a harsh light on dark family secrets. "It's hard to keep prosecutors here," said Kurt Schrimm, who leads Germany's department for prosecuting Nazi war crimes. "I tell them when they start tha
Source: Reuters
Apr 10, 2008
Ancient open-air theatres across Greece are crumbling due to neglect and need swift government intervention to rescue them, archaeologists said on Thursday.
Greece, where Classical drama was born in the 5th century BC, boasts scores of theatres that form a key part of the country's classical cultural heritage. But while about 30 are in a state to host cultural events, 76 are in need of urgent repair, they said.
"Ancient theatres need to be constantly preserved, som
Source: AP
Apr 10, 2008
Friends of the last living American-born veteran of World War I have persuaded federal officials to allow the 107-year-old to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery when he dies.
Frank Woodruff Buckles, who met with President Bush in Washington, D.C., last month, had been eligible for cremation and placement in a columbarium at Arlington, but daughter Susannah Flanagan said Thursday that he preferred a burial.
To be buried underground, Buckles would have had to meet
Source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Apr 10, 2008
HE was many miles from home - a Roman soldier posted to Manchester, perhaps feeling cold and lonely, longing for loved ones left behind.
He was called Aelius Victor. And now after 2,000 years an altar he built to keep a promise to the goddesses he prayed to has been unearthed in the middle of the city.
The altar - described by experts as being in 'fantastic' condition - was discovered during an archaeological dig at a site on Greater Jackson Street earmarked for develop
Source: Independent (UK)
Apr 10, 2008
The intensely private George Bush had another emotional moment yesterday when he discussed how he overcame his drinking problems through religion.
In his final year in office, the deeply unpopular President has been increasingly prone to public outbursts of emotion, something rarely seen in such a famously disciplined politician.
On Tuesday, he wept openly during a memorial service for a Navy Seal who died in Iraq, the tears streaming down his face as the moment overcam
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 10, 2008
Jerusalem, one of the country's best-loved hymns and the favourite of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has been banned from services at one of Britain's foremost churches.
The verses, which were written by William Blake more than two centuries ago, cannot be sung by choirs or congregations at Southwark Cathedral because the words do not praise God and are too nationalistic, according to senior clergy.
