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: International Herald Tribune
Jun 20, 2007
Because "war museum" and "mausoleum" can sound alike, especially if a pedicab driver speaks no English and his passenger no Vietnamese, a recent visitor to Hanoi found himself in a long line waiting to view the embalmed corpse of Ho Chi Minh, "He Who Enlightens."
The change in plans was acceptable. Although he had not been one of those Americans who chanted "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh" during war protests in the turbulent 1960s - still less "Hey
Source: Sci-Tech Today
Jun 20, 2007
Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have mined what could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history, bringing home 17 tons of colonial-era silver and gold coins from an undisclosed site in the Atlantic Ocean. Estimated value: $500 million.
A jet chartered by Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration landed in the United States recently with hundreds of plastic containers brimming with coins raised from the ocean floor, Odyssey co-chairman Greg Stemm said. The more than 500,000 piec
Source: Secrecy News
Jun 20, 2007
Each U.S. military service now has "combat camera" (COMCAM) units that provide a unique visual record of military operations, according to a new manual on COMCAM tactics and procedures (pdf).
The photographic and motion imagery produced by military photographers "enhances the commander's situational awareness and establishes a historical operations record."
If and when such imagery is eventually released, it has the potential to add a new dimension t
Source: NYT
Jun 20, 2007
The former president of Peru, Alberto K. Fujimori, who is fighting extradition to Peru on human rights and corruption charges, may run for a seat in Japan’s legislative elections, his spokesman said. Mr. Fujimori, who has Japanese citizenship, has been approached by a small opposition party to compete in the upper house election next month, but critics called the move a ploy to avoid extradition to Peru from neighboring Chile, where he is under house arrest. Mr. Fujimori, 68, was arrested in Chi
Source: NYT
Jun 20, 2007
Even though his supposed fund-raising acumen was used to justify his ballooning salary, the chief executive of the Smithsonian Institution raised less private money for the museum complex last year than his predecessor did in 1999, an independent committee said in a scathing report issued today.
Salary and other compensation for the executive, Lawrence M. Small, whose formal title was Smithsonian secretary, soared from $536,000 in 2000 to $915,000 in 2006, the report said. But ultim
Source: News Max
Jun 20, 2007
Japan has changed the name of the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, site of the famous World War II battle, to its original name of Iwo To after residents there were prodded into action by two recent Clint Eastwood movies.
The new name in Japanese looks and means the same as Iwo Jima - or Sulfur Island - but sounds different, the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute said.The institute announced the name change Monday after discussing the issue with Japan
Source: Reuters
Jun 20, 2007
Algeria, a treasure house of prehistoric Saharan art, has discovered more neolithic rock etchings in the desert from around 8,000 years ago showing cattle herds, a government newspaper reported Monday.
El Moudjahid daily said local tour guide Hadj Brahim found about 40 images near the town of Bechar, about 800 km (500 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers.
Source: Discovery Channel
Jun 20, 2007
Just as a U.S. Presidential state dinner does not reflect how most Americans eat and socialize, researchers think the formal, decadent image of wining and dining in ancient Rome mostly just applied to the elite.
According to archaeologist Penelope Allison of the University of Leicester, the majority of the population consumed food "on the run."
Allison excavated an entire neighborhood block in Pompeii, a city frozen in time after the eruption of volcano Mount
Source: IHT
Jun 19, 2007
Fifty years ago, when Saadi Yacef was blowing up French men, women and children in the name of Algerian independence, he never imagined Algerians would do the same to each other some day.
Yacef's ultimately successful fight against colonial France was immortalized in the 1965 film "The Battle of Algiers." He played a character based on himself in the movie, which has become a celluloid primer for revolutionaries.
The mystique attached to terrorism across the M
Source: Live Science
Jun 19, 2007
For every generation in the United States there has been a war. And with wars come millions of records that can shed light on family history, detailing everything from the color of soldiers' eyes to what their neighbors may have said about them.
On Thursday, Ancestry.com unveils more than 90 million U.S. war records from the first English settlement at Jamestown in 1607 through the Vietnam War's end in 1975. The site also has the names of 3.5 million U.S. soldiers killed in action,
Source: Live Science
Jun 19, 2007
Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say.
Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D. The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt's archaeological sites, or "tells," as possible before they are des
Source: Live Science
Jun 19, 2007
Europe's prehistoric hunter-gatherers may have practiced human sacrifice, a new study claims.
Investigating a collection of graves from the Upper Paleolithic (about 26,000 to 8,000 BC), archaeologists found several that contained pairs or even groups of people with rich burial offerings and decoration. Many of the remains were young or had deformities, such as dwarfism. The diversity of the individuals buried together and the special treatment they
Source: NYT
Jun 19, 2007
Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered the human skeleton of what they conclude is the earliest known gunshot victim in the New World.
Digging in an Inca cemetery in the suburbs of Lima, they came on well-preserved remains of an individual with holes less than an inch in diameter in the back and front of the skull. Forensic scientists in Connecticut said the position of the round holes and some minuscule iron particles showed that the person most likely was shot and killed by a Spani
Source: International Herald Tribune
Jun 19, 2007
A group of about 100 lawmakers from Japan's ruling party claimed Tuesday that after a monthlong review they have determined the number of people killed by Japanese troops during the infamous "Rape of Nanking" has been grossly inflated.
Nariaki Nakayama, head of the group created to study World War II historical issues and education, said documents from the Japanese government's archives indicated some 20,000 people were killed about one-tenth of the more commonly cited fi
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jun 19, 2007
For the first time since the early 1990s, the nonprofit will finish this fiscal year, ending June 30, with an operating profit. But the struggling downtown institution still plans on relocating its Civil War collection.
The museum finished last fiscal year with an operating loss of $389,000, forcing cutbacks. Doors were closed on Wednesdays, the magazine was cut from four issues to three, and the annual journal was axed.
But thanks to an emergency fund drive that raise
Source: Agence France Presse
Jun 19, 2007
Japan voiced regret Tuesday as the US Congress moved forward with a resolution demanding an unambiguous apology from Tokyo for forcing Asian women into sexual slavery before and during World War II.
Japan voiced regret Tuesday as the US Congress moved forward with a resolution demanding an unambiguous apology from Tokyo for forcing Asian women into sexual slavery before and during World War II."It is regrettable," Foreign Minister Taro Aso
Source: BBC News
Jun 19, 2007
Iran has stepped up its protest over the knighthood awarded by Britain to Salman Rushdie, whose 1988 novel The Satanic Verses outraged many Muslims.
Iran's foreign ministry summoned the UK ambassador in Tehran and said the knighthood was a "provocative act".
Pakistan voiced similar protests, telling the UK envoy in Islamabad the honour showed the British government's "utter lack of sensitivity".
Britain denied that the award was intended to
Source: BBC News
Jun 19, 2007
Archaeologists who set out to put up a safety fence at Rochester's medieval castle have unexpectedly uncovered a Roman city wall. The team had "barely taken the turf off when they unearthed a solid mass of stone masonry", Medway Council said.
Castle archaeologist Graham Keevill called it "a very important discovery". He said: "We don't have many Roman city walls surviving in England. To get an unexpected one like this is fantastic. It is also a perfect exam
Source: United Press International
Jun 19, 2007
The Pentagon is distributing new playing cards to troops, but this time they don't depict Iraq's most wanted.
The playing cards show pictures of Iraq and Afghanistan's cultural and archaeological sites, along with tips and entreaties to American troops on protecting the sites. The five of clubs, for instance, suggests they drive around rather than over archeological sites; the two of hearts shows the ancient ruins of Samara with the inscription: "99 percent of mankind's history
Source: Washington Post
Jun 19, 2007
President Bush has asserted that he is not necessarily bound by the bills he signs into law, and yesterday a congressional study found multiple examples in which the administration has not complied with the requirements of the new statutes.
Bush has been criticized for his use of "signing statements," in which he invokes presidential authority to challenge provisions of legislation passed by Congress. The president has challenged a federal ban on torture, a request for dat
