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: AFP
May 3, 2007
NEW YORK -- A bowler hat worn by comedian Stan Laurel, half of the 1930s slapstick double act Laurel and Hardy, is to be auctioned in New York later this month, Christie's auction house said Wednesday.
The iconic black bowler, so often used as a pantomime prop by the comedy duo, was expected to fetch up to $15,000 in the sale, which also features three of the funnyman's bow ties and a binder full of gags.
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune
May 3, 2007
MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. -- On the deck of a boat, nautical archaeologist Coz Cozzi concentrates on the sonogram-like image of the bottom of the Manatee River displayed on his laptop.
On the end of a towline 50 feet behind, a torpedo-like device duct-taped to a pair of toy foam tubes glides through the water.
The Mote Marine Laboratory scientist has turned to underwater technology to search for the remnants of sunken boats or other evidence that could prove the existence of
Source: AP
May 3, 2007
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A fatal shooting by a state trooper that helped inspire the march from Selma in 1965 and the ''Bloody Sunday'' protest that preceded it will get a fresh look next week by a special grand jury.
Former State Trooper James Bonard Fowler has insisted for years that he shot black Vietnam War veteran Jimmie Lee Jackson in self-defense when Jackson grabbed Fowler's pistol during a melee in a Marion cafe.
''There is no question about who did the shooting. Th
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
May 3, 2007
It's only midmorning on a cold April day, and already the parking lot at Historic Jamestowne is so crowded that newcomers must park their cars on the grass. As the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English colony in America approaches, "America's birthplace" has become a hot destination. Even more visitors will wind up at nearby Jamestown Settlement, where they can see replicas of the three ships that brought the first colonists over in 1607, a Powhatan Indian village, and a som
Source: Gannett News Service
May 3, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Zeno Wicks Jr. went with his father to meet a colleague arriving on the Hindenburg.
It had been raining off and on that day. Around 7 p.m., the mighty German airship started approaching the field.
Suddenly, it exploded in a giant ball of fire and fell from the sky."My father saw it and started cursing," says Wicks, now 86 and a retired chemist and plastics expert living in Louisville. "We drove right onto the airfie
Source: Reuters
May 3, 2007
KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Explorers have discovered a series of caves decorated with ancient Buddhist paintings, set in sheer cliffs in Nepal's remote Himalayan north, leaving archaeologists excited and puzzled.
An international team of scholars, archaeologists, climbers and explorers examined at least 12 cave complexes at 14,000 feet near Lo Manthang, a mediaeval walled city in Nepal's Mustang district, about 125 km (80 miles) northwest of Kathmandu.
The caves contain painti
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
May 3, 2007
A "digital dissection" using sophisticated CT scanning technology yesterday changed the way scientists viewed a 2,000-year-old mummy of an Egyptian child.
They now suspect that the youngster was a boy about 4 or 5 years old who was missing a right front tooth and was around 2-1/2 feet tall. He appeared to be developing normally and likely died of an acute cause, perhaps an infection.
Before the scan was conducted, experts at the Carnegie Museum of Natural Hist
Source: UPI
May 3, 2007
PRAGUE -- Legislation is moving forward in the Czech Republic Parliament to form an institute to study crimes committed during World War II and the communist era.
Following daylong heated debate, the lower house of Parliament passed legislation Wednesday that would create the institute...CeskeNoviny.cz, the Czech online news service, said the Social-Democrat and Communist Party lawmakers object to provisions that would deny employment to anyone allied with the f
Source: Irish Times (subscription required)
May 3, 2007
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has already issued draft directions that would allow for the destruction of the recently discovered "henge" along the route of the M3 in Co Meath, it was claimed yesterday.
The environmental group TaraWatch said Mr Roche had sent draft directions to the National Museum to preserve the henge "by record", a process that would facilitate photographs and written records being made before the henge is removed...
Mr
Source: AP
May 3, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The name of Army Sgt. Richard M. Pruett is now etched into the glossy black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial — nearly four decades after he was wounded during a combat mission in South Vietnam...
Richard Pruett, who was from Sherman, Texas, died in 2005 from complications related to wounds received during the war, making him eligible for inclusion on the memorial on the National Mall.
Also joining those honored on the wall are Navy Fireman Apprenti
Source: Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (Federation of American Scientists)
May 3, 2007
Los Alamos National Laboratory will no longer permit
historians and other researchers to have access to its archival records because Los Alamos National Security (LANS), the private contractor that now operates the Lab, says it has "no policy in place" that would allow such access.
"Policies that had previously applied to the University of California relating to the disclosure of information directly to you are no longer applicable," wrote Judy Archuleta of the Los Al
Source: BBC News
May 3, 2007
Vandals who desecrated the grave of Hungary's last communist ruler stole some of his remains, police in Budapest have confirmed.
One report said Janos Kadar's skull and several other bones, along with an urn with his wife's ashes, were missing.
Graffiti reading "a murderer and traitor may not rest in holy ground" was daubed nearby...
The vandals removed a marble cover stone and broke into the coffin.
[AP: Kadar was installed as Hungary's leader after t
Source: Los Angeles Times
May 3, 2007
"A combined throng of 600 dance lovers jammed the coronation ballrooms...""On tiny suede match covers bearing the inscription, 'It's a match — Ruby and George,' the engagement of Miss Ruby Kanaya to Pfc. George K. Suzuki of Ft. Sam Houston, Tex...."
The items are redolent of Small Town U.S.A., but the newspapers that carried them weren't exactly published in Mayberry.
They were written and edited in the desolate internment camps of World War II —- fenced-off patches of dese
Source: Washington Post
May 3, 2007
Rebuilding the fire-ravaged Georgetown public library could cost between $15 million and $20 million, a sum that D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday committed to allocating without delay so that the doors can reopen "as quickly as possible."
Fenty (D) has drafted emergency legislation to direct all excess revenue in fiscal 2007 and 2008 toward the library and historic Eastern Market, which also was hit by a three-alarm blaze Monday. One city official estimated yesterday t
Source: Los Angeles Times
May 3, 2007
Saying that its right to a nearly 500-year-old depiction of Adam and Eve is ironclad, the Norton Simon Art Foundation on Tuesday challenged an ownership rival to a federal court showdown over the work, which has hung in the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena since 1976.
The suit is a preemptive strike against Marei von Saher of Connecticut and her family; the museum says she first came forward in 2001 to claim the diptych and has threatened to sue in recent press interviews.
Source: Times (of London)
May 3, 2007
The rise of the e-mail over the written letter has prompted the British Library to open an archive for the electronic word. The library’s collection of letters, which includes correspondence between Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, will be joined by a database of emails submitted by the public.
The venture is designed to take a snapshot of the British public’s writing habits. The archive is designed to hold more than a million emails. Curators at the library hope to capture blun
Source: Christian Science Monitor
May 3, 2007
EDINBURGH -- Scottish voters go to the polls Thursday for what the First Minister, Jack McConnell, has described as the "most important election in Scotland in at least a generation."
At stake, whether the country –- which this week marked the 300th anniversary of its union with England –- will vote on independence from the rest of the United Kingdom within the next three years.
At the headquarters of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in Edinburgh the yellow w
Source: BBC News
May 3, 2007
ROME -- One of the world's oldest libraries, at the Vatican, is to close for three years for rebuilding, in an unexpected blow to scholars around the world...
The reason is that some buildings constructed only a quarter of a century ago are now considered unsuitable for the safe storage of ancient books...
During the closure, scholars will still be able to obtain digital copies of ancient manuscripts in the Vatican library that they can study at home.
But t
Source: Times (of London)
May 3, 2007
MOSCOW -- Russia’s conflict with Estonia over the removal of a monument to the Red Army escalated yesterday after pro-Kremlin activists in Moscow tried to assault the Baltic republic’s ambassador.
The EU entered the confrontation, calling on Russia to uphold commitments to protect foreign diplomats. A mob also attacked a car carrying Sweden’s representative in Moscow as it left the Estonian Embassy. [And the state-owned Russian Railways suddenly halted oil deliveries to Estonian po
Source: Telegraph
May 3, 2007
SYDNEY -- One of Britain's most respected Second World War commanders has been accused of sexually assaulting destitute children sent to Australia as part of an imperial settlement scheme.
Field Marshal Viscount Slim [William Slim, 1891-1970], who routed the Japanese in the jungles of Burma, was appointed governor general of Australia [1953-60] after the war.
The war hero...allegedly groped underprivileged British children who had been sent to Australia as part of a now discredited
