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: UPI
Apr 29, 2007
CINCINNATI -- Only one monument in the United States solely honors the 4,000 dogs that served in the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam Dogs of War monument, which stands in the shadow of a retired helicopter in Cincinnati's Veteran's Memorial Park, has gained attention as a result of the Cincinnati Enquirer's effort to put together a list of all war monuments in the area in time for Memorial Day.
The monument, bearing the silhouette of a German shepherd, honors the 4,000 dogs th
Source: AP
Apr 29, 2007
SAND CREEK MASSACRE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, Colo. —- More than 142 years after a band of state militia volunteers massacred 160 Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in a misdirected act of vengeance, a memorial was officially dedicated Saturday.
The [site,] 160 miles southeast of Denver on Big Sandy Creek in Kiowa County, pays tribute to those killed in the attack of Nov. 29, 1864.
Seeking revenge for the killings of several settlers by Indians, 700 volunteers who had
Source: AP
Apr 29, 2007
CAIRO -- Egypt said Sunday it would seek the temporary return of some of its most precious artifacts from museums abroad, including the Rosetta Stone and a bust of Nefertiti.
The country's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the Foreign Ministry would send letters this week to France, Germany, the United States and Great Britain requesting that the ancient artifacts be loaned to Egypt.
Hawass has previously demanded the permanent return of many of the artifacts, clai
Source: AFP
Apr 29, 2007
TALLINN, Estonia -- The Estonian government has speeded up plans to rehouse a Soviet-era war memorial in a bid to defuse tensions over its removal that erupted into deadly riots, officials said Sunday.
"The Estonian government will begin preparatory works today (Sunday) at the military cemetery in central Tallinn to relocate the Bronze Soldier," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The 2.5-metre (eight-feet) high statue was removed early Friday from the s
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 29, 2007
Even the scribes of the Chinese state media were moved to a chorus of wistful regret last week at the news that the home of Beijing Opera is to be razed as the city’s redevelopment for the 2008 Olympics reaches a climax.
The demolition of the Guanghe theatre, where opera has been performed since the last years of the Ming emperors four centuries ago, is the latest assault on the ancient fabric of the city.
The theatre stands in the Qian-men district, once a fabulous war
Source: Canadian Press
Apr 28, 2007
MONTREAL -- They were created by North American aboriginals, ended up in the collections of kings and aristocrats in France, and are now returning to this side of the Atlantic to be put on display at Montreal's Pointe-a-Calliere museum.
Horned headdresses, painted bags with porcupine quill fringes, shell necklaces and fish-skin quivers are among the items in "First Nations, French Royal Collections."
The exhibition, which runs June 5 to Oct. 14, features 85 ar
Source: DPA (German Press Agency)
Apr 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a series of apologies this week over the use of Asian women as sex slaves during World War II, but that has not stopped US lawmakers from complaining that he has not gone far enough to acknowledge his country's responsibility...
Source: Andrew Hoyem, Los Angeles Times
Apr 28, 2007
Andrew Hoyem is the publisher of Arion Press in San Francisco, specializing in limited-edition books.
We love to celebrate anniversaries. Two years ago, it was the centenary of the theory of relativity, and Albert Einstein was the honoree. Last year it was Samuel Beckett's 100th birthday, and performances of "Waiting for Godot" abounded. In 2007, it's the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road" — and the 50th anniversary of a typeface called
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Apr 28, 2007
LONDON -- Tasmanian Aborigines are preparing to take on Britain's two most famous universities and a national museum as they continue a fight to bring their ancestors' remains home for burial.
Representatives of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Greg Brown and Caroline Spotswood, arrived in London yesterday to mediate with the Natural History Museum in London, to stop it scientifically testing the remains of 13 Tasmanian Aborigines before they are returned to Tasmania after 200 years
Source: Mehr News Agency (Tehran)
Apr 28, 2007
TEHRAN -- The Louvre Museum has corrected the distorted name of the Persian Gulf on its maps and signs at the sections of Islamic art and Near Eastern antiquities.
[The curator of the National Museum of Iran, Mohammadreza Kargar, said] “I visited the Louvre’s curator and saw the relevant sections, and asked him to take into account Iranians’ sensitivity towards the distortion of the Persian Gulf’s name, and requested that he correct the mistakes. The museum’s officials recently wro
Source: AP
Apr 28, 2007
LISBON, Portugal -- It was a chilling discovery: a mass grave of human bones -- skulls smashed and scorched by fire, dog bites on a child's thigh bone, a forehead with an apparent bullet hole.
Three years after the find by workers digging up the cloisters of a 17th-century Franciscan convent, forensic experts and historians say they have solved the mystery.
They say the estimated 3,000 dead in the grave were victims of the earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755, and
Source: AP
Apr 28, 2007
ATLANTA -- After two decades of waiting, Emory University is unsealing its collection of hundreds of letters between author Flannery O’Connor and one of her longtime friends.
The collection was given to Emory by Elizabeth “Betty” Hester...in 1987 on condition that they remain sealed for 20 years.
Source: Foreign Policy magazine 'Passport' blog
Apr 28, 2007
Cambodia is finally taking a baby step to address its ugly history. A new book by Khamboly Dy, an expert on Cambodia's genocide, came out on Wednesday. Dy's A History of Democratic Kampuchea is significant because it's the first history book written by a Cambodian on the period from 1975 to 1979, when the Khmer Rouge terrorized the population and caused the deaths of some 1.7 million people. However, it was only approved for use a"reference text" in schools, so Cambodia's government—which
Source: BBC News
Apr 28, 2007
More than 300 people were detained and at least 10 hurt after a second night of riots in Estonia's capital Tallinn.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets after new clashes erupted over the removal of a Soviet war memorial.
Police were confronted by mainly ethnic Russian demonstrators, some of whom threw petrol bombs and were involved in looting.
Estonia says the memorial symbolised Soviet occupation. Supporters say it celebrated heroes who fought the Naz
Source: AP
Apr 28, 2007
BOSTON -— One wall at English High School here holds old black-and-white photographs of young white men in high starched collars and V-neck varsity sweaters. Another wall is covered with a mural spray painted in graffiti like an inner-city overpass.
English High was founded in 1821 as the United States’ first public high school, and its graduates include J. P. Morgan and Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgway from the Korean War. Today, its student body, dressed mostly in baggy jeans and do-rags
Source: Times (of London)
Apr 28, 2007
LONDON -- A life jacket worn by a survivor from the Titanic is expected to fetch £50,000-£80,000 when it is auctioned at Christie’s in London on May 16.
The jacket was worn by Mabel Francatelli, secretary to the socialite Lucy Duff-Gordon, who was with her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon.
All three escaped in a lifeboat, designed to hold 40, with only nine others, seven of them crew. Sir Cosmo was accused of bribing the men to help them escape.
[Story inc
Source: Telegraph
Apr 28, 2007
A soldier who died more than 60 years after he was wounded in the Second World War may be one of the last direct fatalities to result from the conflict.
Leslie Croft was injured by shrapnel while fighting alongside the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment in Italy in 1943.
He died aged 86 on Dec 31 from bronchopneumonia and a coroner has ruled that his illness was contracted because of the 63-year-old injury to his bowel.
Stanley Hooper, the Rotherham coroner,
Source: Asian Age (Delhi)
Apr 28, 2007
SRINAGAR, Jammu & Kashmir, India -- Irate crowds of Muslims protesting over the alleged demolition of an ancient mosque clashed with the riot police along the streets of Srinagar on Friday, leaving at least 15 people injured.
The authorities here, however, strongly refuted the allegation that the mosque had been pulled down by the security forces, and said that it had caved in due to lack of maintenance...
The now almost flattened mosque stood, in conformity with Ka
Source: Detroit Free Press
Apr 27, 2007
The Tuskegee Airmen, the World War II soldiers whose heroics have gone largely unheralded for more than 60 years, revealed to the Free Press on Thursday plans for a $32-million national museum in Detroit, to be built with corporation donations and the unique strategy of asking every African American for an $8 contribution.
The campaign will involve a marketing blitz next year that will spread the word through public service announcements on radio stations, notices in black publicati
Source: Washington Post
Apr 27, 2007
No trip to Jamestown would be complete without a visit to the actual remains of the original James Fort, located on a 1,500-acre island park adjacent to the Jamestown Settlement reconstruction. Now partially swamped by the James River at one corner, the vestiges of the triangular fort are the heart of Historic Jamestowne, which has more to set it apart from its neighbor than the addition of an old-timey "e."
Jointly administered by the National Park Service and the Associa
