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: Reuters
Mar 27, 2007
GONDAR, Ethiopia -- Thousands of Ethiopians who say their Jewish roots entitle them to live in Israel are stuck in a squalid camp in Ethiopia, their dream of a promised land fading as Israel scrutinizes their family ties.
Known as "Falashas Mura", the descendants of Ethiopian Jews have reverted to Judaism since their late 18th and 19th century forbears converted to Christianity, sometimes under duress.
Tens of thousands of practicing Ethiopian Jews or Falashas
Source: New York Times
Mar 27, 2007
LONDON -— A protester ran to the front of Westminster Abbey during a service on Tuesday commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, shouting, "You should be ashamed!" and "This is an insult to us!" at Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth, who were only a few yards away.
The protester, identified as 39-year-old Toyin Agbetu, was then seized by security guards, taken outside and arrested. He has not been charged but remains in
Source: AP
Mar 27, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A Senate committee has killed a bill to designate May as Confederate Memorial History Month.
Anderson Republican Kevin Bryant had sponsored the bill, which he called a simple way to"memorialize the dead from the War Between the States."
Several black senators argued against the bill, threatening to attach amendments requiring the state to apologize for slavery -- or putting the Confederate flag back on top of the Statehouse.
The committee voted 14-to-7 to adjo
Source: AP
Mar 27, 2007
NEW YORK -- The family of Harry Houdini's widow wants to block a plan to exhume the escape artist's remains, saying a disinterment to determine whether he was murdered smacks of sensationalism."It is our firm belief that Bess Houdini would never approve of this," said a statement from her grandnephews, John and Jeffrey Blood."The family believes this is likely being done to promote sales of a recent book on Harry Houdini, suggesting he may have been murdered."
A spokesma
Source: BBC News
Mar 27, 2007
A £20m bid for lottery funding to build a theatre dedicated to the Bard's links with Merseyside has been launched.
Shakespeare North wants to create an education and community arts complex, including an Elizabethan cockpit-style theatre, in Prescot, Knowsley.
William Shakespeare spent time in the area, staying with the Stanley Family, the Earls of Derby, at Knowsley Hall.
School pupils and local residents are being invited to a series of drama workshops to
Source: Discovery News
Mar 27, 2007
Thin may be in now, but prehistoric men 15,000 years ago prefered full-figured gals, suggest dozens of flint figurines excavated from a Paleolithic hunting site in Poland.
Since almost identical depictions have been found elsewhere throughout Europe, the figurines indicate a shared artistic tradition existed even then.
The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Antiquity.
Co-author Romuald Schild explained that the artifacts offer "
Source: BBC News
Mar 27, 2007
A French court has overturned a ruling that ordered the state railway to compensate the family of World War II Jewish deportees.
Appeal judges in Bordeaux ruled administrative courts could not decide the liability of the operator SNCF.
Last June a court ruled SNCF must pay 61,000 euros ($81,300; £41,400) to the Lipietz family, whose members were taken to a camp near Paris in 1944...
The Lipietz family said it would now go to the highest administrative cour
Source: Times (of London)
Mar 27, 2007
DELHI -- Hindu groups are launching an international campaign today to halt India’s plans to create a shipping channel by dredging the sea between India and Sri Lanka.
They say that the project will destroy an ancient chain of shoals known as Adam’s Bridge, which Hindus believe was built by an army of monkeys to allow Lord Rama to cross to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife. They are also protesting on environmental grounds, arguing that the 30-mile string of limestone shoals, also k
Source: Telegraph
Mar 27, 2007
The Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982 was caused by a "failure of intelligence" equal to that leading up to the invasion of Iraq, according to Lord Carrington, who resigned as Foreign Secretary for his role in allowing the Falklands to be invaded.
As the crisis over the Falklands developed in the early spring, Lord Carrington, who as Foreign Secretary had overall responsibility for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, was told by intelligence chiefs that
Source: Guardian
Mar 27, 2007
TOKYO -- Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, apologised yesterday for Japan's use of wartime sex slaves but stopped short of acknowledging that they had been forced into it by the Japanese military.
Mr Abe said he echoed a 1993 statement of apology to the victims - known as comfort women - issued by the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono. The statement expressed the government's "sincere apologies and remorse" for its role in forcing an estimated 200,000 mainly Chine
Source: CNN
Mar 26, 2007
Maryland lawmakers approved an apology Monday for the state's role in the slave trade, expressing "profound regret" that it once "trafficked in human flesh."
Maryland follows Virginia in issuing a formal apology.
The vote in the House of Delegates makes the apology official, because a resolution doesn't require the governor's signature. The state Senate already approved it.
The resolution notes that slavery "fostered a climate of op
Source: Press Release -- University Newswire
Mar 26, 2007
Just as it fought the spread of Communism during the Cold War, the United States must do more to develop and support networks of moderate Muslims who are too often silenced by violent radical Islamists, according to a RAND Corporation report issued today."The struggle in much of the Muslim world today is a war of ideas," said Angel Rabasa, a RAND senior policy analyst and the lead author of the report."This is not a war of civilizations; it's not Islam versus the West. It's a struggle within
Source: BBC News
Mar 26, 2007
Ancient pollen could lead scientists to the kilns where the figures in China's terracotta army were made.
The 2,200-year-old clay army of 8,000 soldiers, 300 horses and 200 chariots guards the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China.
Soils from different regions contain distinct pollen "signatures", reflecting variations in vegetation.
This could help solve the mystery of where the clay figures were made, says the Journal of Archaeologica
Source: Independent
Mar 26, 2007
Blink and you'll miss it. The tiny obelisk on the road out of the Hertfordshire village of Wadesmill hardly presents itself to the world, yet it is one of the most important monuments in British history. It marks the spot where the slavery abolitionist Thomas Clarkson had an epiphany: on that day in June 1785, on a journey from Cambridge to London, he committed his life to ending the transatlantic slave trade.
That marker serves as an appropriate symbol for the hidden history of the
Source: AP
Mar 26, 2007
Former dictator Antonio Oliveira Salazar was chosen as the greatest Portuguese of all times by viewers of a TV show.
Salazar, prime minister of a repressive right-wing regime also known as the New State from 1932 to 1968, received 41 percent in Sunday evening's final of "Great Portuguese."
The show, broadcast by state-owned RTP, asked viewers to choose people who had contributed to the greatness of Portugal's history. Ten figures were selected for voting, from
Source: Baltimore Sun
Mar 26, 2007
"What happens to people after the war is somewhat neglected. The story doesn't end in 1945," says Michael Haley Goldman, project coordinator for the Holocaust Museum's Registry of Holocaust Survivors. "We're trying to complete the historical record."
Since the museum's opening in 1993, its central mission has been to advance knowledge of the Holocaust and to preserve the memory of survivors through comprehensive records and individual stories. It's a daunting if
Source: Fox News
Mar 26, 2007
Iain Macpherson cares so deeply about teaching civics that the 61-year-old Scottish immigrant turned himself into a show-and-tell project.
He arranged for a federal judge to perform his own citizenship ceremony in front of his fifth-graders, hoping to show what it means to be an American citizen. "I wanted them to know what the experience is like," Macpherson said.
Macpherson and other social studies teachers say they have to shoehorn civics lessons into their
Source: American Oriental panel and resolutuion circulated on the Internet by IraqCrisis newsletter
Mar 26, 2007
This year's special panel "Where Have all the Tablets Gone" was
organized by Robert Englund and included panelists Jerrold Cooper, Steven Garfinkle and Micah Garen. Among the news that was generated by the presentation was the information that a relatively modest outlay of funds (about 5 million) could help protect the more aggressively looted sites (Umma among them). After some discussion and debate a resolution was formulated that was presented at the business meeting to the
Source: AFP
Mar 26, 2007
ATHENS -- The archaeological museum of the Greek Ionian Sea island of Cephalonia was closed on Monday after a weekend of seismic activity damaged the building and smashed items, the culture ministry said.
An undersea tremor measuring 5.9 points on the open-ended Richter scale on Sunday toppled a number of exhibits at Argostoli Museum, smashing three of them, the ministry said without offering further details.
The museum building itself sustained minor damage, with crack
Source: BBC News
Mar 26, 2007
The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.
Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.
But the [UK] Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the [Lancet] survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust". Another expert agreed the metho
