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: Lee White in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
Mar 16, 2007
This week, the Smithsonian Institution and conservative commentator and Fox
News personality Oliver North were once again at odds over his use of the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center to
film a documentary.North hosts the series “War Stories” on the Fox News Channel and is filming
a documentary on the history of nuclear weapons. The show’s producers had
requested the opportunity to film N
Source: UPI
Mar 16, 2007
ROME -- Archaeologists exploring Cyprus, said to be home to Venus, the goddess of love, have stumbled upon the world's oldest known perfume factory.
A display of the prehistoric scents and 60 objects from the Cyprus discovery can be seen at Rome's Capitoline Museums, ANSA reported. The distilling equipment is believed to be 4,000 years old.
"We were astonished at how big the place was ... Perfumes must have been produced on an industrial scale. No wonder the island
Source: Reuters
Mar 16, 2007
BERLIN -- German police said on Thursday they were investigating four youths for spraying sheep with swastikas, the cross-like symbol used by the Nazis.
The youths, between the ages of 15 and 18, painted swastikas on several sheep out of a herd of around 30 near the northwestern town of Etzenborn, police said.
Source: NPR
Mar 16, 2007
Cultural life in Iraq is reeling after years of attacks linked to the violence that has gripped the country since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Although much has been lost with the targeting of cultural icons and institutions, people interested in books, music and art are still finding ways to breathe life into Iraq's intellectual community.
The most visible recent attack was a bombing this month at the booksellers market on al-Mutanabi street in Baghdad.
After four years
Source: WSBTV (Atlanta)
Mar 16, 2007
The NAACP is bristling over efforts by lawmakers to create a Confederate history month in Georgia, while giving short shrift to a proposal that the state apologize for slavery and the Jim Crow laws of segregation.After a Senate committee voted yesterday for the Confederate heritage bill, state NAACP leader Edward Dubose said it "reeks of hypocrisy" that legislators would feel responsible to honor past deeds of their ancestors while resisting an apology to the victi
Source: Deustche Welle
Mar 16, 2007
A German court sentenced Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf to two and a half years in prison for inciting racial hatred in publications and Web sites which "systematically" called into question the Nazi genocide.The court in Mannheim in southern Germany on Thursday found that Rudolf, 42, had contested the murder of six million Jews in Europe during World War II in propaganda on the Internet and in various publications.
Rudolf, a trained chemist who once w
Source: AP
Mar 16, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- An intern with the National Archives stole about 165 Civil War documents —- including the War Department's announcement of President Lincoln's death —- and sold most of them on eBay, prosecutors charged Thursday.
Denning McTague, who runs a Web site that sells rare books, worked at a National Archives and Records Administration site in Philadelphia last summer, prosecutors said.
McTague, 40, of Philadelphia, has helped officials recover most of the missi
Source: UPI
Mar 16, 2007
TOKYO -- The Tokyo High Court has ruled that Chinese nationals brought to Japan for slave labor have waited too long to seek compensation.
The court reversed a lower court ruling that the plaintiffs were entitled to damages, Kyodo News Service said. While acknowledging that laborers forced to work in Japan were wronged, the court rejected the claim for 25 million yen ($215,000) for each plaintiff from the government and Riinko Corp.
The suit was brought by six former Ch
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Mar 16, 2007
Florence is a city known for its art –- and often, for its art feuds. So it was no surprise to many in the Tuscan city that last Monday, Italian Sen. Paolo Amato chained himself to the entrance of the Uffizi museum.
Senator Amato, a vocal proponent of keeping one of Florence's most precious paintings within Florence, was protesting the museum's plan to loan Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, "The Annunciation," to Japan. He was ultimately unsuccessful.
The prote
Source: Times (of London)
Mar 16, 2007
BEIJING -- A wave of online outrage has forced Chinese censors into an unprecedented decision to allow eight banned books to remain on the shelves.
The books, which touch on long-taboo historical and social issues, remained on sale yesterday, even in official bookstores despite an official ban, with penalties —- including fines —- imposed on the publishing houses, which have been told not to print more copies...
Demand has been high. At the respected All Sages bookshop
Source: Telegraph
Mar 16, 2007
On time, and within budget, one of the greatest monuments to the ambition of the Victorian railways is being restored to its full glory. And, when it is complete, Eurostar trains will be able to travel through southern England at the same high speeds they reach on the continent.
It is possible that the rest of the world, reading of the soaring cost of the London Olympics and the interminable delays to the opening of Wembley stadium, thinks Britain doesn't have much of a knack these days for
Source: AP
Mar 16, 2007
The husband of a late curator of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg was convicted yesterday of the theft of art objects and sentenced to five years in prison.
Nikolai Zavadsky was also ordered to pay 7.3 million roubles (£144,450) in compensation.
The museum announced last July that 221 pieces including jewellery, religious icons, silverware and enamelled objects worth about £2.4m had been stolen.
Zavadsky's wife, Larisa, died suddenly during an
Source: AP
Mar 16, 2007
Interpol said yesterday it is to issue requests for the arrest of five prominent Iranians and a Lebanese militant sought in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre in Buenos Aires in which 85 people died.
However, it turned down Argentina's request for help in the arrests of three other Iranians, including the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The six people sought include former Iranian intelligence chief Ali Fallahijan and a Lebanese militant
Source: Telegraph
Mar 16, 2007
Anti-Nazi groups in Germany yesterday won the right to display the swastika after the country's highest court overturned the conviction of an activist who sold items that mocked the symbol.
Juergen Kamm was fined 3,600 euros by a lower court in Stuttgart in September for "selling unconstitutional symbols" of crossed-out swastikas on T-shirts, lighters and stickers through his mail order company Nix Gut (Nothing Good), in breach of a law prohibiting its use except in specif
Source: Independent
Mar 16, 2007
This year's bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire was an opportunity to commemorate the millions of slaves who died and renew efforts to help the trafficked people of today, David Lammy, the Culture minister, said yesterday.
He welcomed the diversity of events and exhibitions across Britain marking the anniversary as a chance to tell the stories of all those involved in, and affected by, the "evil trade". "Our national museums and galle
Source: AP
Mar 16, 2007
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The baby mummy had a European mom, and likely came from a wealthy family. But where he lived and why he died —- and at such a young age —- remain a mystery. The mummy, exhibited for the first time Thursday at the St. Louis Science Center, has been the year-long focus of an international team of investigators. The museum said it may be the most extensive research project ever undertaken on a child mummy...
A small snippet of the mummy's wrapping tested for carbon da
Source: Independent
Mar 16, 2007
A rare copy of the first printed atlas of England and Wales sold for £669,600 [about $1.2 million] at auction yesterday.
The atlas was completed in 1579 -- but printing was delayed until 1590 to prevent the Spanish getting information about the English coastline. It is a landmark in Elizabethan cartography, mapping England and Wales in their entirety for the first time. It was created by a surveyor called Christopher Saxton, who was born in Dunningley, West Yorkshire.
T
Source: AFP
Mar 15, 2007
CAIRO -- Archaeology in Iraq these days, explains the new caretaker of the country's 5,000-year-old heritage, is less about making new discoveries than finding out what has already been stolen.
"We need a government that takes responsibility for protecting the monuments of all Iraqis," antiquities director Abbas Ali al-Hussainy told AFP in an interview during a recent visit to Cairo.
"Right now we need to take measures to figure out where the sites are an
Source: UPI
Mar 15, 2007
QOM, Iran -- A fourth brazier has been discovered at a 3,000-year-old temple in Iran.
Archaeologists say the brazier is smaller than the previous finds at the temple at Qoli Darvish Hill in Qom, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. They said they believe it was used to keep a fire going for the larger braziers.
All four were in a central room with a platform for making religious offerings, said Siamak Sarlak, head of the excavation team.
Qoli Darvish
Source: Jakarta Post (via UCLA Asia Institute)
Mar 15, 2007
"What do you know about the G30S (September 30th movement)?" The Jakarta Post asked an 11th grader at state elementary school No. 3 in Setiabudi, South Jakarta, on Tuesday.
"Oh, you mean the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party)?" asked Baby Zahwa, who had just finished her history exam.
"Hmm, the G30S," the Post replied.
"Yes, the PKI," Baby insisted, launching into an explanation most probably rote learned from her histo
