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: Times Online (UK)
Jul 11, 2006
The mausoleum built as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s love for Prince Albert was put on English Heritage’s “at risk” list yesterday.
Days after Albert died, in 1861, Victoria ordered that the mausoleum, above, be built in the grounds of the Windsor Castle retreat of Frogmore House. Decorated with frescoes, plaster angels and marble, it took ten years to complete. When Victoria died, 40 years after her husband, her remains were placed there with his.
English Heritage is so con
Source: WaPo
Jul 11, 2006
The ceremonial burning of the diary of Holocaust victim Anne Frank by far-right extremists in eastern Germany was condemned by the German government on Friday amid calls to intensify efforts to stamp out neo-Nazi activity."This act was beneath contempt and could scarcely have been more primitive," the German Interior Ministry said in a statement to Reuters.
The ministry was reacting to an incident in which three men in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhal
Source: al Jazeera
Jul 11, 2006
An instructor at the University of Wisconsin who has said he believes US officials orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks, will be allowed to teach a course on Islam.
Some state politicians had called for the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fire Kevin Barrett, a part-time instructor, after he spoke about his theories on a radio talk show last month.
The university provost, Patrick Farrell, said in a statement late on Monday: "We cannot allow political pres
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jul 11, 2006
ATLANTA The Woodruff Library are abuzz with activity.
In just a few weeks, the library at the Atlanta University Center will become the temporary home to Atlanta's newly acquired writings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and archivists and administrators are busy readying for the big event.
Woodruff —which serves as the official library of Morehouse and Spelman colleges, Clark Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Center — will become custodian o
Source: NYT
Jul 11, 2006
David A. Bright, an internationally renowned authority on the sinking of the Andrea Doria who was helping lead preparations to commemorate the disaster’s 50th anniversary later this month, collapsed and died on Saturday after making a dive into the wreck of the ship, about 60 miles south of Nantucket. He was 49 and lived in Flemington, N.J.
A scientist by training, Mr. Bright was a skilled wreck diver who had dived the remains of the Andrea Doria more than 100 times. He had an impor
Source: NYT
Jul 11, 2006
Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s former intelligence chief, now one of his bitterest enemies, has implicated the disgraced dictator and one of his sons in a cocaine manufacturing and smuggling scheme and contends that it was one of the sources of General Pinochet’s illicit $28 million fortune.
Gen. Manuel Contreras, who ran the Directorate of National Intelligence, the Chilean secret police, during the 1970’s, made the charges in a document submitted last week to an investigating magistrate
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Jul 11, 2006
THE Mongolian capital has been swamped with images of its former potentate, Genghis Khan, in honour of the anniversary of his unification of the nation in 1206. At the climax of celebrations in Ulan Bator yesterday, soldiers in traditional uniform and bearing yaks' tail standards heralded the unveiling of an enormous statue of the Great Khan in the main Sukhbaatar Square.
The monument in which it is set contains earth and stones from the holy and historic places in Mongolia associat
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jul 11, 2006
In just a few weeks, the library at the Atlanta University Center will become the temporary home to Atlanta's newly acquired writings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and archivists and administrators are busy readying for the big event. Woodruff --- which serves as the official library of Morehouse and Spelman colleges, Clark Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Center --- will become custodian of the $32 million collection, slated to arrive in Atlanta from Sotheby's au
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jul 11, 2006
There's no likeness of him, no record of a word he wrote or said directly, no marked grave. The slave rebellion he allegedly plotted --- which would've been the largest in U.S. history --- was scotched before it happened. Some historians believe there was no plot --- that the insurrection said to have called for the murder of every white in Charleston was concocted by white leaders for political advantage.
What isn't disputed: Denmark Vesey, a freed slave, was hanged in 1822 with 34
Source: History Today
Jul 10, 2006
The World Heritage Committee will today discuss issues relating to the conservation of environmental World Heritage Sites in the face of increasing concern over global warming. An international coalition of environmentalists and lawyers are urging the Committee, who are holding their annual meeting, in Lithuania, this week, to take urgent action to protect sites such as Mount Everest and Great Barrier Reef from future environmental threat. The World Heritage Convention legally requires all count
Source: Scripps Howard News Service
Jul 10, 2006
A new exhibit at the National Museum of Health and Medicine commemorates [the struggle to save Garfiel'd life] 125 years ago. Open through Sept. 19, the anniversary of Garfield's death, the show features contemporary images and descriptions of the effort to save the president's life. The museum is a component of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
The display's centerpiece: the 12th thoracic and first and second lumbar vertebrae of the 20
Source: Ledger Enquirer
Jul 10, 2006
Former Birmingham City Councilman John Katopodis has proposed changing the name of Caldwell Park, which honors a key figure in the founding of Birmingham who also was an officer in the Confederate Army and a slave owner.
Katopodis wants the park named after former City Councilwoman Nina Miglionico, a social progressive who was elected to the council after the old commission form of city government was changed during the racial turmoil in 1963. She served for more than two decades.
Source: Letter to members of the Latin Am Studies Association from President Charlie Hale
Jul 10, 2006
I write to inform you on the results of the referendum on the LASA2006 Congress
location, and on the LASA Executive Council decision that immediately followed.
All LASA members received an email ballot with a brief explanation of the relocation
issue, and request that you vote on the question: “Should LASA relocate our September
2007 Congress from Boston to Montreal, Canada?” In the final tally, 79 percent voted
“yes,” and 20 percent “no” with 1 percent in blank. Taking that recommendation
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Jul 10, 2006
A federal judge in Mexico dropped genocide charges Saturday against a former president, Luis Echeverría, for his role in a student massacre 38 years ago. The statute of limitations had expired, the judge said.
Mr. Echeverría, 84, was accused of ordering security forces to crush a student rally in Mexico City on October 2, 1968. Officials say the crackdown left about 30 people dead, while human-rights groups say as many as 300 died that day.
Mr. Echeverría was interior
Source: Tyler Green in the LAT
Jul 10, 2006
THE SMITHSONIAN Institution, our national museum and also a scientific research complex, is at a crisis point. Many of its 20 venues, such as the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum, need tens of millions of dollars in work. Desperate for funds, the Smithsonian has made arguably improper arrangements with big business, and it has accepted funding from corporations with an all-too-obvious interest in what goes on view in the institution's museums. But the real
Source: Time
Jul 10, 2006
The last remaining trove of Albert Einstein's personal family letters is being opened to the public this week. They had been closely held by his stepdaughter Margot Einstein, who decreed that they remain sealed for 20 years after her death. Some of the letters are being published by Princeton University Press in the 10th volume produced by the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech, and they are a revelation. "Einstein's private correspondence refutes the simplistic view of him as an isolated,
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Jul 10, 2006
While the Kimbell's sudden return in June of its sole Turner painting makes it the first Texas museum to restitute -- without immediately buying back -- a prized part of its permanent collection once plundered by the Nazis, it is far from the only national institution to be confronted with this complex dilemma.Art repositories from Seattle to Boston have been entangled in a movement to ferret out Holocaust-era stolen art and restore it to its victimized owners.
Source: Richmond Times Dispatch
Jul 10, 2006
In the English city where Pocahontas died nearly 400 years ago, Virginia Indians will show this week that their culture is still very much alive. The Indian group is scheduled to fly to England on Wednesday for a week of cultural demonstrations, scholarly discussions and ceremonies centered in the Kent County town of Gravesend. The event is linked to next year's commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.Grave
Source: The Australian
Jul 10, 2006
Two historians who lost a plagiarism case against the British publishers of Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, plan to appeal against the verdict, court officials said today.The officials said the appeal could take place later this year, but no specific date has been set.
The Bookseller reported the appeal was due to be heard early next year.
Random House, which won the copyright case earlier this year at the High Court in London, expressed
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Jul 10, 2006
THE Ministry of Defence has refused to release documents which may resolve the 53-year-old mystery of a massacre involving British-led troops, it is claimed today.
Dr David Anderson, the Oxford historian whose researches uncovered new evidence linking two British officers to the murder of 22 Kenyans in the spring of 1953, says the incident was "the tip of the iceberg'' in a bloody campaign that Britain should be ashamed of.The Chuka massacre is the subject
