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: People's Daily Online
Mar 9, 2006
Cambodia has discovered the remains of a wooden ship and pottery possibly dating back to the seventh century, local media reported on Thursday. Cambodian naval divers discovered the remains of a sunken sail ship and a range of pottery in late February in 20-to-30-meter- deep waters off the coast of Koh Sdech island in Koh Kong province.
Samples of the pottery were taken to the provincial department of culture and then sent to the National Museum in Phnom Penh f
Source: AlterNet
Mar 9, 2006
Gunmen have killed some 182 Iraqi university professors and academics since the U.S. invasion in early 2003 and a group representing Iraqi academia said on Thursday the killings constituted a war crime.
Another 85 senior academics have been kidnapped or survived assassination attempts, according to the Association of University Lecturers in Iraq.The attacks have led to an exodus of Iraqi academics who are vital to educating and rebuilding the war-damaged country
Source: Huffington Post (blog)
Mar 9, 2006
According to a blog post by Arianna Huffington, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld believes that the ignorance of history is of grave concern:"I think the biggest problem we've got in the country is people don't study history anymore. People who go to school in high schools and colleges, they tend to study current events and call it history... There are just too darn few people in our country who study history enough.""There's never been a popular war. You can't name a
Source: National Geographic News
Mar 9, 2006
New archaeological evidence suggests that Easter Island, mysterious home of titanic stone heads, was first settled around A.D. 1200, much later than previously thought. Once there, the colonizers quickly began erecting the famous statues for which the remote eastern South Pacific island (map) is famous. They also helped deplete the island's natural resources at a much faster rate than previously thought, the study says.
Source: BBC News
Mar 9, 2006
Overseen by Lord Nelson perched 56m above on his column, the square has become a place to worship sporting heroes, celebrate saints, shed tears for lost ones and chant beliefs.
It has always been a battleground for beliefs - ever since the Chartists' March of 1848.
But following a £25m project to transform it in 2003, almost 200 public events (excluding political rallies) have been staged there.
It has been the backdrop to key moments in London's sportin
Source: Reuters
Mar 9, 2006
Britain secretly supplied Israel with a small amount of plutonium in 1966 despite a warning from intelligence officials that it could help develop a nuclear bomb, BBC television reported on Thursday.Britain also made hundreds of shipments of restricted materials to Israel in the 1960s which could have aided a nuclear arms programme, the BBC said in a summary of a report to be shown on its Newsnight programme later in the evening.
The Labour government under Prim
Source: KMOV4 (St. Louis, MO)
Mar 9, 2006
A study that could add about 2,000 miles of land and water routes to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail through eastern Tennessee and portions of eight other states, including Missouri, is gaining support in Congress.The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved a bill requiring the proposed $175,000 study, which is backed by both of Tennessee's senators — Lamar Alexander and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist — and the National Park Ser
Source: Times (London)
Mar 9, 2006
A group of German priests and parishioners have begun a politically sensitive fundraising campaign to save the country’s last Nazi-era church.The Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin has embarrassed the authorities for six decades.
The image of a Nazi storm trooper side by side with Jesus Christ has been carved into the pulpit, the entrance is lit by a chandelier in the shape of an iron cross and the organ was used to stir the spirits at a torch-lit Nuremberg
Source: International Herald Tribune
Mar 9, 2006
Not long after seizing power here in 1973, General Augusto Pinochet ordered construction of an "Altar of the Fatherland" and an eternal "Flame of Liberty" and had the remains of Bernardo O'Higgins, the hero of Chilean independence, moved to that site. Ever since, Chilean democrats have been struggling to wrest O'Higgins away from the military and restore his legacy to the entire nation. On Thursday, they finally succeeded.In an emotional one-hour ceremony
Source: cronaca.com
Mar 9, 2006
A hoard of Roman coins unearthed in a Suffolk field is the largest discovery of its kind ever made in Britain, an inquest heard yesterdayJohn Newman, from Suffolk County Council's Archaeological Service, told the treasure inquest in Bury St Edmunds that the coins, which were originally adorned with a silver wash, were minted during the reign of the so-called usurper emperor Carausius (287-293 AD), who set himself up in opposition to Rome, and his successor Allectus (293-296
Source: Golf Digest
Mar 9, 2006
There are few subjects capable of inspiring obsessive examination like Civil War battles. The genealogy of generals is plotted to cousins twice removed. Battle plans are scrutinized and criticized. The deadly dance of each regiment can be recreated -- and often is -- like a production of "Swan Lake" by professors and dentists dressed up in blue wool or butternut gray.
Golf just might be the only other subject on earth that can withstand, or demand, the same level of analy
Source: Yahoo
Mar 9, 2006
US museums have come under fire over the way they acquire antiquities after Greece, Italy and Peru have demanded the return of ancient pieces from American institutions. European museums have usually been the ones needing to answer over their acquisitions of artifacts collected during colonial days, but American institutions have faced demands for the return of allegedly looted antiquities.
To improve the transparency of acquisitions, the Association of Art Muse
Source: Australian
Mar 9, 2006
THE comparison between the Crusades and the September 11 terrorists in a Victorian textbook was deliberately provocative and designed to spark debate, teachers said yesterday.The idea that the Crusaders and their fight in a holy war shared similarities and ''moral equivalence'' with the September 11 terrorists was intended to teach students how to support an argument, educators said.
The book, Humanities Alive 2 developed for Year 8 students, was criticis
Source: Justin Driver in New Republic
Mar 8, 2006
[Robert L. Carter's memoir] is dedicated not so much to challenging the great-man theory of history as it is to arguing that history canonized the wrong man. Instead of fixating on Marshall, Carter contends that historical accounts should highlight his own legal exploits. In these pages Marshall emerges as a puppet, with Carter pulling the strings and providing the voice. By his lights, Carter delivered black emancipation through such legal victories as Brown v. Board of Edu
Source: Yahoo
Mar 8, 2006
It is praised for its culinary and health properties by any cook worth his salt, but long before olive oil made it into the Mediterranean diet Cypriots used it as fuel to melt copper, archaeologists say. Italian researchers have discovered that environmentally friendly olive oil was used in furnaces at a site in southern Cyprus up to 4,000 years ago, instead of the fume-belching charcoal used in industry for hundreds of years since.
Described as "liq
Source: Rediff
Mar 8, 2006
In the first direct comment on the reason for rejection of a civilian nuclear deal for Pakistan on the lines of the historic Indo-US agreeement, the US on Wednesday said it was because of that country's "proliferation history.""Well, obviously, the Pakistanis want to continue to have a good relationship with us. It's not going to be possible for us to have a civil nuclear relationship with Pakistan of the type that we've just announced with India. Because of h
Source: USA Today
Mar 8, 2006
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Lt. Col. Zeev Raz tightened his grip on the controls of his F-16 and nosed the fighter jet into a dive. He patiently locked his bombsights on the dome of Iraq's nuclear reactor.The setting sun, at Raz's back, illuminated the reactor as if by spotlight. Raz flipped a switch with his index finger and released two 2,000-pound bombs. Seven other Israeli fighter jets flying with him did the same.
In one bold action on June 7, 1981, Israel's
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Mar 8, 2006
A leading association of scholars devoted to Latin American studies and based at the University of Pittsburgh is asking the U.S. government to rethink its decision to bar Cuban scholars from the group's convention next week. The visa denials cover 55 participants from that country who were to attend the Latin American Studies Association's International Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico March 15-18.
They are the latest in a long line of athletes, academics and o
Source: Herald (Glasgow)
Mar 8, 2006
Today sees the publication of a unique dictionary - to coincide with International Women's Day - which aims to turn the spotlight on female contributions to society.
More than 800 prominent women are profiled in the Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women. The entries come from varied backgrounds. Among the pages, queens consort with factory workers, heroines rub shoulders with spies, and mountaineers with missionaries. Penned by a team of 280 scholars, the entries explore people
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Mar 8, 2006
Americans unconcerned about government secrecy should consider this: Federal authorities have been resealing many records already made public.Since 1999, 9,500 documents containing 55,500 pages have been withdrawn from public view. These are papers that were made public under a 1995 executive order that required declassification of many records that were at least 25 years old.
After that order by President Clinton expanded the official record available to
