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: Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, NPR ombudsman, at his blog
Feb 23, 2006
Many ask why NPR refers to the president of the United States as "Mr. Bush" on second reference, instead of "President Bush" in all cases? Some listeners, like Tom King, insist this sounds insufficiently respectful.
Frequently on NPR news shows, reports dealing with the U.S. president refer to him as "President Bush" once, but then all additional references are to "Mr. Bush". This seems unique to the president, as other pe
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists
Feb 23, 2006
Could the National Security Archive be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for publishing historical documents that U.S. intelligence agencies now say are classified?
Could Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice be detained for continuing to publish historical intelligence records on the State Department web site that the CIA has flagged as classified?
Could thousands of historians and librarians around the country be arrested for retaining and circulat
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists
Feb 23, 2006
Responding to a February 21 New York Times story indicating that thousands of declassified documents had been reclassified by executive branch agencies and removed from public access in questionable circumstances, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced yesterday that an official investigation into the matter was underway.
An audit is being conducted by the Information Security Oversight Office, a NARA component, to determine the number
Source: BBC News
Feb 23, 2006
The authorities in Moscow have hastily removed posters congratulating Russian war veterans which mistakenly showed the American warship USS Missouri. The posters were taken down on Wednesday - just hours before Defender of the Motherland Day.
The Russian defence ministry said it did not produce the posters.
A Moscow city hall official said the design "should have been shown to specialists who can distinguish one battleship from another".
Source: cronaca.com
Feb 23, 2006
The Archangel Gabriel, his wings still fiery with colour applied over 1200 years ago, has emerged from beneath the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. The Anglo-Saxon carved figure was found when builders, watched over by archaeologists, took up part of the floor of the nave to build a new rising platform for concerts and recitals. . .
Britain's heritage of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical art and architecture was almost obliterated by the scale and splendour of
Source: NYT
Feb 23, 2006
Is a death mask found in a ragpicker's shop in 1842 that of William Shakespeare? This coming Saturday's issue of the British weekly New Scientist says the mask, bearing the date 1616 and the high forehead, prominent nose and beard associated with Shakespeare, could be, Agence France-Presse reported. At the behest of Prof. Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel, a scholar of English literature at the University of Mainz in Germany, specialists at the German Federal Bureau of Investigation compared two po
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Feb 23, 2006
SHAKESPEARE scholarship, lively at the best of times, saw the fur flying yesterday after a German academic claimed to have authenticated not just one but four contemporary images of the playwright - and suggested, to boot, that he had died of cancer.As the National Portrait Gallery planned to reveal that only one of half a dozen claimed portraits of William Shakespeare can now be considered genuine, Prof Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel said she could prove that there were at
Source: Deutche-Welle
Feb 23, 2006
Germany and the United States are warming up for a fresh diplomatic row over plans to open a huge collection of files from the Holocaust that has never been seen by historians or the general public. The United States wants the International Tracing Service's collection, one of the world's largest from the Nazi era which includes files on more than 17 million people, to be made available to historians.
Germany has so far refused to allow the archive at Bad
Source: World Press
Feb 23, 2006
The Xeni Gwet'in First Nations in the western interior region of British Columbia are taking ancient myths into the courtroom as part of a nearly two decade-long battle with the Canadian government over the title to their land."This case is well known and will set a precedent on aboriginal title based on earlier court decisions, as well as establishing the government's role in providing financial support to First Nations for legal costs," said Doug McAr
Source: BBC News
Feb 23, 2006
A medieval jug is likely to stay in Britain after a David and Goliath struggle between a small museum and the mighty New York Metropolitan Museum. Luton Museums, with £2,500 a year for new exhibits, is getting £590,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
This will help to match the £750,000 price offered by the world-famous "Met" for the Wenlok Jug.
Luton museum's fund has received £160,000 already from the National Art Collections
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 23, 2006
Our ancestors colonised Europe and wiped out their Neanderthal cousins even faster than we thought, says a study published today.Argument has raged for years about whether our ancestors from Africa outsurvived, killed or bred with the Neanderthals, who were stronger, bulkier and shorter but had equally large brains.
Now developments in radiocarbon dating suggest that many of the dates published over the past 40 years are likely to underestimate the true ages of
Source: Catholic News Agency
Feb 22, 2006
A sports writer for the USA Today newspaper is wondering; why has broadcast network NBC neglected any mention of the incredibly famous Shroud of Turin, despite the 2006 Olympics being held in its front yard.In the U.S., NBC has exclusive broadcast rights to the games, making it the primary source for most American’s event coverage.
Michael McCarthy, writing in a column last week, said that in the days of Olympic coverage so far, “NBC (with the except
Source: CBC News
Feb 22, 2006
Archaeologists at the Fortress of Louisbourg are scrambling to learn more about a 250-year-old wall exposed in a recent storm.The storm surge laid open an old defence wall and other structures long thought to have been destroyed, and there are fears another storm could destroy them.
"This was originally built in the 1730s," said archeologist Rebecca Duggan, pointing to a newly exposed wall. "The interesting thing is we thought most of this wall h
Source: Yahoo News
Feb 22, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. - Authorities are resorting to a risky new method aimed at helping preserve what is believed to be the sunken flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. The Army Corps of Engineers is creating an underwater sand dune to shelter the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sits about 26 feet underwater off the North Carolina coast.
The untried method could potentially damage the ship, which sank in 1718. But if it works, experts said it could be a model for
Source: AP
Feb 22, 2006
NY: The entrance to the national headquarters of the Roman Catholic group Opus Dei is the last place you would expect to find mention of "The Da Vinci Code." The conservative organization has spent the past few years trying to escape the best-seller's shadow, after the novel portrayed Opus Dei as a murderous sect fixated on power and self-mutilation.
But now the low-profile spiritual community is starting a drive to improve its image ahead of a major
Source: Haaretz
Feb 22, 2006
Holocaust-deniers from the West play a key role in attempts by Iran to cast doubts on the veracity of the Holocaust, according to documents that have appeared on an Internet site.The documents reveal Iranians have consulted with well-known Holocaust-deniers from Western countries as part of the Iranian initiative to hold a conference about the Holocaust.
The documents were published on an Internet site involved in Holocaust denial and reached scholars at t
Source: Middle East Times
Feb 22, 2006
Spain's interior ministry said on Tuesday that police had recovered 21 Babylonian and Sumerian artifacts stolen in Iraq that had been due to go on auction in Madrid.
Source: BBC News
Feb 22, 2006
A bomb attack in Iraq has badly damaged one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, sparking furious protests. Thousands of Iraqis have gathered at the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, where two men blew up the famous golden dome in a dawn raid. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual head of Iraq's Shia Muslims, has called for a week of mourning.
Shias in Baghdad attacked at least five Sunni mosques in reprisal raids, with disturbances re
Source: BBC News
Feb 22, 2006
The historic home of Sir Walter Scott in the Borders has been set a £10m target in order to survive. Failure to raise the sum could see Abbotsford House - near Melrose - close to visitors within four to five years. Executors of the estate of Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott, the National Trust and Faculty of Advocates, have drawn up a strategy to raise the funds.
Half the money would be used to improve facilities, with the rest put in an endowment fund to co
Source: Yahoo News
Feb 22, 2006
Gladiators may have fought and died to entertain others in the brutality of the Roman arena but they appear to have abided by a strict code of conduct which avoided savage violence, forensic scientists say.Tests on the remains of 67 gladiators found in tombs at Ephesus in Turkey, center of power for ancient Rome's eastern empire, show they stuck to well defined rules of combat and avoided gory free-for-alls.
Injuries to the front of each skull suggested that ea
