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: BBC
Jul 8, 2011
A French couple have found a hoard of gold coins worth at least 100,000 euros (£89,000; $140,000) in the cellar of their home in the town of Millau.
They were working on their drains when they dug up the 34 coins in a little clay pot, French media said.
The coins date from 1595 to the French Revolution, which began in 1789, said a local coin expert who evaluated them.
The most valuable is a double louis from 1640, during the reign of Louis XIII, worth 6,500 euros.
Source: BBC
Jul 8, 2011
Former Chadian President Hissene Habre is to be sent home from Senegal to face accusations that he committed atrocities during his eight-year rule.
Senegal said Mr Habre would be flown to Chad on 11 July.
Mr Habre is blamed for killing and torturing tens of thousands of opponents between 1982 and 1990, charges he denies.
Mr Habre - sometimes dubbed "Africa's Pinochet" - has been living in Dakar since he was ousted....
Source: BBC
Jul 8, 2011
A skull belonging to one of the largest "sea monsters" ever unearthed is being unveiled to the public.
The beast, which is called a pliosaur, has been described as the most fearsome predator the Earth has seen.
The fossil was found in Dorset, but it has taken 18 months to remove the skull from its rocky casing, revealing the monster in remarkable detail.
Scientists suspect the creature, which is on show at the Dorset County Museum, may be a new species or even genus.....
..
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 8, 2011
Peru has celebrated the 100th anniversary of the "discovery" of Machu Picchu, the Inca citadel.
Source: Salon
Jul 8, 2011
Rep. Michele Bachmann, who in the latest Iowa poll is in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney, used her first TV ad the other day to promise that she will under no circumstances vote to raise the debt ceiling, thus setting the ideological bar that much higher for the rest of the presidential field....The pledge (which comprises two pages of pledge, two pages of endnotes) covers a lot more than just marriage.There is, for example, this gratuitous reference to slavery in the preface to the pledge:Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born in to slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African- American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President.
Source: Salon
Jul 8, 2011
Ludwig Wittgenstein is known above all for his groundbreaking work as a modern philosopher. But he was also an enthusiastic amateur photographer whose pictures -- from a "composite" family image to a jaunty shot of a friend posing as if he were in a gangster film -- are intriguing and revelatory.Sixty years after the Austrian thinker's death, the Wittgenstein Archives (located at Cambridge University, where the philosopher studied and taught) have gathered some of Wittgenstein's own artistic efforts, along with other related photographs, for an exhibition....
Source: Monroe News
Jul 7, 2011
Privately owned land once envisioned for an industrial recycling plant or a new hotel now is public property that can be used to expand the River Raisin National Battlefield Park to more than four times its current size.U.S. Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Dearborn, and a host of other dignitaries were on hand at the federal park Wednesday morning for a ceremonial deeding of the additional property to public ownership.It could add more than 143 acres to the federal park’s current 42-acre site and includes property north of the current federal land bordering Mason Run and also east, across Detroit Ave. from the park site near E. Elm Ave. and N. Dixie Hwy....
Source: BBC
Jul 7, 2011
A hugely valuable illuminated manuscript has disappeared from the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, say police.
The Codex Calixtinus dates from the 12th Century and was compiled as a guidebook for medieval pilgrims following the Way of Saint James.
This is the oldest copy of the manuscript and is unsaleable on the open market.
Only a handful of people had access to the room in which it was kept.
This edition of the Codex Calixtinus is thought to date from around 1150.
Its purpose was largely practical - to collect advice of use to pilgrims heading to the shrine there. It also included sermons and homilies to St James....
Source: BBC
Jul 7, 2011
US police have recovered a Picasso drawing, two days after it was stolen from a San Francisco art gallery.
The drawing, valued at $275,000 (£172,000), was taken from the Weinstein gallery by a man wearing dark glasses. He was filmed by security cameras leaving the scene in a taxi.
A suspect, named as Mark Lugo, 30, has been taken into custody.
He was arrested at a hotel in Napa, California, where the artwork was found, police said.
He faces several charges, including theft and possession of stolen property....
Source: WaPo
Jul 7, 2011
WASHINGTON — Several members of Congress are calling for a presidential commission to study the formation of a National Museum of the American People in Washington to tell the history of immigration and migration that formed the nation.Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, a Democrat, and Tennessee Rep. John Duncan, a Republican, introduced legislation Thursday that calls for studying the feasibility of creating such a museum without any federal taxpayer funds....
Source: WaPo
Jul 7, 2011
Born out of a grand vision of space exploration after the Apollo moon missions, NASA's manned space vehicle, Columbia, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in 1981. The final flight of Atlantis will mark the end of the space shuttle era after 135 missions. (/Alexandra Garcia, AJ Chavar, Jason Aldag, Sohail Al-Jamea and Joel Achenbach)
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Jul 7, 2011
Prosecutors in the U.S. are demanding that a university hands over to Britain taped interviews in which former IRA members purportedly accuse Gerry Adams of running a secret death squad.Researchers on an oral history project for Boston College obtained the testimonies from two convicted IRA terrorists between 2001 and 2006.Adams, president of Sinn Fein, has always denied being an IRA member, let alone heading a unit which – in kidnapping, torturing and killing suspected informants – carried out some of its most brutal acts....
Source: University of Bristol (UK)
Jul 7, 2011
One of the largest online collections of historical photographs of China will be launched at the University of Bristol today. The Visualising China project, a unique virtual archive of Chinese life, gives users the opportunity to explore and interact with more than 8,000 digitised photographs of China taken between 1850 and 1950.The archive includes rare photographs by the Chinese ambassador to the USSR during World War Two, Fu Bingchang, and rare shots of the nationalist leader of China Chiang Kai-Shek.
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jul 7, 2011
Reports of the death of the former president Jiang Zemin have been greatly exaggerated, the Chinese state media has insisted, amid a frenzy of speculation online and overseas.In an unusual move, state news agency Xinhua issued a brief denial that the 84-year-old statesman had passed away to quell rumours that began on Friday when Jiang failed to attend the biggest political event of the year – a 90th anniversary celebration to mark the founding of the Chinese Communist party.Asia Television of Hong Kong broadcast a report on Wednesday claiming Jiang had died of an unnamed illness. Japanese and South Korean media issued similar bulletins. Chinese journalists said they had been told to expect news on Thursday, but the only comment was a single line from Xinhua.
Source: LiveScience
Jul 6, 2011
The remains of a house uncovered in the city of Haifa are the best-preserved yet from the Kingdom of Israel, dating back nearly three millennia.The site of the discovery was excavated about 40 years ago, but neglect had left the structure hidden until now. Layers of earth and garbage had piled up atop it, and off-road vehicles had plowed over the area, damaging the artifacts.When archaeologists recently re-exposed the area during a dig, they found the four-room home to be remarkably good shape — the best-preserved house from the period of the Kingdom of Israel found so far, the researchers said today (July 6). The dig is in an area called Tel Shikmona....
Source: LiveScience
Jul 6, 2011
A recently discovered miniature clay head with eerie eyes may have been an effigy used by a shaman more than 1,000 years ago, researchers say.The head, which was discovered near Ebbert Spring in Franklin Country, Penn., has shells for eyes and tiny holes across its top and sides that may have been used for feathers or hair. A cavity at the base of the neck indicates that it was likely mounted on a stick or wand.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 6, 2011
The creation of a truth commission would help promote reconciliation for Haitian victims who suffered during the dictatorship of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, a UN human rights official said. The UN's Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, said at a press conference that the panel wouldn't replace ongoing efforts to prosecute Duvalier, a former despot known as "Baby Doc," but would work alongside them.More than 20 lawsuits have been filed in a Haitian court against Duvalier for crimes ranging from attempted murder and torture to embezzlement since he made an unexpected return to his homeland in January after 25 years in exile. Advocacy groups say the case could break important new legal ground in Haiti, where the judiciary like other institutions is historically weak and ineffective.
Source: National Catholic Register
Jul 6, 2011
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. — The archbishop of Canterbury recently broke his church’s long silence on the religious beliefs of England’s foremost playwright — William Shakespeare.During a presentation at the Hay Festival held in May in Britain, Rowan Williams lobbed his bombshell about the Bard: “I think he probably had a Catholic background and a lot of Catholic friends and associates.”Archbishop Williams speculated that Shakespeare the man “wasn’t a saint.”...
Source: National Catholic Register
Jul 6, 2011
WICHITA, Kan. (CNA) — U.S. Army chaplain Father Emil Kapaun’s cause for beatification is headed to Rome, an event the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., celebrated with a July 1 Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.Father John Hotze, episcopal delegate for the office of Father Kapaun’s beatification and canonization, said the event marks the culmination of years of work and also celebrates the “gift” of Father Kapaun.“The fact that we, unlike any other diocese in the United States, in the world, have been blessed by the example of this saintly man, Father Emil Kapaun, boggles my mind,” he said in a June 30 statement. “How can we do anything less than give praise to God for this gift and strive to follow the example of Father Kapaun’s selfless giving?”...
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Jul 6, 2011
The finishing touches to HMS Victory were made 246 years ago in Chatham Dock before she set to sea and went on to cover herself in glory at the Battle of Trafalgar.She served for a total of 47 years - a period of time seldom matched by any modern warship - before being taken out of service in 1812.Since then she has remained on display at Portsmouth harbour and now a ten-year battle to restore Lord Nelson's flagship to her full glory has begun.It will combine the ship-building skills used on wooden craft with cutting edge technology used on modern warships....
