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: Canadian Press
Jun 8, 2011
Police in northern Greece say they have arrested six men accused of using dynamite to search for buried ancient gold at a protected archaeological area.Authorities said Thursday that the four Greek and two Albanian men were arrested Wednesday after police discovered a 12-meter (40-foot) tunnel blasted into the side of a mountain near the city of Kavala, 700 kilometres (435 miles) north of Athens.
Source: BBC
Jun 8, 2011
A Stone Age site in a field beside Guernsey airport is being excavated for the last time by archaeologists.
Evidence of neolithic settlement has already been found at a depth of 60cm (24in) but the site is due to be buried under an extended runway safety area.
If plans are approved, the site at La Mare Road will become permanently inaccessible for any further study.
Hearths, post-holes and ditches have been found and dated to about 3,000BC, which equates to what archaeo
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 8, 2011
A dictionary of a dead language not used for two millenia has finally been completed after academics spent 90 years painstakingly deciphering ancient words scrawled on clay and stone tablets. As decades came and went generations of scholars travelled from across the world to the University of Chicago to work on the monumental Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project.
Source: BBC
Jun 8, 2011
A new television series is the latest dramatisation of the Camelot myth.
Source: CNN
Jun 8, 2011
Staff Sgt. Marvin Steinford was 22 years old when he climbed into the nose of a B-17 "Flying Fortress" in Amendola, Italy, and left on a mission bound for Berlin during World War II.
His job description: togglier -- an enlisted man doing a job similar to a bombardier's, but less complicated.
The plane was hit by Nazi antiaircraft fire and he bailed out over Hungary. That was March 24, 1945, less than two months before Germany's surrender ended the war in Europe. "Steiney" as he was known, was never seen again.
Source: AP
Jun 8, 2011
AMSTERDAM – A murder mystery has been solved — 65 years later — with the confession of a 96-year-old woman.The 1946 killing of Felix Gulje, the head of a construction company who at the time was being considered for a high political post, roiled the Netherlands, and the failure to find the assassin became a point of contention among political parties.On Wednesday, the mayor of Leiden, Henri Lenferink, said a woman has confessed to the killing, saying it happened in the mistaken belief that Gulje had collaborated with the Nazis.
Source: The Destin Log (FLA)
Jun 8, 2011
An Air Force legend and founding air commando died Monday morning in Washington, D.C.Retired Gen. John Alison, former deputy commander for the 1st Air Commando Group (1ACG) and World War II Flying Tiger, was 98 years old.In 1943, Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, head of the Army Air Forces, hand-picked then-Lt. Col. Alison and Col. Philip Cochran as co-commanders of the 1 ACG, according to a press release issued by Hurlburt Field.The longtime friends had ideas of their own. Cochran and Alison decided Cochran should be commander and Alison deputy commander.
Source: BBC News
Jun 8, 2011
A new television series is the latest dramatisation of the Camelot myth. But why is the legend of King Arthur such a compelling one in culture?For a man who may or may not have wandered Britain some 1,500 years ago, King Arthur retains the enviable knack of making his regal presence felt.Merlin, Excalibur, Guinevere, Lancelot, the Lady in the Lake - all the components of his story are instantly familiar both in his erstwhile homeland and in much of the world.
Source: WaPo
Jun 8, 2011
Enough about the Navy SEALs. This weekend, the Smithsonian will commemorate America’s first attempt at an air force.In June 150 years ago, Thaddeus Lowe flew 500 feet into the air in front of President Abraham Lincoln. Lowe was an American “aeronaut,” and he took flight in a 19,000-cubic-foot balloon.
Source: NYT
Jun 8, 2011
Sharyl Davis thought she was in luck 25 years ago when she bought a charming market scene by the Impressionist Camille Pissarro from a San Antonio art gallery for $8,500. But since 2003, when she took the print to Sotheby’s to sell, her luck has been running the other way.As it turns out, 30 years ago the French police reported the work stolen from a museum in Aix-les-Bains. After Ms. Davis tried to sell the print, the United States government seized it as contraband.
Source: NYT
Jun 8, 2011
AMSTERDAM — From the window in the attic of her family’s hiding place in Amsterdam, Anne Frank could see the crown of an old chestnut tree growing in a neighbor’s garden. For two years, it was her only contact with nature.
Source: BBC
Jun 8, 2011
A famous Lenin impersonator who poses for photos with tourists on Moscow's Red Square has fallen ill after being arrested, Russian media report.
Sergei Solovyov, 53, was detained after complaints from vendors reportedly "aggrieved" by his appearance and foul language - a charge he denied.
When Mr Solovyov was taken before a judge, he fell ill with high blood pressure and was rushed to hospital.
A tsar impersonator working with him accused police of harassment.
Viktor Chepkasov, 55, told media he had been working alongside "Lenin" for years
Source: BBC
Jun 8, 2011
Learning all lessons from the accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station could take a decade, according to France's top nuclear safety officer.
But all nuclear countries should carry out safety tests within a year, said Andre-Claude Lacoste.
The chairman of the French nuclear safety agency (ASN) was speaking at a forum in Paris organised by the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA).
Regulators said international control of nuclear safety would be "difficult".
The forum follows a day of political discussions on nuc
Source: BBC
Jun 8, 2011
When an Oxfam volunteer at the charity's Reading shop opened up a box of donated sheet music, she knew almost immediately there was something special about the tatty score on top.
Elestr Lee, a musician, quickly spotted the printed composer's name at the bottom - Wolfgang Mozart.
She researched the inscription on the front, which was in French and dedicated to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III who reigned from 1760 to 1820.
It read in French that the booklet contained 'six sonatas for the harpsichord'.
To her del
Source: BBC
Jun 8, 2011
A letter by Adolf Hitler - said to be the earliest expression of his ideas on anti-Semitism - has been shown publicly for the first time in New York.
The four-page typed letter, written in 1919, calls for the "uncompromising removal" of Jews from society.
It was acquired by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, where it is due to go on display.
The statement by the then 30-year-old soldier is regarded as a key historical document from the period.
Correspondents say it is seen as significant because it demonstrates
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 8, 2011
Almost 100 portraits of the Queen by the photographer Cecil Beaton will go on show at the Victoria & Albert Museum next year as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations.
Source: Boston Globe
Jun 8, 2011
In a case that is being watched closely in academia, and on both sides of the Atlantic, Boston College has filed a motion in US District Court to quash subpoenas from British authorities seeking access to a confidential oral history project involving paramilitary fighters in Northern Ireland.
Source: CNN
Jun 8, 2011
The remains of a U.S. Air Force pilot listed as missing in action since his plane crashed in Laos in 1967 have been identified, and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors, the Defense Department's POW/Missing Personnel Office said Tuesday.
Source: LA Times
Jun 8, 2011
Every morning, she climbed the wide marble steps of the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga was not trained for this work. She was a homemaker, not a historian. But she had a lifetime of simmering anger and unanswered questions.
Source: NYT
Jun 7, 2011
MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — Like many people approaching their 50th birthday, the Randhurst Mall is having a little work done.Randhurst, which opened in this inner-ring Chicago suburb in 1962, was the first enclosed mall in the Chicago area and, for a brief period, the largest enclosed mall in the world. The original architect was Victor Gruen, a Viennese immigrant with a socialist bent who, improbably, became the father of the modern enclosed mall.
