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 News
May 11, 2011
Andy Warhol's Sixteen Jackies has just exceeded its $20m (£12.2m) target pricetag at an auction of contemporary art at Sotheby's in New York.
The 1964 print of former US first lady Jackie Kennedy sold for $20.24m (£12.4m), while Jeff Koons' sculpture of a pink panther hugging a topless woman went for $16.8m (£10.3m).
Total sales reached $128m (£78m) just above the $121m (£73.8m) low estimate.
The auction house admits the estimates were "possibly aggressive".
"We did listen to the market, so works sold, if not always at
Source: BBC News
May 11, 2011
The London footprint left by reggae legend Bob Marley, who died exactly 30 years ago, includes a Bayswater B&B, a Chelsea townhouse and the unlikely setting of a school gym in Peckham.
Guide books tend to point visitors to an apartment block in Camden, where a heritage plaque unveiled in 2006 honours the Jamaican musician at his former north London home.
Robert Nesta Marley lived at 34 Ridgmount Gardens in 1972 when he first came to England, just as his group the Wailers were making a name for themselves.
But this tells only
Source: BBC News
May 11, 2011
A Lithuanian court has jailed a former Soviet commando for life for his part in the killing of seven border guards just after independence in 1991.
Konstantin Mikhailov, an ex-member of the Omon paramilitary police, was arrested in neighbouring Latvia, where he had obtained citizenship.
He denied any part in the killings, known as the Medininkai massacre.
Three other Omon members wanted by Lithuania over the killings are believed to be living in Russia....
Source: CNN
May 10, 2011
When Sada Mire fled war-torn Somalia as a frightened teenager, the nation was descending into darkness, mired in the grip of a long civil conflict.But several years later, when she returned to the Horn of Africa as an ambitious archaeologist, her fierce determination and meticulous fieldwork brought to light the region's rich cultural heritage.In 2007, her archaeological pursuits resulted in the discovery of 5,000-year-old rock art in Somaliland, a breakaway state in the northwest corner of Somalia.
Source: AKI
May 10, 2011
Switzerland's Museum of Basel will this week return to Egypt a limestone stele dating from over four thousand years ago - the first ancient treasure to be given back by another country since the revolt that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak in February.
The 51-centimetre stele depicts its owner hunting and is from Egypt's Old Kingdom period (c.
Source: BBC News
May 10, 2011
Margaret Thatcher's resignation, Geoffrey Howe's demotion and the Brighton IRA bomb - ministerial drivers were the silent witnesses at all these major events.
For many years, one group of people has had access to the most intimate secrets in government.
They have been invited into ministers' families and private offices, uniquely seeing both their public and private faces.
In the process, they have literally found themselves sitting in the front seat while history is made.
Ministerial car driver Denis Oliver had just st
Source: AP
May 10, 2011
RICHMOND, Va. – It's an enduring myth of the Civil War: Robert E. Lee surrendered his sword to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, and his Union counterpart refused the traditional gesture of surrender. "Lee never offered it, and Grant never asked for it," said Patrick Schroeder, historian at Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park.In an historical twist, though, Lee's French-made ceremonial sword is returning to Appomattox 146 years later, leaving the Richmond museum where it has been displayed for nearly a century.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 10, 2011
Italians will on Wednesday evacuate Rome over fears a giant earthquake is coming following a seismologist's 1915 prediction that "the big one" would hit the capital on May 11, 2011.
Source: AP
May 10, 2011
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he never struck an agreement with the United States to let American special forces kill or capture Usama bin Laden inside
Source: Science
May 9, 2011
Researchers have long debated how long Neandertals stuck around after modern humans invaded their home territories in Europe and Asia around 40,000 years ago. Some say as long as 10,000 years; others think Neandertals went extinct almost immediately. A new radiocarbon dating study of a Neandertal site in Russia concludes that the latter scenario is most likely, and that Neandertals and modern humans were probably like ships in the night. But don’t expect this to be the last word on this contentious subject.
Source: Discovery News
May 9, 2011
Egyptian authorities put another archaeological site on the country’s tourist map yesterday by opening a visitor center at Madinet Madi in the Fayoum region south of Cairo.Founded during the reigns of Amenemhat III (about 1859-1813 B.C.) and Amenemhat IV (about 1814-1805 B.C.) of the 12th Dynasty, Madinet Madi contains the ruins of the only Middle Kingdom temple in Egypt.Approached by a paved processional way lined by lions and sphinxes, the temple was dedicated to the cobra-headed goddess Renenutet, and the crocodile-headed god, Sobek of Scedet, patron god of the region.
Source: BBC
May 9, 2011
Italy recently said it was ready to join in Nato's air attacks on targets in Libya - and with the announcement came a sense of history repeating itself.It was in Libya, almost exactly a century ago, that a young Italian pilot carried out the first ever air raid.During fighting in November 1911 between Italy and forces loyal to the Turkish, Ottoman Empire, Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti wrote in a letter to his father: "Today I have decided to try to throw bombs from the aeroplane.
Source: MSNBC
May 9, 2011
Historian Douglas Brinkley discusses the collection of never before seen handwritten note cards recently discovered by the Ronald Reagan Presidential library.[The cards include hundreds of his jokes. Click on the Source link to see the cards and Brinkley talking about them.]
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 9, 2011
France has agreed to return more than one dozen Maori heads taken from new Zealand more than a century ago.
Source: Escience
May 9, 2011
As the world's leading authority on beads manufactured from shells by California's Chumash Indians, UCLA archaeologist Jeanne Arnold was stumped by a series of anomalous artifacts excavated at former settlements on the Channel Islands.
Source: NYT
May 9, 2011
...This is a film set, at the 179-year-old Evergreen Plantation here, and the cast and crew of the movie, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” are scrambling to deliver a summer blockbuster. It is set for release, in 3-D, by 20th Century Fox in June of next year.
The filmmakers are also creating one of the more startling historical revisions in movie memory.
Source: BBC
May 9, 2011
The 100th anniversary of a fire which killed 10 people including famous magician, The Great Lafayette, is being marked by an Edinburgh theatre.
The fire started after a gas lamp was knocked over, which set fire to the scenery, during the magician's act at the Edinburgh Empire on 9 May 1911.
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, which now stands on the site, is to hold a seance on stage later.
It has hosted other events, including a show by Lafayette fan Paul Daniels.
Lafayette, a German magician, was the highest paid performer of
Source: AP
May 9, 2011
Israel's somber memorial day for fallen soldiers gave way to Independence Day celebrations at nightfall on Monday in a sudden, stark annual transition ceremony.
At Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel's national cemetery, Israelis kindled 12 huge torches to signify the start of the holiday marking
Source: Daily Caller
May 9, 2011
Source: Yahoo
May 9, 2011
