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: AP
Apr 18, 2011
SANDS POINT, N.Y. – A 25-room Long Island mansion that some believe inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's portrayal of lavish lifestyles in his Jazz Age classic "The Great Gatsby" is being razed, the latest in a long cadence of estates disappearing from what's known as the Gold Coast.Known as "Land's End" and sitting on a 13-acre lot on Long Island Sound, the 24,000-square foot house is being torn down to accommodate five $10 million custom homes.
Source: NYT
Apr 18, 2011
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s longtime chief antiquities official, has been criticized in recent months for many things: his closeness to former President Hosni Mubarak, some inconsistent reports on the safety of archaeological sites during the uprising and for his role in a dispute over an Egyptian museum bookstore, for which he now possibly faces jail time.
Source: Guardian(UK)
Apr 18, 2011
by Martin Wainwright
Gruesome discoveries in Peak District dig challenge accepted wisdom about 'peaceful' life in ancient Britain.Fond hopes that ancient Britain enjoyed a golden age of peace before Roman and other invasions have been shaken by a gruesome discovery in a Derbyshire hill fort's defensive ditch.For the first time in the UK, archaeologists have found carelessly-buried iron age skeletons which suggest a selective massacre of women and children.
Source: AP
Apr 18, 2011
A 2,500-year-old Babylonian artifact sometimes described as the world's first human rights charter was returning to the British Museum Monday after a seven-month loan to Iran.Hundreds of thousands of people viewed the Cyrus Cylinder while it was on display at Iran's National Museum.The cylinder caused a spat between the two nations when Iran's government threatened to cut ties with the British Museum if it did not lend the object. A four-month loan was eventually agreed, and extended because the exhibition was so popular....
Source: Discovery News
Apr 18, 2011
by Rossella Lorenzi
Egypt’s antiquity minister Zahi Hawass will not serve any jail time and will remain in his position, according to the leading Egyptologist’s blog.The Egyptian court sentenced Hawass to a year in jail and ordered him removed from his job.
Source: BBC
Apr 18, 2011
Veterans of the Gloucestershire Regiment are to return to Korea to mark the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Imjin River.About 400 "Glorious Glosters" held out against 10,000 Chinese troops for three nights during the battle in April 1951.It remains the bloodiest battle fought by British Forces since World War II.Returning veterans will take part in a remembrance ceremony at the Gloster Valley Memorial at Solma-ri in South Korea on 23 April.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 18, 2011
by Matthew Day
The German government tried to influence the Adolf Eichmann trial, fearful that his testimony would implicate former Nazis who held high office in post war Germany, new research has disclosed.Konrad Adenauer, Germany's chancellor at the time of the 1961 trial, personally dispatched one secret agent to Israel as part of a sensitive and classified operation to influence Eichmann's Jerusalem trial and suppress any embarrassment for the West German state.
Source: NYT
Apr 17, 2011
Once they were the shipshape town houses of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s senior officers, but now the gray buildings sit like ruins encountered in a jungle, their facades, roofs and interiors overgrown with ivy, weeds, even saplings.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 17, 2011
Professor Colin Humphreys, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, has now concluded that the final meal took place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion, a day earlier than previously accepted.He believes his findings, which are likely to cause ripples among millions of Christians, could present a case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter.They also present a solution to apparent contradictions in the Gospels and logistical issues relating to the hours before the crucifixion.
Source: AP
Apr 17, 2011
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The gravesite of a Union Army major general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the Massachusetts Turnpike.A piece of the coat worn by President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated rests quietly in a library attic in a Boston suburb. It's shown upon request, a rare occurrence.A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and workers who pass by each day.
Source: AP
Apr 17, 2011
by Russell Contreras
The gravesite of a Union Army major general sits largely forgotten in a small cemetery along the Massachusetts Turnpike.A monument honoring one of the first official Civil War black units stands in a busy intersection in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse, barely gaining notice from the hustle of tourists and workers who pass by each day.
Source: BBC
Apr 17, 2011
by Christine Finn
Tutankhamun's trumpet was one of the rare artefacts stolen from the Cairo Museum during the recent uprising. The 3,000-year-old instrument is rarely played, but a 1939 BBC radio recording captured its haunting sound.Among the "wonderful things" Howard Carter described as he peered by candlelight into the newly discovered tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 were two trumpets, one silver and one bronze.
Source: BBC
Apr 17, 2011
Hollywood actor Samuel L Jackson is to make his debut on Broadway this autumn, playing Martin Luther King Jr in a play first staged in London in 2009.Written by Katori Hall, The Mountaintop depicts the civil rights leader on the night before his 1968 assassination.Producers Jean Doumanian and Sonia Friedman said they were "thrilled" and "honoured" that the 62-year-old Pulp Fiction star had agreed to appear.Performances will begin on 22 September at New York's Bernard B Jacobs Theatre.
Source: NYT
Apr 17, 2011
Once they were the shipshape town houses of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s senior officers, but now the gray buildings sit like ruins encountered in a jungle, their facades, roofs and interiors overgrown with ivy, weeds, even saplings.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 16, 2011
A Rembrandt drawing valued at more than $250,000 (£152,000) that was stolen from a hotel lobby has been found in a church.Nobody has been arrested.Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says detectives got a tip from an anonymous caller on Monday evening that the Dutch master's 17th century sketch "The Judgment" was in a church in San Fernando.The name of the church was not disclosed at a dawn Tuesday news conference.A curator confirmed the artwork's authenticity at 12:05 am on Tuesday.....
Source: Reuters
Apr 16, 2011
HOPE, Arkansas (Reuters) – Former President Bill Clinton returned to his childhood home on Saturday to celebrate its dedication as a national historical site.Clinton was born in Hope's Julia Chester Hospital in 1946 and lived the first four years of his life in the two-story wood frame house with his grandparents, who owned the house, and his mother, the late Virginia Kelley. His father, William Blythe, died before Clinton was born.
Source: BBC
Apr 15, 2011
The remains of Chile's former President Salvador Allende will be exhumed as part of an inquiry into historic rights abuses, a court has ordered.Investigators are trying to determine whether Allende killed himself, or was killed by soldiers in the 1973 coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power.Allende's body was found in the presidential palace after the building had been attacked by troops and planes.Judges ruled the exhumation would take place in the second half of May.
Source: NYT
Apr 15, 2011
In California public schools, students are required to learn about black history and women’s history. And if a bill approved by the State Senate this week becomes law, the state will become the first in the country to mandate that schools also teach gay history.
Source: AP
Apr 14, 2011
ROME – Every morning during the 40 days of Lent, a band of worshippers walk literally in the footsteps of early, persecuted Christians, visiting some of the world's oldest churches in preparation for the most solemn week on the church calendar.On Thursday as the sun rose over the cupolas and rooftops of Rome, fresh-faced American seminarians made their pilgrimage over the Tiber river and through the alleyways of Rome's historic center to revive this ancient tradition that today draws ambassadors, college kids and ordinary folk alike.
Source: BBC
Apr 14, 2011
Argentina's last military ruler, Reynaldo Bignone, has been sentenced to life in prison for the torture and murder of political opponents more than three decades ago.Four other former soldiers and police officers were also convicted.The trial is the latest in a series related to military rule in Argentina in 1976-83, when around 30,000 people were killed or made to disappear.Gen Bignone, 83, was already serving a 25-year sentence for other killings....
