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: CNN
Dec 24, 2010
Detectives have arrested three suspects, but were still searching Friday for a stolen 300-year-old violin worth more than a million dollars.
John Michael Maughan, 26, and two teens from North London were arrested in connection with the theft of the 1696 Stradivarius, British Transport Police said.
The three were in West London Magistrates Court on Thursday, police said.
The teens were released but Maughan was detained
Police said the violin, va
Source: Unreported Heritage News
Dec 23, 2010
It is now thirty years since clerics, who live on the island [Thule] from the first of February to the first of August, told me that not only at the summer solstice, but in the days round about it, the sun setting in the evening hides itself as though behind a small hill in such a way that there was no darkness in that very small space of time... – Dicuil, an Irish monk, writing in AD 825, translation by J.J. Tierney.
New archaeological discoveries show that Iceland was inhabited ar
Source: Reuters
Dec 23, 2010
She may be the ancient Greek Goddess of Love, but a picture of a nude Aphrodite on the new passport of Cyprus has set more than hearts racing.
Cypriot diplomats are furious with the interior ministry for failing to consult with the foreign ministry before issuing passports with a depiction of a naked immortal that might offend conservative foreign cultures.
"They are worried that civilians and diplomats could get into trouble, particularly traveling to very conserv
Source: CNN
Dec 23, 2010
Photography is flourishing as an art form in China but a collection of rare early photographs reveal the country's long history with the medium.
Daguerreotypes and photographs from the period between 1840 and 1911, which up till recently have not been widely collected or displayed, show a country undergoing vast change, caught between its ancient traditions and modernization.
But they are not only historical documents of a changing land: the delicate, sepia-toned images
Source: BBC News
Dec 23, 2010
US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have hailed the New Start nuclear arms treaty as a "historic event", the White House says.
In a telephone call on Thursday, Mr Medvedev congratulated Mr Obama on achieving Senate approval of the pact.
Mr Obama in turn said that the two had a "very productive year".
The US Senate approved the pact, which would reduce nuclear arsenals and allow their inspection, on Wednesday a
Source: The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Dec 23, 2010
TODAY is a double anniversary for Egyptology. On this day 220 years ago, French scholar Jean Francois Champollion, who played a major part in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, was born. It is also the bicentenary of the birth of Karl Richard Lepsius, a Prussian archeologist who built on Champollion's research into the ancient writing system, making his own discoveries.
Champollion was born on December 23, 1790, at Figeac in France. His parents lacked money to send their youngest
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 23, 2010
Fred Hargesheimer, a World War II Army pilot whose rescue by Pacific islanders led to a life of giving back as a builder of schools and teacher of children, died on Thursday morning. He was 94.
Richard Hargesheimer said his father had been in poor health and passed away in Lincoln, Nebraska.
On June 5, 1943, Hargesheimer, a P-38 pilot with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, was shot down by a Japanese fighter while on a mission over the Japanese-held island
Source: AP
Dec 23, 2010
A U.N.-backed tribunal says the appeals over the convictions and 19-year sentence for the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer will be heard in March.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was convicted in July of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was the first major Khmer Rouge figure to face trial more than three decades after the genocide of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians.
Duch's lawyers say he merely followed orders and was wrongfully convicted. Prosecutors say his sen
Source: CNN
Dec 23, 2010
The governor of New Mexico has received about 400 responses on a special website dedicated to answering a generations-old question: Should outlaw Billy the Kid get a pardon in the killing of a sheriff?
Gov. Bill Richardson, called a Billy the Kid buff, is looking at an old promise by another governor, and not the Kid's cold-blooded reputation, in deciding whether to issue a posthumous pardon, officials said.
So far, about 220 people are in favor of the pardon, while 180
Source: CNN
Dec 23, 2010
An overlooked female pinkie bone put in storage after it was discovered in a Siberian cave two years ago points to the existence of a previously unknown prehistoric human species, anthropologists say.
And the lineage of that species may survive today in some people in Papua New Guinea and nearby islands, scientists say.
A report on the discovery of the finger was published in the December 23 edition of the scientific journal Nature.
Anthropologists say the
Source: AOL News
Dec 23, 2010
Descendants of John Wilkes Booth have agreed to exhume his brother's body for DNA testing in an attempt to determine whether the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln escaped capture and eluded justice, as the family has been told.
Booth, an actor from Maryland, shot and killed Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Most believe he was tracked down 10 days later and shot inside a tobacco barn in rural Virginia by Union soldiers and buried in an unmarked gr
Source: BBC News
Dec 23, 2010
Did you know that Christmas carols were not sung in churches until the 19th Century?
That is one of the many interesting facts about Christmas carols shared by expert Professor Jeremy Dibble from Durham University.
He recently appeared as an expert on the Songs of Praise 'Edwardian Christmas' programme on BBC One in December.
Jeremy believes that the carol-singing tradition is getting stronger....
Source: Narinjara (Burma)
Dec 23, 2010
The most ancient city of Arakan, known historically as Danyawaddy, which existed in the 6 century BCE, was destroyed by bulldozers for construction of a railroad that passed over the walled palace grounds, said a historian in the region on the condition of anonymity.
He said, "We submitted an appeal letter to the minister of railway three months ago, asking them not to construct the railroad over the ancient palace of Danyawaddy because it is a precious historic site for Arakan
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Dec 23, 2010
An 15th century Ethiopian icon of the infant Christ child sitting on his mother's knee was discovered after it was cleaned by a British charity.
The central panel of the triptych had over the centuries become blackened with the sprinkling of perfume that the monks use as they worship.
The hugely important and stunning painted wood panel is now visible in its original coloured glory, showing a pale-faced Jesus with black curly hair and rosy cheeks.
His hand has th
Source: NYT
Dec 23, 2010
An international team of scientists has identified a previously shadowy human group known as the Denisovans as cousins to Neanderthals who lived in Asia from roughly 400,000 to 50,000 years ago and interbred with the ancestors of today’s inhabitants of New Guinea.
All the Denisovans have left behind are a broken finger bone and a wisdom tooth in a Siberian cave. But the scientists have succeeded in extracting the entire genome of the Denisovans from these scant remains. An analysis
Source: Guardian (UK)
Dec 22, 2010
The north-west London zebra crossing traversed by the Beatles one bright morning 41 years ago - and visited by musical pilgrims ever since - has has been granted Grade II listing.
The heritage minister John Penrose took the unusual decision to protect the crossing, which provided the cover shot for Abbey Road album, following advice from English Heritage.
Although the listing is the first of its kind, the Abbey Road studios where the 1969 album was recorded, won similar
Source: AP
Dec 22, 2010
NEW YORK – Scientists have recovered the DNA code of a human relative recently discovered in Siberia, and it delivered a surprise: This relative roamed far from the cave that holds its only known remains.
By comparing the DNA to that of modern populations, scientists found evidence that these "Denisovans" from more than 30,000 years ago ranged all across Asia. They apparently interbred with the ancestors of people now living in Melanesia, a group of islands northeast of Au
Source: Discovery News
Dec 22, 2010
Hidden behind a fabulous sunken treasure recovered from a wreck in the Atlantic Ocean lays a story of secret diplomatic cables and Nazi art thieves, according to a revelation from WikiLeaks documents.
Consisting of 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts, the so-called Black Swan treasure has been at the center of an acrimonious international legal battle ever since it was discovered in 2007 by underwater robots from
Source: BBC News
Dec 22, 2010
US President Barack Obama has signed a landmark law allowing gay people serving in the military to be open about their sexuality.
Mr Obama said the law meant that tens of thousands of Americans would no longer be asked to live a lie.
He had campaigned to change the 1993 "don't ask, don't tell" law, overturned by Congress last week.
More than 13,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, enacted in 1993 as a compromise.
Source: NYT
Dec 22, 2010
Jorge Videla, a former Argentine dictator, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday in the murder of 31 political prisoners who were killed after the 1976 coup that swept him into power....
