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: Politico
Nov 4, 2010
A young Democratic president comes into office with big ambitions, gets knocked back on his heels by Republicans in the midterm elections, then makes some deft moves to recapture the center and waltzes to reelection two years later.
It sounds easy enough. And after Tuesday night’s humiliation, it must sound tempting to President Barack Obama and his battered political team. Some commentators have even suggested that losing control of the House might be a blessing in disguise for Oba
Source: AP
Nov 4, 2010
Egypt's antiquities chief says archaeologists have unearthed the upper half of a red granite statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago.
Zahi Hawass says the statue was discovered on Thursday at the site of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III, one of the largest on the west bank of the Nile in the southern temple city of Luxor.
The statue portrays Amenhotep III with the falcon-headed sun god Re-Horakhti and exhibits the expert craftsmanship of ancie
Source: BBC News
Nov 4, 2010
Jerry Bock, who composed the scores for some of Broadway's most successful musicals including Fiddler on the Roof and Fiorello!, has died.
Composed with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Fiorello! earned three Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize after opening in 1959.
The pair created songs including If I Were a Rich Man and Sunrise Sunset for Fiddler on the Roof five years later, and the show won a total of nine Tonys.
Mr Bock, 81, suffered heart failure, lawyer and
Source: BBC News
Nov 4, 2010
The BBC has apologised over reports claiming millions of pounds raised by Band Aid was used to buy arms.
In March, World Service's Assignment said cash raised by charities to help Ethiopia had been diverted by rebels.
The BBC has admitted that Assignment gave the impression that Band Aid and Live Aid money had been diverted despite no evidence to back that up.
It apologised for further TV, radio and online reports which actually stated that Band Aid money h
Source: BBC News
Nov 4, 2010
The two leaders went together to the memorial at Ovcara and laid wreaths at the site of the mass grave
During a visit to a memorial to 260 people murdered at Vukovar, Mr Tadic gave a statement expressing his "apology and regret".
Vukovar was captured in November 1991 after a three-month siege by the Serb-led Yugoslav army.
The victims of the massacre had sought refuge in the town's hospital.
But two days after Vukovar was seized, they
Source: The Atlantic
Nov 4, 2010
Every year on November 10, at exactly 9:05 a.m., Europe's biggest city comes to a halt. Air raid sirens begin to blare. Pedestrians freeze in their tracks. Schools, factories, and government offices suspend work to observe two minutes of silence. On Istanbul's massive thoroughfares, cars, buses and trucks screech to a stop, their drivers and passengers spilling out onto the street, many of them teary eyed, to stand to attention.
Only a handful of world leaders are said to be able to
Source: NYT
Nov 4, 2010
The global taste for modern masters helped the market for Impressionist and modern art continue its upward climb at Christie’s on Wednesday night, where record prices were reached for artists like Matisse and Gris.
The evening’s auction, the second of the week, illustrated how — with supplies dwindling and the number of new collectors growing — many buyers are finding the marketplace particularly competitive, even for works that are not considered top flight.
The eveni
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 4, 2010
DNA tests confirmed Romania's late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was buried two decades ago in a Bucharest grave, forensic experts said on Wednesday, lifting lingering doubt over the ruler's burial place.
The family had threatened to sue the Romanian state if the remains – exhumed on July 21, some 20 years after their deaths – had not belonged to the Ceausescus.
Mr Dermengiu said in the case of Elena, there was not enough material available for a conclusive tes
Source: BBC
Nov 3, 2010
Soldiers from the Age of the Princes, the Napoleonic wars and World War II mingled with visitors at this year's Llangollen history festival.
A number of re-enactors were in costume and character to share their stories during The Festival of History and Remembrance (5-14 November).
The highlight of the festival is a fair with 50 history-related stalls.
Venues include Llangollen pavilion, museum and railway with one of the steam engine carriages forming the
Source: WaPo
Nov 3, 2010
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $50 million to the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum announced late Wednesday.
The money will go principally to the Youth Access Endowment, a new entitly created by the Smithsonian. Gates is giving $30 million of the gift to "reach underserved students" in the United States. The endowment targets students in grades K-12, and will create a series of interactive Web sites and online conferences....
Source: Guardian (UK)
Nov 3, 2010
Evolutionary advance saw stone-age humans master the art of hand-toolmaking and paved the way for language to develop.
Stone-age humans mastered the art of elegant hand-toolmaking in an evolutionary advance that boosted their brain power and potentially paved the way for language, researchers say.
The design of stone tools changed dramatically in human pre-history, beginning more than two million years ago with sharp but primitive stone flakes, and culminating in exquis
Source: AP
Nov 3, 2010
An 8-ton boulder pulled from the Ohio River will be returned to Kentucky on Thursday.
The Kentucky Heritage Council-State Historic Preservation Office says the artifact known as Indian Head Rock will be taken to Greenup County where it will be stored in a garage.
The agency says Greenup County Judge-Executive Robert Carpenter expects the rock to be stored until a permanent home is located and funds are found to help display it for the public.
The rock jutte
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Nov 3, 2010
Rare photos taken by a German soldier of the devastated beaches of Dunkirk after the evacuation have been found 70 years on by the family of a British war veteran.
The pictures were taken a few hours after 330,000 Allied soldiers were rescued from the beaches by an armada of little ships having been defeated by the Nazis.
The remarkable album was later taken from a German house as a memento by British serviceman Corporal Frank Smith.
It includes shots of th
Source: BBC News
Nov 3, 2010
A painting of a nude by Amedeo Modigliani has sold for more than $68.9m (£42.7m) at an auction in New York - a record for the artist's work.
Sotheby's said five bidders competed for La Belle Romaine, pushing its price well past its $40m (£24.8m) estimate.
The painting, part of a series of nudes created around 1917, was purchased by an anonymous buyer.
Modigliani's previous auction record was 43.2m euros (£35.8m), set earlier this year in Paris.
Source: Slate
Nov 3, 2010
...When did people start referring to a lopsided election as a landslide?
In the mid-19th century. While plenty of American politicians suffered crushing defeats before then, no one appears to have compared their fates to being buried in an avalanche until The New York Post enthused over the prospects of John Fremont's campaign for president in 1856....
Source: Newsweek
Nov 3, 2010
Two decades after the Soviet Union’s humiliating retreat from Afghanistan, NATO is working to get Russia back into the country to help fight drug trafficking and rebuild Afghan security forces. The deal, championed by NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen as part of a “new start in the relationship between NATO and Russia,” would see Moscow providing helicopters to Afghan and NATO forces, training Afghan national-security forces and pilots, and helping on the ground with counternarcotics
Source: WaPo
Nov 3, 2010
Richard S. Lyons was a carpenter checking on the decrepit building that had fallen into the hands of the government. He was alone, and it was raining. He had gone to the vacant third floor of the structure in downtown Washington, when he heard a noise.
He looked around but found nothing. He heard it again - like something moving around - in another part of the warren of crumbling rooms. Again, he found nothing. Then, as he tells it, he thought he felt a tap on his shoulder.
Source: NYT
Nov 3, 2010
For all the towering ambitions of this city’s residents, its buildings are generally short and boxy.
Its low-slung architecture is no accident. In 1910, Congress passed an act limiting the heights of buildings in the capital. The first residential skyscraper, the Cairo, had been built, and at 12 stories, it was higher than fire ladders could reach and scandalously out of sync with its smaller neighbors....
Now, on the act’s centennial, a small tribe of developers, arch
Source: Scotsman
Nov 3, 2010
AN archaeology conference is set to be held to discuss fieldwork and research being undertaken in the Lothians.
The Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders Archaeology Conference 2010 will take place at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh on Saturday, November 20.
The full-day conference will see participants find out about the rare Roman altar stones discovered in Musselburgh.
There will also be a talk about the ongoing archaeology project at St Andrew's Kirk
Source: NYT
Nov 3, 2010
WASHINGTON — The would-be terrorists in Yemen made a sardonic choice when they sent two package bombs to Chicago last week: they addressed the parcels to two historical figures notorious in Middle Eastern lore for the persecution of Muslims.
One of the addressees, Diego Deza, was known for his cruelty in performing his duties as Grand Inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition, succeeding the infamous Tomás de Torquemada in the job. Reynald Krak, to whom the second package was addres
