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: NYT
Sep 8, 2010
The Lewis Chessmen are the most famous and important chess pieces in history. They have a long historical and scholarly record, part of which is that they were made in Norway roughly 800 years ago. But now two Icelandic men are challenging that belief and trying to prove that the pieces came from their country.
The pieces were discovered on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in 1831 — hence their name. Carved mostly out of walrus tusk, they were found inside a sand
Source: National Geographic
Sep 8, 2010
Filled with other Cupid-like figures, intertwined vines and flowers, and brightly colored birds, the wall paintings provide important new insights into the mysterious culture of the builders of Petra, the Nabataeans, said art conservator Lisa Shekede. The artwork, she added, suggests the cave was a refuge for a cult focused on the ancient Greek god of wine, Dionysus.
The art is "remarkable in the extent of its palette and the intricacies of its painting," added Shekede, wh
Source: BBC News
Sep 8, 2010
Spanish palaeontologists have uncovered a new dinosaur with what may be the earliest evidence of feather follicles.
The researchers, whose findings are published in Nature, located the fossils near Cuenca, central Spain.
They named the reptile Concavenator corcovatus, meaning "meat eater from Cuenca with a hump". The type of dinosaur that was found is known as a theropod.
Theropods are mainly known from the ancient southern landmass, Gondwana.
Source: BBC News
Sep 8, 2010
Works by Joan Miro are to be displayed at the Tate Modern, the first time a major retrospective of the artist has been held in nearly 50 years.
The Ladder of Escape, which opens in April next year, will bring together over 150 of the Spanish surrealist's pieces from all over the world.
Miro's "dream" paintings and experimental techniques were an influence on abstract expressionism.
Tate Modern said his work was noted "for its serene, colourfu
Source: BBC News
Sep 8, 2010
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad caused anger in 2006.
A depiction of Muhammad's turban as a fused bomb sparked global outrage when it was published in Denmark.
Presenting him with a press freedom award, Mrs Merkel said Mr Westergaard was entitled to draw his caricatures.
"Europe is a place where a cartoonist is allowed to draw something like this," she said.
Source: Fox News
Sep 8, 2010
Nine years after the heroes of Flight 93 rebelled against the terrorists who hijacked their plane -- crashing it into a field in Shanksville, Pa., instead of allowing it to smash into an unknown, high-profile target in Washington, D.C. -- the design of a memorial to honor the 40 passengers and crew who died remains a subject of bitter controversy.
Since 2005, when plans for the Flight 93 National Memorial were unveiled, a group of critics, including the father of one of the heroes w
Source: AP
Sep 8, 2010
John Demjanjuk attends most sessions of his trial in a hospital bed set up in the courtroom, wearing dark sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his face.
The case of the retired Ohio autoworker accused of serving as a Nazi death camp guard — which resumes next week after a monthlong summer break — broke potentially precedent-setting ground when it opened last year.
But it has become increasingly dominated by the 90-year-old defendant's failing health.
Nazi
Source: BBC
Sep 8, 2010
A woman who was believed to have been the oldest person in Britain has died at the age of 111.
Annie Turnbull was born in Lanarkshire on 21 September 1898, when Queen Victoria was on the throne.
Brought up in West Lothian, Mrs Turnbull moved to Edinburgh when she was 16 to become a housekeeper. She retired in 1974 at the age of 76.
She died at Victoria Manor care home in Leith on Friday, two weeks short of her 112th birthday....
Source: AP
Sep 8, 2010
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Rwanda's president Wednesday after he threatened to withdraw thousands of Rwandan peacekeepers if the United Nations publishes a report accusing Rwanda's army of possible genocide in the 1990s.
The joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur is commanded by a Rwandan, Lt. Gen. Patrick Nyamvumba, and Rwanda has more than 3,200 troops and 86 police in the nearly 22,000-strong force.
U.N. officials and diplomats have
Source: AP
Sep 8, 2010
A Romanian Gypsy leader on Wednesday compared French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Romania's pro-Nazi wartime leader, following the expulsion of hundreds of Gypsies from France.
Speaking during an annual Gypsy feast held on a hill at the foots of the Carpathian Mountains, Iulian Radulescu told the Associated Press that Gypsies -- also known as Roma -- are being unfairly expelled from France.
France has sent back about 1,000 Gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria in recent weeks
Source: AP
Sep 8, 2010
The senior Sinn Fein politician in Northern Ireland's government acknowledged Wednesday that he did meet a Catholic priest responsible for a 1972 triple car bombing that killed nine civilians but insisted they never discussed the IRA attack.
A British government-sanctioned report last month into the Claudy bombing found that police, government and church leaders conspired to shield the priest, James Chesney, from prosecution amid fears that his arrest would deepen community division
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Sep 7, 2010
Turning over the soil in his back garden, David Murray spotted something glinting in the sunlight.
When he realised it was a dog tag from a Second World War German prisoner, he asked his landlord if he could dig a little deeper - literally.
In the following months, Mr Murray unearthed a treasure trove of wartime memorabilia. The 2,000 items include coins featuring Nazi emblems, dog tags, buttons from uniforms and even a live grenade that had to be destroyed by an RAF bo
Source: AP
Sep 7, 2010
Colonial Williamsburg is seeking the designation of the Historic Triangle as a World Heritage Site.
The historic area says it is partnering with Preservation Virginia and working with the National Park Service to seek the designation. The Historic Triangle is comprised of Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown....
Source: CBC News
Sep 7, 2010
An Inuit family says a box that was hidden for over 80 years in the Arctic contains documents linked to the doomed Franklin Expedition.
Over the weekend, the Porter family in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, dug up the small box with the help of an archeologist.
The exact contents of the unopened, sand-filled box will not be known until the Canadian Conservation Institute carefully examines it, which should take about three weeks.
The box was buried years ago by George
Source: Kent Online
Sep 7, 2010
Archaeologists have made exciting discoveries at a site just outside Faversham where a late Roman burial ground has been found.
The 4th century sarcophagus is built from chalk blocks and Kentish ragstone with a terracotta lid covering the grave slot.
Its alignment shows it is a Christian burial.
The discovery has been made in pasture land at Syndale Park, an area which has attracted attention from as early as the 18th century....
Source: Foreign Policy
Sep 7, 2010
RussiaLesson plan: Buddy Stalin Subject matter: It can't be easy to put a positive spin on Stalin, under whose leadership more than 20 million Russians lost their lives. But that's what's being attempted in Russia today. Encouraged by wilderness enthusiast and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, the country's curriculum is engaging in
Source: AP
Sep 7, 2010
Iraqi officials displayed hundreds of recovered artifacts Tuesday that were among the country's looted heritage and span the ages from a 4,400-year-old statue of a Sumerian king to a chrome-plated AK-47 bearing the image of Saddam Hussein.
The 542 pieces are among the most recent artifacts recovered from a heartbreaking frenzy of looting at Iraqi museums and archaeological sites after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and in earlier years of war and upheaval. The thefts swept a stunning ar
Source: AP
Sep 7, 2010
Today, it's a sprawl of luxury vacation homes where Egypt's wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast. But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city, boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.
The ancient city, known as Leukaspis or Antiphrae, was hidden for centuries after it was nearly wiped out by a fourth century tsunami that devastated the region.
More recently, it was nearly buried under the modern res
Source: Live Science
Sep 7, 2010
Three recently discovered shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea could give archaeologists new insights into the transition between medieval and modern shipbuilding.
The remains of the three craft — all dating from between 1450 and 1600 — were found in the straits between Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes. One ship appears to be a large English merchant ship, while the other two are smaller — perhaps a patrol craft from Rhodes and a small trading boat that could have been Turkish,
Source: BBC
Sep 7, 2010
A service at St Paul's marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the raids.
Thousands of people across the UK were killed and injured in the raids by German forces in 1940 and 1941.
Blitz, the German word for "lightning", was applied by the British press to the tempest of heavy and frequent bombing raids carried out over Britain.
This concentrated direct bombing on industrial targets and civilian centres, with heavy raids on London....
