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: Hurriyet (Turkey)
Aug 12, 2010
An investigation begun after a man was killed by a falling rock at the ancient city of Hasankeyf has revealed that construction vehicles working in the area have brought the 10,000-year-old settlement close to collapse.
“It is a crime by law to enter protected areas with heavy-duty vehicles. Before the rock broke, there were cracks but the necessary precautions were not taken,” said archaeologist Ercan Alpay, a member of the committee formed by the Initiative to Revive Hasankeyf to
Source: Boston Globe
Aug 12, 2010
MOSCOW—Russia has rejected a U.S. court ruling to turn over a Jewish library to a Hasidic group in New York.
A U.S. judge last week ruled against the Russian government for its refusal to return thousands of manuscripts that once belonged to a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi. The library was seized by Red Army in Nazi Germany as war booty....
Source: NYT
Aug 12, 2010
It was not like the old days: This time, the ships were smaller, the journey was shorter, the work was easier and these young sailors were surely softer....
But none of that troubled an elderly diver, who watched with approval as a new generation of Kuwaiti men embraced the sea, trimming sails and clapping their hands as they sang the old pearl diver’s songs. For the diver, Khalifa al-Rashid, 74, the young men represented a hope that in a country transformed by oil — into a land of
Source: NYT
Aug 12, 2010
Among all the troubles that have been visited on Russia in this summer of record heat, wildfires, smoke and crop failure, perhaps none have been so persistent and impervious to remedy as the peat fires. Particularly maddening, many here say, is the knowledge that the problem is caused by humans.
As early as 1918 Soviet engineers drained swamps to supply peat for electrical power stations. That approach was abandoned in the late 1950s, after natural gas was discovered in Siberia, but
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2010
For years, fans of the Batman comics have puzzled over a mystery at the heart of the series: why doesn't Batman just kill his arch-nemesis, the murderous Joker?
Enter philosopher Immanuel Kant and the deontological theory of ethics.
At least, that's how the discussion progresses in a growing number of philosophy classes in the US.
Cultural and media studies have paved the way for universities to incorporate pop culture into their curriculum. These days it
Source: Live Science
Aug 12, 2010
...The site of an ancient city called Auza, the earliest African city of the Phoenician civilization that existed 3,500 years ago, may have been in a different spot than experts have thought, archaeologists report.
Scholars know Auza existed from written records, but its exact location has never been proven. By studying ancient maps and records, emeritus classics professor Sir John Boardman of the Beazley Archive at Britain's University of Oxford was able to locate a more likely si
Source: Guardian (UK)
Aug 12, 2010
Roman buildings, unknown to historians, detected by Cardiff University students learning to use mapping equipment.
Archaeology students learning how to use mapping equipment have stumbled across the site of large Roman buildings on the banks of the river Usk in Wales, right by one of the best-known and most-studied Roman sites in Britain.
The structures have yet to be excavated, but one is enormous, possibly a granary or warehouse – or a palatial riverside villa.
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2010
A statue by a renowned Victorian sculptor has been stolen from a park in his home city.
'Joyance', an 1899 statue of a boy by Sir William Goscombe John, was cut from the water fountain in Thompson's Park, Canton, Cardiff.
Sir William was one of the most prominent 19th Century sculptors and the theft comes in the 150th anniversary year of his birth.
2010 marks the 150th anniversary of Sir William Goscombe John's birth in Canton and a local pub is named in hi
Source: BBC
Aug 12, 2010
Archaeologists at the University of Edinburgh are hoping to uncover the scene of a historical unsolved crime.
Work has begun to unearth remnants of buildings which became infamous for the murder of the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, Lord Darnley.
The remains of the buildings have been buried beneath Old College for more than 200 years.
The dig is being carried out prior to a £1m landscaping project which is being funded by a private donor....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 12, 2010
Sierra Leone's Human Rights Commission has called for blood diamonds allegedly given to Naomi Campbell by Charles Taylor to be returned to the country to benefit victims of the brutal civil war.
The commission has also written to the 40-year-old British supermodel to suggest she make a personal donation to the country's War Victims' Fund.
Tests on the stones have established that they are diamonds but not their origin. Under South African law, stones which are unclaim
Source: AP
Aug 12, 2010
Japan prides itself on the world's longest life expectancy but is struggling with a disturbing footnote to that statistic — revelations that hundreds of people listed as its oldest citizens are either long dead or haven't been heard from for decades.
The mystery of the missing centenarians has captured the attention of this rapidly graying nation with reports of scamming relatives and overworked social workers and sad tales of old people, isolated and forgotten, simply slipping out
Source: CNN
Aug 12, 2010
Archaeologist Gregory Fox is the U.S. military's version of Indiana Jones, but looks more like Jerry Garcia than Harrison Ford.
Fox travels the world digging for his version of treasure -- the remains of missing U.S. service personnel who died in battle.
Fox is part of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, a unique team of nearly 400 civilian and military personnel. The unit is two-thirds military and one-third civilian, with each branch of the military represe
Source: CNN
Aug 12, 2010
Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush surprised 145 troops returning home from war Wednesday, greeting them at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
The service members, most returning for a two-week break, arrived on a charter flight expecting to be met by the Dallas-based Welcome Home A Hero organization.
The Bushes joined with more than 30 youth football players through the Slant 45 organization to take part in the ceremony. The group is part of the S
Source: CNN
Aug 12, 2010
The founder of WikiLeaks said Thursday the whistle-blower website is preparing to release another roughly 15,000 documents about the war in Afghanistan.
Assange has previously said his Web site has an additional 15,000 documents that it wants to publish but that it is redacting information that could endanger people named.
Through The New York Times, the organization has asked the Obama administration for its guidance on what to redact. A recently published report sugge
Source: AOL News
Aug 12, 2010
Newt Gingrich is a phoenix. He's risen again and again from political ashes and appears to be ascendant once more. Rumored to be running for president in 2012, Gingrich is an icon in the Republican Party, an eminence grise at a time of lost leadership. His fall from grace in the late 1990s seems a blip, rather than a political ending.
Thus the cover story in Esquire Magazine, September issue, written by John H. Richardson.
If anyone knows something about Newt Gingrich,
Source: Haaretz (Israel)
Aug 12, 2010
New research shows how a group of Dutch farmers that trekked to Ukraine and Lithuania in World War II was spurned as 'white Jews'.
They came in their thousands from Holland to Eastern Europe to be good Nazis and help the Germans colonize more land during World War II. But according to the first major research into the Dutch settler movement, their German brethren despised them, dubbing them "white Jews."
Approximately 5,000 farmers trekked from Holland to the
Source: CNN
Aug 12, 2010
A rare gold coin dating back 2,200 years was discovered by a combined university research team in Israel, a top Israeli antiquities official said Thursday.
Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said the coin ranked in the top five of the rarest finds in that country's history.
"Intrinsically, for coin research, it's a very exciting find," Ariel told CNN. "This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beaut
Source: BBC News
Aug 12, 2010
Ceremonies are being held in Russia and on board its naval vessels to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster.
The submarine, one of the Russian navy's most advanced vessels, sank in the Barents Sea on 12 August, 2000 with the loss of all 118 people on board.
An explosion of fuel from an old torpedo caused the disaster.
Moscow's response to one of the greatest disasters in Russian naval history was widely criticised.
Source: BBC News
Aug 12, 2010
Scientists have found Arctic rocks that may preserve the earliest remnants of Earth.
Over billions of years, much of the material that made up the early Earth was modified by processes such as melting and mixing.
But the Arctic rocks seem to contain chemical signatures that date from just after the Earth's violent origin.
If confirmed, the discovery challenges established theories about the formation of our planet.
The results of the study are
Source: Daily Express
Aug 11, 2010
Records showing how Karl Marx died a poor man and Charles Darwin a millionaire have been published online for the first time.
Official summaries of more than six million wills dating from between 1861 and 1941 were scanned and uploaded by family history website Ancestry.co.uk.
The "probate calendar books" for England and Wales are an index giving details of how much the estates were worth, and in some cases who inherited them.
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