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: Slate
Jun 3, 2010
It's been an unpleasant year for Pope Benedict XVI, so much so, one feels moved to ask: Are there any papal practices he takes refuge in that are more fun than, say, celibacy? We know of at least one: saint-making. In his going-on-five-year-old reign, the pontiff has canonized at least 29 souls, according to the Holy See's Web site—10 in 2009 alone. The newly sainted didn't include Mother Teresa, everyone's top seed, but they did include one friar, Bernardo Tolomei, born in the 13th century, who
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2010
A cartoon that appears to refer to the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square has been printed in a Chinese newspaper.
The image, in the Southern Metropolitan Daily, shows a boy drawing a person standing in front of three tanks.
Online commentators have likened the image to the photograph of "tank man", the protester who stopped a column of tanks during the demonstrations.
It appeared in the paper days before the 21st anniversary of the crackdown in
Source: Jakarta Post
Jun 3, 2010
Despite being rich in sunken treasure, Indonesia is undecided whether to ratify a world convention that protects underwater cultural heritage, a senior official said Wednesday at a workshop for officials and academics in Jakarta.
“Indonesia still needs to carefully weigh up the benefits and consequences of ratifying [the convention],” Hari Untoro Drajat, the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s director general for history and archaeology said.
He said ratifying the UNESCO conventi
Source: Discovery News
Jun 3, 2010
Tantalizing new clues are surfacing in the Amelia Earhart mystery, according to researchers scouring a remote South Pacific island believed to be the final resting place of the legendary aviatrix.
Three pieces of a pocket knife and fragments of what might be a broken cosmetic glass jar are adding new evidence that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan landed and eventually died as castaways on Nikumaroro, an uninhabited tropical island in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribat
Source: LA Times
Jun 3, 2010
An Armenian church based in La Crescenta has filed a civil lawsuit against the Getty Museum, claiming the institution illegally bought seven pages from a sacred Bible.
The Western Prelacy claims that the seven pages, which date back to 1256, were ripped from the Armenian Orthodox Church's Zeyt'un Gospels during the Armenian Genocide, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Americas is
Source: MSNBC
Jun 3, 2010
The Stone Age version of successful businessmen like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates might have been involved in the color and glue trade.
A once-thriving 58,000-year-old ochre powder production site has just been discovered in South Africa. The discovery offers a glimpse of what early humans valued and used in their everyday lives.
The finding, which will be described in the Journal of Archaeological Science, also marks the first time that any Stone Age site has yielded evid
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2010
Calls from a former tour guide for a statue to Henry VII at the castle where he was born are being backed by the area's new MP.
Melanie Phillips has been campaigning for the monument at Pembroke Castle where she once worked.
The king, who founded the Tudor dynasty, was born in the castle in 1457 and lived there until he was 11.
Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart said he would help to find funding for the statue.
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2010
The medals of a British army officer who overslept and found himself surrounded by 30,000 rebels during the Indian Mutiny have been sold.
A spokesman for Bosleys auctioneers in central England told the BBC that the medals fetched $6,443 (£4,400).
The medals belonged to Capt Thomas Waterman, who was reputedly the last British officer to escape from the city of Lucknow as it was sacked.
The siege of Lucknow began in 1857 after an uprising by Indian soldier
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2010
Russian authorities are preparing to remove a huge arsenal of shells from a sunken German World War II barge off the Baltic coast.
The wreck is just 1.5km (0.9 miles) from the shore, near the town of Baltiysk, and about 20m (66ft) down.
More than 10,000 shells containing explosives are on board, but without detonators, a Russian government official told the BBC.
The removal work could take two years, Maxim Vladimirov said.
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2010
A US lawyer arrested on allegations of genocide denial tried to commit suicide in his cell, Rwandan officials said.
Peter Erlinder arrived in Rwanda last week to help defend opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, who has been charged with promoting genocide ideology last month.
Police spokesman Eric Kayiranga said Mr Erlinder has "admitted" that he tried to kill himself.
His daughter told the BBC shes does not believe he would try to take
Source: BBC
Jun 3, 2010
British Airways has apologised after a photograph in a staff magazine showed a frequent flyer boarding pass in the name of Osama Bin Laden.
The image appeared on the front page of LHR News and was meant to promote the benefits of online check-in.
It showed a passenger holding up an iPhone displaying a boarding pass in the name Bin Laden/Osama, seat 07-C.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 3, 2010
The oldest member of Sweden's royal family will not attend the royal wedding as she has Alzheimer's disease.
Princess Lilian, 94, will miss Crown Princess Victoria's wedding to Daniel Westlin in two weeks due to her deteriorating health.
The Welsh-born princess, the widow of Prince Bertil, an uncle of King Carl XVI Gustaf, has cut down on her royal duties in recent years for health reasons.
The princess married Prince Bertil in 1976 after initially meeting
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 3, 2010
One of Monet's celebrated water-lily paintings is to be auctioned in London for a price expected to reach up to £40 million.
The painting - dating back a century and from his most famous series of works - will be part of the most valuable art auction yet to take place in the city later this month.
The impressionist and modern art at Christie's sale also features a ''blue period'' Picasso, also tipped to go for up to £40 million, after being withdrawn from sale four ye
Source: Ridgefield Press (CT)
Jun 3, 2010
Donning a 1944 Navy nurse cape and cap, Ridgefielder Evelyn Wisner joined the town’s Memorial Day parade for the first time this year.
Ms. Wisner was 22 years old when she signed up to become a Navy flight nurse in World War II.
At 89, she remembers treating patients while flying high over the South Pacific as clearly as ever.
“World War II is pretty much history — there aren’t many of us left,” Ms. Wisner said to fellow World War II veterans at a meeting o
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jun 3, 2010
Aeroplanes, organ transplants and even scratch and sniff paper are among a "remarkable" set of predictions made in the 17th century by one of Britain's forefathers of science, it has been revealed.
The chemist Robert Boyle made the "wish list" as he helped found the Royal Society, the world's first scientific body in 1660s London.
The predictions, which also include submarines, genetically modified crops and psychedelic drugs, were unveiled as the ce
Source: CNN
Jun 3, 2010
Efraim Zuroff's great-uncle was kidnapped in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 13, 1941, by a gang of Lithuanians "roaming the streets of the city looking for Jews with beards to arrest."
"He was taken to Lukiskis Prison -- to this day the main jail in the city -- and was murdered shortly thereafter," says Zuroff. So were his wife and two boys.
Born seven years later in Brooklyn, New York, Zuroff was named for his great-uncle and grew up questioning his Am
Source: BBC News
Jun 3, 2010
The Ukrainian parliament has approved a bill that effectively rejects any ambition to join Nato.
The law, submitted by President Viktor Yanukovych, cements Ukraine's status as a military non-aligned country - though it will co-operate with Nato.
President Yanukovych was elected earlier this year, vowing to end Ukraine's Nato membership ambitions and mend relations with Russia.
His predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, had pursued a pro-Western foreign policy.
Source: BBC News
Jun 3, 2010
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is set to go on trial on charges of corruption, including attempting to sell President Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.
Mr Blagojevich has denied all 24 charges which include racketeering, wire fraud, attempted extortion and bribery.
He was arrested 18 months ago along with his brother and co-defendant, Robert Blagojevich.
The trial begins with jury selection.
Mr Blagojevich, who intends to take the wi
Source: Medieval News
Jun 2, 2010
A new Institute of Medieval Studies has been established at l’Institut Catholique de Paris, also known as the Catholic University of Paris. The institute will be headed by Isabelle Moulin and will hold its inaugural session of its foundation on June 25th.In an interview on the university's website, Moulin states the institute "is dedicated for promoting research on medieval thought, as seen in continuity with late antique thought, on the one hand, and with renaissance and early modern philo
Source: Preservation Magazine
Jun 2, 2010
It was July 12, 1864, and Confederate troops were advancing on Washington, D.C. "Get down, you fool!" Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. reportedly yelled as bullets whizzed by. President Lincoln watched from D.C.'s Fort Stevens, and Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's soldiers were taking aim.
Lincoln remained safe (for the time being), but the battle at Fort Stevens was the closest the Confederate Army ever came to conquering the city. It was also one of only two times a
