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: Reuters
May 20, 2010
A library book borrowed by the first U.S. president, George Washington, has been returned to a New York City's oldest library, 221 years late.
Washington checked out the book from the New York Society Library at a time when the library shared a building with the federal government in lower Manhattan.
The library said in a statement that its borrowing records, or charging ledger, showed Washington took out "The Law of Nations" by Emer de Vattel on October 5, 17
Source: AP
May 19, 2010
When chunks of plaster began falling from the ceiling of the national cathedral of African Methodism last year, one of Washington's oldest black congregations nearly had to abandon its sanctuary.
Instead, the people of Metropolitan A.M.E. Church — where member Frederick Douglass gave his last speech in 1894 and where a pew bears his name — have begun emergency repairs. They brought in scaffolding to block falling debris, and now they worship under yellow construction lights.
Source: AFP
May 19, 2010
A US judge on Tuesday ordered the deportation of former Nazi concentration camp guard Anton Geiser to Austria.
Geiser, 85, immigrated from Austria to the United States in 1956 and became a naturalized US citizen six years later, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
"As a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II, Anton Geiser must be held to account for his role in the persecution of countless men, women and children," Assistant Attorn
Source: Ria Novosti
May 19, 2010
The area of the Polish presidential plane crash is presently being heavily guarded, but later a commemorative marker will be placed there, the Smolensk region governor said on Wednesday.
"Law enforcement officers see that no one performs unsanctioned excavations or rummaging at the plane crash site...We plan to put up a commemorative marker at the plane crash site," Sergei Antufiev said....
Source: AFP
May 19, 2010
The archeological team behind China's terracotta Xian Warriors was Wednesday awarded Spain's prestigious Prince of Asturias prize for scientific and technical research.
The army of thousands of life-size warriors and horses of the Qin emperor more than 2,200 years ago was discovered by chance in 1974. In 1987, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The award is aimed at rewarding "the scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanistic work performed b
Source: National Geographic
May 19, 2010
A massive, headless statue of a Greek king has been found in the ruins of an ancient Egyptian temple, adding to evidence that the structure could be the final resting place of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, excavation leaders say.
For the past five years archaeologists have been searching around the temple of Taposiris Magna, about 28 miles (45 kilometers) west of the port city of Alexandria (map), in hopes of finding the couple's graves.
The newfound black granite statue—w
Source: USA Today
May 19, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI's legacy will be shaped by his response to the explosive global clergy sex-abuse crisis, say two Catholic authors who detail and defend his record in a book published this week.
The Vatican and Benedict are accused of "acts of neglect, cover-up, and disregard for the plight of the victims," they write. Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal is their rebuttal.
Greg Erlandson, head of the Catholic publishi
Source: SF Chronicle
May 19, 2010
The Texas Board of Education's conservative members are going on the deep end. As the one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the country, the board wants to change and re-write the history books. Smaller states who have no textbook buying power would essentially have to read and study the new Texas version of history.
The changes are ideological and distort history, but conservative Board of Education argue they are correcting a long-standing liberal bias in education. Read the r
Source: MyFoxDC
May 19, 2010
A new movie theater in Fredericksburg has painted over a Confederate flag from a mural after it received complaints.
The Muvico theater includes a Civil-War themed bar and a mural that was painted on a wall of an outside seating area. The mural depicted a U.S. flag on one side, a Confederate flag on the other, and stars, an eagle and other adornments....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 19, 2010
The president of Ukraine was knocked on the head by an over-size wreath during a Second World War memorial ceremony, in a clip that has gone viral on the internet.
Viktor Yanukovych had just paid his respects to the war dead by bowing in front off the wreath when it was caught by a gust of wind.
The 8ft display came loose from its base and blew with some force directly into the Ukrainian president, who was attending the event with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvede
Source: AP
May 19, 2010
Work crews in Cyprus have accidentally unearthed four rare clay coffins estimated to be some 2,000 years old, the country's Antiquities Department director said Wednesday.
Maria Hadjicosti said the coffins adorned with floral patterns date from the east Mediterranean island's Hellenistic to early Roman periods, between 300 B.C. and 100 A.D.
Hadjicosti said similar coffins dating from the same period have been discovered. Two such coffins are on display in the capital's
Source: Discovery News
May 19, 2010
The scraps of ancient bandages -- some with dirty fingerprints of Tut's embalmers -- had been contained in long forgotten jars at a New York museum.
King Tutankhamun's mummy was wrapped in custom-made bandages similar to modern first aid gauzes, an exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has revealed.
For a century, the narrow linen bandages were contained in a rather overlooked cache of large ceramic jars at the museum's Department of Egyptian Art. The coll
Source: BBC
May 19, 2010
An Anglo-Saxon settlement has been discovered on the site of the new All Saints' Academy in Cheltenham.
Two skeletons, pottery and a large timber hall, all thought to date back to between the 6th to 8th Century, have been uncovered.
Steve Sheldon, of Cotswold Archaeology, said it was previously thought the area did not succumb to Saxon control during that period.
He said the settlement was one of the best finds of his career.
Source: AP
May 19, 2010
Seven score and seven years ago, a wounded Wisconsin soldier stood his ground on the Gettysburg battlefield and made a valiant stand before he was felled by a Confederate bullet.
Now, thanks to the dogged efforts of modern-day supporters, 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing shall not have died in vain, nor shall his memory have perished from the earth.
Descendants and some Civil War history buffs have been pushing the U.S. Army to award the soldier the Medal of Honor, the nation's h
Source: BBC
May 19, 2010
Tests carried out on a skeleton discovered at an archaeological dig in Derbyshire have found it was that of a pregnant woman.
Experts said they were surprised by the female find because the site, near Monsal Dale in the Peak District, had been believed to be a military scene.
Now, extra lottery funding means there can be a second dig at the Fin Cop hill fort site to find out more.
Archaeologists unearthed the Iron Age skeleton last August.
Duri
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 19, 2010
Vladimir Putin has admitted for the first time that he spent his stint as a KGB spy in 1980s East Germany conducting industrial espionage against the West, lamenting that the secrets he stole were ignored.
n his most candid comments on the subject to date, the Russian prime minister said that at least part of his job as a KGB agent in East Germany involved acquiring sensitive technological and industrial secrets from the West.
But he told a meeting of the Russian Acade
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 19, 2010
A US immigration judge has ordered an 85-year-old retired steelworker be deported to Austria, or to any other country that will accept him, for serving as an armed Nazi death camp guard during the Second World War.
Anton Geiser was born in what is now part of Croatia and came to the United States from Austria in 1956. He has lived outside of Pittsburgh since 1960, became a citizen in 1962 and is married with three sons.
Geiser has the right to appeal to the Board of Imm
Source: AP
May 19, 2010
Christie's is set to auction a series of mostly black and white photographs, including one from Mario Testino's Vanity Fair shoot of Princess Diana.
The striking black and white 1997 Testino image shows the princess of Wales reclining on a sofa, her chin resting on folded hands. It is valued at 18,000 pounds-22,000 pounds ($26,000-32,000) and was taken only months before her death.
Also included in the sale are images by Andy Warhol of the Rolling Stones, including an i
Source: Fox News
May 19, 2010
What started out as a cartoonist's call to action against censorship -- an open invitation to submit caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad -- has led to death threats, a court order to temporarily block parts of the website in Pakistan and a call for a boycott of Facebook to protest what Muslims believe is blasphemy.
As a way to protest the network's decision -- which came after an Islamic extremist website warned of retaliation against the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker
Source: CNN
May 19, 2010
he Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was leaving a news conference one afternoon when a tall man with a coppery complexion stepped out of the crowd and blocked his path.
Malcolm X, the African-American Muslim leader who once called King "Rev. Dr. Chicken-wing," extended his hand and smiled.
That encounter on March 26, 1964, lasted only a minute. But a photo of that meeting has tantalized scholars and supporters of both men for more than 45 years.
As the
