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This page features brief excerpts of news 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.
Highlights
Breaking News
This page features brief excerpts of news 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. Because most of our readers read the NYT we usually do not include the paper's stories in HIGHLIGHTS.
Name of source: Philadelphia Inquirer
SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer (2-2-10)
On the back of a treasured draft of the U.S. Constitution was a truncated version of the same document, starting with the familiar words: "We The People. . . ."
They had been scribbled upside down by one of the Constitution's framers, James Wilson, in the summer of 1787. The cursive continued, then abruptly stopped, as if pages were missing.
A mystery, Toler thought, until she examined other Wilson papers from the Historical Society's vault in Philadelphia and found what appeared to be the rest of the draft, titled "The Continuation of the Scheme."...
"This was national scripture, a piece of our Constitution's history," she said of her find in November. "It was difficult to keep my hands from trembling."...
"The Continuation of the Scheme" and countless other documents had been evaluated by scholars decades ago before being carefully filed away at the Historical Society at 13th and Locust Streets.
"Perhaps this one should have been placed with the other drafts," said Lee Arnold, senior director of the library and collections at the Historical Society. "We may do that, but no decision has been made....
Seeing the framers' drafts and thought processes leading up to that point was especially thrilling to Toler, who is studying at Oxford University, where she is seeking a doctorate in U.S. history and specializing in constitutional legal history.
"The Constitution may be the most important document written in modern history," said Toler. "It is the longest-standing written constitution and the basis for most of the constitutions in the world."
After finding the draft, "I felt like an actor in the movie National Treasure, but [actor] Nicolas Cage was nowhere to be found," Toler added.
"However, what I found was a national treasure - the real national treasure."...
Name of source: Charlotte Observer
SOURCE: Charlotte Observer (2-3-10)
Consider Abraham Lincoln. There are tales about him in Washington, where the 16th president saved the Union and was assassinated. Likewise in Springfield, Ill., the closest to a normal "home" the self-made Lincoln had.
Likewise in this Rutherford County crossroads where some say he was born atop Lincoln Hill, just east of larger and more rugged Cherry Mountain.
The world at large believes he was born Feb. 12, 1809, in a cabin near Hodgenville, Ky. At least once, Lincoln himself put this in writing. It's where the National Park Service oversees the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park.
The Bostic Lincoln Center holds otherwise. According to its research, what remains of his birthplace is about an hour west of Charlotte, a ruined foundation in a thicket of trees above a creek. It's on private land to which the center has access. Call in advance, and Keith Price or another member will walk you up there on a short run of trails that vanishes in a maze of chestnut oak and pine saplings.
Name of source: Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA)
SOURCE: Culpeper Star-Exponent (VA) (2-3-10)
The proposal is for a 140,000-square-foot Walmart and an additional 100,000-square-feet for commercial development. The site proposals are adjacent to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, established by Congress in 1927.
The Battle of the Wilderness, where 26,000 men were killed or wounded, was fought on the historic battleground in May 1864 during the Civil War.
It was the first time generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met in combat. The supervisors voted to approve the special use permit in August.
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (2-2-10)
The rusting, dirt-caked marquee that hangs outside the Loew’s Kings Theater over a bustling commercial stretch of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn last promoted a film in 1977. Years of neglect have left the interior rotted by time, stripped by thieves and desecrated by vandals and pigeons.
New York City, which seized the building decades ago in lieu of back taxes, has long teased the neighborhood with proposals to restore the lost luster of a local landmark. But this time, the city says, it is for real.
A developer has signed an agreement, made a down payment on a $70 million renovation and plans to turn the building back into a functioning entertainment venue, this time presenting live performances, city officials said Tuesday.
“We’re on our way to making that dream come true,” said Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, who is to formally announce the restoration in his State of the Borough address Wednesday.
After a four-year process — and many false starts — the city has selected a company based in Houston, ACE Theatrical Group, to renovate and operate the theater. It would be, once again, the biggest indoor theater in Brooklyn, presenting 250 concerts, theatrical performances and community events annually, officials said.
“We feel like we have a deal we can deliver on,” said Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “We are confident this project is going to move forward.”
ACE, which has worked on similar restoration projects throughout the country, including the Boston Opera House, will soon begin a review and design process that is expected to take a couple of years. Preliminary plans call for the space to open as soon as 2014, Mr. Pinsky said. The city has committed $50 million to the project, with another $15 million coming in the form of tax credits and $5 million from the developer, which would also be responsible for any extra spending, said Mr. Pinsky.
On a stretch of Flatbush Avenue near Beverly Road — which the theater shares with discount furniture and clothing stores, a vacant lot and a boarded-up storefront — news of the renovation was greeted with enthusiasm by residents who had never been inside it. “It would be a great thing if they made it a venue again,” said Ulana Lewin, 30, who works at Relly Clothes across the street. “It would be good for business.”
The Kings, as it was known to generations of Brooklynites, opened on Sept. 7, 1929, with a screening of “Evangeline” and a special appearance by its star, Dolores del Rio. One of five so-called wonder theaters built by Loew’s — sister theaters in Jersey City and elsewhere have been converted into churches or restored into entertainment spaces — the 68,000-square-foot Kings featured vaudeville acts and a pipe organ before moving exclusively to movies.
Over the years, as economics began to favor multiplexes, fewer and fewer of the 3,200 seats were filled. On Aug. 30, 1977, the Kings screened its final feature: “Islands in the Stream,” starring George C. Scott. This time, the star did not stop by for a special appearance. Two years later, the theater, owing back taxes, was seized by the city and began to quietly disintegrate.
“If it was located in Midtown Manhattan it never would have been able to fall into the state of disrepair that it was allowed to fall into,” Mr. Pinsky said.
For the last 10 years, John Friedman, the property manager, has watched over the building he frequented as a younger man. On Tuesday he led a brief tour. The beams of his heavy black flashlight struggled to cut through the gloom, barely reaching the vaulted ceilings in the cavernous orchestra dome.
Some original touches survive, like dusty crystal chandeliers still hanging in the lobby. The stage has aged less gracefully; it is flanked by torn burgundy curtains covered in droppings from birds that roosted inside until a broken skylight was sealed.
David Anderson, the president of ACE Theatrical, said it would take a while to evaluate the extent of the damage, but he emphasized the company’s commitment to the original design. “We’ll be able to recreate what it looks like when it was first put into use,” he said. “We’ll be able to very accurately recreate what is no longer there and restore what is there.”
“It’s an absolutely wonderful space,” said Richard J. Sklenar, executive director of the Theater Historical Society of America. “There’s nothing there that can’t be taken care of; $70 million sounds like it can do the job.”
SOURCE: NYT (2-2-10)
The documents, which belonged to Roosevelt’s last personal secretary, Grace Tully, have been in legal limbo for years because of an ownership dispute involving the National Archives, which runs the library, and Hollinger International, a now-bankrupt company formerly controlled by the Canadian press baron Conrad M. Black, who is serving a federal prison sentence in Florida on fraud charges.
In an odd twist, the new law removes the government claim on the condition that the collection is donated to the government. But the bankruptcy has thrown this carefully negotiated settlement into doubt.
For officials of the National Archives, which had worked with Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, to get hold of the papers since Hollinger tried to sell them at Sotheby’s in 2005, the prospect of the papers’ being held hostage, or even sold off, as a result of bankruptcy proceedings has prompted dismay.
“I’m absolutely worried,” said Cynthia M. Koch, director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y. “We’ve worked with Senator Schumer for years on this. To be working so hard on something and then suddenly realize the possibility that there’s yet another hurdle has been distressing.”
The papers, including official correspondence, handwritten notes and photographs, were in the estate of Ms. Tully, who began working for Roosevelt in 1929, when he was governor of New York. She was his personal secretary from 1941 until his death in 1945, and died in 1984, at 83....
SOURCE: NYT (2-1-10)
Mr. Ban arrived Sunday for his first visit to Cyprus, which has been split in two since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 after a coup attempt by Greek Cypriots seeking union with mainland Greece. Since then, untold hours of negotiations have failed to bridge deep resentments and suspicions rooted in faith, conflict and history.
Turkey still maintains some 35,000 troops on the island, and a United Nations force patrols the so-called Green Line — the division between the Turkish Cypriot north, which has declared itself to be a republic and is recognized only by Turkey, and the Greek Cypriot south, whose leaders represent the island in the European Union and internationally....
In October, Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader and president of Cyprus, gave a gloomy assessment of the prospects for ending the partition of the island and warned the European Union against appeasing Turkey in the way Germany was treated before World War II.
Name of source: AFP
SOURCE: AFP (2-1-10)
The amendment requires Egyptians who have antiquities to report their possessions to the Supreme Council of Antiquities, headed by Zahi Hawass, in six months. The sale of antiquities is still banned.
"Parliament agreed on article eight that forbids trade in antiquities but allows possession of antiquities with some individuals, on condition that they cannot use them to benefit others, or to damage and neglect them," Hawass said.
These relics, he said, can in future only be given as a gift with the council's authorisation. They may also be passed on as part of an inheritance.
The antiquities legal counsel, Ashraf el-Ishmawi, who helped in the drafting of the amendments, clarified that the law precluded antiques and heirlooms.
He said the new law increased prison sentences for smuggling artifacts out of Egypt to 15 years and a one-million-pound (182,815-dollar) fine. The penalty for stealing artifacts has been doubled to 10 years.
"The goal of the new law is to protect Egyptian antiquities."
It also increases the punishment for tampering with antiquity sites to five years in jail, while a new provision gives patent rights to the antiquities council on precise replicas of antiquities that are certified by the council.
The amendments were passed after a stormy debate in parliament after steel magnate Ahmed Ezz reportedly proposed that the sale of some artifacts be allowed in Egypt, following the examples of Italy and France.
Culture Minister Faruq Hosni and Hawass both threatened to resign if parliament accepted the proposal.
Hawass has doggedly campaigned for a clampdown on the trade and smuggling of artifacts since he became head of Egypt's antiquities council in 2002.
He says that 5,000 artifacts have been returned to Egypt since then, most famously five fragments of an ancient fresco acquired by the Louvre Museum in France.
The museum returned them to Egypt after Hawass said they were stolen and threatened a boycott. He has also demanded the return of the iconic Queen Nefertiti bust from Germany's Neues Museum.
SOURCE: AFP (1-29-10)
The tomb was discovered in November by specialists from the National Institute of Archaeology and History, known as INAH, in the Mayan city of Tonina in Chiapas state on the border with Guatemala.
The stone sarcophagus and the gravestone accompanying it dates to a period from 840 to 900 AD, when the Mayan civilization's decline began, Juan Yadeum told a news conference on Thursday.
SOURCE: AFP (1-31-10)
In a government-backed project aimed at soothing strained ties, 10 historians from each country have reviewed the history of China-Japan relations over 2,000 years.
The 549-page report showed both sides agreed that the 1937-1945 Sino-Japanese War was an "act of aggression" waged by Japan.
But it noted differing views on the number of Chinese killed by the imperial Japanese army after it seized Nanjing, then China's capital and known as Nanking.
The Chinese side, citing a ruling of the 1947 Nanjing war crimes tribunal, said more than 300,000 were massacred in the atrocity when Japanese troops embarked on an orgy of destruction, pillage, rape and murder.
The Japanese side pointed to "various estimates" such as 20,000 and 40,000 and up to 200,000.
The study was launched in 2006, when then prime minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Hu Jintao tried to mend ties that worsened under Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi whose visits to a Tokyo war shrine angered China....
Name of source: Honolulu advertiser
SOURCE: Honolulu advertiser (2-1-10)
The Flier, which departed Pearl Harbor in January 1944 for its first war patrol, had seen extensive action by the time it struck a mine and sank on Aug. 13, 1944.
Seventy-eight crewmen were lost when the submarine went down.
Fourteen crewmen escaped, but only eight survived the long swim to reach shore. After making their way by raft to Palawan and being protected for several weeks by local people and a guerrilla unit, the sailors were evacuated by the submarine USS Redfin.
The last surviving crewmember, Ens. Al Jacobson, devoted much of his life to finding the Flier. After his death in 2008, his family continued the search.
Using Jacobson's notes and research, YAP Films last year was able to locate wreckage of a submarine in the area where the Flier was lost.
YAP Films provided video footage to the Naval History and Heritage Command and it was confirmed that the wreckage was that of the Flier.
Name of source: SoMdNews.com
SOURCE: SoMdNews.com (1-27-10)
The county's cultural resource study of Benedict highlights the importance it played in both local and national history and recommends ways to ensure that the town receives recognition during the state's 200th anniversary celebration of the War of 1812.
Completed in the fall, the 234-page study will be used as Charles County's resource guide when preparing for Benedict's role in the bicentennial anniversary of the war, said Cathy Thompson, the county's community planning program manager. The study outlines historic events that occurred in the Colonial port town during the last 300 years, including the British land invasion in 1814 and the establishment of Camp Stanton, a Civil War recruitment camp for African-Americans.
The document — prepared by local historians Ralph E. Eshelman, Donald G. Shomette and G. Howard Post — also describes archaeological sites, architecture and landscapes that harbor evidence of Benedict's history, Thompson said, adding that the report contains several recommendations on how to preserve and promote the town's heritage. The recommendations will serve as the county's guide on how to develop plans for the anniversary of the war that will kick off in 2012 and offers suggestions on how to plan for future development in the town, she said....
Name of source: Coventry Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Coventry Telegraph (UK) (2-2-10)
Armed with just a torch I jump over fences, dodge barbed wire and wade through mud just to observe a part of the city’s heritage that will soon be levelled by developers.
I’m joined by a young man, probably in his early 20s, who I know very little about.
There’s a reason for that. This man – known to some by his online name “Dweeb” – is a leading member of a group of people known as urban explorers....
We walk through the site as Dweeb, obviously an incredibly passionate individual, tells me about the history.
And even though it’s half demolished, Torrington, a firm who used to make needles for the hosiery industry, is fascinating. We walk around the site which still shows signs of its bustling heritage....
"...I’ve never broken into a site in my life.”
I believe him. Dweeb, and his explorers, are more guerilla historians than criminals....
For all the death-defying reports posted online from cranes and empty tower blocks that are carried out, quite clearly, for the thrill, there are people out there like Dweeb who do it to highlight the death of industry in the UK and the death of the buildings that housed the industry.
These remarkable structures could be turned into apartments or offices and our heritage could be preserved.
But, more often than not, they get demolished and the places where our parents and grandparents toiled disappear.
And the only record of these buildings can be found online – posted by people filled with passion and a healthy dose of enthusiasm.
Name of source: Science Daily
SOURCE: Science Daily (2-2-10)
The results will be presented at the Roman Archeology Conference at Oxford, England, in March, and published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.
According to Tracy Prowse, assistant professor of Anthropology, and the lead author on the study, the isotopic evidence indicates that about 20% of the sample analyzed to-date was not born in the area around Vagnari. The mtDNA is another line of evidence that indicates at least one individual was of East Asian descent.
Based on her work in the region, she thinks the East Asian man, who lived sometime between the first to second centuries AD -- the early Roman Empire -- was a slave or worker on the site. His surviving grave goods consist of a single pot (which archaeologists used to date the burial). What's more, his burial was disturbed in antiquity and someone was buried on top of him.
Name of source: Telegraph (UK)
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (2-2-10)
Tete de Femme (Jacqueline), a 1963 portrait of the artist's second wife, had not been seen in public since 1967 and was expected to fetch £3 million to £4 million, Christie's said.
The portrait had never been offered at auction and had remained in the same collection since 1981.
It was the the most talked-about lot of a string of masterpieces by Picasso, Renoir and Matisse which went on sale on Tuesday.
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (2-1-10)
Infamous as Hitler's "Angel of Death", Mengele experimented on prisoners at the death camp without anaesthetic and became obsessed with twins, hoping to be able to clone perfect specimens of the Aryan race.
His diary's eclectic and often mundane contents include praise for British rule in India and his love of Boris Pasternak's novel Dr Zhivago. But he also makes chilling references to his wartime atoricities. Unless the world adopts the breeding programmes of the kind he pursued in Auschwitz, he wrote, "mankind is doomed".
"Inferior mornons," he wrote when describing "lesser races" he believed should be exterminated. He then moved seamlessly on to how pleased he is with himself for freeing a cow trapped in mud...
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (1-30-10)
But on a snow-capped hillside in northern France, a soldier who died in the carnage that was the Western Front during the First World War was finally laid to rest with full military honours.
His body, as yet unidentified, was the first of the 250 remains of soldiers that were found in mass graves at the site of the Battle of Fromelles, one of the most fiercely fought of the war. In all some 500 soldiers from the British 61st Division, along with 1,700 Australians, were mown down in a disastrous attack on a German-held salient just north of Fromelles village almost a century ago.
On Saturday, in a sombre but moving ceremony, the first of the unidentified soldiers - "known unto God", as their gravestones are customarily inscribed - was laid to rest in the newly built cemetery 440 yards from Pheasant Wood, the scene of the fiercest fighting.
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK) (2-1-10)
It is thought that sulphur produced by volcanoes erupting led to oxygen disappearing from large areas of the oceans.
This caused up to 27 per cent of ocean life being destroyed, according to a report published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
It is feared that a similar effect is being witnessed today as rising sea temperatures and fertilisers washing into the oceans cause oxygen levels to fall.
Scientists believe that during the Cretaceous period, a spate of volcanic activity caused plant life to bloom on the surface of the oceans.
As that plankton sank, it fed a secondary boom among the bacteria below, consuming much of the oxygen in deeper waters.
With dwindling oxygen levels, marine animals were unable to survive, wiping out large chunks of their population.
Previously, it has been held that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was the cause of the ocean being fertilised, as rising levels brought climatic changes, washing more nutrients into the sea.
However, the new study poses an alternative theory, that a build-up of sulphur in the half million years before the so-called Ocean Anoxic Event that occurred 94.5 million years ago was to blame.
Professor Matthew Hurtgen, one of the study’s authors, told The Times: “Sulphates help the ocean hang on to its phosphorous.
“Along with nitrogen and iron, phosphorous is a key limiting nutrient in the ocean. Without it phytoplankton cannot grow. But when massive volcanism delivered more, it changed the amount of phosphorous available, and drove these anoxic events.”
Name of source: CNN
SOURCE: CNN (2-2-10)
The bill would withhold funding from the Department of Justice to prosecute the five in civilian court, a plan that has recently been criticized.
President Obama believes the trial should take place in a criminal court instead of before a military commission, which is planned for some terrorism suspects, David Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, and White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said earlier this week.
SOURCE: CNN (2-2-10)
The regime is marking the anniversary of the shah's overthrow with a series of events that began this week and culminate on February 11. Moussavi and Mehdi Karrubi, another Iranian opposition leader, have urged supporters to demonstrate.
Those celebrations coincide with Iranian trials and executions of street protesters who demonstrate against the June 12 presidential election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the final results Ahmadinejad was declared the winner over Moussavi, a result seen by many Iranians as questionable or rigged.
SOURCE: CNN (2-2-10)
During last week's State of the Union address, President Obama made clear he wanted a change.
"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are," he said, to a healthy round of partisan applause.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff sat stone-faced as the president made the announcement and have been quiet on the matter since the State of the Union speech.
A senior Pentagon official told CNN the military leaders are expected to support the president, but also will tell him to what extent they think allowing gays to openly serve will hurt the morale and readiness of the force.
"All they want is a little bit of time" to come up with ideas on how to implement a change in the policy, if it's approved by Congress, the official said of the Joint Chiefs.
The policy, implemented by President Clinton in 1993, bars openly gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from serving in the U.S. military, and prevents the military from asking them about it.
In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll in April 2009, 48 percent of Americans favored maintaining the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. Thiry-seven percent opposed the policy because they believed it treated homosexuals too harshly, while another 8 percent opposed it because they believed it treated homosexuals too leniently.
Gates is expected to appear Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. As a first step, he is expected to call for no longer discharging people whose sexual orientation is revealed by others.
"'Don't ask, don't tell' to many people, including myself, seemed so reasonable," Alex Nicholson, a former Army intelligence officer discharged for being gay, told CNN's "American Morning."
"I knew I was gay going in, and I knew about 'don't ask, don't tell,' but you know, 'don't ask, don't tell' as a sound bite sounds very reasonable. It sounds like nobody will inquire as to your sexual orientation -- as long as you don't throw it in anyone's face, you won't have a problem.
"But after I got in, I realized that 'don't ask, don't tell' was much more all-inclusive and all-encompassing," said Nicholson, who now is the executive director of Servicemembers United, an advocacy group that opposes the policy. "It was more like 'don't ask, don't tell, don't happen to be found out any time, any place, in any way.' "
After about a year, Nicholson said his sexual orientation was found out within his unit. "That information spread, and then the command was forced into a corner in which they had to discharge me," he said.
Since the policy was implemented, more than 13,500 service members have been discharged, according to Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virginia. In 2009, there were 428 discharges under the policy -- the lowest rate of discharge since implementation of the policy, he said. The highest year was 2001, with 1,227 discharges, he said.
"This shows that during wartime, DADT is not being pursued aggressively because one's orientation has nothing to do with their ability to fight," Moran said in a written statement Monday.
Defense officials have said privately that the will to enforce the law is declining.
Another military official familiar with the discussion said some of the issues to be considered by the military include the cost of implementing a new policy, benefits for gay spouses, potential hate crimes, and even logistical questions such as the possible need to renovate barracks to separate straight and gay troops.
According to the official, separate housing or showers were not considered serious possibilities, but would be discussed in order to be ruled out.
Nicholson acknowledged there are legitimate concerns, but said some of the issues raised, such as showers and housing, are merely delaying tactics used to mask "reasons that people really don't want to see this happen."
Previously, Gates has said the transition from the existing law should be done gradually and "very, very carefully."
"The president has been clear about where he wants to go and what he thinks needs to be done," Gates said in April at the U.S. Army War College, when asked about changing the law. "But I think that he is approaching this in a deliberate and cautious manner, so that if we do go down that road, we do it right and we do it in a way that mitigates any downsides, problems that might be associated with it."
At least one member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps -- has expressed reservations about repealing the law.
"Our Marines are currently engaged in two fights, and our focus should not be drawn away from those priorities," Conway said in November through a spokesman.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, a former Navy pilot, released a statement after the State of the Union address, saying "it would be a mistake" for the policy to be repealed.
"This successful policy has been in effect for over 15 years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels," McCain said.
But others support the change. Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said it was time to repeal the law.
"As a nation built on the principal of equality, we should recognize and welcome change that will build a stronger, more cohesive military," Shalikashvili wrote in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who supports repealing the policy.
Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute said the real test will be in the barracks, with the rank-and-file members of the military.
"We can talk about this delicately or we can just be fairly direct," O'Hanlon said. "There are a lot of 18-year-old, old-fashioned, testosterone-laden men in the military who are tough guys. They're often politically old-fashioned or conservative; they are not necessarily at the vanguard, in many cases, of accepting alternative forms of lifestyle."
Nicholson predicted the matter will become a "non-issue," saying his organization knows of gays serving openly in the military now.
Asked whether he would return to the military if the policy is repealed, Nicholson said he would not hesitate and that he has wanted to return since his discharge in 2002.
"I speak five languages, including Arabic," he said. "There's nothing more that I'd love than to go back right now."
SOURCE: CNN (2-1-10)
The store had no qualms selling toothpaste or light bulbs to blacks, but a cup of coffee at the lunch counter? Out of the question. The Greensboro Four, as they came to be known, were fed up.
McCain, Joseph McNeil, Ezell Blair Jr. and David Richmond were refused service February 1, 1960, but they sat their ground.
The Greensboro Four's act of civil defiance will be commemorated Monday with the grand opening of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro. Three members of the Greensboro Four will attend the ceremony without their companion Richmond, who died in 1990 at age 49.
Related Links
SOURCE: CNN (1-31-10)
Last week, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other politicians expressed concern over the costs and disruption of holding the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accomplices at a New York City courthouse.
David Axelrod, the senior adviser to President Obama, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that Obama believes the trial should take place in a criminal court instead of before a military commission, as permitted for some terrorism suspects.
SOURCE: CNN (2-1-10)
Instead of giving alleged terrorists civilian trials in federal court, McConnell said the administration should use the system of military commissions set up by Congress “for the specific purpose of trying foreigners captured on the battlefield.”
Asked whether he was ready to deny the White House the funding necessary to close the Guantanamo Bay facility and move detainees held there to a location somewhere in the United States, McConnell responded, “Absolutely.” He predicted that there would be bipartisan support in Congress for withholding the funding.
SOURCE: CNN (2-1-10)
Buckles is expected to deliver remarks during a quiet celebration Monday afternoon at his home in Charles Town, West Virginia.
But the old "Doughboy" -- as World War I American infantry troops were called -- has already been outspoken in recent years, urging congressional lawmakers to give federal recognition and a facelift to a run-down District of Columbia memorial in an overgrown, wooded area along the National Mall....
Name of source: Medieval News
SOURCE: Medieval News (2-2-10)
The venture is the second time sugar has come to the rescue of curators, echoing a method known as sucrose impregnation which was used by the Waterfront Museum in Dorset to conserve an Iron Age boat found in Poole in 1985....
The bridge sections are thought to have been part of The King's Highway, a major national route linking London and the South with Derby and the North. They have gone on show at local science hub the Snibston Discovery Museum, where they had been kept in drying chambers for three years in the final part of the project....
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (1-29-10)
Torrential rains caused mudslides and swelled the Urubamba River on Sunday, stripping away long sections of the railway that is the only transportation in and out of the area around the Inca citadel. The road to the ruins from this village at the end of the train line also washed away.
Thousands of tourists were stranded, hotels overflowed and travelers grew frustrated as weather hampered evacuation helicopters, shopkeepers jumped prices and food and water ran short. Many visitors had to eat from communal pots and bed down in train cars, outdoors or wherever they could find space.
After a helicopter flew out the final group at 5:15 p.m., the streets of this village of 4,000 people were empty and forlorn. Gone were football games, and restaurant owners were turning down stragglers who sought to buy food.
Most villagers were packing up to head back to the nearby city of Cuzco, faced with a shutdown of Machu Picchu that some Peruvian officials said could stretch to two months — a big blow for a local economy dependent on tourism.
"There are no travelers here now and we have nothing to do. Everyone is leaving because there's no work. Without tourism there's no reason to be here," said Jadira Mendez, 29, a maid who had just been laid off at the Pirwa Hostel.
She plans to look for work in Cuzco — the ancient capital of the Inca empire — once helicopters return to ferry out village residents who want to leave.
Cuzco Gov. Hugo Gonzales told The Associated Press that floods and mudslides destroyed 4,689 houses and 39,909 acres of crops and damaged nine bridges in the region.
The roiling Urubamba River, which runs through a narrow gorge past Machu Picchu Pueblo, flowed at its highest rate ever registered — 1,100 cubic meters (30,000 cubic feet) a second, compared to the previous high of 850 cubic meters (23,000 cubic feet) a second, according to rail operator Perurail.
Before the full extent of damage had become clear, Perurail had said only that slides covered the tracks with mud and rock Sunday and train service could resume by Tuesday. The company soon discovered the river stripped away entire sections of rail and the shore below it.
Perurail said in a statement late Thursday that it will take at least eight weeks to complete repairs. The company did not estimate the cost.
Juan Garcia, director of the regional National Culture Institute, which administers the Machu Picchu park, told the AP that the site will stay closed until train service resumes. But he added that officials will consider opening the park to travelers who hike in after the first rail section is repaired in three weeks.
Garcia said the citadel itself was not damaged by rains.
Tourism Minister Martin Perez told the AP that officials had not yet calculated potential losses from the shutdown of the park. In 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available, 858,211 tourists visited the citadel, where foreigners pay $43 just to enter.
Hundreds of hotel reservations have been canceled, according to Peru's National Chamber of Tourism, costing the country some $500,000 a day.
"It's going to be rough, because our hotel targets high-end tourists, not backpackers," said Gustavo De Leon, manager of Machu Picchu's Sanctuary Lodge. Visitors who ride the swank Hiram Bingham train all the way to Machu Picchu Pueblo from Cuzco pay $965 a night at the lodge for a room with a view of the citadel.
Authorities were also forced to close the Inca trail, a popular four-day hiking route that ends in Machu Picchu, a week early after mudslides killed two people Tuesday. The trail is closed in February each year for maintenance during the rainy season.
Bad weather held down rescue flights the first several days, leaving hordes of tourists crowded in the village. But skies cleared Thursday and helicopters began whisking away the stranded travelers in a steady stream, taking the oldest and youngest first.
On Friday, backpackers and other tourists lined up outside the train station before 7 a.m. to board helicopters that descended like clockwork from a clear, sunny sky all morning.
By late afternoon, choppers were racing against darkening skies to complete the task, taking the last foreigner out at 5:15 p.m., said police Col. Santiago Vizcarra, who coordinated the evacuation. Peru flew out 1,460 foreign tourists Friday, bringing the total for the week to 4,005 foreigners and Peruvians.
Sofie Mag, a 19-year-old from Frederiksberg, Denmark, was one of 200 people who hiked down to the village Friday from the Sanctuary Lodge, next to the ruins and a 45-minute bus ride until the road was washed out.
She said a manager had let her and other tourists sleep on the floor of the lodge's restaurant.
"It was free and we got food also," Mag said. "We were very lucky to be up there."
SOURCE: AP (1-29-10)
Torrential rains caused mudslides and swelled the Urubamba River on Sunday, stripping away long sections of the railway that is the only transportation in and out of the area around the Inca citadel. The road to the ruins from this village at the end of the train line also washed away.
Juan Garcia, director of the regional National Culture Institute, which administers the Machu Picchu park, told the AP that the site will stay closed until train service resumes. But he added that officials will consider opening the park to travelers who hike in after the first rail section is repaired in three weeks.
SOURCE: AP (2-1-10)
Neanderthal artifacts have been unearthed in Poland before. But the teeth are the first bodily Neanderthal remains found in the country, according to Mikolaj Urbanowski, an archaeologist with Szczecin University and the project's lead researcher.
Urbanowski said the teeth were unearthed in the Stajna Cave, north of the Carpathian Mountains, along with flint tools and the bones of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, both extinct Ice Age species.
Name of source: National Geographic
SOURCE: National Geographic (1-28-10)
The discovery of the complex, excavated near the city of Chiclayo (map) between 2006 and late 2009, has injected a dose of reality into the legend of Naylamp, the god who supposedly founded the pre-Inca Lambayeque civilization in the eighth century A.D., following the collapse of the Moche civilization.
That's because evidence at the Chotuna-Chornancap archaeological site indicates the temple complex may have belonged to people claiming to have descended from Naylamp—suggesting for the first time that these supposed descendants existed in the flesh.
The sophisticated Lambayeque culture, also known as the Sicán, were best known as skilled irrigation engineers until being conquered in A.D. 1375 by the Chimú, a civilization also based along Peru's arid northern coast.
Archaeologists have been "trying to decode the legend's mystery" for a century, said dig leader Carlos Wester La Torre, director of the Brüning National Archaeological Museum in Lambayeque. "The goal was to understand the possible relations between the oral legend and archaeological evidence."
Within the newfound temple complex is a pyramid-shaped tomb, called Huaca Norte, which was filled with the skeletons of 33 women.
(Related: "Mummy of Tattooed Woman Discovered in Peru Pyramid.")
Two skeletons still have their original hair and some (top row) are mummified. All of them show cut marks, meaning they were likely tortured as part of human-sacrifice rituals.
"Women are traditionally associated with fertility," La Torre said. "They are offered in religious ceremonies in return for more fertility [and other beneficial events]—like rain, for instance."
Name of source: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News (2-2-10)
A court official in the southern city of Krakow said the warrant had been issued for Anders Hogstrom.
The metal sign was stolen in December from above the entrance to the notorious Nazi death camp. It was later recovered, cut into three pieces.
Five Polish men have already been arrested over the theft.
The European arrest warrant obliges any of the 27 EU member states to arrest Mr Hogstrom if he is found and hand him over to Polish police.
The sign, which weighs 40kg (90lb), was half-unscrewed, half-torn from above the death camp's gate.
The 5m (16ft) wrought iron sign - the words on which translate as "Work sets you free" - symbolises for many the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
The theft caused outrage in Israel, Poland and around the world. More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in occupied Poland during World War II.
SOURCE: BBC News (2-2-10)
The jet took off in flames from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and crashed minutes later, killing 113 people.
The presiding judge began the proceedings by reading out the names of all those who died.
An official report said Concorde had hit a metal strip from a Continental plane that had taken off earlier.
But Continental's lawyers say they can prove the supersonic jet caught fire before it struck the titanium strip.
"I am here to prove that Continental Airlines is not responsible," the airline's lawyer Olivier Metzner said as he arrived at the courtroom in Pontoise, west of Paris.
The stricken Concorde flight 4590 crashed in the town of Gonesse in July 2000, hitting a hotel and killing four people there as well as all 109 on board.
Most of the passengers were German tourists heading to New York to join a luxury cruise to the Caribbean. Nine French crew members also died.
The entire fleet of Concordes was grounded until an inquiry established that one of the plane's tyres had burst, causing rubber debris to shoot out and rupture a fuel tank.
Leaking kerosene then ignited and caused the catastrophe.
After nearly a year and a half out of service, in November 2001, the jets took to the air once more with new reinforced fuel tanks, but inquiries continued.
In December 2004, a judicial investigation concluded that a piece of metal left on the runway by another aircraft had caused one of Concorde's tyres to burst and shred.
Investigators said the 43cm (17in) metal strip had fallen from the engine casing of a Continental Airlines DC-10 and in March 2008 a French public prosecutor asked judges to bring manslaughter charges.
Houston-based Continental Airlines is denying responsibility.
Mr Metzner said he would challenge the official view that the metal strip led to the crash.
"We are going to fight it and establish that the Concorde caught fire eight seconds before this scrap of metal met with the Concorde - so about 700m (2,300ft) before," he said.
This is denied by Air France, which is not facing charges.
As well as Continental, five individuals are being prosecuted.
They include John Taylor, the Continental mechanic who allegedly fitted the metal strip to the DC-10, and Stanley Ford, a maintenance official from the airline.
Also facing charges are Concorde's former chief engineer Jacques Herubel, and Henri Perrier, a former head of the Concorde division at Aerospatiale - now part of the aerospace company EADS.
Claude Frantzen, a former member of France's civil aviation watchdog, is the fifth individual defendant.
Manslaughter charges can carry penalties of up to five years in prison and a 75,000-euro ($104,000) fine - but correspondents say that in the case of guilty verdicts, suspended prison sentences are more likely in this case.
Only some of the victims' families will be represented at the hearings, as most took compensation from Air France after the crash in return for not taking legal action.
Stephane Gicquel of Fenvac, a French federation representing the interests of the families of crew members, said relatives would watch the trial with great interest.
"This tragedy is part of their personal history and of their family history," Mr Gicquel told the BBC.
The trial is expected to last four months.
The disaster was the only crash ever to involve a Concorde supersonic airliner.
Air France and British Airways retired their Concorde fleets in 2003.
Name of source: Washington Post
SOURCE: Washington Post (2-1-10)
School administrators said they would convene a committee this spring to review the book, in accordance with the school's policy of handling complaints about instructional materials. The earlier decision to exclude the book from classroom lessons had not followed the school system's policy.
"The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition," which was published on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, includes passages previously excluded from the widely read original edition, first published in Dutch in 1947. The diary describes the daily life of a Jewish girl who lived in hiding with her family in Amsterdam during World War II. Some passages in the newer version detail Frank's emerging sexual desires; others include unflattering descriptions of her mother and other people living together.
SOURCE: Washington Post (1-29-10)
"The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition," which was published on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, will not be used in the future, said James Allen, director of instruction for the 7,600-student system. The school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints about instructional materials, Allen said.
The diary documents the daily life of a Jewish girl in Amsterdam during World War II. Frank started writing on her 13th birthday, shortly before her family went into hiding in an annex of an office building. The version of the diary in question includes passages previously excluded from the widely read original edition, first published in Dutch in 1947. That book was arranged by her father, the only survivor in her immediate family. Some of the extra passages detail her emerging sexual desires; others include unflattering descriptions of her mother and other people living together.
Allen said that the more recent version will remain in the school library and that the earlier version will be used in classes. The 1955 play based on Frank's experiences also has been a part of the eighth-grade curriculum for many years. The diary's "universal theme, that there is good in everyone, resonates with these kids," Allen said.
The decision was made in November and published in the Culpeper Star Exponent on Thursday.
Culpeper's policy on "public complaints about learning resources" calls for complaints to be submitted in writing and for a review committee to research the materials and deliberate, Allen said. In this case, the policy was not followed. Allen said the parent registered the complaint orally, no review committee was created and a decision was made quickly by at least one school administrator. He said he is uncertain about the details because he was out of town.
"The person came in, and the decision was made that day . . . and that's fine. We would like to have had it in writing. It just did not happen," Allen said.
Hasty decisions to restrict access to some books do "a disservice to students," said Angela Maycock, assistant director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association.
"Something that one individual finds controversial or offensive or objectionable may be really valuable to other learners in that community," she said.
The ALA has documented only six challenges to "The Diary of Anne Frank" since it began monitoring formal written complaints to remove or restrict books in 1990. Most of the concerns were about sexually explicit material, Maycock said. One record dating to 1983 from an Alabama textbook committee said the book was "a real downer" and called for its rejection from schools.
Name of source: MSNBC
SOURCE: MSNBC (2-1-10)
The two instances of domestication appear to have been separate, based on DNA analysis of ancient turkey remains. However, the different Native American groups could have been in contact with each other, sharing turkey-raising tips.
While turkeys today conjure up thoughts of bountiful roast meat meals and deli sandwiches, Native Americans were not driven by their dinner needs, according to the study, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Interestingly, the domestic turkeys were initially raised for their feathers, which were used in rituals and ceremonies, as well as to make feather robes or blankets," lead author Camilla Speller told Discovery News. "Only later, around 1100 A.D., did the domestic turkeys become an important food source for the Ancestral Puebloans."
Speller's colleague, Dongya Yang, said the new study came together when two groups joined forces. Their group was busy studying ancient turkey bones, while another research team from Washington State University was analyzing early turkey coprolites, i.e. fossilized dung from the birds.
Name of source: Discovery News
SOURCE: Discovery News (2-1-10)
Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has announced on Sunday he would hold a press conference on Feb. 17 to reveal the results of DNA tests on the world's most famous pharaoh.
The long awaited announcement will be "about the secrets of the family and the affiliation of Tutankhamun, based on the results of the scientific examination of the Tutankhamun mummy following DNA analysis," Hawass said in a statement.
King Tut's DNA results will be most likely compared to those made of King Amenhotep III, who may have been Tutankamen's grandfather.
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (2-1-10)
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the head of the armed forces, said defence chiefs "simply didn't have enough time" to source everything they wanted.
It would have made a "significant difference" if the military had been given six months, rather than four.
A shortage of body armour was blamed for one of the first UK deaths in Iraq.
SOURCE: BBC (1-29-10)
Boots, purses, toothbrushes and other personal artefacts lay amongst the twisted skeletons at Pheasant Wood, offering partial clues about the men's identities.
But it is the unique genetic codes within these remains that offer the best chance of putting names to each unknown soldier.
So far, more than 800 UK families who think they may have lost a relative at Fromelles have given DNA samples, but many will be disappointed.
The man whose job it is to help identify the soldiers says it is like finding a needle in a haystack, albeit with a very good metal detector.
SOURCE: BBC (2-1-10)
The influence of the 1939-45 war on the development of computers is well known. That conflict spurred the creation of pioneering machines such as Colossus at Bletchley Park and Eniac in the US.
Also, many of the engineers who contributed to wartime inventions such as radar went on to develop other influential machines at Cambridge and Manchester, and at companies such as Elliott and Ferranti.
Research by computer historian Simon Lavington has shown that efforts to produce special purpose code-cracking machines, such as Colossus, did not stop when hostilities were over.
SOURCE: BBC (2-1-10)
This is all Maurice Sangan remembers of the German prisoner who traded him a hand-carved wooden pipe for tobacco.
He got in touch with BBC Guernsey when he heard the A History of the World project was looking for your objects....
Maurice still has the pipe to this day - having only smoked it once.
"Well I didn't want to damage it - didn't want to wear it out, because its quite a fragile thing... I thought it was a lovely thing."
Maurice said the pipe had travelled all over the world with him wherever he lived, or was stationed in the Royal Air Force.
For the young Maurice, who collected pipes at the time, the object was a welcome acquisition.
He said he had never seen anything like it since.
Name of source: CNS News
SOURCE: CNS News (2-1-10)
On Saturday another 16 Iranians went on trial. They were arrested during the last round of protests, in late December, when hundreds of people were arrested and at least eight killed.
The semi-official Press TV news channel said that the 16 were working in the interests of the United States and other countries “seeking regime change.” The ISNA news service said five of the accused face charges of “mohareb,” a capital offense translated as “enmity with Allah.”...
The executed men were accused of plotting to topple the Islamic regime. Iran’s judiciary chief, Ayatollah Sadiq Amoli Larijani, said on Sunday they were “moharebs” and had been fairly judged on the basis of shari’a.
Tehran is responding to the challenge both by stepping up intimidatory warnings and, evidently, by trying to divert attention away by planning a major announcement on the anniversary....
Pro-government lawmakers also weighed in Sunday, urging “prominent figures” –opposition leaders – to use the anniversary as an opportunity to renew their allegiance to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“We advise the prominent figures who fanned the flames of dispute to make good on their mistakes and remain committed to rule of law,” and to take a stand against the conspiracies of the “enemies,” said a statement signed by more than 200 of the 290 members of parliament.
Name of source: The Northern Echo (UK)
SOURCE: The Northern Echo (UK) (2-1-10)
A fragment of the carpet from Hitler’s bunker has been found in the archives of the Green Howards Regimental Museum, in Richmond, North Yorkshire. As part of the regular cycle of refurbishment at the museum, the rooms where the archives are stored have been emptied.
And one of the items to turn up as staff moved cabinets and boxes was an envelope containing a small piece cut from the bunker carpet.
While Hollywood usually portrays the bunker as an austere military-style building, with thick grey walls and minimum comfort, the fragment proves the interior was anything but drab.
It showed that even Hitler liked his home comforts – the carpet carries a floral pattern with yellow flowers and blue leaves on a fawn background.
Museum director Lynda Powell said: “This was one of the unexpected finds as we moved items for the redecoration in the archive.
“We don’t know exactly which Green Howard ‘liberated’ it from Berlin in 1945, but it is likely to have been a member of the 1st Battalion, which was in the city in 1945.”
She added: “We were given it in 1985 by a lady who had worked for the Women’s Voluntary Service.
“We were surprised at how domestic the carpet’s pattern is – certainly a contrast to the images we have of the bunker.”
The fragment from Hitler’s carpet will be on display in the museum, in the centre of Richmond, when it reopens for the new season today.
The museum will then be open from 10am to 4.30pm, Monday to Saturday each week, until December 1. It is closed on Sundays.
Name of source: Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA)
SOURCE: Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA) (2-1-10)
For Petty, black history is an integral part of his life, and he's lived to tell about some of it.
"It's not Black History Month; it's American history that was left out of the history books," Petty likes to say....
Petty helped write Yolo County's Affirmative Action Plan when the Conciolo brought a discrimination complaint against the county for not hiring enough Latino
teachers.
Petty's father also fought for equality, he filed a discrimination case in North Carolina when he was refused voting rights in 1936, and won the case.
These and many other stories of great accomplishments by blacks and other minorities are why Petty believes the Black History Month is important.
"Our black children don't know a darn thing about the accomplishments that the black race has made," Petty said.
