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: AP
February 18, 2010
An exhibit opened in Russia on Thursday on the life of an American veteran believed to be one the few soldiers to fight for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union in World War II.
The Russian Museum exhibit, titled "Joseph R. Beyrle — A Hero of Two Nations," presents 260 artifacts from Beyrle's life and military career, including a collection of his medals, uniform and photographs.
His son, U.S. ambassador to Russia John Beyrle, attended the exhibit opening and sa
Source: Guardian (UK)
February 22, 2010
"Photo Evidence: Michelle Obama Keeps Socialist Books In The White House Library," blared the headline on conservative radio host Rob Port's blog following a tour of the presidential residence last week, after he spotted books including The American Socialist Movement 1897-1912 and The Social Basis of American Communism on the library's shelves.
Port ignited a storm, quickly drawing almost 300 comments to his post on the popular political blog SayAnythingBlog.com, and a ra
Source: Newsweek
February 19, 2010
A temple complex in Turkey that predates even the pyramids is rewriting the story of human evolution.
Göbekli Tepe—the name in Turkish for "potbelly hill"—lays art and religion squarely at the start of that journey. After a dozen years of patient work, Schmidt has uncovered what he thinks is definitive proof that a huge ceremonial site flourished here, a "Rome of the Ice Age," as he puts it, where hunter-gatherers met to build a complex religious community. Acros
Source: Fox News
February 22, 2010
This political season feels a "little bit" like 1994, former President Bill Clinton said Monday, comparing President Obama'a struggle to pass health care reforms to his own. But the former president declined to describe the Democratic Congress' efforts this past year as an "overreach."
Speaking to Fox News in an exclusive interview, Clinton said he didn't think Democrats will lose control Congress this year, as they did after his failed effort to create a nationa
Source: Guardian (UK)
February 23, 2010
Abbey Road, the London recording studios immortalised by the Beatles album, has become part of the nation's treasury of listed buildings, included at Grade II today by the government on the advice of English Heritage.
The news was announced by Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, who said: "Some of the most defining sounds of the 20th century were created within the walls of the Abbey Road studios. English Heritage has long recognised the cultural importance of A
Source: Bernama
February 23, 2010
Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India have revealed how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago, according to Press Trust of India (PTI) on Tuesday.
The international and multidisciplinary research team, led by Oxford University in collaboration with Indian institutions, has uncovered what it calls 'Pompeii-like excavations' beneath the Toba ash.
The seven-year project examines the environment tha
Source: CNN
February 23, 2010
Former Vice President Dick Cheney suffered a mild heart attack Monday when he complained of chest pains and was hospitalized, his office said Tuesday.
During the catheterization, which took place at George Washington University Hospital, doctors examined blood flow to the heart and tested how well the heart was pumping.
In the procedure, a doctor inserts a catheter, a thin plastic tube, into an artery or vein in the arm or leg and threads it into the chambers of the hea
Source: Mail on Sunday (UK)
February 21, 2010
The oldest Canadian veteran of World War I has died at the age of 109.
The death of John Babcock leaves only two Great War veterans still alive: Britishborn Australian Claude Choules, who is 108, and American Frank Buckles, 109.
Mr Babcock was among 650,000 men and women who served in the Canadian forces during WWI.
The last remaining soldier to serve in the British Army was Harry Patch, who died in July at age 111.
Source: BBC
February 23, 2010
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has signed a framework ceasefire deal with one of Darfur's main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem).
The power-sharing agreement in Qatar is seen as an important step towards peace, though the other main rebel group has refused to enter talks.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) last year issued a warrant for Mr Bashir's arrest for war crimes in Darfur.
But Qatar has not signed the ICC charter, which
Source: BBC
February 23, 2010
London's Abbey Road studios, where The Beatles recorded many albums, has been made a listed building, protecting it from plans to radically alter it.
The venue has been given Grade II status - the second-highest category - for its role in shaping British music.
Culture Minister Margaret Hodge listed the studios on the advice of English Heritage saying it had "produced some of the very best music in the world".
Source: Times Online (UK)
February 24, 2010
The exhibition, Turner and the Masters, which arrives in Paris after its inauguration at Tate Britain last autumn and before moving on to Madrid this summer, has sparked unprecedented fervour for the English landscape painter.
The French press has devoted pages to the “precursor of modernity”. At least four biographies of Turner have been published to coincide with the exhibition and the television channel Arte is to screen a documentary on him next week.
The French U
Source: AP
February 22, 2010
Colonel Reb shall not rise again. That much is certain.
The University of Mississippi dumped the mascot — a caricature of a white plantation owner — in a 2003 effort to distance the school from Old South stereotypes. It's been without a mascot ever since. A vote Tuesday could change that.
Students will have only two choices in the online referendum: yes, replace the colonel with something else — perhaps a riverboat gambler or a colonial soldier — or no, remain the only
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 23, 2010
The world’s most expensive military cemetery, a £22.6 billion centre dubbed “The Boneyard”, has been pictured in a spectacular series of new high-resolution Google Earth satellite images.
The 2,600 acre facility, officially known Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, is home to thousands of outdated aeroplanes and helicopters mothballed by the United States Air Force and other allied forces.
The 60 year-old facility, the size of 1,300 football pitches and sprawled across the de
Source: Medieval News
February 20, 2010
English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) announced this week more than £15.7 million to support urgent repair work to 154 churches across England, including many dating back to the Middle Ages. The grants were awarded under the organisations’ joint Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme.
Nationally, since 2002, £123 million of grants have been awarded for more than 1,300 Ghistoric places of worship through the partnership scheme, which is the largest single source of
Source: Medieval News
February 23, 2010
The British Museum is hosting temporary exhibition of medieval artefacts from the collection of the Yorkshire Museum in York.
The Yorkshire Museum is closed for a £2m refurbishment. The exhibition marks the first time a regional museum has been invited to show its collections at the British Museum.
Jonathan Williams of the British Museum says, "It’s mutually beneficial. It’s a great opportunity to show things we don’t have and show to an international audience.”
Source: CuttingEdgeNews
February 22, 2010
Professor Eske Willerslev and his PhD student Morten Rasmussen, from Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics, The Natural History Museum at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, led the international team of scientists responsible for the findings. Willerslev and his team grabbed international attention last year when they reconstructed the complete mitochondrial genomes of a woolly mammoth and an ancient human.
However, the current discovery is the first time scientists have been able
Source: NYT
February 21, 2010
Probably few of the millions slumping in front of the flat-screen this week, skipping the gym to watch their bodily betters perform hair-raising feats of athletic prowess in the Vancouver slush, are aware that in the first half of the 20th century, the modern Olympics also included arts competitions.
The dream of uniting sport and art, as they were once paired in the original Greek Olympiads, was in fact central to the mission of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the godfather of the Games
Source: NYT
February 22, 2010
At a closed briefing in 2003, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee raised no objection to a C.I.A. plan to destroy videotapes of brutal interrogations, according to secret documents released Monday.
The senator, Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, also rejected a proposal to have his committee conduct its own assessment of the agency’s harsh interrogation methods, which included wall-slamming and waterboarding, the documents say.
But Mr. Roberts, through a s
Source: Independent (UK)
February 23, 2010
Furious Palestinians have clashed with Israeli soldiers and accused Israel of "cultural genocide" after the country's government claimed a sacred tomb in the occupied West Bank as a national heritage site.
The burial site of the biblical patriarch Abraham, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims, is located in Hebron, which was yesterday shut down by a general strike in protest at the move as Israeli troops clashed with local youths. One soldier was reported lightly wou
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 23, 2010
In a statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday, the Prime Minister will say sorry to the estimated 150,000 children aged between three and 14 who were sent overseas, mainly to Australia and Canada, in a programme that began in the 1920s and did not stop until 1967.
Many were abused in foster homes, state-run orphanages and religious institutions.
Mr Brown announced he would apologise in November, saying the "time is now right".
