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: Daily Mail (UK)
February 10, 2010
A tsunami of smoke, dust and debris roars down the streets of New York City as the World Trade Centre towers collapse.
These dramatic images were taken by police photographers in helicopters and it is the first time they have been seen, having been released under a Freedom of Information request made by America's ABC News.
Burning buildings can be seen crumpling in on themselves as plumes of smoke rise up over the New York skyline that terrible September morning.
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
February 2, 2010
[For a full report of individual agencies and departments, go to the historycoalition.org.
On February 1, President Obama asked Congress for $161.3 million to fund the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for FY 2011, a $6.2 million cut from the FY 10 appropriated level of $167.5 million.
The President’s request includes $80,250,000 to enable the Endowment to fund grants in the study, preservation, public programming, an
Source: Global Arab Network
January 30, 2010
The archaeological discoveries of the excavation expeditions working at 17 archaeological sites in Aleppo city (north Syria) contribute to highlighting Aleppo's role in the human civilization during various eras.
Chairman of the Ruins Excavation Section in Aleppo Ruins and Museums Department Youssef Kanjo pointed out that the Syrian-Japanese joint expedition working in Didarieh Cave, northern Aleppo, unearthed lots of stony tools dating back to the Yabroudi civilization.
Source: Discovery News
February 9, 2010
A new fossil skull of a bull confirms that beef has been "what's for dinner" since the dawn of humans.
The discovery of a new "missing link" species of bull dating to a million years ago in Eritrea pushes back the beef steak dinner to the very dawn of humans and cattle.
Although there is no evidence that early humans were actually herding early cattle 2.5 million years ago, the early humans and early cattle certainly shared the same landscape and b
Source: http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2010/02/7th-century-village-discovered-near.html
February 7, 2010
A 7th century village has been unearthed in the eastern Saudi Arabia near the Persian Gulf, according to the country's Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.
Researchers say the village has been dated to the early Muslim era. “From the materials that we have discovered at the site, such as ceramic pottery and other artifacts, it is quite easy to ascertain the period to which they belong,” said Dr. Ali I. Al-Ghabban, deputy secretary-general for antiquities and museums.
Source: BBC
February 9, 2010
Two boats that were used by the Allied forces in World War II have been saved from the scrapyard or sale abroad and will go on display in Portsmouth.
One of the vessels, a Royal Navy MGB81 motorboat, was used at the D-Day landings and is thought to be Britain's last surviving WWII gunboat.
The other one is an RAF rescue boat, high-speed launch 102.
Both have been restored by enthusiasts and bought with money from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and do
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 9, 2010
Falklands veteran Simon Weston believes that the only similarity between the battle he was involved in 28 years ago and the one raging in Afghanistan today is the number of those who have now died in each.
Weston, who was left badly scarred by burns when the ship he was serving on was bombed by Argentine forces in 1982, said he and his comrades had at least faced a conventional enemy fighting the same way that they were.
By contrast, he said, those serving in Afghanis
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 9, 2010
The ''War on Terror'' is likely to last as long as the Cold War, a senior Government security official has warned.
Charles Farr, the head of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, said that while the names of terror groups threatening the UK were likely to change, the threat itself would continue for decades.
Within ten years al-Qaeda could have been replaced by a different group with a similar ideology, he said.
His comments came in private evid
Source: AP
February 9, 2010
The man who took hostages at a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign office in 2007 cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet Tuesday, then fled, and he is considered dangerous, authorities said.
Leeland Eisenberg cut off his monitor just after 10 a.m., one day after being given a "last chance" at freedom by a judge who released him despite multiple probation violations, Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi said.
Velardi cautioned the public not to
Source: CNN
February 9, 2010
A political mystery of sorts in Minnesota may have been solved.
A billboard popped up north of Minneapolis on I-35 featuring former President George W. Bush's image next to the words "Miss Me Yet?" last December. But until Tuesday it wasn't known who paid for it.
While the identities of the sign owners are still unclear, the general manager of the advertising company who owns the billboard space told Minnesota Public Radio it was financed by "a group of s
Source: BBC
February 8, 2010
Mr Blix told the BBC he was "puzzled" by some of the evidence that Mr Straw gave to the panel.
He said that Mr Straw had been incorrect to suggest, in 2002, that UN weapons inspectors were not being allowed access to certain sites.
Mr Straw is due to be interviewed by the inquiry again later on Monday.
"I'm puzzled by some of the things Jack Straw said," Mr Blix told BBC World's Hardtalk programme.
Source: CNN
February 5, 2010
Social networking may be one of the biggest phenomenons of the 21st century, but for some denizens of the Web, it's a way to get in touch with the past.
Web sites like livinghistoryworldwide.com (with a membership of more than 5,700) and groups on Facebook allow people who enjoy past eras to connect with each other. But it goes beyond that: Some of them dress and live like they would decades, if not centuries, ago.
Step into Estelle Barada's living room in Providence,
Source: Times (UK)
February 8, 2010
Iran has severed all cultural ties with the British Museum over the institution’s failure to hand over an ancient Persian treasure.
At the centre of the diplomatic row is a 2,500-year-old cuneiform tablet, known as the Cyrus Cylinder, which most historians regard as the world’s first declaration of human rights.
Curators had been due to lend the artefact to Tehran last month, but announced that the handover would be delayed after the discovery of new tablets that they b
Source: China Daily
February 9, 2010
More than 700 km of ancient Great Wall has been discovered in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, as a result of the third national survey on cultural relics started in April, 2007 and will end in December, 2011.
"We found 15 sections with a total length of 26 km of ancient wall and three beacons built in Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 24) in our county recently during the nationwide survey," said Liang Shilin, deputy director of the culture bureau and director of the Museum in
Source: NYT
February 8, 2010
They were Tokyo’s worst-kept diplomatic secrets: clandestine cold war era agreements with Washington that obligated Japan to shoulder the costs of United States bases and allow nuclear-armed American ships to sail into Japanese ports.
For decades, Japanese leaders have gone to great lengths to deny the pacts’ existence, despite mounting proof to the contrary from the testimony of former diplomats and declassified documents in the United States. The most sensational instance came in
Source: AP
February 8, 2010
The New Orleans Saints' victory over Indianapolis in the Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in U.S. television history, the Nielsen Co. said Monday.
Compelling story lines involving the city of New Orleans and its ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the attempt at a second Super Bowl ring for Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning propelled the viewership. Football rat
Source: New York Times
February 4, 2010
WHAT is it about New Jersey and buried bodies? While it’s nothing new for mobster corpses to turn up in the Meadowlands, a far more curious set of remains has surfaced here, an hour west of New York City: a car buried in Oklahoma in 1957, dug up there in 2007 and then shipped to — where else? — New Jersey for cosmetic restoration.
The car, a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere, was buried in Tulsa as a vehicular time capsule to commemorate Oklahoma’s 50th birthday. The car was put into the ear
Source: BBC
February 8, 2010
The first Darfur war crimes suspect to face international judges has had the charges against him dropped.
Rebel leader Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, who gave himself up last year, had been accused of planning the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in 2007.
But International Criminal Court (ICC) judges ruled that there was not enough evidence to support a trial.
Last week, the ICC said charges of genocide against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir could be r
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 8, 2010
Archeologists have discovered the 2,000-year-old skeleton of an Asian man in an ancient cemetery in Italy, suggesting that the Roman Empire's reach was far more extensive than previously thought.
Although the Romans are known to have traded for silk and exotic spices with China, it was thought that most of the commerce was conducted through intermediaries along the Silk Route and that no Chinese or other Asians entered the empire itself.
But that orthodoxy will now hav
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 8, 2010
That is the bizarre fate of Centralia, where a vast, subterranean coal fire ignited in an accident almost 50 years ago, gradually turning the settlement, about two hours drive from Philadelphia, into a ghost town.
Of the original population of around 1,000, fewer than a dozen people remain, refusing to obey government orders to leave their homes.
Fading signs still mark Plum Street, or Apple, or Grape. There are telephone poles, street lamps, and graveyards - four of
