"If there were any innocent people that were killed there, the numbers being reported, I think, are unfounded."

Posted by at December 31, 2001 11:56 PM

Years before Barry Hughart's first novel, Bridge of Birds, was published, he wrote a first draft titled A Bridge of Birds. Episodes and dialogue that later appeared in all three published Master Li novels are found in this draft, but there are also major differences; for example, Li Kao is only a nineteen-year-old, and Number Ten Ox only makes a brief appearance as a village idiot!

Posted by at December 31, 2001 03:29 PM

Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history, was buried into the tomb 22 years after her husband.
Authorities said they have found evidence of eight attempted robberies of the tomb, which all ended in failure and have lent even more mystery to Qianling, the only Tang tomb which has not been looted.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 12:47 PM

...some international-law scholars suggest that President Bush's plan for military tribunals itself violates international law. This view is based on a serious misreading of international treaties on how wars should be fought.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 11:24 AM

Pittman reports that "the Bush administration doesn't need to do anything to censor media outlets; they do it themselves." The Washington Post, for example, reported that CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson ordered news staff to limit reports of Afghan war casualties and use World Trade Center deaths to justify the killing of Afghan civilians by the US military. After the deaths in the US, it "seems perverse to focus too much on casualties or hardship in Afghanistan," Isaacson wrote in a memo quoted by WorkingForChange, which also quoted Brit Hume, anchor for the conservative Fox News Channel, saying that neutrality is inappropriate in covering this war because the enemy are "murderous barbarians."

Posted by at December 31, 2001 11:23 AM

A Reuters cameraman in the stricken village in eastern Paktia province said he could see huge craters blasted by bombs. Amid the destruction were scraps of flesh, pools of blood and clumps of what appeared to be human hair.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 10:58 AM

These shifts are both instructive and worrisome, Baldessari said. "Are we going to have all horizontal art for a while? Will it get that bad?" he asked. "We live in a fragile world, and it's good that we think about it once in a while. I am continuing to do what I do, because otherwise it would be censorship."

Correspondents say his departure leaves the country without a clear consensus on how to resolve the crisis, which has prompted mass street protests.
Power should have passed automatically to Senate Chairman Ramos Puerta, but he too resigned minutes later on grounds of ill-health.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 10:27 AM

Elsewhere, the fully empowered Muslim woman sounds like a self-assured, post-feminist type -- a woman who draws her inspiration from the example of Sukayna, the brilliant, beautiful great-granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, who was married several times, and, at least once, stipulated in writing that her husband was forbidden to disagree with her about anything.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 10:22 AM

[George Fernandes, the Indian Defence Minister] warned Pakistan not to consider the use of a first strike, which he said would be tantamout to national suicide. "We could take a strike, survive and then hit back," he said. "Pakistan would be finished. I do not really fear that the nuclear issue would figure in a conflict."

Posted by at December 31, 2001 10:19 AM

During their relationship, Mr. Leblanc lost his virginity and he paid for Ms. Dubreuil's breast implants, the court heard.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 08:01 AM

What happened in cyberlaw during the past year that was significant and enduring -- or at least interesting? That's the question Cyber Law Journal put to several well-regarded law professors and legal practitioners.

Posted by at December 31, 2001 07:55 AM

The advertising campaign by Media Markt, a unit of German retailer Metro AG, showed a woman wearing a low-cut top barely concealing three voluptuous breasts and the caption ``There's more inside than you think.''

Posted by at December 31, 2001 07:24 AM

"Under Canadian law,'' the ad reads in part, "a 200 lb. man who drinks almost six beers in two hours can drive and is not likely to be charged with impaired driving."

Posted by at December 31, 2001 07:16 AM