We’ve recently talked about Internet censorship in the Gulf States, and a crackdown on cybercafes in China. Western hacktivists are fighting the power: Western hackers are developing programs to defeat the Internet censorship barriers of repressive countries overseas — and you can take part in the effort. Software such as …

WaPo’s Jim Hoagland celebrates Imre Kertesz’s Nobel Prize in literature: Imre Kertesz is a Holocaust survivor, an East European who was persecuted under communism, a free man since 1989 and this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for literature. Who says book critics never get it right? Sweden’s remarkable literary …

What of it? Welch, Layne and Pierce on baseball when it counts.

Phoebe Hoban looks at two new books on single women, and finds the tone defensive: defending that which no longer needs defending: Consider two books on the subject that have just come out this month that try to validate this lifestyle both historically and anecdotally, as if it were a …

We reported last week that Cleveland lost the Free Times and LA lost the New Times in an agreement between competitors. Plain Dealer columnist Tom Feran has more on the story: In most places, newspaper wars have become an anachronism. Afternoon dailies and “second papers” folded at an alarming rate …

Ex-Jackson brother-in-law shocked by monkey: Michael Jackson and his family practiced a bizarre ritual in which they sacrificed a live monkey. This is just one of the allegations made by sister LaToya Jackson’s former husband, Jack Gordon, who has penned The Jackson Family: The True Story Of The Most Powerful …

Nicolas Cage auctions collection of 400 rare comic books for more than $1.6 million: The actor’s collection, which included a 1938 comic with the first appearance of Superman, sold at auction Thursday at Dallas Comicon, a collectors’ convention. The man of steel’s debut, Action Comics No. 1, sold to an …

NY mayor Michael Bloomberg, told he couldn’t march with cast members from The Sopranos in the annual NY Columbus Day Parade, is staying home: The mayor even slipped in a little mob-speak about the tempest in a cappuccino cup caused by his invitations to Monday’s event. “I’m sort of walking …

PBS launching children’s literacy campaign: PBS today announced a major partnership with Target Stores to launch an unprecedented public service campaign to promote children’s literacy. In this effort, the PBS KIDS Share a Story initiative, sponsored by Target, will use on-air and online programming, along with the unparalleled resources of …

Of course, he is the president’s son: A United Arab Emirates minister, in a rare criticism of government censorship in the Gulf, called on Saturday for unfettered access to the Internet in the UAE. “The government should not enforce censorship on the individual,” said UAE Information and Culture Minister Sheikh …