http://www.earthtimes.org The Earth Times online newspaper, serving the planet with general news and current affairs that matter en-us PHP/4.4.4 http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/293219,us-author-dave-eggers-wins-prestigious-french-literary-prize.html Paris - American author Dave Egger's novel What Is the What has won the 2009 Prix Medicis for best foreign work of fiction, the Medici jury announced Wednesday. A fictional reworking of a true story told to the author by the book's hero, What Is the ... Culture,General Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:22:22 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/293219,us-author-dave-eggers-wins-prestigious-french-literary-prize.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292371,obituary-jean-francois-bergier-swiss-wwii-historian-dead-at-77.html Geneva - Jean-Francois Bergier, the Swiss historian who headed the independent commission established in the 1990s to determine Switzerland's role during World War II, died Thursday at the age of 77, RSR radio reported. The independent group of exper... Culture,General Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:04:40 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292371,obituary-jean-francois-bergier-swiss-wwii-historian-dead-at-77.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292177,putin-to-recount-memories-of-fall-of-berlin-wall-in-documentary.html Moscow - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was working in East Germany in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, is to recount his experiences of that time in a new documentary, reported Russian newspaper Kommersant Wednesday. Putin was based in th... Culture,General Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:58:43 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/292177,putin-to-recount-memories-of-fall-of-berlin-wall-in-documentary.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291913,taiwan-museum-sets-condition-for-showing-chinese-treasures-in-japan.html Taipei - Taiwan on Tuesday said it is willing to allow the National Palace Museum (NPM) to hold an exhibition in Japan, but it must guarantee that the rare Chinese treasures are not seized by China. Chen Tiao-ho, a Foreign Ministry official in charge... Culture,General Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:52:37 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291913,taiwan-museum-sets-condition-for-showing-chinese-treasures-in-japan.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291860,jewish-treasures-go-on-display-in-one-of-europes-oldest-synagogues.html Erfurt, Germany - The old synagogue in the eastern German city of Erfurt, founded around the year 1100, was officially opened as a museum housing Jewish treasure and artefacts on Monday. The Jewish house of worship, constructed near the town hall in ... Culture,General Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:25:42 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291860,jewish-treasures-go-on-display-in-one-of-europes-oldest-synagogues.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291230,rejuvenated-or-infantilized--the-debate-over-cross-over-books.html Hamburg - It is increasingly becoming regarded as cool and youthful for an over 40-year-old to read a fantasy novel aimed at the teenager market. Whether it is the vampire Edward in the Stephanie Meyers series or the Inkworld trilogy from Cornelia Fu... Culture,General Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:10:53 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291230,rejuvenated-or-infantilized--the-debate-over-cross-over-books.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291226,cultural-interpreter-opens-minds-about-other-religions-people.html Hamburg - Ayhan Cantay calls himself a culture opener. The job he does in a public school district in Hamburg, Germany might be more accurately described as cultural interpreter. Who among you knows Christianity? Cantay, 31, asks a classroom of ... Culture,General Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:10:46 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291226,cultural-interpreter-opens-minds-about-other-religions-people.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291219,the-sacred-made-real--spanish-religious-art-seen-anew.html London - When 17th century Spanish sculptor Gregorio Fernandez created his life-like sculpture Dead Christ, he is reported to have intended that the work should shock and stir the soul. The haunting figure, depicting Christ's body as it is prepared ... Culture,General Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:10:43 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291219,the-sacred-made-real--spanish-religious-art-seen-anew.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291084,nostalgia-drives-comeback-for-communist-era-hits--feature.html Warsaw - Many Communist-era products disappeared from store shelves in Eastern Europe post 1989, unable to compete with Western imports after the Iron Curtain fell. But others have survived, and some have even managed to thrive in the past two decade... Culture,General Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:11:03 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291084,nostalgia-drives-comeback-for-communist-era-hits--feature.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291082,chinese-dissidents-watched-europe-pick-up-their-movement--feature.html Beijing - The fall of the Berlin Wall told the world what a beautiful country meant, what freedom and democracy meant, says Chinese dissident Qi Zhiyong, comparing the events of Eastern Europe in 1989 with those of China that same year through the ... Culture,General Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:11:01 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291082,chinese-dissidents-watched-europe-pick-up-their-movement--feature.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291027,prescription-for-rudolf-hess-sleeping-pills-sold-at-auction.html London - A prescription for sleeping pills issued to former Nazi deputy leader Rudolf Hess during his brief custody in Britain was Tuesday auctioned for 750 pounds (1,200 dollars). The mixture to help insomnia was prescribed while Hess was imprisoned... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:58:39 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/291027,prescription-for-rudolf-hess-sleeping-pills-sold-at-auction.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290895,leaving-east-germany--as-easy-as-alpha-bravo-charlie.html Berlin- In the winter of 1962, just months after the Berlin Wall was built, bus driver and war veteran Hans Weidner decided he was fed up with life in East Germany. Weidner equipped his passenger bus with metal plates and, on a bitterly cold Christma... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:57 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290895,leaving-east-germany--as-easy-as-alpha-bravo-charlie.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290892,twenty-years-on-nostalgia-for-east-germany-lingers--feature.html Berlin - Sometimes women sit down and cry when they come in here, says Frank Arndt, gesturing to shelves in his store, creaking under the weight of toys, school books, cleaning products, and crockery - all from a time when the German Democratic Rep... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:50 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290892,twenty-years-on-nostalgia-for-east-germany-lingers--feature.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290891,days-before-the-end-east-germans-dreamt-of-a-new.html Berlin - There had never been anything like it before in East Germany. On November 4, 1989, half a million people - factory workers, teachers, students, artists and writers - streamed into Berlin's Alexanderplatz to make a stand for a renewed East Ge... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:50 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290891,days-before-the-end-east-germans-dreamt-of-a-new.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290890,the-berlin-wall-a-victim-of-bananas--feature.html Hamburg - On Thursday evening, November 9, 1989, West German public TV stations signed off the air at about midnight, as usual. Residents of Hamburg, a mere 50 kilometres from the East German border, went to bed, dreaming of little than the next work... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:47 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290890,the-berlin-wall-a-victim-of-bananas--feature.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290889,watching-the-berlin-wall-come-down--from-the-east.html London- Moments after Guenter Schabowski announced the opening of East Germany's borders with the West - almost as if it were an afterthought - shouts of The Wall must go (Die Mauer muss weg) could be heard from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. The then ... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:42 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290889,watching-the-berlin-wall-come-down--from-the-east.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290888,analysis-unexpected-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-in-1989-still-resonates.html Berlin - Nobody expected the fall of the Berlin Wall. Certainly, there had been rumours that something was changing. Polish voters had kicked out their Communist leaders and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had essentially said that it was time for a ... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:10:40 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290888,analysis-unexpected-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-in-1989-still-resonates.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290878,tracing-the-peaceful-revolution-in-eastern-germany.html Leipzig, Germany - Sabine Gugutschkow is a tour guide in her home city of Leipzig in eastern Germany. In many cases, it is schoolchildren whom she takes to the original locations where Leipzig's Peaceful Revolution took place in 1989 - the demonstrat... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:10:50 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290878,tracing-the-peaceful-revolution-in-eastern-germany.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290871,school-to-apologize-for-nazi-behavior-at-war-museum.html Wellington - Several New Zealand secondary school students who kissed a swastika and made Nazi salutes at the country's Auckland war museum are to apologize Tuesday (NZT) for their actions. The five boys from the public school Auckland Grammar were a... Culture,General Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:40:41 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290871,school-to-apologize-for-nazi-behavior-at-war-museum.html http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290487,merkel-opens-berlin-museum-after-11-years-renovation-work.html Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Friday Berlin's historic Neues Museum (New Museum) seven decades after it was virtually reduced to rubble by World War II air raids and following 11 years of restoration. The makeover of the 1855 buildi... Culture,General Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:40:36 GMT http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/290487,merkel-opens-berlin-museum-after-11-years-renovation-work.html