Muara Teweh!

After Stalin died, Rittenberg was exonerated. He was told he never had to work again, that he could have a villa, and was offered funds for leisure travel. “The smartest thing I ever did was go right back to the work I was doing” at state media, he says. “And I met my [second] wife, Yulin, a few weeks later.”

It is a life of contradictions: He sat in prison for six years, yet decided he must forgive his jailers. His views on family changed: He used to feel personal life mattered little. But after his second jail term, he felt that if he could only make his wife happy, his life would not be wasted. Again, in the 1960s, he backed a wing of the party more extreme than the infamous “Gang of Four” - yet now is a businessman who feels “radical student movements are not the way to bring change.” » Read more after the jump →

Not many people can still close their eyes and recall playing cards and folk dancing with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and the young rebels in the bean-oil lit caves of Yanan. But Rittenberg can. The idealistic Jewish boy from Charleston, S.C., stayed behind when the US Army left China, dreaming of a new social order where skin color and ethnicity wouldn’t matter.

Madame Sun Yat-Sen, wife of China’s founder, got him a UN relief job. He later joined the Communist Party, became a top cadre, translated Mao, rose in the broadcast department, married twice, played politics on the far left. Twice he was thrown in prison, once by Stalin and once by Mao - getting out only when those men died. » Read more after the jump →

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Leslie Claravall and younger brother Lester Claravall of the Oklahoma Department of Labor are believed to be the first recipients of the awards who are full-blood Filipinos. The siblings, who are born in the U.S. to immigrants, received the awards in ceremonies held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Indianapolis, Ind.

With the awards, the Claravalls join an elite circle of past Toya awardees that include former Presidents John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton, as well as Dr. Henry Kissinger, internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Bernstein, Howard Hughes, Orson Wells, Elvis Presley, and Nelson Rockefeller, among others. » Read more after the jump →

One of the world’s most revered groups interpreting and performing Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, The Boston Camerata brings their extraordinary program “A Mediterranean Christmas” to the University of Vermont’s Lane Series on Friday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel with a pre-concert talk with Camerata director Joel Cohen at 6:30.

Described by the Boston Globe as, “brisk, ear-cleansing, jubilant, and inspiring,” the program has been recorded on Warner Classics and has proven to be one of their most popular holiday offerings. For the live performance, the Camerata is joined by the Sharq Arabic Ensemble, who perform on traditional percussion, string, and wind instruments of the region and add a highly authentic sound and atmosphere to the program which features holiday music spanning seven centuries (the 12th to 19th). » Read more after the jump →

Alexander Vershbow, U.S. ambassador to Korea, visited Myongji University in Seoul on Tuesday. During a lecture titled “Future of U.S.-Korea Relations,’’ Vershbow showed his interest in Koreans’ education. He said Korean students studying in America were the third most numerous after India and China this year.

The ambassador said the six-party talks were the best way to deal with the North Korea nuclear issue. He said he hoped for the conclusion of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Korea, which he said, would increase the gross domestic product here by 2 percent and create 500,000 jobs. » Read more after the jump →

The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is over, and the keen competition among universities to lure better students has started.

Universities announced various plans to attract the best students.

Yonsei University will select 20 outstanding students, and give them full scholarships, boarding expenses and subsidiaries for textbook expenses every month.

The selected students will also get a chance to participate in a European summer vacation. The university will also support them when they decide to study overseas. » Read more after the jump →

The extraordinary life of Professor Milton Friedman has been extolled in every major newspaper around the world. His contributions to economic theory and the free society merit a celebration of the life of this extraordinary individual.

Friedman was small in stature but a giant in the world of ideas. His passion and wisdom extended well beyond the field of economics and combined to make him one of the most compelling advocates of human freedom the world has known.

His ideas earned him the Nobel Prize. But more than that, his ideas have been translated into public policy in this nation and in countries around the world. And these ideas have empowered millions of people to pursue their destiny, opening for them new economic and educational opportunities that have made them more productive and more prosperous. » Read more after the jump →