Tank Man

Fearing his work would be confiscated, Newsweek’s Charlie Cole put the roll of film on which he’d captured his version of “The Tank Man” — that image seen in so many newspapers of a young man who walked in front of a tank and stood, bringing the tank to a halt — “in a plastic film can and wrapped it in a plastic bag and attached it to the flush chain in the tank of the toilet” in his hotel.

Tank Man — his identity has never been determined — shot to worldwide fame that day for stopping those tanks, hours after they had brutally crushed student-led protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Hundreds — possibly thousands — died in the early-hours protest on June 4, 1989, an event that still remains a forbidden topic in Communist-governed China.

Pictures of Tank Man's courageous efforts and other information about the crackdown are still officially censored in China. But now, 20 years on, modern technology and the wide reach of social networking sites like Facebook are providing curious students with the information they were previously denied. "For 20 years, more than a few have entered the political arena who are the real villains, hypocrites who put on a false show of great peace and bury their consciences in a fiery pit.

Owen Benjamin

Christina Ricci and Owen Benjamin have split up, just two months after they announced their engagement. Several sources confirm the story to weekly publication People, while neither Christina nor Owen has spoken up about the nature of their relationship. "Owen had a birthday party this past Sunday, and everything seemed fine. Sometime after, they got into a fight and decided to reevaluate things. [Then] the engagement was off," a source close to the pair testifies.

Meanwhile, another source close to Christina claims the actress and Owen called off their engagement before last week. "They really are still close," the source tells People. "They talk almost every day. It was a very mature decision and they both felt good about it. They're definitely still friends."

Christina Ricci and Owen Benjamin's first meeting took place on the set of their film "All's Faire in Love" in 2008. They made their first outing as a couple in October. Back in late March this year, a representative for Christina confirmed the pair's engagement.

White House

"House" star Kal Penn's much-heralded road from the Fox series to the White House seems to have hit a pothole, or at least taken a turn into a cul-de-sac. Since the start of the year, two senior Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executives have joined the Obama administration—and CEO Eric Schmidt has been appointed to the president’s advisory board on science and technology. Concerned in part over the company’s growing influence, two consumer groups are publicly opposing the appointment of a third Google executive to the White House.

The groups emphasize that they are not opposed to McLaughlin’s appointment solely because of his ties to Google, noting that “it would be just as inappropriate for a lobbyist from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) or any similar technology company to be appointed Deputy Chief Technology Officer.” However, the letter mentions two antitrust investigations the Justice Department has launched against Google as well as the already prominent presence of other Google executives in the Obama administration.

In a letter to the president dated Wednesday, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy call for Obama not to move forward with the appointment of Google public policy chief Andrew McLaughlin as the nation’s deputy chief technology officer. “Given ... your commitment to a new standard for ethics in government, it would be a mistake to put Google’s top global policy person in a key leadership position with critical technology decisions for the federal government,” they write.