Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/18/2011

A backpack containing a bomb was discovered yesterday on a bench along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Spokane, Washington. The bomb was set to go off by remote control, and contained shrapnel. The authorities were able to disarm the bomb using a robot, and no one was injured.

Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., Chinese Premier Hu Jintao has caused controversy in advance of his visit to the United States by suggesting that the yuan would be a better reserve currency for the world than the dollar.

In other news, a woman in West London was told by her cousin to wear the hijab, or he would kill her.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, Caroline Glick, DF, Insubria, JD, JP, Steen, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.