The Buzz: Palin speaks through Facebook and Twitter

By Siobhan Courtney

Welcome to The Buzz, our weekly round up of how the stories Newsnight report are being talked about in the blogosphere, twitterverse and other social media.

AMERICA'S FIRST FAMILY OF FASHION

US President Barack Obama was in Moscow this week for talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Stepping out in style - the Obama family arrive in Moscow

Following their meeting the pair announced that the US and Russia are to reopen negotiations on reducing their nuclear weapons stockpiles - the first such talks for more than a decade.

But rather than this significant announcement, it was Mr Obama's referral to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as President Putin at a news conference and then again three times in an interview which caught many bloggers' eye.

A slip of the tongue or a suggestion that Mr Obama is not entirely oblivious to what some say are the steely realities of backroom Russia?

Mr Obama was joined in Moscow by his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha.

If fashion is anything to go by it seems that 11-year-old Malia is fully behind the idea of nuclear arms reduction - check out the T-shirt she was wearing after the family left Moscow.

What the Obama girls and their mother were wearing throughout their Europe visit has been the subject of much internet chat.

Their status as fashion icons has even prompted J Crew to tout around the fact that the Obama girls wear their brand.

SARAH PALIN - COMING DIRECT TO YOU

Sarah Palin outlined her reasons for standing down on Facebook

The internet is full of theories, questions, and suggestions about what Sarah Palin will do now she has stepped down as governor of Alaska.

In an unusual move, Mrs Palin outlined her reasons for quitting on a posting on Facebook , saying that she appreciated being able to speak directly to the people of Alaska.

She bypassed mainstream press, controlling her own communications through social media - much to the annoyance of many journalists. Perhaps this later posting from the failed vice-presidential candidate gives a hint of why she did it.

In April, Mrs Palin joined the likes of Stephen Fry and Demi Moore on Twitter, and since her shock resignation has been using the microblogging site, rather than her press team, to keep everyone abreast of what she is up to .

UNREST IN UIGHUR

This week the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang, western China, was the scene of deadly violence as Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese clashed.

Woman and child in front of Chinese troops

Chinese troops are now out in force in Urumqi

As happened in the recent post-election violence in Iran, social networking sites have been sharing mobile phone footage of the unrest filmed by people on the street. As the Beijing government sought to end the ethnic clashed thousands of security forces were deployed in Urumqi.

And there were reports that Facebook users in China were blocked from the site.

A LITERARY SENSATION

The Codex Sinaiticus was written about 1,600 years ago

And finally, old met new this week with the publishing online of the Codex Sinaiticus , the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.

All 800 pages of the manuscript, which was handwritten in Greek 1,600 years ago, can now be seen online.

The scholars involved in the project say the text is "of supreme importance for the history of the book".

Unlike the Codex, one book which keeps changing is the dictionary.

This week the publishers of the English Collins Dictionary announced that social networking tool Twitter will be listed in the 30th anniversary edition to be published later this year.

In case you are wondering the website will appear as both a noun and a verb.

The entry under noun will read: "A website where people can post short messages about their current activities."

Under verb it will read: "To write short messages on the Twitter website."

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