Mr Chavez won 54% of the vote, the country's electoral council announced.
Noisy celebrations among Chavez supporters erupted across the capital Caracas following the result.
Turnout was high in the hotly contested election and voting was extended beyond the official closing time at some polling stations with long queues.
And the capital Nairobi is where many Kenyans come looking for opportunities. It's the commercial heart of east Africa, and despite chronic poverty for many, there's a palpable sense of energy in the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Working Lives Kenya meets six people in very different social circumstances, but with a common desire to improve their lives.
For Wambui Gitonga, her decision to give up work and be a full time mum introduced her to a new career. The daily school run became a profitable business.
Gachao Kiuna is one of a new generation of Kenyan business entrepreneurs. He's responsible for investing millions of dollars in Kenya's infrastructure, with a vision to help boost Kenya's economic development.
Roseline Awino is one of hundreds of thousands living in Nairobi's slums. She's a cleaner, a cook and a shopkeeper, with several jobs needed just to get by.
Steve Okiri has to leave Nairobi during the week, travelling hours from home to work in a desolate place. It's where he found the best fit for his training as an industrial chemist.
A civil servant, Dr Edward Kariuki is no pen-pushing bureaucrat. His job as a vet with the Kenya Wildlife Service is unpredictable and rewarding, including operating on orphaned lions.
And for Fundi Frank, a fashion designer for pop stars with a phone in each hand, networking and socialising is a crucial part of promoting his brand.
Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE pose a security threat to the US, a congressional panel has warned after its probe into the two companies.
The two firms should be barred from any mergers and acquisitions in the US, the panel has recommended in its report set to be released later on Monday.
It said the firms had failed to allay fears about their association with the Chinese government and military.
The two are among the world's biggest makers of telecom networking equipment.
"China has the means, opportunity and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes," the committee said in its report.
"Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems."
Both Huawei and ZTE have previously denied the charges.
They are all painted in a rosy pink, the colour of China's 100 yuan bill as a symbol of corruption, and hang on the wall of a small studio in Beijing.
The artist, Zhang Bingjian, says he began the project three years ago after watching a report on Chinese state TV about officials taking bribes.
He said he was angered about the level of corruption.
"Without money in China, you are going to have a problem," he said. "People have lost faith. They don't believe in anything but money. Money talks here."
Mr Zhang employs several assistants, who scour the internet looking for cases when officials have been jailed for corruption.
Since the project began, Mr Zhang says he has commissioned over 1,600 portraits, and there appears to be no end in sight.
China's next generation of leaders will start assuming power at the 18th Party Congress next month.
Growing public anger over official corruption will pose one of their greatest challenges during the next decade.
The scale of the problem is stunning.
Last year, the People's Bank of China mistakenly released a report on its website which was then quickly taken down.
The report said that between 16,000 and 18,000 government officials and employees of state-owned enterprises had smuggled more than $120bn (£75bn) overseas between the mid-1990s and 2008.
That works out to more than $6m per official.
Earlier this year, Premier Wen Jiabao warned that corruption was the greatest threat to the rule of the Communist Party.
The Chinese public read headlines about anti-corruption campaigns almost every day.
Last month Bo Xilai, the politician at the heart of China's biggest political scandal in years, was expelled from the Communist Party.
Among the charges he faces are that he took "huge" bribes.
But many Chinese see these types of cases as more to do with political infighting than actually about corruption.
Increasingly however Chinese internet users are playing an active role.
In August, an official was photographed smiling at the scene of a fatal bus accident. Bloggers were infuriated by what they saw as his callousness and started investigating.
Pictures of him were posted at various functions and meetings wearing expensive watches - too expensive to be bought on an official salary.
The authorities later announced that he had been sacked.
While low-level and mid-level officials are often fair game, the finances of top leaders and their families are strictly off-limits to the Chinese media, apart from in a few high-profile cases.
In a system where officials are only accountable to the party and not to the public, it is very hard to see how corruption can be rooted out.
"It's impossible to tackle corruption within the system without having independent bodies," said Hong-Kong-based China analyst, Willy Lam.
"Top officials have stopped investigations and refuse calls for other senior officials to publish the assets of their families."
Many of the thousands of incidents of unrest in China every month have their roots in corruption - such as land deals by local officials.
Mr Lam believes that unless China's leaders make meaningful political reforms, they will face "rising social unrest".
In a society where corruption is rife, many Chinese have come to accept it as part of daily life. They know they will often have to pay bribes to get good medical treatment or win lawsuits in the courts.
Chen Wei wants her five-year-old son, Lu Siyuan, to go to a good state school in Beijing.
But in order to ensure a place for him, she says that she would have to pay more than $10,000 in bribes to education officials.
"This is the cost we face," she said. "We have no choice."
Like many here, Ms Chen wants China's new generation of leaders to tackle corruption.
If they do not, they will be storing up trouble for the future.
Russia fought two devastating wars in Chechnya. To those who witnessed them, this place was hell on earth. But in this hell, there were heroes.
In the town of Alkhan-Kala, near Grozny, Khassan Baiev takes me down into his cellar.
Baiev is a surgeon. When war broke out in 1994, his local hospital was shelled. So Baiev turned his cellar at home into an operating theatre. He spent the next two years saving lives.
The basement is tiny, just 3m by 4m. But Baiev had up to 30 patients packed in at a time.
"I had a very small operating table in the middle," he says. "I worked without electricity, without heat and water. Every day my mother assisted me. Over two years, I performed 4,600 surgeries.
"Most of my patients were civilians. Children, women, old people, young people. Chechen fighters were also brought to my hospital. Also, Russian soldiers."
In a corner of the cellar, he empties a plastic bag containing shrapnel he collected and saved. During the fighting, his house was hit twice by rockets. But he refused to leave.
"I stayed in Chechnya because I am a Chechen. Also my father always told me: 'You are a Muslim, you are a doctor. You need to stay here, you need to help people.' This was a terrible tragedy for the Chechen people and my country. This is why I stayed."
By the time the second war broke out in 1999, the clinic had been patched up. Baiev was able to move out of the cellar and operate at the hospital. Renewed fighting meant he was busier than ever. His nephew videoed all of the operations on a small camera.
"Conditions were very difficult," Baiev recalls.
"I operated during bombing and shelling. I worked without supplies, without general anaesthesia for brain surgery, abdomen wounds and amputations. I worked without doors or windows. It was very cold. Outside it was so noisy during the bombing, tank attacks, helicopter attacks. My hospital was always shaking."
The surgeon treated patients from both sides of the conflict. That brought him problems.
"One day Chechen fighters and Russian soldiers were brought into my hospital. Of course the situation was very difficult. I always told the fighters: 'This place is a peace place. This hospital is open for everybody who needs help, not just for Chechens.' Some said, 'Why are you treating Russians soldiers? It's the enemy!'
"I said that for me, it doesn't matter, Chechen or Russian. I take to my operation room first who is seriously wounded. I am a doctor, I take Hippocratic oath. That's why I treat everybody."
Baiev remembers his worst day in February 2000 - 300 wounded Chechen fighters were brought into the hospital. "They had walked into a minefield. In 48 hours I performed 76 amputations and seven brain surgeries."
Among the injured on his operating table that day was the most wanted man in Russia - Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. Baiev amputated part of his right leg. By saving Basayev's life, he was risking his own.
"During the amputation of his leg, I was thinking that after I help him I have a big problem. I know he is for Russia like Bin Laden was for America. After, I escape Chechnya, because the Russian secret police were looking for me. Also some Chechen extremists were looking for me. I had no choice. That's why I escaped Chechnya."
Two months after operating on Basayev, Baiev fled Chechnya. Human rights groups helped him leave the country and move to the United States, where he was granted political asylum. His family began a new life in Massachusetts. That autumn in Alkhan-Kala, Baiev's nephew Adam who had filmed the operations was shot dead.
Today, Baiev is back in Chechnya. He is a US citizen now, but he spends half the year operating at a children's clinic in Grozny.
"Many things have changed," says Baiev. "The political situation has changed. In the North Caucasus, this is a very quiet place today. The biggest problem is that we need good doctors here. Many doctors escaped Chechnya to go and live in Europe. That's why we need help. We need good specialists."
Although his priority is children, Baiev has also made a name for himself as the plastic surgeon of choice for the rich and famous, turning Grozny into an unlikely centre for cosmetic surgery.
"Russian famous people visit Chechnya because I have good experience. My first patient who visited Chechnya three years ago, she is a famous actress in Russia. A TV star."
Chechnya may be more peaceful today. But Baiev is still haunted by his memories of war.
"If I see some bad news on TV, I can't watch this. For example, about the situation in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. I feel this so painfully. Always I remember my situation, because I saw thousands of wounded, dead bodies, children who lost arms, legs. Before the war I was a completely different person. Now I know I've changed completely."
Steve Rosenberg interviewed Khassan Baiev for BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House. Listen via the programme website, or download the podcast.
Sunday, 7 October is the 60th anniversary of the barcode patent, filed in the US in 1952.
However the distinctive black-and-white stripes did not make their first appearance in an American shop until 1974 - because the laser technology used to read them did not exist.
GS1 said the QR code was not a threat to the traditional linear barcode.
A QR (Quick Response) code is an image made up of dots, which can contain more data than a barcode.
"They have different purposes - the barcode on the side of a tin of beans is for point-of-sale scanning. It ensures the consumer is charged the right amount and updates stock records," said Gary Lynch, chief executive of GS1 UK.
"The QR code's main purpose is to take the person that scans it to an extended multi media environment. Technically you can combine the two but nobody's asking for that right now."
The first item to be scanned by a barcode was a packet of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974.
But the black-and-white stripes did not get a universal welcome, with some wine manufacturers refusing to incorporate barcodes onto their labels for aesthetic reasons.
Now it occasionally doubles as body art, with US singer Pink among those who sport a barcode tattoo.
"Barcodes are an icon and rightly so - we're quite pleased about it," said Mr Lynch.
"But if one of my daughters had one in homage to her father I'd be rather upset."
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The deal follows long negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to end a 40-year conflict that has cost more than 120,000 lives.
It provides for a new autonomous region in the south, where Muslims are a majority in a mainly Catholic country.
The MILF is "very happy" with the deal, a spokesman was quoted as saying.
The agreement was reached after talks in Malaysia and is expected to be signed formally on 15 October in the Philippine capital, Manila.
Both sides in these long-running negotiations knew there needed to be serious compromises.
The government has had to concede that many Muslims living in the southern Philippines believe the existing autonomous region is too small and its leaders do not have enough real power. The rebels have had to back down too - their initial demand had been for an entirely separate state.
Both sides also know there's huge pressure to get this agreement right. In 2008, a deal was about to be signed when local Christian groups complained they had not been fully consulted, and the Supreme Court blocked the agreement. Within weeks conflict had resumed, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes.
This time, widespread consultations and a public vote have been built into the process, in the hope that finally a lasting peace can be reached.
A copy of the framework deal says the parties commit to reaching a "comprehensive deal" by the end of the year.
"This framework agreement paves the way for a final and enduring peace in Mindanao," President Aquino said in a speech to announce the deal, referring to the main southern region.
But he added: "The work does not end here. There are still details that both sides must hammer out."
Correspondents say the agreement marks a major breakthrough, though previous peace efforts have broken down and negotiations with the MILF over the last 15 years were interrupted by violence.
The Philippine government's chief negotiator Marvic Leonen told the BBC that the new peace deal has more political support than previous agreements, after the negotiation panel held more than 100 consultations with Muslims, Christians, and local and regional governments.
The MILF's vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told AFP news agency: "We are very happy. We thank the president for this."
It is hoped that the agreement could be implemented on the ground by the end of President Aquino's term in 2016.
'Casting aside distrust'
President Aquino said the new autonomous region would be named Bangsamoro, after the Moros living there.
"This framework agreement is about rising above our prejudices," the president said.
"It is about casting aside the distrust and myopia that has the plagued efforts of the past."
Sunday's agreement provides for the creation of a "transition commission" tasked with drafting a law to implement the framework deal.
The draft agreement would give the leaders of the Bangsamoro more political and economic powers, promises the people a "just and equitable share" of the region's abundant natural resources, and pledges to address the needs of poverty-stricken communities.
It also provides for the MILF to "undertake a graduated program for decommissioning of its forces" and says both sides would work for "reduction and control of firearms and the disbandment of private armies and other armed groups".
Law enforcement would be transferred from the army to the Bangsamoro police in a "phased and gradual manner".
The MILF, created after a split with another rebel group in 1977, had earlier dropped its demand for an independent Muslim state.
President Aquino acknowledged on Sunday that the current autonomous region in the same area, created in 1989, had been a "failed experiment".
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose country has brokered peace talks since 2001, said he was "delighted" at the "historic deal".
"The rights, dignity and future prosperity of the Bangsamoro people will be protected, while at the same time the sovereignty and constitution of the Philippines will be preserved," he said.
The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands, with a population of about 95 million. It has faced separatist movements in Mindanao, where the MILF is based, and in Jolo, home to the radical Islamist Abu Sayyaf group, which is reputedly linked to al-Qaeda.
Communist rebels have also waged a guerrilla over much of the country from 1969.
A safety trial, published in the Lancet Neurology medical journal, suggested the chemical NA-1 was safe to use.
The study on 185 people also hinted that patients given the drug developed fewer regions of damaged brain tissue.
The Stroke Association said that it was promising, but needed more research.
Tests in primates had suggested NA-1 prevented brain cells dying when a stroke starved them of oxygen.
A small trial was set up at 14 hospitals in the US and Canada.
Patients who took part were having an operation to repair a brain aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel which could rupture, are at increased risk of a stroke.
Ninety-two people had the drug injected into a vein, while another 93 were injected with salty water.
The doctors concluded that NA-1 was safe, with only two patients having mild side effects.
However, brain scans also showed that fewer brain lesions, damaged areas of tissue, formed in patients given the drug.
The doctors involved said the study provided evidence that "neuroprotection is achievable" but said that "a larger trial is necessary to investigate the robustness of the effect".
Prof Markku Kaste, from Helsinki University Central Hospital, said: "Age is the greatest risk factor for stroke. Because of the global population ageing, the number and burden of strokes will increase."
He said previous trials to use drugs to protect the brain had resulted in failure. His said this drug still need to be assessed in much larger clinical trials before its effectiveness was known.
Dr Peter Coleman, from the Stroke Association charity said: "We welcome any treatment that could protect brain cells after a stroke and limit the amount of brain damage. This potential treatment appears promising, but a lot more research is needed."
The trial was funded by the biopharmaceutical companies NoNO and Arbor Vita.
A Falcon rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule lifted clear of Cape Canaveral in Florida at 20:35 (00:35 GMT).
The robotic Dragon ship will deliver 400kg of food, clothing, experiments and spares to the orbiting platform's six astronauts.
It is the maiden flight in a sequence of 12 missions that California's SpaceX company is performing for Nasa.
The US space agency is looking to the private sector to assume routine transport duties to and from low-Earth orbit.
It has given SpaceX a $1.6bn contract to keep the ISS stocked up with essentials, restoring a re-supply capability that the US lost when it retired the shuttles last year.
The terms of the contract kicked in following a successful test of Dragon's systems in May.
That demonstration saw the capsule berth with the ISS - the first commercially designed and built vehicle to do so - and then return safely to Earth.
Nasa has a second company it hopes also can soon begin operational cargo deliveries to the station.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) will shortly test its new Antares rocket before undertaking its own ISS demonstration with a robotic vessel called Cygnus.
If that mission - tipped to take place next year - goes well then it will trigger a $1.9bn contract for Orbital.
Nasa wants eventually to put astronaut transport in the hands of the private sector, too.
SpaceX's is eyeing that business as well, and is developing the critical life-support and safety systems that would turn Dragon into a human-rated vehicle. The company says it is just a few years away from being able to provide an astronaut "taxi" service.
The Dragon launched on Sunday is scheduled to arrive at the space station on Wednesday.
It will follow the routine established in May of parking itself just below the platform so that it can be grabbed by a robotic arm and pulled into a berthing port.
The vessel is expected to return to Earth at the end of the month.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
From Hurricane Katrina to the Japanese tsunami - satellite images are increasingly playing an important role during rescue efforts after natural or man-made disasters. The images, often taken minutes after devastation has occurred, help pinpoint people and places at risk.
A formal system of sharing information by space agencies was agreed in 1999, with the creation of the Disasters Charter. Since then, the charter has helped provide data for more than 300 disasters, in more than 100 countries.
Here - to mark World Space Week 2012 - Dr Alice Bunn from the UK Space Agency looks at how the images, taken many hundreds of miles above the planet, are being used to save lives.
All images copyright DCMii Ltd and Envisat/ESA. Click bottom right for image information.
Music by KPM Music. Slideshow by Paul Kerley. Publication date 5 October 2012.
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Cosmic rays - 100 years of discovery
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The last time Dutch director George Sluizer saw River Phoenix was about four hours before the actor's death in Los Angeles, on the evening of 30 October 1993.
"I was in fact staying in the same hotel - in the next room. I was driving into the hotel and he was driving out with friends. He said 'see you tomorrow' and that was it," Sluizer says.
For six weeks, the pair had been working on what history will record as Phoenix's last film, Dark Blood.
It follows the story of a loner (Phoenix) who lives in the American desert awaiting the end of the world. His existence is turned upside down after rescuing a couple whose car breaks down during a road-trip.
Primary filming in the state of Utah was complete and the cast and crew had relocated to Hollywood to shoot the interior scenes.
"We had shot 80% - but it is not continuous, it is so many little pieces here and there", Sluizer says.
Two weeks of shooting were scheduled to take place in LA, but only one day was completed when the film's lead actor collapsed outside a nightclub and died.
The director, now 80, was woken from his sleep to hear the news.
He says: "We were quite close. My son sometimes said 'you seem closer to River than to me'. He didn't say that as a sign of jealousy."
Almost all of Dark Blood's interior scenes were missing, so the project was shelved.
"After it was decided by all the people involved that the film would stop... there was a problem between the insurance [company] and the bank who did the cash flow for the film," Sluizer says.
"They didn't agree on one bill, and they did not agree about who might own the negatives. That went on for nearly seven years. And in the mean time, the film was in storage in a locked area."
But in 1999, everything changed.
"The two companies decided 'We're fed up with fighting each other'. The insurance were anxious not to pay more storage costs. So finally it was decided they would burn the material."
By this time, the director had moved back to the Netherlands. When he heard of plans to incinerate the 700kg of 35mm film, he hatched a plan to have it smuggled out of the locked facility.
"I got some friends and someone who can open locks to open the storage house and get the stuff out. I did not do it myself, but I'm responsible for... getting it on a truck and getting it away during the night and having it go to New York and then later shipped to Europe."
Despite taking the negatives, Sluizer says he is not expecting to be prosecuted.
"They were not stupid, they knew damn well who 'saved' the material. I know one of the people who was involved in the insurance and they said 'We can't do anything with film, we're insurance people. It's better that it's somewhere else.'"
For years the project went unfinished, until a health scare spurred the director into action.
"A few years ago, I had an aneurysm and was told I was going to die quite quickly," he says. "I said, well I want to finish the film and to leave not a garbage bag of film, but something decent. And that's what I did in 2011, and the post production until today."
Because the absent scenes are spread throughout the film, Sluizer bridges the gaps with still photographs and moving images from the cutting room floor, in addition to his own narration, which spells out what is missing.
While admitting the film will always feel incomplete, he is happy with the result.
"I did my best - with the material I had - to make it an understandable and plausible story. Apparently people say it works."
In September, Dark Blood received its world premiere at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. But Sluizer is now sufficiently satisfied with the results for it to be seen more widely.
"When it will have a bigger release, I cannot tell you. But I certainly think it will quite soon."
Sluizer describes Phoenix, who was tipped for a bright future, as "a slightly fragile person" because of his troubled youth and his drug use.
"But he was not in my view self destructive," he says. "From my feeling, it was absolutely an accident that night, mixing things that don't mix."
The difficult childhood refers to Phoenix's formative years in the religious cult The Children of God.
The director says the 23-year-old discussed widespread allegations of child abuse within the group. "He talked about the abuses," he says.
"Before shooting I asked him to come to Utah for four or five days with me alone, so that we would get more in touch. So obviously while walking and climbing in the mountains in Utah on our own before any crew or other people are there, he did at moments tell me something about that period.
"I'm not going into details - disclosing some things he told me privately - but obviously it's was clear that it was not always very easy and he had tough time as a kid.
"I never talked about drugs with River," he adds. "Although I knew he used drugs before and maybe even during [filming]... I don't know."
Nineteen years on, the director hopes to see the fruits of their combined labour appreciated by fans across the globe.
The festival's Twitter feed apologised to the "thousands" who missed out, adding that there had been some problems with getting through "due to the sheer volume of people".
Fans could reserve up to eight tickets - each costing £205 plus booking fee.
Any returned tickets will be put on sale in April 2013.
Thousands of people tried to log onto the ticket website when it opened at 09:00 BST, but many were unable to get onto the page because of the volume of hopeful music fans.
Festival organiser Emily Eavis tweeted: "Sorry to everyone who missed out and for any problems you had with the booking site."
Every ticket purchaser had to have registered on the site before the end of September. Those who managed to secure a ticket paid a £50 deposit immediately, with the remaining money due when the booking site reopens on 2 April 2013.
When tickets sold out at 10:40 BST, Michael and Emily Eavis posted a joint statement on Twitter saying: "We're genuinely humbled by the sheer number of people who would like to come to the festival and we dearly wish we could have you all along.
"Sadly, that just isn't possible, which means a significant number of people have missed out. Demand simply outstripped supply."
Tickets for next June's festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, which will draw about 135,000 people, cost £10 more than last year.
There was no event this year as the site in Somerset took a break.
As has been traditional in recent years, the headline acts for the 2013 festival were not announced before the tickets went on sale - although Mr Eavis told the BBC earlier this year that they had already been chosen.
Mark Bridger, 46, was arrested on Tuesday - a day after the schoolgirl, who has not been found, disappeared.
He has also been charged with child abduction and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He will appear before magistrates in Aberystwyth.
A total of 100 police officers remain involved in the search for April.
On Sunday, around 1,000 people took part in a special church service.
Prior to the service around 600 people took part in a silent procession from near April's home through the town to the packed church.
Supt Ian John from Dyfed-Powys Police said the operation to find April had moved to a new phase and mountain rescue earch efforts had been scaled back in favour of 18 specialist police search teams involving 100 officers.
"Among defilements, none is so great as castration. Any man who continues to live having suffered such a punishment is accounted as a nothing."
The man who wrote those words is by no means a nothing today. In a nation obsessed by its history, Sima Qian was the first and some say the greatest historian.
Wind back two millennia. It is 99 BC. On China's northern frontier, imperial forces have surrendered to barbarians. At court, the news is greeted with shock. The emperor is raging.
But an upstart official defies court etiquette by speaking up for the defeated general.
"He is a man with many famous victories to his credit, a man far above the ordinary, while these courtiers - whose sole concern has been preserving themselves and their families - seize on one mistake. I felt sick at heart to see it," writes Sima Qian in a letter to a friend afterwards.
The general had committed treason by surrendering. And Sima Qian had committed treason by defending him.
"None of my friends came to my aid, none of my colleagues spoke a word on my behalf," he writes.
There is an interrogation. Sima Qian tells his friend his body is not made of wood or stone. "I was alone with my inquisitors, shut in the darkness of my cell…"
At the end he is offered an unenviable choice - death or castration. To his contemporaries, death was the only honourable option but Sima Qian had a bigger audience in mind than the Chinese court of the 1st Century BC. He was writing a history of humanity for posterity.
Sima Qian's father had been court historian before him and had started the project. On his sickbed, with both of them in tears, the father extracted from the son a promise to complete the epic work.
So he chose castration.
"If I had followed custom and submitted to execution, how would it have made a difference greater than the loss of a strand of hair from a herd of oxen or the life of a solitary ant?" he wrote.
"A man has only one death. That death may be as weighty as Mount Tai or it may be as light as a goose feather. It all depends on the way he uses it."
But neither in the letter nor in his autobiography can Sima Qian bring himself to describe the horror of castration. He talks instead of going down to the "silkworm chamber".
It was already well known that a castrated man could easily die from blood loss or infection so after mutilation the victims were kept like silkworms in a warm, draught-free room.
Sima Qian never recovered from the humiliation.
"I look at myself now, mutilated in body and living in vile disgrace… Every time I think of this shame I find myself drenched in sweat."
But he also wrote that if, as a result of his sacrifice, his work ended up being handed down to men who would appreciate it, reaching villages and great cities, then he would have no regrets even after suffering 1,000 mutilations.
If only he could have seen the future as well as he saw the past.
In today's China, Sima Qian's book, The Records of the Grand Historian, is regarded as the grandest history of them all. What Herodotus is to Europeans, so Sima Qian is to Chinese.
What is special about Sima Qian's history is that, even when he wrote about the court, it was not just flattery. Here is his verdict on an emperor from the Shang dynasty 1,000 years earlier:
"Emperor Zhou's disposition was sharp, his discernment was keen, and his physical strength excelled that of other people. He fought ferocious animals with his bare hands. He considered everyone beneath him. He was fond of wine, licentious in pleasure and doted on women…
"He then ordered his Music Master to compose new licentious music and depraved songs. By a pool filled with wine, through meat hanging like a forest, he made naked men and women chase one another and engage in drinking long into the night."
The emperor had critics turned into mincemeat, and nobles who were not up for the party roasted alive.
Zhou was a good illustration of a theory Sima Qian had about dynastic change, as Frances Wood, curator of the Chinese collection at the British Museum, explains.
"He introduced the idea… that dynasties begin with the very virtuous and noble founder, and then they continue through a series of rulers until they come to a bad last ruler, and he is so morally depraved that he is overthrown."
No suprises - Zhou was the last of the Shang dynasty.
Sima Qian thought the purpose of history was to teach rulers how to govern well.
By contrast, China's current government - like every other Chinese government I can think of - sees it as a means of legitimising its rule.
"History is totally political in China, and I think it always has been," says Frances Wood.
Just look, she says, at the fate of historians in 20th Century China.
"Somebody who actually became deputy mayor of Peking, Wu Han, was a very important historian who had written about the first Ming emperor.
"The first Ming emperor… in 1368, he's often been compared with Mao Tse-Tung, because he was a charismatic bandit leader who, in his last years, went pretty crazy and paranoid. So you have Wu Han writing that history in the 1950s, which was a very dangerous thing to do, because Mao was already beginning to totter into paranoia."
"Probing into events, connecting their narrative flow, finding patterns governing victory and defeat, prosperity and decay, I have composed 10 historical tables, 12 royal annals, eight monographs, 30 genealogies of noble houses, 70 biographical accounts - 130 chapters in all.
"I have sought, through examination of the interface of heaven and man, and comprehension of change from past through present, to found a new tradition of philosophy."
For criticising the present by writing about the past, Wu Han was arrested. He died in prison in 1969.
Last year China re-opened it's national museum, lauded as the world's biggest museum under one roof. It is hugely popular, but it illustrates just how much history is a pick-and-mix for China's rulers. They leave out the bits that do not do them credit and - masters of selective memory - they big up the moments they are proud of.
So instead of the tens of millions who died in Mao's Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution, you get China's first nuclear test in 1964, or a celebration of the reform era after Mao's death.
A panel as you exit the museum spells out the key message: "Since the founding of the Communist Party of China 90 years ago, under the strong leadership of the Party, our great nation has successively achieved many historic changes… Socialism is the only way to save China, and reform and opening up is the only way to develop China."
I am sure Sima Qian would hope someone like him is sitting unnoticed in a quiet corner writing a more nuanced history of this period, even if it can only be published when the powerful have passed on.
This, in fact, is how The Records of the Grand Historian saw the light of day.
After his death, his daughter risked her own safety to hide his secret history. And two emperors later, his grandson took another risk in revealing the book's existence. The rest, as they say, is history.
Army spokesman Lt Eli Lazarus said the battle in Damaturu lasted several hours and 10 arrests were also made.
He said the militants killed included a senior commander known as one-eyed Bakaka.
Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow the government and impose Sharia law across Nigeria.
Attacks in central and northern Nigeria attributed to the group have killed an estimated 1,400 people since 2010.
In a statement, Lt Lazarus described "the notorious one-eyed Bakaka" as Boko Haram's field commander in Damaturu and a close associate of the sect's leader Abubakar Shekau.
However, the BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says it is not possible to verify the information.
Earlier, police reports said four suspected militants had been killed rather than 30.
Nigeria's military has recently reported major success in its campaign against Islamist militants and Damaturu, in Yobe state, is one of the areas worst affected by the violence.
However, human rights groups say army operations in northern Nigeria have also left many civilians dead and they complain that arrests are often indiscriminate.
In September the military said it had killed 35 suspected Boko Haram members in fierce gun battles in Damaturu. Scores of people were also arrested there in a door-to-door sweep of several neighbourhoods.
Israel said the attack targeted a small militant group thought to be involved in a cross border attack from Egypt in June in which an Israeli was killed.
Palestinian sources told the AFP news agency the strike was in the Rafah area of Gaza.
A number of bystanders were hurt, the report said.
Two of the wounded were said to be children.
A Gaza medical official said the motorcycle had been travelling in a busy neighbourhood of Rafah, which borders the Sinai peninsula.
In a statement, Israel's Defence Forces (IDF) said they had targeted two members of the group Global Jihad, including Talat Halil Jarbi who they said was a "senior operative" in the 18 June attack close to Israel's security fence.
Gunmen who appeared to have crossed from Egypt's Sinai peninsula attacked a convoy of construction workers, killing one and wounding another.
Palestinian medical sources told the AFP agency that Talat Halil Jarbi had lost both legs in Sunday's air strike.
The Israeli statement identified the second militant as Abdullah Muhammad Hassan Maqawai.
Maine Republicans have created a webpage revealing that Democrat candidate Colleen Lachowicz plays an orc rogue in World of Warcraft (WoW).
Ms Lachowicz's liking for back-stabbing and poison in WoW raise questions about her "fitness for office", they claim.
Ms Lachowicz has hit back saying the attack showed the Republicans were "out of touch".
The state senate seat known as District 25 in Maine, is currently being contested by Ms Lachowicz and incumbent Republican Tom Martin. Voting takes place on 6 November.
As part of its campaign efforts, the Republican party in the state created "Colleen's World" - a website that compiles information about Ms Lachowicz's orc rogue Santiaga. An orc is a mythical human-like creature, generally described as fierce and combative.
In a statement that accompanies the webpage, Maine Republicans said playing the game led Ms Lachowicz to live a "bizarre double life" that raised questions about her ability to represent the state.
The page also detailed some of the comments Ms Lachowicz has made while talking about her orc rogue, in particular it highlights her affection for Santiaga's ability to stab things and kill people without suffering a jail sentence.
"These are some very bizarre and offensive comments," said Maine Republican Party spokesman David Sorensen in a statement. "They certainly raise questions about Lachowicz's maturity and her ability to make serious decisions for the people of Senate District 25."
The site also lists many of the 400 comments she has posted to left wing political news and discussion site Daily Kos. Maine Republicans have also posted leaflets that reproduce the information on the website.
"I think it's weird that I'm being targeted for playing online games," said Ms Lachowicz in a statement. "Apparently I'm in good company since there are 183 million other Americans who also enjoy online games.
"Instead of talking about what they're doing for Maine people, they're making fun of me for playing video games," said Ms Lachowicz.
It is not clear what effect the Republican tactic will have on the state senate race in Maine. However, many messages of support have been left on Ms Lachowicz's own webpage with some pledging cash to her campaign.
Gaming researcher Ladan Cockshut said the row revealed how gaming can be seen as a bad thing to do.
"In my work, I've spoken with many people who in their regular lives have roles of significant responsibility (as doctors, managers, or educators) but who choose carefully with whom they disclose their gaming activity," she told the BBC. "And disclosing their gaming activity is often accompanied by a degree of apology or embarrassment."
But, she added, having a gamer run for office was a "heartening" development.
"This would seem to run contrary to the other stereotypes that we love to assign to gamers: that they are lazy, antisocial people who don't have a 'real life'," she said. "Maybe this will trigger some dialogue about our perceptions of gamers and the role that games can and should play in modern society."
A cyclical pattern of rising and falling ocean temperatures is seen as a major influence on our weather.
Scientists say the current pattern will last as long as the Atlantic warming persists.
The research was carried out at the University of Reading and is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The study investigated a phenomenon known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation - a cycle of change in which the waters either warm or cool over a period of several decades.
The researchers compared three periods in this cycle: a warm state from 1931-60, a cool period from 1961-90 and the most recent warm period starting in 1990 and continuing now.
The paper notes that conditions in the last warm period in the Atlantic are broadly similar to those observed now.
So the study compared weather conditions in Europe during the two warm Atlantic phases with those experienced in the cool phase.
One conclusion is that a warmer-than-usual Atlantic "favours a mild spring (specially April), summer and autumn, in England and across Europe."
Another finding - of greatest relevance to the search for a cause of rainy summers - is that the warmth of the ocean also tends to make northern and central Europe wetter than usual. By contrast southern Europe, from Portugal to Turkey, gets far less rain than normal.
That was the pattern observed last summer.
The precise mechanism by which the temperature of the surface of the ocean drives weather systems is not well understood.
But it is thought the changes in pressure influence the path of the jet stream, and how much it "meanders". Regions to the north of the stream, as Britain was for much of the summer, tend to be on the receiving end of a succession of rain storms.
The study was led by Professor Rowan Sutton, director of climate research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading.
"We know that we a higher sea surface temperature in the ocean warms the air above which affects the weather systems and their path, shifting the Jetstream, but we don't yet know the full details of how this works.
"We also don't know the length of these periods of warmer or cooler conditions in the Atlantic Ocean - in the past they have varied a lot, from 20-50 years."
The oscillation is itself tied to another natural cycle known as the Altantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) - a pattern of oceanic currents believed to be governed by an interplay of salt and freshwater, winds and tides, and possibly now also influenced by manmade greenhouse gases.
The research did not attempt to explore the causes of the warm and cool phases in the Atlantic, focusing instead on what it means for our weather.
Last month we reported on the possible impact of the reduction in Arctic sea-ice on weather patterns.
Professor Sutton said that "clearly there is a link between Atlantic warming and Arctic sea ice though the details are not well understood."
"This does not mean that Arctic sea ice is not contributing to the effect on Europe's weather but it's an open question as to how much.
"The warming of the Atlantic Ocean may be amplified by the reductions in Arctic sea ice - these things are not independent."
The study is described as 'important' by Professor Alan Thorpe, head of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting, showing how warmer seas can "set the scene" for wetter summer weather.
"These variations are on the decadal time-scale and remind us that the atmosphere and oceans can drive long-term fluctuations in our seasonal weather.
"Earlier research at the European Weather Centre had indicated that both the sea surface temperatures and the decreasing summer Arctic sea-ice may in combination have played a role in poor UK summer weather in 2007 and 2008, and one can speculate also in 2012.
"Overall we can see that there are a number of potential factors that can affect how good or poor the summers are in our part of the world. These factors typically involve far remote influences."
So what about the next few summers? Professor Sutton says there is no sign of the Atlantic Ocean cooling for the moment so the current pattern is likely to continue.
The only good news, he says, is that the transition between warm and cool phases in the ocean can happen quickly and cold winters may be a precursor to that change.
So, ironically, if the coming months bring freezing conditions, that may have an impact on the temperature of the Atlantic, and that in turn might mean the ocean switches to a cooler phase and so lead to drier summers for Britain.
But no one is betting on it - the research is still in its earliest days.
The London gallery said one of the artist's Seagram murals was defaced at about 15:25 BST.
Paintings by the Modernist painter, one of America's most important post-war artists, have sold for hundreds of millions of pounds.
The gallery was shut for a short period and then reopened.
Police are investigating the incident.
A Tate spokeswoman said: "Tate can confirm that there was an incident in which a visitor defaced one of Rothko's Seagram murals by applying a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting."
Mustafa Abu Shagur had called for the formation of an "emergency government", consisting of just 10 ministries.
The General National Congress (GNC) voted 125 to 44 against the proposal. Seventeen members abstained, according to a Libyan national television report.
The GNC now has three to four weeks to elect a new premier.
The national assembly was elected in July in Libya's first free elections in decades, following the overthrow of Col Muammar Gaddafi.
Mr Shagur's second and final offer consisted of just 10 ministries, as opposed to the 29 he offered last week.
Before the vote he told the GNC it was a proposal to lead Libya with no regionalism, and urged members to "assume its responsibilities at this historic time".
His initial cabinet line-up was rejected late on Thursday on the basis that it was not representative of important regions and lacked qualified members.
During the debate, protesters - mostly from the towns of Zawiya and Zuwara - stormed the Congress building in the capital Tripoli, calling for his resignation.
Mr Shagur had initially aimed for a unity government and what he described as "people with merit" to work with him.
However, he said that when he consulted with political parties, some had pursued their own agendas. Without naming them, he said one party had demanded 11 seats, and another had asked for nine.
Mr Shagur said he would not give in to pressure and political games.
"I will not abandon my principles and my convictions. I did not return to Libya [from years in exile] to become head of government, I came back to serve the country and its children," he said.
