The government in Burma has cut off internet access, seized cell phones, and destroyed land lines in an attempt to stop the flow of information out of the country during the junta’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters. Over the last several days, many bloggers have reported on soldiers shooting into the crowds, posting first-hand accounts [...]
These photographs from the Telegraph show a wounded Japanese photographer lying in the street in Rangoon amid the protests in Burma, attempting to take more pictures of the violence, while a soldier stands over him with a gun. In the next photograph, the soldier is gone, and the photographer, Kenji Nagai, is dead, having been [...]
On the 10th day of protests against Burma’s military government, police fired into the crowd of monks and other peaceful demonstrators, killing nine. Last night, monasteries were raided, and monks were beaten and arrested. Click here for reports from Rangoon residents, published on the BBC website.
There are many deaths on the streets of Rangoon. There [...]
I was very pleased to see that Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan and The Coast of Chicago, among other books of fiction and poetry, has been granted a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship. I’ve long been an admirer of Dybek’s work, and had the opportunity to talk with him several months ago when we [...]
The Burmese government has begun threatening violence against the tens of thousands of protesters who are marching in the streets of Rangoon and other cities. The above photograph from Asia Pacific shows the pacifist army of monks who are leading the protests against the junta. Some 3,000 were killed in similar protests in Burma in [...]
Adrienne Shelly’s weirdly wonderful Waitress is now playing at the Balboa. At first, I thought this might be another misguided foray into Southern stereotypes (as a native of Alabama, movies in which non-Southerners attempt Southern accents always put me on guard), but within the first five minutes of the film I was fully invested in [...]
I took a turn signing books at the Booksmith booth at the Cole Valley Street Fair today. Thanks to everyone who came by and said hello! My friend Ellen Sussman, editor of Bad Girls, was also there. You can see her on The Today Show on Tuesday.
The fair’s still going on. Some great stuff for [...]
If all those props make your head swim, here’s one worth remembering: Vote Yes on Proposition D
Proposition D asks voters to renew the Library Preservation Fund, which funds general library operations and is set to expire in 2008-2009. Passed overwhelmingly in 1994, the Preservation Fund has enabled the library to increase operating hours by 53% [...]
Miguel Matias, the owner of a restaurant at the resort where Madeleine McCann went missing on May 3, has described a happy family playing and dancing together just a few hours before the disappearance. The article appears in The Telegraph:
He said she enjoyed an early evening meal with her father, mother Kate and younger twin [...]
Here are a few video clips of interviews with Gerry and Kate McCann, parents of missing four-year-old Madeleine. From the beginning, I have felt that a terrible thing happened to the McCann family. Surely, few horrors can begin to compare to that of having one’s child disappear with no trace. And it seems almost impossible [...]
