Here's even more bad news from Burma:

Myanmar extends Suu Kyi's detention

Last Updated Sat, 27 May 2006 00:19:47 EDT
CBC News

Just hours after United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan asked them to "do the right thing" and release Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's military rulers have extended the detention of one of the world's best known pro-democracy advocates.

INDEPTH: The Prisoner of Rangoon

It is unclear whether Suu Kyi will remain under house arrest for another six months, or a year, but what is clear is that the military made its move in defiance of Annan's plea for her release.
Annan issued a personal appeal on Friday to the head of Myanmar's military, asking him to release Suu Kyi.

Myanmar used to be known as Burma. [DON'S NOTE: People who don't support the miltiary dictatorship still call the country Burma when speaking in English.]

Annan, speaking to reporters in Thailand, said that he was relying on the general to "do the right thing."

"Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 10 of the past 16 years in detention or under house arrest. The government will be reviewing her status within 24 hours. I take this opportunity to appeal to Gen. Than Shwe and the government to release her," said Annan.

"I believe her release will facilitate national dialogue and allow the National League for Democracy to participate in that dialogue. I think it would be in the interests of Myanmar, the region and the world at large.

"It would also allow the government and the people, not only to build the nation together, but to focus on the essential issue of economic and social development. For the democratic process and the reconciliation process to be truly successful, it has to be inclusive, and she has a role to play. And I'm relying on you, Gen. Than Shwe, to do the right thing."

The current term of her military-imposed house arrest was due to expire on May 27, but that has now been extended.

The NLD party won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but has never been permitted to govern.

In 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earlier this week UN undersecretary-general Ibrahim Gambari briefed the Security Council on his recent visit to Myanmar. During that trip Gambari met with Gen. Than.

He also had an hour-long meeting with Suu Kyi, her first meeting with a foreigner since 2004.

This news story is a reminder of what a "control freak" Stephen Harper is:


Harper says he's finished with Ottawa press corps

Last Updated Wed, 24 May 2006 23:11:10 EDT
CBC News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he'll no longer give news conferences for the national media, after a dispute led a number of journalists to walk away from an event when he refused to take their questions. Some reporters left Prime Minister Stephen Harper's press conference on aid to Sudan's Darfur region when told they could not ask questions.

Speaking to A-Channel in London, Ont., Harper said "unfortunately the press gallery has taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government."

"They don't ask questions at my press conferences now. We'll just take the message out on the road. There's lots of media who do want to ask questions and hear what the government is doing."

Since becoming prime minister in January, Harper has had a testy relationship with the national media in Ottawa. His staff has tried to manage news conferences by saying they will decide which reporters get to ask questions.

The press gallery has refused to play by those rules. "We can't accept that the Prime Minister's Office would decide who gets to ask questions," Yves Malo, a TVA reporter and president of the press gallery, told CP on Tuesday. "Does that mean that when there's a crisis they'll only call upon journalists they expect softball questions from?"

On Tuesday about two dozen Ottawa reporters walked out on a Harper event when he refused to take their questions.

That led Harper to say that from now on he will speak only to local media.

The CBC says it will continue to cover the prime minister. "If the prime minister chooses to take questions we will be there to ask them," said Ottawa managing editor George Hoff. "We will have a journalist there to ask questions," he said.

Harper's supporters said Wednesday they believed the conflict is being blown out of proportion.

"I think this will get sorted out over time," Conservative Geoff Norquay said during an interview on Politics on CBC Newsworld.

"I think both sides have an interest in sorting it out and I think they will over time. The reality is that every new government wants to keep a tight lid on its messages and this one in particular because it had the previous example of Mr. Martin who had so many priorities that they all turned to mush in the minds of the Canadian people. And that's why this government is tightly focused on its messages," he said.

Here's some good news: http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/sk-buffalo060525.html

One of the quotations below made me wonder what, if anything, U.S. President George W. Bush reads.


The following is from Garrison Keillor's "The Writer's Almanac" on National Public Radio in the U.S.

It's the birthday of poet Joseph Brodsky, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (1940). He grew up in the Soviet Union and began writing poetry as a young man. He became popular in underground literary circles, but in 1964 he was arrested for "social parasitism" and sentenced to five years' hard labor in Siberia. Writers and politicians from countries around the world protested his imprisonment, and he was released after eighteen months.

In 1972 he left Russia for America, where he taught at several universities. He had translated English poetry from the time he was a teenager, so he was already fluent in English when he arrived in America, but it took several years before he began writing poems primarily in English. He said he wrote in English as a form protest against the Soviet Union, and also so he could reach a wider audience. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987, and from 1991 to 1992 he served as the Poet Laureate of the United States.

Brodsky said, "Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe ... that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens."

And he said, "There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

Annie Lennox's concert in Saskatoon was an amazing experience.

----------------------------------------------------------

Eurythmics reunite in rare L.A. performance

By Dean Goodman Tue May 23, 6:03 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sweet dreams were made in Los Angeles on Monday as the members of U.K. synth-pop duo Eurythmics reunited on stage at a music industry event.

Annie Lennox, a guest of honor at performing rights group ASCAP's annual Pop Music Awards, teamed up with guitarist David Stewart to deliver a stirring version of her hit solo single "Why."

Unaccompanied, she also took to the piano to dust off her solo tune "A Thousand Beautiful Things" and the Eurythmics anthem "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves."

Lennox, 51, had flown in from her British home a day earlier to receive ASCAP's Founders Award, which goes to songwriters who have made pioneering contributions to music by inspiring and influencing their fellow music creators.

She paid generous tribute to Stewart, 53, a former lover with whom she co-founded Eurythmics in 1980, and went on to enjoy 20 international hits, including "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and "Would I Lie To You."

"David is the person who facilitated me happening. There's no question about that," she told the black-tie crowd at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. "You are the person who did that. He's the one who knows the journey,"

After winding down the group in 1989 so that she could concentrate on starting a family, Lennox and Stewart reunited 10 years later for a new album and brief tour. They made a few promotional appearances last November to coincide with the release of a greatest hits album.
Also honored were punk-rock trio Green Day, who received ASCAP's Creative Voice Award "for advocating change, questioning the status quo and supporting the truest of ideals."

Green Day singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong also chose the theme of mateship in his speech, saying "the best advice you can give somebody is to play music with your friends."
But before things could get too sappy, he snapped back to reality, and asked, "Is this where I'm supposed to say 'F--- George W. Bush?"'

As the laughter and cheers died down, he answered himself, "You know what? He's done a great job of f---ing himself."

Here's some audio humour:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/48553

This was a fascinating series of articles in the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/maidforamonth