This week's cover celebrates the beauty of Halle Berry. This is own second tribute.

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BAGHDAD, IRAQ - The grassy fields sway as the American helicopters patrol the green, bountiful bluffs and floodplains of the Tigris River. I'm with my translator, Tahseen, the same one who worked for me during the war. He made a small fortune working for me during those months. I urged him to save the money for a rainy day. Instead, the crazy kid went out and bought a zippy, candy-red Audi that I'm driving now along the country roads. The windows are down and the radio alternates between catchy Arab pop tunes and American rap and R&B songs. Thank goodness for Radio Sawa, the new U.S.-run AM music station.

We vie for the road with long, noisy columns of American military hardware and rickety tractors. The night before, U.S. forces patrolling the area were ambushed by a group of proverbial "bad guys." The rocket-propelled grenades they launched barely scratched the Americans' M-1 tank. But the Americans responded with full force. Soldiers lit up the night with flares and radioed three Bradley fighting vehicles and an Apache helicopter for backup.

Then the story gets messy.... MORE





by LIONEL ROLFE

SOFIA, BULGARIA - Angel Stankov, Bulgaria's preeminent violinist and conductor, knows that his country has a terrible reputation. It's partly a reputation earned by benign neglect. People just don't know much about this nation of 7.6 million people.

It's gotten its reputation unfairly, he insists. At the same time he bemoans how little people really do know about Bulgaria. And in a darker, more revelatory mood, he admits that Bulgaria has had powerful and antagonistic neighbors who in the past have said bad things about his country.... MORE

by MATTIE LENNON

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Look what we've done to the old mother tongue
It's a crime they way we've misused it.
It's been totally disgobbled
Pulverised and gollywobbled,
We've strangled, mangled, fandangled
And abused it.

So the song says. But did we do it any damage? John Dryden said that a thing well said will be wit in all languages.

In my part of Wicklow the transposition of vowels seemed to be almost as popular a pastime as locking referees in car boots. And did it do any damage? (No..I'm not asking about depriving the GAA arbitrator of his liberty on a winter's day in Rathnew, I'm referring to a bit of readjustment of the A, E, I, O and U's )... MORE

QUEENSTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - It's four in the morning. The wind is whistling on the eaves of the house and blowing dry leaves against its walls. The dog is barking incessantly outside. It's too cold for me to go and check. Besides it could only be barking at the neighbour's cats again. You've just woken me with your incessant wet cough. I'm wondering if I should take you the hospital now or wait until it's morning. It pains me because today is your fourth birthday. You were so much looking forward to sharing your cake with your school friends.

This always happens to you in June. A week after you were born you suffered from a serious viral flu infection. It's left you with wet lungs ever since. I remember when the flu progressed your chest became congested. We had to take you to the hospital the following morning. The day was drooping with cloudy disarray and occasionally weeping a sheet of soft rain. A low wind caught the mood of our expectancy as that soft, dancing, rain-washed our faces. Its mellow mistiness defined our condition. Hugging the back of your mother I could see that her warmth and rhythmic trotting reminded you of her womb. You were sleeping like an angel, the sleep of the just. For a moment, when I looked at you, I thought I saw the beauty of a folded rose in your face. I was glad that you laid still and sheltered while we were soaking wet. We rushed in moments of steeped effort, hoping to reach the hospital before nine a.m. In our ignorance, we were not aware by that throttling of rain we were exacerbating your condition. You coughed deep and painfully as if you were choking from your own sputum. You became red from the quick rush of blood to your head. That sight your mother could not bare. Slow fell her dewy tears from overcrowding fears.... MORE





by BOB POWERS

MARIETTA, OH, USA - Not everyone can boast of having appeared on the radio in the Land Down Under. I can.

A phone call came from Nathan Phillips, producer of a popular talk show in Melbourne, Australia. The program is hosted by Roland Rocchiccioli (please don't request a pronunciation guide; for the live show I called him Roland). Show business types invariably call everyone by their first name, so I felt safe in not tackling the proper name in my accent, a combination of the places I harken from: Kentucky where I was born and West Virginia where I grew up.

Phillips explained that his boss had decided to devote the following Sunday night's show to Rosemary Clooney. That date, June 29, marked one year since the death of singer Rosemary Clooney... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 6 JULY, 2003: Every fourth of July weekend for years now, the city of New Orleans has been graced by the Essence Music Festival. For the past two Julys, I've had the good fortune to have my friend HARRISON CHASTANG, the News Director of KPOO Radio, San Francisco, in town and dragging me off to one Essence event or another. This July 4th found me down in the press interview room with Harrison and the other journo types, firing questions at Patti LaBelle, Magic Johnson, Maxine Waters and other of the celebs in attendance.

One of the facts Magic Johnson shared with us was the alarming news that the incidence of HIV/AIDS is on the rise among people over fifty (50) years of age in the African-American community, as that age group becomes more sexually active. I was alarmed. That's my generation he's referring to... MORE


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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: GET CLOSER
(JAMIE MENUTIS reports on the brutal regime of Liberian President Charles Taylor; a special short story by LILY MABURA is featured; and much more!)

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