Most Recent Posts

A teenager who was killed after reportedly stopping a suicide bomber at a school in northwest Pakistan is being hailed as a hero.

Aitizaz Hasan, 15, was late for school on Monday and as a punishment wasn't allowed to attend assembly, the Express Tribune newspaper said.

Hasan and two schoolmates were standing outside the Government High School Ibrahimzai in Hangu, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, when they saw a man approach. One of Hasan's friends spotted a detonator on the man; the schoolmates ran inside. But, as the newspaper wrote, "Aitizaz stood his ground and got hold of the bomber, who then detonated his vest."

"I had never thought that my brother would die such a great death," Hasan's older brother, Mujtaba Hasan, told the newspaper. "He sacrificed his life to save humanity."

Hasan's father, Mujahid Ali, said: "My son made his mother cry but saved hundreds of mothers from crying for their children."

There were 2,000 students at the school at the time of the attack, responsibility for which was claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The U.S. State Department regards the group as a foreign terrorist organization.

The school is the only one in the Shiite-dominated part of Hangu. The area is known for violence against Shiites.

Principal Lal Baz told the newspaper: "The attack targeted education, and I am surprised neither the federal nor the provincial government functionary has visited the family. Their silence is condemnable."

Pakistanis and others are paying their tributes to the teenager on Twitter. Pakistan's media are also weighing in on Hasan's death.

Writing in the Dawn newspaper, columnist Zarrar Khuhro said:

"We don't need more [Aitizazes]. Not one or one million. What we need is to be worthy of the one we lost. What we need is for those who claim to lead us to show the courage that this boy did. Perhaps, that is too much to ask from those who roll out apologies and obfuscations with such unerring regularity, but stammer and shake when it comes to naming those responsible for mass murder."

I remember thinking, when I was playing Hedda Gabler, that several sequences of the play were utterly absurd. So maybe when I say "funny," I mean absurd.

And I think that's where the hallmark of Woody Allen's work is. He understands the painful absurdity of life, and it's in those juxtapositions [that there] lies, often, a very black sense of humor.

But tone is everything, really, I think, when you're working with Woody, because he's made films of such diverse tone, from Bananas to Interiors. And having never worked with him before, you're not quite sure where the playing of it is going to lie, and I thought you could take it in either direction. Hopefully, I think, the final product of Blue Jasmine — you have a buoyancy to the pain that makes it truly sort of pathetic.

On giving a story depth without weighing it down

I think he wanted to make sure there was a depth to it. And when I say "depth," I don't mean weight. I think those two things are quite different. It's like when you're playing Hedda Gabler, or Blanche DuBois or Richard II or any of those great roles, you have to find the buoyancy to the depth so it doesn't become heavy. Because I think often when people are in crisis, they're not sinking into it. They're trying to find those moments of lightness, and it's the pull in those two different directions, I think, that allows [the film] to reach the audience, and for it not to become a dirge.

On her character in Blue Jasmine

I think, I hope, what I brought out in Woody's screenplay is that she's utterly constructed. I mean, the references that are made to her teen years, you know — she's changed her name. She's estranged from her biological beginnings, you know — to avoid thinking of what? The chasm, I think, that has always existed, [which] she's filled with her husband, her social network, her clothes that she buys. And I think a lot of people said, "Well, why should we feel anything for her?" But I tried to find a connection to that universal problem that so many of us feel — who am I, without all the trappings of our lives?

On why she wanted to do the film after a substantial hiatus

Strangely, the part [itself] is the last point of connection. [For me] it's who is going to be in it, and who's directing it, and what's the story? And I was compelled and utterly gripped by the story, the tale. [I've] been running the Sydney Theatre Company with my partner for the last six years, producing theater and performing onstage. ... I've been reading play texts. And it had the depth and complexity and the level of craftsmanship that a lot of theater texts have. I thought, "This is a part to swing a cat in, and how do I?" So you just have to throw yourself at it.

On working in both theater and film

I've been very grateful I've been able to move between the two forms, because they're not diametrically opposed; I think they feed each other. You know, you do have a self-awareness as an actor. That's what you bring from the theater, is that you're very aware that you have to hit that light, whilst also talking about the fact that you've lost your children and you know that someone is answering their mobile phone in Row G, and that someone else is opening a lolly wrapper in the back of the stalls.

And so you have all of these awarenesses, and it makes you fearless, in a way. Because you can tell whether something is living or dying when you're on the stage, and you can do something about it.

I think sometimes when you're working consistently in film, and maybe this is just me, but you do feel quite dislocated from your audience. I was acutely aware of the audience in the cinema when I was doing Jasmine. I don't know whether that was the pace itself or whether that was just my recent experience.

Saying that "I had been drinking," former NBA player Dennis Rodman has had his publicist issue an apology for the obscenity-laced rant he went on earlier this week during an interview on CNN.

In that combative exchange with the news network's Chris Cuomo, Rodman implied that American citizen Kenneth Bae, who is imprisoned in North Korea, did something to deserve his punishment. Rodman is in North Korea with a group of other former NBA players.

Now, Rodman's publicist has sent a statement to The Associated Press and other news outlets. In it, Rodman is quoted as saying:

"I want to first apologize to Kenneth Bae's family. ...

"Some of my teammates were leaving because of pressure from their families and business associates. My dreams of basketball diplomacy was quickly falling apart. I had been drinking. It's not an excuse but by the time the interview happened I was upset. I was overwhelmed. It's not an excuse, it's just the truth. ...

"At this point, I should know better than to make political statements. I'm truly sorry."

To many Chinese, the place is a rust belt.

But to the few North Koreans lucky enough to make it, a visit there can be a mind-expanding experience.

One 58-year-old woman who came to visit her relatives says that on her first visit to China, the affluence and abundance she saw dazzled her. She and the other North Koreans NPR interviewed requested anonymity so as to avoid severe punishment back home.

"What I found here was unimaginable. So much food here is wasted. The roads, the cars, the electricity. It's always bright, whether it's night or day. I wondered, where is all this electricity produced? In North Korea, it's very dark at night, you can't do anything and it's very lonely," she says. "Even If you tell people, it sounds like a dream. They won't listen to you, or they'll wonder if you're telling the truth."

But in North Korea, she says, it's dangerous to talk too much about her experiences in China.

So when she returns home, she says she takes the amazement and envy she felt and hides them in her heart.

A Signal To China

On Monday, citizens in Pyongyang marched through the streets, pledging support for policies outlined by Kim Jong Un in a New Year's address.

In the speech, Kim said that the purge of his uncle had strengthened the unity of the ruling Worker's Party.

i i