The year is 2005. A highly infectious, unidentified Ebola-like virus is sweeping through the slums and villages of northern Angola. Within months, more than 200 people have died, medical services have collapsed and aid workers are on the brink of exhaustion. At 23, Peter Apps was just starting out as a foreign correspondent when Reuters sent him into the heart of the outbreak to get the story. In “Before Ebola: Dispatches from a Deadly Outbreak” Apps recalls in vivid, unflinching detail the horrors of life in a hot zone, the compassion of those trying to contain it, and how a terrified young journalist came of age in a time of almost unbearable crisis. Peter Apps is a global defense correspondent for Reuters news, currently dividing his time between London and Washington, D.C. In September 2006, Apps broke his neck in a minibus crash while covering the Sri Lankan civil war, leaving him largely paralyzed from the shoulders down. Cover design by Kristen Radtke.

    T. Ryan, Don Keith and George Wallace.The elite Green Berets carry out Operation Phoenix: pacification by assassination!Republic of Vietnam, 1965On the trail of a deadly Viet Cong force, Master Sergeant Anthony Fetterman leads his Special Forces squad on a patrol across the South Vietnamese border and into Cambodia.Their mission? To eliminate a dangerous enemy and shorten the war.When Sergeant Fetterman and Sergeant Tyme are arrested for the murder of a foreign national in a neutral country, U.S. Army Special Forces camp commander Captain Mack Gerber is not about to let them go down without a fight.Up against a tyrannical General, Gerber finds himself in a race against time to save his men from being court-martialled for doing the job they were trained to do.But will he and his A-Team succeed? Can they turn the tide of the war in their favour?Or does Camp A-555 have a spy in its midst?VIETNAM: GROUND ZERO is the first book in the Vietnam: Ground Zero Series: action-packed, authentic historical thrillers following an American battalion as they fight to survive during the brutal Vietnam War.THE VIETNAM: GROUND ZERO SERIES:BOOK 1: Vietnam: Ground ZeroBOOK 2: P.O.W.BOOK 3: Unconfirmed KillBOOK 4: The Fall of Camp A555BOOK 5: Soldier's MedalBOOK 6: The Kit Carson ScoutBOOK 7: The Hobo WoodsBOOK 8: GuidelinesBOOK 9: The VilleBOOK 10: Incident at Plei SoiBOOK 11: TetBOOK 12: The Iron TriangleBOOK 13: Red DustBOOK 14: HamletBOOK 15: Moon CusserBOOK 16: Dragon's JawBOOK 17: Cambodian SanctuaryBOOK 18: PaybackBOOK 19: MacvBOOK 20: Tan Son NhutBOOK 21: Puppet SoldiersBOOK 22: GunfighterBOOK 23: WarriorBOOK 24: TargetBOOK 25: WarlordBOOK 26: SpikeBOOK 27: Recon

    

    He also explains what it's like presenting Radio 2's lunchtime show and talking to 6 million listeners - people who, as he puts it have better stories than we do. Written in Jeremy's unmistakably lively and self-deprecating voice, It's All News to Me paints a vivid picture of what it's like to be trapped inside the BBC - arguably the most interesting organisation in the country - for 25 years

    Eddie Quinn is named to take his place. Eddie Who? An obscure highway official from New Jersey, whose chief pleasures are cars, bowling and women.

     Glen Retief's childhood was at once recognizably ordinary--and brutally unusual.Raised in the middle of a game preserve where his father worked, Retief's warm nuclear family was a preserve of its own, against chaotic forces just outside its borders: a childhood friend whose uncle led a death squad, while his cultured grandfather quoted Shakespeare at barbecues and abused Glen's sister in an antique-filled, tobacco-scented living room.But it was when Retief was sent to boarding school, that he was truly exposed to human cruelty and frailty. When the prefects were caught torturing younger boys, they invented "the jack bank," where underclassmen could save beatings, earn interest on their deposits, and draw on them later to atone for their supposed infractions. Retief writes movingly of the complicated emotions and politics in this punitive all-male world, and of how he navigated them, even as he began to realize that his sexuality was different than his peers'.

    As one of five children of divorced parents, he was bright enough to get a scholarship to a direct-grant school, but spent his holidays as a plumbers' mate for his uncles to bring in some much-needed extra income. Yet he spent 13 years and 11 days in government, including long and influential spells as Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary. This is the story of how he got there.His memoirs offer a unique insight into the complex, sometimes self-serving but always fascinating world of British politics and reveals the toll that high office takes but also, more importantly, the enormous satisfaction and extraordinary privilege of serving both your constituents and your country.Straw’s has been a very public life, but he reveals the private face, too, and offers readers a vivid and authoritative insight into the Blair/Brown era and, indeed, the last forty years of British politics.

    Andrew Feinstein, a former ANC member of parliament, recounts how Mandela's successor Thabo Mbeki repressed debate within the party, imposed his AIDS denialism on government, refused to criticize Mugabe's rule in Zimbabwe and stopped an investigation of a multi-billion-dollar arms deal that was tainted by allegations of high-level graft. Feinstein shows how this infamous deal epitomises all that is rotten at the heart of the ANC. Investigating the payment of up to $200 million worth of bribes, he reveals a web of concealment and corruption involving senior politicians and officials, and figures at the very highest level of South African politics.With an insider's account of the events surrounding the contentious trial of South Africa's colourful President, Jacob Zuma, and the ongoing tragedy in Zimbabwe, After the Party has been acclaimed as the most important book on South Africa since the end of apartheid.

    A Man Who Is Not A Man recounts the personal trauma of a young Xhosa initiate after a rite-of-passage circumcision has gone wrong. With frankness and courage, author Thando Mgqolozana's powerful novel details the pain and lifelong shame that is experienced as a result of not just the physical trauma, but the social ostracism of being labeled 'a failed man.' He decodes the values and mysteries of this deep-seated cultural tradition and calls to account the elders for the disintegrating support systems that allow such tragic outcomes to happen. But it is also through this life-changing experience that his protagonist is forced to find his strength and humanity, and reassess what it really means to be a man.

    Set in Cape Town at the turn of the 21st century this crime novel's protagonists are two former arms smugglers turned security operators who offer protection to the rich and famous doing business or holidaying in the city.

    By focusing on individuals, Blaine Harden uncovers an Africa that endures behond the sum of its statistics.

    Behind the scenes is a different story. The Helpers, a very powerful underground organization whose members include international businessmen and high priests are determined to maintain a stronghold on the natural resources of Congo. When American journalist, Jenny Osborne, and her photojournalist, John Spencer, arrive in Kinshasa to report on the rebel situation, they soon discover that things are not as they seem. Monsieur Lance Lemmand, a veteran French Intelligence Officer in DRC suspects the hand of "The Helpers" in the current political unrest. He enlists his protégé, the brilliant and handsome Pierre-Jean Philippe, to help him investigate. When Kai, a local schoolgirl, who is hiding a deep, dark secret, decides to take action, she seeks out Jenny for help. Kai gives Jenny damaging information that could bring down "The Helpers." Can Jenny's fulfill her duty to Kai and fight her feelings for Pierre, while trying to achieve her greater goal? "The Helpers" find out that Jenny has obtained damaging information about them and will stop at nothing to prevent her from exposing them. Jenny finds herself on the run, caught in a web of intrigue, espionage and assassinations, spanning from Congo to Europe, and as far reaching as the United States. Her only hope is Lance and Pierre. But will they find her before it is too late? Or will "The Helpers" silence them once and for all.

    He and his mother are the only members of his family that survived the carnage of those years and the psychological scars remain.  Today, Neuman is chief of the homicide branch of the Cape Town police, a job in which he must do battle with South Africa’s two scourges: widespread violence and AIDS. When the mutilated corpse of a young white woman is found in the city’s botanical gardens, Neuman’s job gets even more difficult. He is chasing one false lead after another when a second corpse, again that of a white woman, is found. This time, the body bears signs of a Zulu ritual. A new evil has insinuated itself into this recently integrated city. And a new drug: traces of an unknown narcotic have been found in the blood of both victims. The investigation will take Neuman back to his homeland, where he will discover that the once bloody killing fields have become the ideal no-man’s land for unscrupulous multinationals, and that the apparatchiks of apartheid still lurk in the shadows and the back rooms of a society struggling toward reconciliation. Soon to be a major motion picture.

    With income per capita of about US$9,970 and Petronas continuously providing an onerously generous 40 per cent to government revenues, Malaysia has all the essential ingredients to flourish.It remains a mystery as to why and how this small country of 30 million people managed to shockingly assume the unsolicited title of the region’s most unequal nation.Have we the common people, appreciated how much wealth Malaysia has?Do we have a clear picture as to how such wealth was spent?In these essays, the author attempts to uncover how our oil and gas resources were developed and whether they have been exploited for or, rather, at the expense of the general public. The oil royalty dynamics are also explained step-by-step to provide a context to the on-going saga.How does the exploitation of this fast-depleting resource play a pivotal role in the multiple socio-economic realities we face, ranging from household debt to income inequality, stagnant wages and poor educational standards in international rankings?Is our national education a failure? Should we teach Philosophy in universities?What are the myths of the rich and poor? How can education alleviate the poor? Encounter failures inherent in the education system and discover the spirit of education volunteerism as possible ways out. This forms the raison d’etre for Teach for The Needs (TFTN) – to promote education equality among underprivileged children.Such a riposte to the current malaise in education begs the question, is school a betrayal to education itself? Is the time ripe to replace our current national philosophy of education with love and free education?The author’s search for enlightening answers to some of these hard pressing questions gave birth to this book where a mixture of ideas, ideals and critical proposals coalesce into one. Deliberations in this book are hardly the author’s alone – it is humbly shared in the hopes that they can be expounded further through the public domain. To that end – requiro!Categories: Criticism, Economics, Education, Energy, Essays, Malaysia, Oil and Gas, Pedagogy, Philosophy, Policy, Political and Social Views, Politics, Public Policy, Trade, Volunteerism

    When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1967 at the age of just thirty-seven, he seemed destined for truly great things. But as his star steadily rose so his nemesis drew ever nearer: a time-bomb in the form of Norman Scott, a homosexual wastrel and sometime male model with whom Jeremy had formed an ill-advised relationship in the early 1960s. Scott's incessant boasts about their 'affair' became increasingly embarrassing, and eventually led to a bizarre murder plot to shut him up for good. Jeremy was acquitted of involvement but his career was in ruins.Michael Bloch's magisterial biography is not just a brilliant retelling of this amazing story; ten years in the making, it is also the definitive character study of one of the most fascinating figures in post-war British politics.