YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta seized U.N. aid shipments Friday meant for a multitude of hungry and homeless survivors of last week's devastating cyclone, forcing the world body to suspend further help.



The aid included 38 tons of high-energy biscuits and arrived in Myanmar on Friday on two flights from Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates.



"All of the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated," U.N. World Food Program spokesman Risley said.



"For the time being, we have no choice but to end further efforts to bring critical needed food aid into Myanmar at this time," he said.



At least 62,000 people are dead or missing in Myanmar, entire villages are submerged in the Irrawaddy delta and aid groups warned that the area is on the verge of a medical disaster.



The U.N. has grown increasingly critical of Myanmar's military rulers' refusal t[...]

Hi Friends,

Can anyone other than the 20-30 generals who constantly surround the despotic Senior General Than Shwe really understand what is going on?

Nargis had come and gone and left tens of thousands dead in its trail and now hundreds of thousands of folks throughout the Burmese country-side are in dire need of food, water and shelter. If they do not get these, disease and neglect will

This guy is damn sway.

The longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life began at around eleven o’clock on a Friday night in October, 1999. White, a thirty-four-year-old production manager at Business Week, working late on a special supplement, had just watched the Braves beat the Mets on a television in the office pantry. Now he wanted a cigarette. He told a colleague he’d be right back and, leaving behind his jacket, headed downstairs.

The magazine’s offices were on the forty-third floor of the McGraw-Hill Building, an unadorned tower added to Rockefeller Center in 1972. When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby and, waved along by a janitor buffing the terrazzo floors, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But af[...]

Got the DVD from Gramophone rentals. I’m usually a sucker for award-winning movies, so I wanted to see if the movie deserves the “biggest winner” status in the latest Hong Kong Film Awards.

Having watched Protege & Mad Detective (which I highly recommend to watch), Warlords deserved the accolades given.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Big budget movie living up to expectations)

For some of the best char siew, look no further than Meng Kee, in 13 Tengkat Tong Shin, Kuala Lumpur. It’s quite hard to locate, but.. damn. It really does taste like “bak kwa on steroids and pimped up with a greasy sugary coating… [like] pork-flavored candy with a greasy after-taste”, according to the Travelling Hungryboy. He’s right. But it isn’t just that—this stuff is heavenly.

My attempt at clearer directions: if you’re familiar with Jalan Alor (behind Bukit Bintang), this place is pretty nearby, on Tengkat Tong Shin itself. There’s a brick building somewhere opposite Number Eight Guesthouse (great place to stay, by the way)—there isn’t a sign or a signboard, but a tiny little counter in the corner with some chickens and pork has a small “Meng Kee” sign written on it. You’ll know it’s the right one when you see the queue, and the chaotic char siew sell[...]