Hong kongs prodemocracy protesters take to the streets once again al jazeera journalist peter greste is free. He was released from an egyptian prison a few hours ago and deported. He flue to cypress where he is expected to continue to australia. He is said to be in good health. His colleagues Mohamed Fadel fahmy and Baher Mohamed are still in gaol in egypt, where they have been held for 400 days. Al jazeera welcomed peter grestes release, but said the campaign to free journalists in egypt will not end until all three have been released. Gerald tan respects. This was the most recent protest against the detention of al jazeera staff in egypt. At the end of the december marking a year since arrest journalists rallied in london and around the world sydney the hague, sarajevo. Its been a year of agony for the men. Peter grestes parents were in cairo, hoping for the release by christmas. To me giving him a hug at the end was difficult just to say goodbye and leave him for the rest of the day
russia. i live here, and i don t speak a word of russian. so that was my first problem. secondly, the book really follows the story of russia itself in 19 and early 20th century russia through emancipation, to industrialization, to all of the labor strikes, the fall of the czars and of course the russian revolution. and i have never studied russian history, another problem for me. as you probably figured out by now if you have tasted some of the moscow mule, walking in. this book is about a man who made vodka, and i am not much of a drinker. [laughter] so the question why would i write this book is a very good one. and the answer simply is it was just too amazing of a story to ignore. when i was the legal affairs editor for businessweek magazine in 1996, a man came to see me. and he brought with him a long white scroll that he unrolled on a conference room table there and it turned out to be a smirnov family tree going back to the 17 hundreds. and he began to tell me the st