Every year the president determines how many refugees will be allowed into the United States for permanent resettlement In 2001 President Bush set the number at 70 000 But in the wake of Sept 11 the government decided to carry out a security review of the refugee screening process and shut down

I first began reading Ian McEwan when Black Dogs came out a decade ago subsequently I started collecting and reading all his novels Combining a shrewd narrative sense with acute psychology he often manages to pick subjects that push him and his reader into the borderlands of ordinary life where t

In 1998 just before he turned 50 Edward Gargan did what any normal Vietnam-era c o former Berkeley Ph D candidate in medieval Chinese history New York Times foreign correspondent and bureau chief West Africa India and Hong Kong and current Newsday Asia hand would do for a midlife sabbatical

With Popes and Politics Justus Lawler has written two books His first four chapters analyze recent works about Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust His final three chapters address issues of church renewal and reform So massive has been the devastation inflicted on the memory of Pius XII by Rolf Hochhu

In the course of 50 years in and out of the theatrical spotlight Vincent Harke the Dominican priest who founded the renowned Department of Speech and Drama at The Catholic University of America in Washington D C attracted a host of admirers One of them a graduate of the department Mary Jo Sa

In his 40th year Chris Offutt took his wife and two sons home to the hills of eastern Kentucky so he could teach creative writing at Morehead State University his alma mater which he confesses was more of a high school with ashtrays than a genuine college Even the location was not much just a