American guitarist and composer Ry Cooder. Cooder produced a new CD by Ibrahim Ferrer (ph), one of the singers with the band. A new documentary film called "Buena Vista Social Club," produced by Cooder, tells the story of these musicians.
Dan Fesperman is the former Berlin Bureau correspondent for the Baltimore Sun 1993-1996. From there he extensively covered Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. He has drawn for his experience there for the setting of his new crime novel "Lie in the Dark." (Soho) It is about a Sarajevo homicide detective who must do his job while corpses pile up from the on-going civil war.
Mohammad Yunus is the founder one of the world's first "micro-lending" banks. These institutions loan money to poor people that other banks consider too risky. Founded in 1983. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has provided over 2.5 Billion dollars in micro-loans. He has written about his efforts in the new book "Banker to the Poor." (Public Affairs) He is the former head of the economics department at Chittagong University, in Bangladesh.