Anger

In the midst of unthinkable loss, Malcolm Astley has shown extraordinary grace. Given the awful details of his daughter Lauren’s murder, one could easily forgive the Wayland man for declining to speak publicly about losing her. It would be perfectly reasonable, too, for the father to step up to the microphones and rage at his loss. Or to rail against Nathaniel Fujita, the ex-boyfriend accused of taking 18-year-old Lauren from the world. Astley has done none of these things.

They are some of the best known, highly paid people in the country, whose opinions are documented continuously by the press and consumed ravenously by the public. But unlike others with similar wealth and influence, professional athletes seldom venture into politics, generally keeping their views and money on the sidelines this election season. In Boston, only one of 188 players listed on the rosters of the Red Sox , Patriots , Bruins, and Celtics has made a political donation during the current presidential election cycle.

Fire Sale , By Sara Paretsky, Putnam, 416 pp., $25.95 In "Fire Sale," Sara Paretsky's 12th V.I. Warshawski mystery, the Polish-Italian private investigator softens but doesn't mellow. V.I. has lost some of her sharp edges but none of her righteous anger. The primary target of that anger is By-Smart (a thinly disguised Wal-Mart ), but V.I. takes some powerful jabs along the way at misguided moralists who turn a blind eye to the consequences of teenage pregnancy, jaded school administrators who offer little and expect less of the students in their charge, and one particularly...

Lady Gaga wants to go shopping in Bangkok — for a fake Rolex. The singer made the comment to her 24 million Twitter followers, sparking an online uproar Thursday in Thailand where some fans called it offensive, insulting and bad for the country's image. It's the latest publicity-making turn of events as "The Born This Way Ball" travels through Asia. Lady Gaga's provocative lyrics and costumes have angered Christian groups in South Korea and the Philippines and Islamists in Indonesia, where the show may be banned.

Pro-austerity Germany is not the flavor of the month in debt-crippled Greece. Sentiments ranging from anger to downright hatred dominate Greeks' view of their country's biggest international creditor, according to a poll in Thursday's Epikaira magazine. Asked to identify their main feelings on Germany, 41 percent of respondents named anger, indignation or fury. An additional 30 percent ranged from disappointment and fear to revulsion. Total positive sentiments were just 8.6 percent.

Opinion polls indicate London's outspoken, but well-liked, mayor Boris Johnson is on course to retain City Hall in British elections and lead the capital during the Summer Olympics. Votes were being cast Thursday for mayors in London and two northern cities, and for about 180 municipal authorities in England, Wales and Scotland. While Johnson leads opinion polls, his colleagues in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party — which heads Britain's coalition government — are braced to lose hundreds of local seats.

WASHINGTON -- Christie Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was bombarded yesterday with boos, hisses, and a host of accusations at a congressional hearing after insisting it was safe to breathe the air around the ruined World Trade Center in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks . The confrontation grew heated at times, with members of the audience shouting in anger, only to be gaveled down by the hearing chairman,...

A man blamed for a 2009 fire that destroyed a coffee shop where topless waitresses worked has been found guilty of arson. A jury convicted Raymond Bellavance Jr. on Friday after deliberating for four hours. Prosecutors said "anger and jealousy" caused Bellavance to set fire to the Grand View Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, where his former girlfriend worked as a waitress. Deputy District Attorney Alan Kelley told jurors Bellavance was "a volatile man" who was quick to anger because his former girlfriend was having a relationship with the shop's owner.

I had tickets for the Sox game against the Devil Rays on September 18, 2001. It was Boston's first game after 9/11, falling in that period where everything seemed as if it was made of sand, as if it could all fall at any moment. I recall the game was tense, with everyone furtively looking to the sky and an element in the crowd chanting, "Kill bin Laden!" in the space usually occupied by "Sweet Caroline. " But I also remember being relieved at the return of a bit of normality. The game felt like a small victory building to a big one. Today, as the United States marks the 10th anniversary of the attacks on New York and...

Mudvayne’s new self-titled album is steeped in anger. In this case, anger, like Rage Against the Machine told us, is a gift. The music’s surly angst provides some cohesion to an effort that mines many sources. As with its previous release, Mudvayne uses some less abrasive hard-rock elements to leaven the caustic sound it arrived with nine years ago. Yet this is also an album reaching out to all those fans of Pantera, Korn, and Marilyn Manson wondering where the ’90s went. Bringing mellower, more melodic counterpoints to a core of nu-metal bombast makes Mudvayne’s fifth studio album at times...

Bryce Harper's frustrated swing cost him a little blood and a little embarrassment, but no time on the field. The teenager was lucky. Harper took out his frustration on a wall Friday night, slamming his bat hard against the side of the tunnel leading to the clubhouse. The barrel smacked off the wall and hit his temple just above the left eye, causing a gash that needed 10 stitches after a 7-3 win over Cincinnati. He was in the starting lineup again on Saturday night, wearing a white bandage over the lump just above his eyebrow.

Lee Hanson became deeply angry as the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and co-defendants tried to undermine their arraignment on 3,000 counts of murder at a military court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hanson's son, daughter-in-law and 2-year-old granddaughter, the youngest 9/11 victim, were killed in the terror attacks over a decade ago. All were aboard United Flight 175, the second plane to crash into the twin towers. "They praise Allah. I say, 'Damn you!"' said the silver-haired retiree from Easton, Conn.

Opinion polls indicate London's outspoken, but well-liked, mayor Boris Johnson is on course to retain City Hall in British elections and lead the capital during the Summer Olympics. Votes were being cast Thursday for mayors in London and two northern cities, and for about 180 municipal authorities in England, Wales and Scotland. While Johnson leads opinion polls, his colleagues in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party — which heads Britain's coalition government — are braced to lose hundreds of local seats.

PARIS - The annual May Day demonstrations took on special resonance across Europe on Tuesday as tens of thousands of protesters turned out amid rising anger over enforced austerity that many see not as a cure to the region's fiscal troubles, but as a deterrent to economic growth and job creation. In Spain, trade unions estimated that more than 1 million people had taken part in protests across 80 cities, with the largest gatherings in Madrid and Barcelona. While organizers said 100,000 protesters had shown up in Barcelona, the police offered a starkly lower estimate of 15,000.

DHARAMSALA, India - He walked three times around the rural monastery he had attended as a small child, cycled into town, and had a simple vegetarian meal with a friend. Then 22-year-old Lobsang Jamyang excused himself to go to the bathroom. Inside, he doused himself with gasoline. When he emerged, he was already in flames. Jamyang then ran a few yards to the intersection at the center of the eastern Tibetan town of Ngaba, faced its huge main Kirti monastery, and shouted slogans calling for Tibetan independence from China and for the return of the Dalai Lama,...

Boston University's independent student newspaper came under intense criticism Monday for an April Fools' edition that made light of rape, just a few months after highly publicized sexual assault cases roiled the campus. The top story: "Seven frat dwarves were arrested last night after they allegedly drugged" and sexually assaulted a female Boston University student, identified as the "fairest of them all. " It included a picture of a cocktail that Snow White had been drinking, which had been spiked with a date-rape drug.

The chairs at the Charlestown Working Theater should have seat belts so everyone seeing "Almost Asleep" can buckle in. Julie Hébert's play, produced by Molasses Tank Productions, is a short, intense ride through one woman's psyche. Five actresses play different elements of the woman's mind as she revisits the links between an interaction with her boss at work and a traumatic rape she lived through at her own doorstep. In less than an hour, Hébert's script shreds the protective covering of the woman's life and shows her hurried attempt to repackage herself with bandages...

What Is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 , By Kenneth R. Feinberg, PublicAffairs, 213 pp., $24 On Sept. 11, she was told her brother had survived the World Trade Center attacks, but just barely. He had suffered burns on over 90 percent of his body. She and other family members kept vigil beside his hospital bed until he died four days later. Two days after his funeral came another devastating call. It was the medical examiner's office.

Like on any other day, Bus 48 rolled through the center of Jamaica Plain past the shops and popular restaurants on Centre Street, then turned and passed the rows of houses and apartments on Lamartine before reaching Jackson Square. But for the dozen or so afternoon passengers, it was no ordinary trip Wednesday afternoon. In addition to their grocery bags, portable push carts, and canes, the mostly older group carried a sense of betrayal: Bus 48 is on the chopping block. The route is among four the MTBA plans to eliminate as it seeks to close a $160 million deficit for the upcoming budget year.

Kazakhstan wants a probe of how a parody of its national anthem instead of the genuine song was played at an international sports competition. Kazakhstan's Maria Dmitrienko won a gold medal Thursday at the Arab Shooting Championships in Kuwait. But during the medal ceremony the public address system played the spoof anthem from the comedy movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a film that offended many Kazakhs by portraying the country as backward and racist.