People of Timbuktu Save Manuscripts

This great story explains how a 72 year old librarian saved over 2000 Timbuktu manuscripts from Islamist fundamentalists intent on destroying them. Certain that the fundamentalists would not pay mind to an old and illiterate man with a cane, Abdoulaye Cisse began loading manuscripts onto millet sacks that were on their way to market. And from the market, they were taken by lorry, then motorcycle to the banks of the Niger, and then driven by car to Mali's capital, controlled by the government. That distance, according to the AP story,  is over 600 miles. It all reads like a great thriller. I may even give my kids a copy of the story when we study Africa and Timbuktu in a month. The NY Times also has a good story about the manuscripts.