Tonight, “Only the Dead,” a documentary by my old Baghdad bureau chief Michael Ware premiers on HBO. I am both anticipating and dreading this documentary. Ware was already well established as the guy with the sources in the insurgency by the time I started my second Iraq journey in early 2004. I met him, Read More

BOGOTÁ, Colombia—Two years ago yesterday, I was awakened in Islamabad by an editor in Singapore calling me at 6 a.m. to tell me President Obama was going to make an announcement about Osama bin Laden. “What is it?” I asked blearily. “That he’s been killed,” he said, and waited a beat. “In Pakistan.”

Globalisation at work

Hello all! Long time, eh? Well, sorry about that. I was at sea when the world supposedly ended. Perth is the most isolated big city in the world. To the west, the endless tracts of the Indian Ocean, only interrupted by the bulk of Africa and Madagascar almost 7,000 km away. To the east,, Read More

VIENTIANE, Laos—Well, I wanted the adventure of slow travel, and with the Vientiane and the bus ride to Hanoi, I got it. It’s been a while since my last post. I apologize for that, but I’ve been writer’s blocked something fierce, and have only now started to get my head around the month I, Read More

When crossing the border to Cambodia on a visa run, I’m reminded that things are nebulous in the frontier regions.