THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS

Dr Moayad Hamad used to be a heart surgeon. In fact in 1996 he was the first doctor to see Uday Hussein, Saddam’s son, when he was brought in to hospital after an assassination attempt. Uday had been shot while...

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March 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

War in the Cold

It is cold in the mountains of Kurdistan at this time of year -- very cold, with deep snow on the slopes. We flew up to Erbil and drove to the town of Zakho, which is up near where Iraq...

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February 29, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

When Is Safer Safe?

In a city that has been living through outright carnage and mayhem for so long, how do you know when things are getting better? Or more importantly, how do you know it is safe to go outside? Well, first off,...

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December 13, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

TWO ROADS DIVERGE

We flew to Jordan last week from Baghdad to see another face of the US in the Middle East – and how young Arabs’ lives can go in such totally different directions, depending on what they are exposed to in...

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December 10, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Statistics Never Lie-- Do They?

The statistics keep coming in, with the same message – violence continues to drop in Iraq. 37 US troops killed so far this month in Iraq – that is over one a day, but a big drop from the 126...

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November 30, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Baghdad's Montagues and Capulets

We spent some time yesterday with Luay Rudha, a 31 year-old plumber, and his new bride, Eman Jabbar, 30. I am not given to sappy metaphors, but their story seemed uncannily like an Iraqi version of Romeo and Juliet. Luay...

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November 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Golf in China

As we walked out to the first tee of the Palm Beach golf course in Fengxian, 20 miles outside Shanghai, one of the businessmen I was playing with said casually that he was - as usual - offering 50,000 renminbi,...

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October 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Future Dragons

He is four months old, 16 pounds and he smiles a lot. And Feng Shilong - nicknamed Long-long, "dragon dragon" - was probably born at the best time yet for a Chinese baby. His mother, Hong Lei, works for an...

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October 25, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

A Foreigner in China

It is not often you get to make a decision that will change your life. Sonya Gerber faced one of those moments last year - all of 21 years old, fresh out of Purdue with a degree in hotel management,...

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October 23, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Pull of the Land

Average commuting time from home to work - 70 hours. Such was the case for Wu Guangfu, a 30 year-old from Wushan on the Yangtze in central China. For the past 10 years or so Wu has been working as...

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October 22, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)