A Very Scary Day To Be A Journalist in Egypt

Brooke Baldwin narrated a summary of the harrowing experiences some of the CNN journalists who were covering the violence that erupted in Cairo today experienced.

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Egypt in Crisis

Wolf Blitzer, Isha Sesay and Anderson Cooper, from Cairo, will anchor a 2 hour special on CNN Sunday evening from 9-11 PM ET.
A partial list of CNN boots on the ground in Egypt includes Cooper, Ivan Watson, Ben Wedeman, Nic Robertson, Arwa Damon and Frederik Pleitgen plus scores of producers, cameramen and stringers.

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Drugs in Kabul; Freedom for "The Shoe Thrower"

Nic Robertson visits an opium den in Kabul as government officials try to prevent an addiction epidemic from bringing on an epidemic of HIV/AIDS:

Cal Perry reports by phone on the release of Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then-President George Bush last year and has been jailed ever since:

A second report from Cal and we now have video of him with the family; however, there is no homecoming for the released journalist, who was immediately flown out of the country for the sake of his security and for needed medical treatment:

Ben Wedeman talks to Egyptians about al-Zaidi, who worked for a Cairo-based television station:

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Here's a look at some upcoming interview highlights, courtesy of the CNN Pressroom:

CNN Continues to Deliver More Newsmakers

CNN continues to deliver more newsmakers with a stellar lineup of A-list interviews, including:

Sunday, Sept. 20: John King’s wide-ranging interview with President Barack Obama will air during the 9 a.m. (ET) hour of State of the Union with John King.

Sunday, Sept. 20: In Fareed Zakaria’s exclusive interview with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian president laid out his problems with the U.S. missile defense shield plans. The interview airs on GPS at 1 p.m. (ET).

Monday, Sept. 21: Christiane Amanpour launches Amanpour. on CNN International with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke discussing the issues underlying the powder keg that is Afghanistan -- the war there, the growing power of the Taliban, the fraud charges surrounding the recent election, and the tough road ahead. [Amanpour. will air on Sundays at 2 p.m. ET on Domestic starting September 27th; I will be including a recap of the program in my Monday posts.]

That's it for me today -- sorry I had to use the embedded clips, but I'm still having cable issues... and sadly, it's Time-Warner Cable giving me these headaches!

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Whack-a-mole

Sunday Nic Robertson visited with Don Lemon in the Atlanta NewsRoom. They discussed the whack-a-mole offensive going on now in Pakistan:

On Friday, Don spoke to Reza Sayah in Islamabad about the significance of the attacks this week in Lahore and Peshawar as well as the difficulties in fighting suicide bombers:

Also Friday, John King hosted The Situation Room and spoke with Fareed Zakaria about the bombing of one of the campaign offices of President Ahmadinejad in Zahedan, Iran:

As President Obama was preparing to host Palestinian President Abbas this week, Ben Wedeman gave us an overview of what the call for "settlement freezes" is all about. (Being able to actually SHOW the viewers these things is why CNN is the best at international coverage, period.) He also explains why a current Israeli development plan may effectively end the possibility of the two-state solution:

Finally, a lighter note... John King talks to Richard Quest about Prince Harry's trip to New York City and why the trip is so important for a young man whose image was badly in need of some growing-up:

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Where in the World...?

MONDAY (MEMORIAL DAY): Morgan Neill reported from Tokyo. TJ Holmes was in for John Roberts; Alina Cho was in for Kyra Phillips; Drew Griffin was in for Rick Sanchez; Suzanne Malveaux was in for Wolf Blitzer; Kitty Pilgrim was in for Lou Dobbs; Ryan Seacrest was in for Larry King (probably pre-taped last Friday). No Bias, No Bull was pre-empted for a replay of the "Time 100 Most Influential" special; Anderson Cooper 360 was pre-empted for replays of "Extreme Challenges: The Next 100 Days" and the "Time 100 Most Influential" specials.

TUESDAY: David Gergen was on from Wilmington, North Carolina. TJ was in for John Roberts; Alina was in for Kyra; John King was in for Anderson Cooper.

WEDNESDAY: Reza Sayah was on from Islamabad; Ed Henry was at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, where he was covering the president's trip; Ali Velshi was in Detroit covering the GM developments. A piece ran of Zain Verjee at the DMZ between North and South Korea, but it may have been filmed on her last trip there? TJ was in for John Roberts; Don Lemon was in for Kyra; John King was in for Anderson.

THURSDAY: Fred Pleitgen was on from London. Rob Marciano was in for John Roberts; Alina was in for Kiran Chetry; Don was in for Kyra; Kitty was in for Lou; John King was in for Anderson. Roland Martin subbed for Campbell Brown for the final time (for this maternity leave, anyway...). Cal Perry tweeted that he was wrapping up his rotation in Baghdad and heading back to Beirut; Phil Black will be covering the next rotation.

FRIDAY: John King was a guest on Ed Henry's radio show. No Bias, No Bull was pre-empted for a special from Ali Velshi and Christine Romans titled "How the Wheels Came Off." Rob was in for John Roberts; Alina was in for Kiran; Don was in for Kyra; John King was in for Wolf; Kitty was in for Lou; Joy Behar was in for Larry King; John King was in for Anderson, completing today's trifecta and making him an official Ironman of CNN Domestic!

SATURDAY: all quiet.

SUNDAY: Nic Robertson was in Atlanta; Ali was in Toronto (above).

That's it for me today. See you Thursday!

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Monday catch-up

This morning Kate Bouldan updated the latest information on American journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been sentenced to 8 years in prison in Iran on charges of being a spy:

The Committee to Protect Journalists has several articles

on the Saberi case on their Iran page.

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This morning, John Roberts spoke with Michael Hastings, who has written an article for GQ magazine on the current status in Afghanistan:

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Ben Wedeman reports on a tomb near Alexandria that may hold the remains of Antony and Cleopatra:

Ben's article for CNN.com is here.

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Finally, from this weekend's edition of Your $$$$$ (and considering the state of the economy, shouldn't that be re-titled $$$ or $$ by now?) Ali Velshi and Christine Romans talk to Richard Quest about internet piracy, car-scrapping schemes, and Susan Boyle:

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Reza Aslan will be on AC360 tonight; he is also on The Daily Show tonight, and his new book is out tomorrow! All good stuff!

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Mullah Matchmaker

Reza Sayah is still reporting from Tehran, and on Friday did a piece about a mullah who has set up a matchmaking service so that young Iranians can find a mate while still observing Islamic law:

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Zain Verjee reported on the auction for some items that belonged to Mahatma Gandhi. The auction was controversial because the Indian government felt the items should rightly belong to the people of India:

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A look at how the economic crisis is affecting the global economy, specifically unemployment. First, Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem, Anjali Rao in Mumbai (and the graphics department REALLY wants us to know where Mumbai is!), and Dan Rivers in Bangkok:

Matthew Chance in Moscow, Jim Boulden in London, and Emily Chang in Beijing:

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Where in the World...?

SATURDAY: Randi Kaye was in the NewsRoom for Fredricka Whitfield.

SUNDAY: Randi was in for Fredricka again.

MONDAY: Jill Dougherty was in Jerusalem with SecState Clinton. Roland Martin was in for Campbell Brown.

TUESDAY: Paula Newton reported from Kabul; Stan Grant was in Lahore to report on the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team; Jeffrey Toobin was in San Francisco.

WEDNESDAY: Fredricka was in for Tony Harris.

THURSDAY: Sanjay Gupta was in Los Angeles; Kitty Pilgrim was in for Lou Dobbs.

FRIDAY: Jill was in Geneva; Kitty was in for Lou; Anderson Cooper was off and Ali Velshi hosted a "Money Summit" program in place of AC360.

That's all for me today... if you're in the US, don't forget to "spring forward" tonight!

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Ups and Downs

So if you're in Davos for the World Economic Summit and need a metaphor for the current global financial mess ... well, all you have to do is step outside! Richard Quest quite literally hit the slopes last Monday to explain it all:

Last Wednesday, Ben Wedeman reported from Jerusalem on the status of the truce in Gaza and the meetings going on with US Special Envoy George Mitchell:

Thursday Zain Verjee was in The Situation Room to talk to Wolf Blitzer about President Obama's upcoming world travels:

Havana Bureau Chief Morgan Neill was visiting "the Mothership" Friday and spoke with Kiran Chetry about the latest from the Castro brothers -- Fidel wants the US to give Gitmo back to Cuba, and Raul is visiting Russia. Well, it's nice to have Morgan get airtime with something other than hurricanes:

Michael Ware was up bright and early for the second hour of American Morning today and talked to Kiran about Saturday's provincial election in Iraq:

Michael stuck around the Time Warner Center and spoke to Wolf about the Iraqi elections and the "graveyard of empires" that is Afghanistan:

That's a wrap for me -- hope everyone is keeping warm; since Punk Phil has promised/cursed us with six more weeks of this nasty winter, I think it's time to throw another log on the fire!

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Gaza update

Here is a sampling of some of the reporting from this weekend...

Nic Robertson talks to Fredricka Whitfield Saturday afternoon:

...and with Wolf Blitzer as the latter sat in for Larry King Saturday night:

Hala Gorani introduces a Ben Wedeman piece that looks at the training site where the IDF prepared for the ground incursion:

Wolf talks to Christiane Amanpour during Late Edition yesterday:

Rob Marciano talks to Ben this morning:

An interesting interview from Sunday's GPS: Fareed Zakaria speaks with Michael Oren, an author (and teacher) who is also a reservist in the IDF. During the interview, a beeping can be heard which would seem to possibly have been a warning that the satellite feed was about to be lost...:

And here is the resumption of the interview:

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Dispatches from the Middle East

It was an unusually hectic week in the Middle East, and CNN correspondents were on top of a lot of events...

YEMEN 

On Wednesday, Peter Bergen appeared on AC360 to discuss the suicide bombing in Sanaa, Yemen:

The next day, Ben Wedeman was in Sanaa and toured the site:

(Ben also wrote a short blog report on it, which has a great line in it about CNN's ability to get access:  Aftermath of a suicide bombing)

IRAQ

Cal Perry is back in Baghdad,  and on Monday he reported on SecDef Gates' arrival for the handover from General Petraeus to General Odierno:

On Tuesday, Cal did a background piece on Odierno:

Friday, Cal reported on a soldier whose family is desperately trying to learn his fate. Apparently, he was murdered by one of the men under his command:

(For some good news coming out of Iraq, read the article by Dexter Filkins that ran in yesterday's NYT: Back in Iraq, Jarred by the Calm)

SAUDIA ARABIA

Octavia Nasr reported on a fatwa leveled at Mickey Mouse...

PAKISTAN

Saturday, a truck bomb nearly brought down the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. Nic Robertson reported early from Jalalabad:

Sunday afternoon, Reza Sayah did a follow-up that included the surveillance footage of the truck burning in front of the hotel:

And Sunday night, Dan Rivers did a further follow-up and discussed how the interior of the hotel looked:

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and may not be used without consent of the blog administrator.