THE SLIT in the rock wall is not much to look at: A two-foot wide gap that disappears into blackness. But passing through the nondescript entrance opens up a network of caves and a small insight into the world of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

This was once a subterranean hideout. The militants are gone now. Their bedding and a few clothes are all that is left, strewn on the rocky floor where they dropped it and ran – or were killed. One passageway extends from the back of the cave, rising up to a foxhole where fighters could rain bullets and mortars on the advancing Pakistani army. (read more)

The caves of Bajaur have become a regular day trip for journalists as the Pakistani military tries to persuade the world of its commitment to tackling homegrown insurgents. This part of the world, the tribal agencies along the border with Afghanistan, are the territory of the Frontier Corps and you can understand the frustration of their leaders when Hillary Clinton questions whether Pakistan is still shielding Osama bin Laden. General Tariq Khan, the Frontier Corps' Inspector General, has lost 600 men in operations to clear these areas of militants.

Another report out today though once again questions whether Islamabad is sincere. Analysts at the Rand Corporation highlight links between the militants and Pakistan's security apparatus. And it also questions whether successes like Bajaur will be long lasting...

Jones and co-author Christine Fair of Georgetown University say that Pakistan's army and Frontier Corps have failed to demonstrate a consistent ability to clear and hold territory for long periods. While Pakistan has undertaken a number of operations against insurgent groups since 2001, the study finds the successes are short-lived and do not address the long-term threat.

My time with the Bajaur Scouts and the Khyber Rifles in the past month suggests there can be no doubting their desire to rid their areas of militants. And there seems to be changing of attitudes within government, suggesting reduced support for the Jihadi groups once favoured as an unofficial arm of foreign policy. However, until the Frontier Corps have the tools to hold territory and Islamabad moves in with development in such impoverished areas, the militants will retain a toehold.

At  the moment diplomats get a “wear and tear” allowance for crockery, glasses  and cutlery that they serve at dinner and cocktail parties. This payment will go as will an outdated fee for “wasted food”. FCO officials  explained that in a number of countries diplomats were given an allowance to  cover food that went rotten after power cuts affecting fridges and freezers.

Any ideas on a decent machine that will withstand a bit of bumping around (I know the optical drive will pack up after a while - but they are useful when you are on the road and someone has a disc of pics etc) and costs less than £500?

This year is a crucial year for Sudan. Elections in April and a referendum on independece for the South at the start of 2011 could cement  a shaky peace deal or plunge the country back into crisis.

Saving Darfur is my very personal attempt to chart how we came to this point.

I spent five years living and working in Africa. The more time I spent there the more I became interested in the debate about how to best fix the problems of its many troubled nations. In particular, how do the different roles of humanitarian aid and advocacy fit together? The complementary but sometimes contradictory efforts of aid workers and campaign groups seemed most problematic in Darfur, something I've tried to explore in my book Saving Darfur and in various blog posts or comment pieces relating to Africa, ethics and activism.

It is of course a universal debate. To what extent can raising awareness of a crisis, of warning about human rights abuses, damage efforts to deliver aid? When do you condemn a government and when do you keep quiet so that your workers can get the visas they need.

George Galloway's troubled Viva Palestina convoy brought the issue to life in my new patch, the Middle East. On Friday, he was booted out of Egypt by a government he had repeatedly accused of blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. No-one familiar with his style would be surprised. He is that sort of politician. But he leaves behind heightened tensions along the border between Gaza and Egypt, and a government in Cairo that says it will not longer allow aid convoys through its territory. As Al Jazeera reports...

Egyptian authorities have announced that all aid convoys travelling to Gaza will be banned from travelling across Egypt after a riot broke out at the Rafah border crossing earlier in the week. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil.

What was Galloway's aim? Was it to deliver 200 hundred trucks of aid? Or maybe to raise awareness of the suffering that continues inside Gaza? A bit of both? Either way, it is far from clear that the people of Gaza are any better off.

This was my Christmas Eve feast. And a new challenge is unveiled - the hunt for the best felafel. So far Afteem, just around the corner from Manger Square in Bethlehem, is in pole position. The fat, golden balls arrived fresh from the fryer, the outside crisp and crunchy and the inside was soft and glowing green with herbs. (You don't get that when the whole thing is squashed into a pita.) The cumin levels were just right.

Alongside are a plate of hummus - naturally - and some mutabbal. Wasn't so keen on this combination of tahini and aubergine. Surely grilled aubergine just needs some lemon juice, olive oil and garlic? Anything more is just overegging things.

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman's Office is to begin drafting computer experts with an eye toward establishing an Internet and new media department unit, Army Spokesman Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu said Monday. 

Speaking at the Eilat Journalists Conference, Benayahu said the new department would focus on the Internet's social media networks mainly to reach an international audience directly rather than through the regular media.

Facebook and twitter are two targets but I'm not expecting to see entries along the lines of, IDF has found an orphaned polar bear. Can you help IDF by adopting it? 

I haven't done a very good job, but in my posts about Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan I've tried to avoid using a know-it-all, old-Africa-hand tone. But the truth is that from the moment they were kidnapped it was obvious that they had only themselves to blame. There's nothing wrong with throwing yourself in at the deep end and pushing yourself to the limits to bring back back an otherwise unreported story. The problem is when you put other people at risk through naivety and inexperience.

The hack pack in Nairobi had never heard of Lindhout and Brennan when they disappeared. That in itself was a bad sign. Anyone heading to Mogadishu should take a few days talking to people who know the place - the Somali journalists exiled to Nairobi, the international press corps who have parachuted in and out, and the NGOs and UN agencies who try to keep aid flowing into a broken country- to find out the latest security information. 

Hotels in Mogadishu come in and out of fashion. Who has the best security and which part of the city is free from shelling?

Which stringers are operating in Mogadishu, and who has the best contacts and feel for the situation in the ground?

These are the sorts of thing you learn to ask over weeks and months reporting from increasingly hostile places. My first trip to Somalia was carefully organised by the United Nations. There were two more trips to Baidoa, at a time when it was relatively stable. Only then - and at a time when the fighting had calmed - did I feel confident enough to make a trip to Mogadishu.

In contrast, Lindhout and Brennan seemed unprepared for what they faced.

This piece in The New York Times sums up the lure of wars for the newbie...

Wars have long provided a way into journalism for some adventurous aspiring reporters (as well as death, kidnappings and injury for others). And courageous, if inexperienced, freelancers have brought important stories to light that might otherwise have gone unreported.

But it goes on to spell out how the pair lacked experience 

Robert Draper was already in Somalia on an assignment for National Geographic when Ms. Lindhout and Mr. Brennan arrived. Mr. Draper said that it was apparent that she had been the driving force behind their trip. She had met Mr. Brennan backpacking in Ethiopia. While Mr. Brennan was in Somalia as a photographer, Mr. Draper said, it was not clear whether he had ever sold any photographs.

“She was eager to make a name for herself, and I don’t say that as a negative,” Mr. Draper said. “But a lot of the early and intermediate steps one does to become a journalist, she bypassed. Amanda was very eager to go where the action was.”

They were released after 15 months. But not without a hefty chunk of cash being paid to their kidnappers. Paying up is the only way to get people out. Yet once again the armed gangs are richer and emboldened. Journalists mean cash. And for the long suffering people of Somalia, the two-decade cycle of violence shows no signs of ending.

However, this story suggests the Palestinians may be missing a trick. 

Three does are all that remain of the famed herd of 25 native gazelles that once lived in Emek Ha'tzvaim ("Gazelle Valley"), in the heart of Jerusalem. But yesterday, after a public struggle lasting nearly almost a decade, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Council gave final approval to a plan aimed at ensuring the does' future and enabling the repopulation of the herd. The council rejected the claim by two nearby kibbutzim, Ma'aleh Hahamisha and Kiryat Anavim, over the land and voted to leave it as open parkland.

So, if you want to stop the building... first find your gazelles...

It's wonderful news that the two journalists kidnapped last year in Mogadishu have been freed today after 15 months. The dribs and drabs of news coming out of Somalia have at times suggested Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan might not survive. Both had been desperately ill and rumours circulated constantly that, with little prospect of a ransom, their kidnappers might simply decide to shoot the pair and call it a day. There are other horror stories that may or may not be confirmed in the days ahead.

But for now the main thing is that after $1m was reportedly paid for their release, the two are free and back at the Sahafi hotel - ironically the scene of another kidnapping this year.

Good news for both, although I dread to think what emotional and physical scars the two will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Now I just pray that no-one else ends up in the same situation. The press pack in Nairobi - of which I was until recently a part - always treated Mogadishu with the utmost respect. We only went if we knew we could do it safely. Too often though we were surprised by the attitude of others parachuting in. Veterans of Baghdad and Kabul assumed they'd seen it all. They hadn't. Mogadishu may as well be on another planet. Here are some things to think about and some lessons to learn:

• Money talks in Somalia - whatever you think about the ethics of paying money to gunmen, this is the only way to get people out
• Diplomats have few links on the ground - negotiations apparently went nowhere for months as clueless Australian and Canadian officials dealt with numerous intermediaries with no connection to the hostage takers
• Mogadishu is dangerous - no-one has control. There are no green zones or security consultants to hide behind. Don't trust anyone you are paying. All kidnappings involve someone on the inside
• Journalists are targets - no-one is going to believe any "I'm here to tell your side of the story" nonsense
• Mogadishu is dangerous - if your fixer says to you, "They are saying bad things," then leave. Don't stay for one more snap
• Everyone knows everything and everyone knows nothing - one colleague arrived in Somalia a few years back to learn that his arrival was the second item on the radio news. At the same time, if people want to disappear you, they can. Easily
• Mogadishu is dangerous - bloody dangerous. People get killed even when it is "safe"

There are ways of operating in Mogadishu. There are good fixers and stringers who can help. There is a wealth of information and advice from experts in Nairobi. But if you don't bother asking around and taking the temperature then you only have yourself to blame. Sometimes - but not always - the place is simply best avoided. No story is worth your life.

UPDATE ***

Here's what Amanda Lindhout has to say about her ordeal:

"My day was sitting on a corner on the floor in a room 24 hours a day for the last 15 months," she said.

"There were times that I was beaten, that I was tortured. It was an extremely, extremely difficult situation."

xx crossposted from my South of West blog xx

Foreign bureaux are shrinking. The days of the linen-suited staff foreign correspondent are gone. That's sad and probably means foreign coverage is getting patchier. But it means there are more opportunities for motivated, well-organised and professional stringers - reporters who file to multiple outlets. 

Now I'm starting again in Jerusalem, and as I wait for the phone to start ringing I've been thinking back to the lessons learned over the past five years. So here's how to make it as a stringer:

1. Learn it - you've been an accounts manager in a small stationery firm in Slough and fancy a change? This isn't going to work for you. Get proper experience at a real news organisation. Learn how print, radio or TV news works. Learn how to pitch a story. Learn how to write it, record it, file it. Learn how editors think. You don't want to be learning on the job when the job is in 50C heat of the Danakil Depression with a deadline and gunmen looming
2. Bust it - be on call all day and all night. Never say no. Don't turn your phone off. Somone wants a story, then give it to them. They have to call someone else because you have a nice lie on the fifth fairway and they won't bother interrupting you next time. I've sat on newsdesks where editors have rolled their eyes at the prospect of calling an unrealiable, awkward or alcoholic stringer. Be Mr Available
3. Read it - local papers are dull: full of boring council meetings and interminable political wrangles. But if you're not reading them you'll never spot the nib that says a British man has been found dead in a hotel room or the second sentence that happens to mention that police are questioning two women. Lots of stringers don't bother. Idiots
4. Meet it - stories come from contacts, right? Get out and about. So the conference sounds dull, or the activist comes across as a nutter? You never know when they might come in useful. What else are you doing? Probably not much in those first few weeks. And make friends with the snappers and the wire guys while you're at it. They know what's happening long before you do
5. Blog it - chances are you'll have time on your hands when you're starting out. Maybe no-one wants to buy your stories just yet. Write them anyway and stick em on your blog. It gets you out and about reporting When a radio producer needs someone in Lubumbashi in a hurry, they might just find your name on google. Tweet it too. You're not just a writer, you're a businessman. Advertise. I've got work and story ideas from twitter
6. Slum it - you wanna be a feature writer for The New York Times? Forget it. Sure they might come calling, but don't be too snooty at first. Be realistic. Take work, any work so long as the publication is not going to put off other clients. Getting editors to trust you is half the battle. Once your name is out there, albeit in smaller publications, bigger news outlets are more likely to trust you. Oh, and drop the middle initial - it looks daft
7. Flog it - never, ever forget that you are running a business. Someone hasn't paid? Chase em. Keep yourself and your expenses organised and tidy. You aren't going to change the world, or reinvent Gonzo journalism. This is your job, your living, your livelihood - not your calling. Write stories that will sell, not ones that sound like a PhD title or a development thinktank's press release. Make sure you get paid and don't lose your receipts (my own particular weakness)
8. Whore it - an editor wants your arse, he can pay for it. So until they pull out the cheque book and pay you a juicy retainer there's no problem with selling your stories around. Be sensible though. Don't stitch people up. Build relationships with editors so that you know what they want and can expect them to call when they need a hit in a hurry. They'll want to know they can count on you. But at the same time, remember they'll happily use someone else if they can. You find Lord Lucan riding Shergar in the Timbuktu carnival? Go to the biggest payer but remember...
9. Structure it - if you've got a big player using you, then use them to underwrite trips, guarantee your safety and cover your back. Bad things can happen to exposed stringers. Put your big player at the top of your list. Give them the best of your stuff. Organise the demands of your other strings around them. Everyone is a winner when you can share the expenses around a bit
10. Do it - it's a jungle out there (particularly if you base yourself in the Democratic Republic of Congo). But if you are any good you'll survive. It's the ultimate meritocracy - no room for pedestrians. And if you work really hard, run things like a business and follow these tips then you'll be set on the ride of your life. There's no rewriting press releases or being stuck on diary, like you would back home. You'll be kicking news in the nuts - and occasionally having it vomit on your shoes

Shashank has resurrected Obamarama over at his Somewhere in Africa blog so after a couple of weeks driving past Pizza Obama I decided to pay the place a visit.

It had a fridge full of beer and racks of thin crust pizza - along with a Kosher certificate and what I have learned is a mezuzah. The name was popular at first but less so now that Washington has managed to displease both the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government over the issue of settlements. 

"I have customers from both sides," said owner Isaac Azencot. "Now they are all telling me I must change the name."

There's no chance of that though.

"Maybe there will still be peace and everyone will be pleased," added Isaac.