Leaving Nairobi…but going elsewhere

Have decided to cancel my second trip to Somalia as the situation there has become too difficult to work. About 3 days ago the senior Shabab spokesman said that their group would start specifically targetting foreigners (i.e. white guys, not Ethiopians) in town, and I didn’t really fancy shelling out several thousand US dollars to sit in a hotel in Mogadishu for a week.
I am, however, headed off to Lebanon – circuitously via Jordan and Syria – and I hope to arrive on Tuesday. Will be in London on Sunday night so will post a link to my Sunday Times piece from there.
Some words on Lebanon by someone who knows a lot more about the place than I do:

No, this is not a civil war. Nor is it a coup d’etat, though it meets some of the criteria. It is part of the war against America in the Middle East. The Hizbollah “must stop sowing trouble,” the White House said rather meekly. Yes, like the Taliban. And al-Qa’ida. And the Iraqi insurgents. And Hamas. And who else?