Q AND A: OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS

Our team of seasoned correspondents answer your questions on world affairs and life on the road.

"It is possible to balance a professional career and a personal life, but it's not easy, due most of all to all the obstacles our jobs present to maintaining regular communication with friends, family, and partners."

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DON MURRAY'S WORLD:: DON MURRAY Savouring the tribulations of Becks and Sir Paul "Beckham's headlines are tiny in comparison to the main course. This is the divorce battle between Sir Paul McCartney and his wife, Lady Heather Mills. It has become nasty in a way only a celebrity battle can get." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM DON MURRAY

LETTERS FROM AFRICA: DAVID McGUFFIN The bizarre challenges of getting a visa for Sudan "This was one of my more extraordinary moments in getting the visas and other documents needed to travel in the world's far-flung places. It ranks up there with an episode during my time in Beijing. I got a phone call at midnight on a Friday from a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy. … 'Come to the embassy at six a.m.,' the diplomat told me. 'Six in the morning? Are you serious?' I asked. 'I am perfectly serious,' he replied." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM DAVID McGUFFIN

VIEW FROM EUROPE: NANCY DURHAM Riding Cornwall's wild surf "At the end of each weekday, teachers, shop workers, professionals, the upper classes, the middles, the workers, the unemployed all head for the sea, their boards tucked jauntily under their arms." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM NANCY DURHAM

RUSSIA FILE: NICK SPICER Who killed Anna Politkovskaya? "After Politkovskaya's killing in particular, reporters are feeling a major chill. Between the truth and your life, most opt for the second." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM NICK SPICER

HENRY CHAMP Report from America CBC Newsworld's Washington correspondent takes a peek behind the scenes on life in the American capital. » BLOG

MEXICO ELECTION: CONNIE WATSON Election has presented much change to Mexicans "If Lopez Obrador ever wants to be president of Mexico he has to be pragmatic now." » FULL COLUMN

MEXICO ELECTION DIARY: ALAN HABBICK Election over, suspense remains "In Canada, we take it for granted that the losers in a political contest will stand up on election night, make a graceful speech and then concede. Not so here, where Mexicans have very little experience with truly competitive elections, especially a bitter one like this year's presidential race." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM ALAN HABBICK

AFGHANISTAN DIARY: DAVID COMMON The comedy of translation "So, either this language is REALLY advanced and one word says all that, or the translating is doing something more than translating." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM DAVID COMMON

LETTER FROM THE ARAB WORLD: NAHLAH AYED Terror's hometown "'A Muslim who kills a Muslim will go to hell,' says Muhammed Hussein, the keeper of a tiny mosque where al-Zarqawi was apparently first introduced to conservative ideas." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM NAHLAH AYED

BRITISH VIEW: ANN MACMILLAN Health care, Swedish style "The reforms started in the 1970s appear to have paid off: Waiting lists have been reduced; there are state of the art hospitals and clinics and most health workers seem satisfied with pay levels." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM ANN MACMILLAN

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: GEOFF ELLWAND Making a mess of history "For some inexplicable reason — and who among us has not had the same difficulty in filling out a form — Colonel Cosgrove wrote his name not on the line above "The Dominion of Canada," as was intended, but on the line below. It was a blunder that set off a chain reaction, forcing the remaining signatories to sign below the place designated for their country." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM GEOFF ELLWAND

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: DEREK STOFFEL Chornobyl: 20 years later "The numbers tell of Chornobyl's chilling consequences. It's estimated that about five million people were affected by the nuclear disaster in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM DEREK STOFFEL

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: MIKE HORNBROOK Piracy in China isn't just DVDs and designer knockoffs. It's epidemic and it can be deadly "By the time the distraught parents bought their son to the hospital, there was nothing the doctors could do and the baby died. His formula was found to contain no more nutrients than tap water." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM MIKE HORNBROOK

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: CURT PETROVICH Even some of China's most savvy netizens practice 'spontaneous' self-control "There are no definitive numbers. But writer Yu Jie, a member of PEN China, says his organization has determined that more than 60 writers and journalists are behind bars for posting their work on the internet." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM CURT PETROVICH

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: PAUL HUNTER Why did Mohammed and his friends vote for Hamas? ' Fatah is corrupt' "The election result is not an endorsement of suicide attacks. It's a slap against Fatah and its apparent ineffectiveness and greed." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM PAUL HUNTER

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: MARSHA LEDERMAN Shanghai's western veneer doesn't hide its Asian soul "Shanghai looks very much like a western city. Chinese-style upward-curving roofs are so rare that they become instant photo opportunities for tourists. But scratch the surface just a little bit and you find a deeply Asian city." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM MARSHA LEDERMAN

VIEW FROM THE MIDDLE EAST: ADRIENNE ARSENAULT Fighting for the never born "The campaigns to end the aborting of female fetuses have already been to this village, to thousands of villages, but little seems to change." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM ADRIENNE ARSENAULT

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: TOM PARRY The top-secret details of Harper's Afghan visit "The prime minister's hush-hush mission to visit a small military base, in a Black Hawk helicopter flanked by gunships. His guard of elite commando troops, packing the meanest-looking firearms I've ever seen." » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM TOM PARRY

THE AMERICAS: NEIL MACDONALD A 'pure heart' in Haiti cares for country's forgotten children "'So whatever little money I have, I come here and I rent this place, and I fix this place with what I have, and I take those kids and I put them here. And that is all I can do right now.'" » FULL COLUMN | MORE FROM NEIL MACDONALD