Starting today, MSNBC.com and NBC News launch World Blog, www.worldblog.msnbc.com, which takes a dynamic look at the international stories, events and trends that are shaping our world. "World Blog" offers an unmatched breadth of coverage from NBC News correspondents, producers and staff around the world whose entries of text, video and photos explore news events from Beijing to Baghdad and beyond.
Richard Engel, NBC News Middle East Correspondent and Beirut, Lebanon Bureau Chief, has been a regular contributor to "Blogging Baghdad," NBC News' coverage of the stories behind the stories in the Baghdad bureau, since its inception one year ago. He wrote about a wide variety of subjects from the hopes and fears of the U.S. troops on the front lines in Iraq, to Iraqi friends and colleagues coping with the violence that has engulfed the country, to the increasing sectarian strife in the country that led to what some now call a civil war. Engel will continue this blogging effort with "World Blog."
"One of the most exciting things about blogging is that you get interaction directly from viewers and readers - sometimes angry, sometimes complimentary, usually no holds-barred. I've enjoyed that instant feedback," said Engel. "Expanding 'Blogging Baghdad' makes total sense. Just as the war in Iraq reaches beyond the borders, I think the way we cover the war in Iraq must think beyond the confines of the borders of this country."
"This is simply a natural extension of the outstanding journalism we've already seen from NBC News correspondents around the world," said NBC News President Steve Capus. "Given the overwhelming audience reaction to "Blogging Baghdad" there is clearly an appetite for this kind of in-depth analysis and reporting from our international bureaus."
"Baghdad Blog" (www.baghdadblog.msnbc.com) maintains its presence in a new special Iraq section within "World Blog." The past year's entries will be archived. "World Blog" can be found on MSNBC.com at http://www.worldblog.msnbc.com.