NPR has long been dedicated to foreign news coverage. In recent years, when most news organizations were cutting back their foreign news operations, NPR has been dramatically expanding theirs.
As an example, with permanent bureaus in Islamabad, Istanbul, Kabul, Beirut, Cairo and Jerusalem NPR has produced comprehensive coverage of the continued implications of the Arab Spring.
But this is nothing new - it is an ongoing dedication to the news - and recently NPR News announced several new hires and appointments for its Foreign Desk.
Leila Fadel will join NPR as a Foreign Correspondent. She comes to NPR from the Washington Post, where she was the bureau chief in Cairo. While there Fadel covered the wave of revolts and their aftermaths in Syria, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. She covered the Iraq War for nearly five years, receiving the George Polk award in 2007 for her reporting from Baghdad. Fadel will begin her NPR career in Cairo.
Gregory Warner is joining NPR as its East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, beginning in December. In the interim John Burnett will have the East Africa assignment. Warner is currently a senior reporter for Marketplace where he covers the economics and business of health care. He previously reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Congo.
NPR'sCorey Flintoffwill become the new Moscow correspondent, staring in July. In recent years, Flintoff has covered the revolutions in Egypt and Libya, the way in Afghanistan, and before that, the Iraq War. He's most recently been a correspondent for Digital News.
And, to wrap up, here's a little fun fact: NPR opened its first foreign bureau in London in 1979, and Robert Seigel was there to see it happen.