Category: Insight

It’s thirty years since, on the White House lawn, the historic American-brokered Palestinian-Israeli deal called the Oslo Accords was signed (September 13 1993. It came into force one month later.) We recall the angry, insightful last interview given by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as the deal was collapsing.

6 September 2023 By Paul Martin

RAMALLAH, West Bank — When Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gave his final interview to a Western newspaper, the first question — sent over in advance — was supposed to be: “Mr. Arafat, where were you born and where did you grow up?” “No,” an aide told two reporters me and a fellow-reporter, “not allowed.” Even […]

Another disaster at the huge Ukrainian dam…

7 June 2023 By Paul Martin

The Soviets blasted the hydroelectric dam wall in the southern city to slow the Nazi advance. The explosion flooded villages along the banks of the Dnieper River, killing thousands of civilians. A handful of Zaporizhzhya residents are battling for the recognition of the little-known wartime tragedy. Ukraine suffered heavy losses both during World War II […]

A top UN official urges ‘immediate and urgent’ appointment of inspectors to regulate the Bangladeshi garment industry.

5 May 2023 By Paul Martin

Correspondent.World intends to follow up this 2013 story to see what progress has been made. By Paul Martin (also published in The Independent). The United Nations’ top official in charge of labour has urged Western nations to “immediately and urgently” appoint hundreds of inspectors to control the disaster-prone low-cost garment industry, half of whose exports […]

In his final interview, Arafat cultivated the image of a survivor. An historic, tense encounter revisited.

4 May 2023 By Paul Martin

By Maria Cedrell and Paul Martin in Ramallah, 2004. When Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gave his final interview to us, we had to supply a list of proposed questions. The first question was supposed to be: “Mr. Arafat, where were you born and where did you grow up?” “No,” his aide told us. “Not allowed.” In the life of a […]

The photographer and the Prince. A special photo-fit friendship that’s lasted through the decades.

3 May 2023 By Paul Martin

Exclusive: By Paul Martin. Holding a cup of tea, or raising a glass of wine, Carole Cutner is ready for the Coronation. From her living-room, she will say ‘Three Cheers!” and swear allegiance to the man she helped catapult to international stardom. Carole was a photographer who in the mid-1970s got Charles onto the cover of […]

A paramedic’s close brush with death. He was struck by shrapnel from a Russian rocket in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine’s most viciously contested town. And survived.

18 April 2023 By Paul Martin

Exclusive.   A woman was lying bleeding heavily on the road at a bus station in Bakhmut, the centre of an epic ongoing battle for control of an already largely-devastated town in eastern Ukraine. She had been hit by artillery an hour earlier.    Maksym Vainer, a 29-year-old paramedic, was scanning the skies for any incoming artillery or […]

It’s thirty years since South African anti-apartheid firebrand Chris Hani was assassinated, nearly plunging the country into civil war. Still, has the full truth emerged?

10 April 2023 By Paul Martin

The Communist Party of South Africa, which retains an alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC), is demanding that an investigation is reopened to question Chris Hani’s killer Janusz Walus. The murderer is still alive and living in South Africa. He escaped death late last year after being stabbed by a fellow inmate days […]

South Africa’s most infamous murderer will linger longer in jail. If he gets parole in 2024, Oscar Pistorius will find he’s still severely restricted.

30 March 2023 By Paul Martin

By Paul Martin. (Photos copyright Correspondent.World) South Africa’s ‘Correctional Services’ (formerly Prisons) authorities intend to transfer Oscar Pistorius from his current jail near Pretoria to another facility, now that he has been ordered to say in prison for at least another year. Meanwhile he will be moved to a wing that has already been improved […]

Why convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius cannot admit he deliberately killed his girlfriend — even if that’s the truth. That admission would stop him being awarded parole and a limited form of freedom, says his parole lawyer.

30 March 2023 By Paul Martin

June Steenkamp, mother of the murdered Reeva, is demanding an admission by Oscar Pistorius that he knew his target was Reeva, not an intruder. But Pistorius cannot accept June Steenkamp’s ‘s demand that he admit he killed her daughter in a rage, according to Pistorius’s parole lawyer.    She is to confront him for the first time […]

Going fast in the bazaars of post-invasion Iraq: rocket grenade launchers that can bring down a helicopter.

29 March 2023 By Paul Martin

The war in Iraq got rid of Saddam Hussein’s regime — but soon insurgents were able to cause instability and chaos. Our correspondent Paul Martin was shocked to discover he could buy rocket launchers and other weaponry at bazaars in Baghdad… and how easy it was to smuggle the weapons past checkpoints. Here is his […]

Fired by NBC, hired by The Mirror. As Baghdad was falling 20 years ago, the legendary Peter Arnett thanks Correspondent.World’s editor Paul Martin and the ex-Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

21 March 2023 By Paul Martin

By Peter Arnett Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in the Vietnam War, legendary journalist Peter Arnett recalls witnessing theinvasion of Iraq from inside Baghdad, reveals the inside story of how he was fired then hired, and describes some of the US blunders, including the killing of three journalists. Article and Photos Copyright Peter Arnett / Paul […]

Mistake after mistake — by our Foreign Office.

20 March 2023 By Paul Martin

British documentary film-maker and journalist Paul Martin, detained in Gaza in 2010, says the Foreign Office keeps making the same mistakes when dealing with academics or reporters locked up by tinpot dictatorships. He says the FCO’s incompetence or lack of care puts prisoners in danger. The wife of Matthew Hedges says the Foreign Office endangered the […]