President Bush met the ruler of Dubai's falcons. Photo by Silva

by Mark Silva

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- They served goat brains on the buffet in the hold for pool reporters here today, but I cannot directly report what it tastes like -- read on for a review.

Air Force One landed at Dubai at 10:54 am local. A gauntlet of military men, some in green uniform, some in white, lined up at the bottom of the stairs. Also men in robes, with the ruler of Dubai among them. A very large and very long gray hangar stood behind them.

Bush came down the stairs and greeted the ruler with a cheek kiss and the soldiers raised their rifles and clicked their heels on the tarmac as the POTUS and the ROD stepped through the line and toward limos.

The motorcade rolled from the palm and flower gardened airport under overcast skies and proceeded along a causeway past the downtown skyscape - with the towering bulding, Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, among the line of the modern city.

We passed an Ikea and an Ace hardware, a Volvo dealer and a Honda dealer. As we arrived at the sheikh's house, the Sheikh Saeed Maktoum House, named for the ruler from 1921 to '58, a traditional structure of coral covered with lime and plaster, we entered a courtyard covered with a tan tightly knit carpet, and there were large red Persian rugs laid out above the carpet, with wooden benches lined up facing the rugs.

As we were led in we saw Bush arriving from an interior door to the courtyard, where he was greeted by six young girls - they must have been under nine, because at nine they must go under cover and these girls were not covered but rather wearing bright gowns - half of them in fuchsia and half of them in turquoise.

"Hi girls," said Bush, arriving to their greeting, as they burst into song. Their hands were henna'd with designs and Bush remarked on their "beautiful hands."

After the song, two stepped forward with baskets of flowers and said "Welcome to Dubai."

The girls who greeted Bush and the ruler of Dubai are younger than nine, for at nine they must cover their heads.

A maze of security barriers at the Convention Center at Darling Harbor, ready for next week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney, the largest political gathering Australia has ever hosted, with security unprecedented. AP Photo by Rob Griffith.

by Mark Silva

The Pacific Rim summit in Sydney, Australia, next week is likely to mean one thing for the people of one of the world's most beautiful harborside cities: A virtual lockdown.

The security surrounding summits of 21 presidents and prime ministers can make for gridlock, but this one will be Australia's biggest ever, with 16-foot fences raised around some of Sydney's downtown buildings in preparation, and President Bush's motorcade alone is street-clogger.

David Speers of Sky News asked Bush about this as he prepares to depart for Sydney next week. "A lot of Sydneysiders are complaining about the impost of APEC,'' the reporter told Bush, "in particular your security detail and how that will affect the city for a week while you're there, almost a week while you're there. Do you have any message for them?

"Well, first I'm looking forward to coming to the beautiful city, and to the extent that I inconvenience them, I apologize,'' Bush said. "I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about, in terms of ...

"The security lockdown in the city,'' the reporter explained.

"Thank you for sharing that with me,'' Bush said. "I got a lot on my mind, and one of the things that's on my mind is I'm looking forward to coming to one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If I inconvenience people, that's not my intent. My intent is to represent my country in an important meeting in a country that I admire a lot and a country with whom we've got great relations..

"I hope people understand why it's done,'' he said of the security, "and I just hope it doesn't disrupt their lives too much.''

by Mark Silva

WELLFLEET, Mass. -- Sometimes politics, when viewed from afar, has an other-worldly appearance to it.

We've been about as far as we could get with the family car this past week, parked in the pine and sandy woods of Wellfleet, half-way up the upper arm of Cape Cod and midway between an old warm harbor and ice-cold ocean.

Sailors on the horizon. Most photos by Silva.

by Mark Silva

BAMAKO, Mali – “Woof, woof, woof,’’ said Jenna Bush, daughter of the president, smiling as she handed reversible hand puppets of Kitty, the first cat, and Barney, the first dog, to giggling children in the shade of a school courtyard.

Here with her mother, First Lady Laura Bush, to showcase the educational support with the United States is lending to some 700 schools in Mali, this marked the closing of a four-day African odyssey campaigning against disease and for education.

In Mali, a landlocked nation of 12 million nearly twice the size of Texas and mostly desert or semi-arid, it is neither AIDS nor malaria that poses the greatest problem – though a malaria eradication program sponsored by the U.S. is getting underway here.

by Mark Silva

ROME -- Of all cities, where some of the cobblestone streets are little wider than the automobiles that attempt to navigate them, this was the last place that needed the sort of traffic jam generated by the visit of an American president known for an unpopular war.

President Bush even apologized for his impact on the traffic here, during a press conference with the prime minister of Italy. Judging from a journey that we attempted to take to a restaurant on the final night of our stay here, the impact was nothing short of gridlock.

Thousands of war protesters and others with causes on their minds -- can you say globalization? -- had amassed in Roma for the president's visit. And so had thousands of police, not only the polizia of Rome, but also the carabinieri of Italy. Carrying shields, helmets and automatic weapons, the police girded for protesters carrying only a message or two.

It was a perfect storm of protest and police -- enough to make our evening journey to a restaurant by the river a 90-minute walk over what proved to be little more than a 10-minute cab ride home to the hotel near midnight. "Impossible, impossible,'' said one driver, when told where we hoped he might take us. So we hoofed it. But, oh, what we saw along the way:

Fontana di Trevi: The one where everyone throws coins. It was Saturday night, and everyone was feeling lucky. All photos by Mark Silva

by Mark Silva

VATICAN CITY – Greeted by the archbishop of the Pontifical Household and a line of Technicolor-suited Swiss Guard on the cobblestone – and on this cloudless and warm, sun-splashed day -- San Damaso courtyard of the Vatican, President Bush arrived for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.

Inside today, the pope gave the visiting president a 17th Century lithograph of St. Peter's Square and a gold medallion, and the president gave the pope a walking stick that a former homeless artist in Dallas had inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The pope also was heard to inquire about the president's recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they had discussed a defensive missile shield for Europe.

"Sometimes I'm not poetic enough to describe what it's like to be in the presence of the Holy Father,'' Bush, who had visited Pope John Paul II during the president's re-election campaign in 2004, said during an interview with European press before departing for this weeklong tour of Europe.

"It is a moving experience. And I have not been in the presence of this particular Holy Father. Obviously, three visits with the last great man, and I'm looking forward to this,'' Bush said of Benedict XVI. "I'm looking forward to hearing him. He's a good thinker and a smart man. I'll be in a listening mode.''

Bush has been in a talking mode for much of an eight-day tour that started in Prague, continued in Germany for the three-day summit of the Group of Eight nations and carried him briefly through Poland – site of the missile battery that Bush proposes for a new European defense network -- before arriving in Rome.

He will close the tour, touting his "freedom agenda,'' with stops Sunday in Albania and Monday in Bulgaria before returning home. And this being Saturday, there is little recreation time for the moutain-biking president, still recovering from a stomach bug. "I have not heard that he is going to ride a bike here,'' said Dana Perino, deputy press secretary. "It's kind of hard here in Rome.''

The Swiss Guard inside the Vatican. All photos by Mark Silva

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:30 am CST

SYDNEY -- You must be Americans, the man collecting tickets at the cable-car at the zoo said. Yes, we replied.

"That's your vice president passing by,'' the man said, pointing to a virtual armada of yacht and patrol boats and gun-rafts crossing the harbor beneath the watchful eyes of helicopters above.

Yes, we replied with a smile.

"Pathetic,'' he snarled.

So much for the "rock-solid'' relationship between Australia and the United States that Vice President Dick Cheney was touting this morning in a press conference with Prime Minister John Howard.

But the zoo is pretty darn good. A gorilla brawl broke out while we were there.

This is the armada that Prime Minister Howard assembled for Vice President Cheney, as seen from the harborside zoo at Sydney. Photo by Mark Silva

Posted by Mark Silva at 9 am, updated at 11:49 am, 1:05 pm and 5:18 pm CST

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, protecting the speaker of the House has become a more important national priority – and that's all the White House has to say today about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's kerfuffle-stirring bid for an airliner-sized military jet for her long commute from Washington home to San Francisco and back.

The 12-seat corporate-styled jet that the Department of Defense provided for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert for his commutes home to Illinois isn't suitable for the long haul to California, says the House -- now seeking an aircraft capable of a nonstop commute between D.C. and the Golden Gate. (Scroll on to see Pelosi, in her own words, explaining the airplane flap -- and suggesting she could live without the security.)

With the Department of Defense promising the new speaker a bigger ride, pending availability of the military's markup of the Boeing 757-200, the White House is attempting to stay out of the air-space of a story that is causing the Democratic House leader a bit of eyebrow-raising publicity today -- as some House Republicans cry foul over this particular frequent flyer's seating request.

"This is a silly story, and I think it's been unfair to the speaker,'' Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, said today. "I'm not getting into this argument. .. This is much ado about not a lot.''

This is a model of the military aircraft the House wants for the new speaker's nonstop Washington-San Francisco route.

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:01 am CST

HANOI – I set out on the back of a motorbike early this morning for a hair-raising ride into the heart of the old French quarter of Ha Noi, headquarters of colonial occupation by a nation that learned the painful way what it would take the United States another 20 years to learn about the depth of Vietnamese nationalism.

In the three decades since the Americans, and before them the French, departed this land, the Communist-run regime has discovered the benefits of Western capitalism, Ha Noi teeming with the commerce of one of Asia's fastest growing economies. Yet the government here has not relinquished its grip on personal liberties, restricting religious worship and freedom of speech. Before my bike ride, I spoke with an activist for democratic reforms who spent two years in prison and two in house arrest for translating an American document about democracy – and who says he was pulled out of his home yesterday again and beaten.

The way one crosses the street here is to step out into traffic. They steer around you. Photo by Mark Silva

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:10 am CST

HANOI – After Sen. John McCain, then a young Navy pilot, was shot down over Hanoi during the Vietnam War, he spent more than five years here as a prisoner of war. The POWs called one of the legendary confinements here, now long gone, the "Hanoi Hilton.''

Outside the Sheraton Hanoi today, President Bush, the second American president to visit since the war, paused to reflect on his thoughts about coming here – including what lessons might be derived from the war in Vietnam for the current debate over the war in Iraq. "We'll succeed unless we quit,'' Bush replied.

John McCain was shot down over a lake like this one in Hanoi. President Bush drove by that lake today, calling it a "poignant'' moment. Photo By Mark Silva

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 4:09 p.m. CDT

N'DJAMENA, Chad – Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) flew out of this central African capital early today, bound for Frankfurt, Germany. He was scheduled to arrive in Chicago this afternoon.

In a two-week trip to Africa, he visited the countries of South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Chad. A side trip to Congo was cancelled at the request of the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, which was consumed with the violent fallout of the presidential elections.

As he returned from touring the Miles Refugee Camp in eastern Chad yesterday, he reflected on the trip in an interview with reporters. He spoke over the loud buzzing of a United Nations propeller-driven airplane.

"Visiting Nelson Mandela's cell," he said, "was a highlight for me personally."

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 1:57 a.m. CDT

ABECHE, Chad – Since he was elected, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has talked frequently about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Yesterday, at the conclusion of his two-week trip to Africa, he spent nearly 90 minutes touring the Mile Refugee Camp near the Sudan border.

As he flew back to the city of Abeche, the midway point between the camp and the capital of Chad, Obama answered a few questions from reporters about what was one of the most substantive stops of his African journey.

Q. Are the United Nations and the United States doing enough?
A. "Unfortunately, the international community has not put its shoulder behind the wheel and there hasn't been any clear leadership from any of the great powers. The United States has done better than Europe on this issue, but better is not good enough."

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 9:01 a.m. CDT

N'DJAMENA, Chad – The final stop of Sen. Barack Obama's two-week trip to Africa is approaching as he arrives in the capital of this central African nation today and prepares to fly to a remote camp near the Sudanese border to visit refugees who have been driven from their country by violence.

Before visiting the Mile refugee camp tomorrow in Guereda, located in eastern Chad, Obama is scheduled to meet this afternoon with Idriss Deby Itno, the president of the Republic of Chad. The two will have a private discussion in the presidential palace, followed by a brief photo opportunity. (We're headed there now, we'll check back a little later with an update.)

Here in the Chadian capital, which is pronounced ja-MAY-na, there was far less hustle-and-bustle before Obama's arrival as in Kenya last week. There were, in fact, barely any outward signs of his impending visit on the dusty streets of this city in southwestern Chad, which sits on the Chari River.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 10:33 am CDT

MASAI MARA, Kenya – When the lion finally lifted its head, the mouth and whiskers were colored blood red. It was the shade of wildebeest blood, a pinkish stain that came from eating a carcass only moments after suffocating it here on the flat plains.

As though a live episode of Wild Kingdom was unfolding, it was impossible to turn away as the lion gnawed through the brown, brittle hide of a wildebeest that got snared. The lion didn't roar, but heartily ate its dinner before an audience of a half-dozen jeeps filled with camera-toting tourists.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 8:26 a.m. CDT

MASAI MARA, Kenya – It's the height of migration season here on the Mara, the time of year between July and September when an untold number of animals move from the Serengeti in Tanzania to this colossal game reserve across the border in southern Kenya.

Elephants, lions, buffaloes, rhinos and leopards – considered the must see, big five – make their trek across sweeping, grassy plains that stretch as far as the eye can see. Giraffes, gazelles, wildebeests and zebras do, too, creating a spectacle of nature paralleled by few places in the world.

One day last week, the management at Basecamp Explorer on the Mara received an unexpected telephone call from the Kenyan military. A guest of the Kenya government – an official state visitor – would be coming.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 6:20 a.m. CDT

NAIROBI, Kenya – As he prepared to deliver a public speech today about government corruption here, Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) said a free and aggressive press plays a critical role in holding governments accountable around the world.

Obama visited the offices of The Standard, a daily newspaper here that was ransacked earlier this year after reporting aggressively on corruption in the Kenyan government. He has made corruption a central theme during his visit to Kenya, the home of his late father.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 11:15 a.m. and updated at 4:45 p.m. CDT

NAIROBI, Kenya – As Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) toured the largest slum in all of Africa today, a place called Kibera, crowds of people began gathering in the narrow streets.

In a neighborhood spread out over 2.5 square kilometers, an estimated 700,000 Kenyans are squeezed in. There is no running water, only sporadic electricity and temporary tent-like houses that have long outlived the word by which they were named.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 12:58 p.m. CDT

KISUMU, Kenya -- When Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) landed here today, he stopped by a group of Peace Corps volunteers to say hello and have his picture taken.

It's not uncommon, of course, for traveling American politicians to say hello to those serving throughout the world in the Peace Corps. But it is uncommon for a Chicago Cubs baseball hat to creep into the photo opportunity.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 9:45 am CDT.

A seven-day trip that a Chicago congressman took to Sri Lanka last year turns out to have been paid for by a group that has been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization and employed suicide bombers. The funding source was reported today in a Tribune story, excerpted below:

Davis' Tamil trip scrutinized
Terror group funded visit, law officials say

The five-term Democratic congressman said he was unaware that the Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional disclosure form he reported that the trip was paid for by a Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, based in Hickory Hills, Ill.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 9:23 am CDT

NAIROBI, Kenya – Pardon me, but do you know what time Obama is landing?

That was the question posed by the young taxi driver, not hiding the fact that he has been obsessed with Sen. Barack Obama's trip to Kenya. The local newspapers announced that he would be arriving today, but the time was uncertain.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 7:12 am CDT

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Sen. Barack Obama's planned visit to the Congo this week has been canceled, as violence surrounding the country's presidential runoff election intensifies.

"There was a formal request from the U.S. Embassy in Congo to suspend our visit because of violence in Kinshasa that has tied down embassy personnel and assets," said Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for Obama.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 8:10 am CDT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Thanks, but no thanks, Oprah.

That's what Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) said he told Oprah Winfrey when she asked if he wanted to hitch a ride here aboard her private jet. The talk show luminary is in Africa, too, paying a visit to a girls' school she helped build.

Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 7:35 pm CDT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- A six-country, two-week African odyssey for Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) began here tonight as he arrived on the western coast of South Africa a few hours after sundown.

While he received little fanfare when landing in Cape Town, intense preparations have been underway throughout the weekend at his ancestral village in Kenya. So as Obama and his entourage of Senate staffers, military aides and a handful of reporters were flying here tonight, we rang his family in Kenya to check in on how plans were going.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Tuesday, July 25, as collected by the Associated Press.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues her journey through the Mideast seeking an end to the Israeli warfare with Hezbollah.

President Bush is meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Posted by Mark Silva at 8:42 am CDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - It's hot in St. Petersburg today.

It's muggy.

And the Customs lines at the aging Pulkovo International Airport terminal are really long.

But I'm not in the lines.

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:05 am CDT

ROSTOCK, Germany - Let the adventure begin. I am about to fly into Russia without an entry visa.

The White House, which handles the processing of visas for people traveling with the president, handed me my passport as I boarded the plane bound for St. Petersburg today. Flipping through the pages, I searched in vain for the certificate that most of my fellow travelers are carrying in their passports.

After some scrambling and cell phone traffic, our escorts found that the Russians had not placed a visa in my well-worn passport for lack of two open facing pages.

Posted by Mark Silva at 3:10 pm CDT

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany -- The Baltic Sea beach outside the resort hotel in Heilgendamm where President Bush is spending the night is closed to sea-bathers for the duration of Bush's stay here, per orders of the mayor.

Bush is arriving this evening at the Kempinski Grand Hotel -- and they aren't kidding about the name, Grand -- on the shore of the Baltic in the tiny resort of Heiligendamm.

Good morning.

Here are a few Washington events of note for Thursday, June 22, as compiled by the Associated Press.

President Bush is meeting with Hungarian officials before flying home to Washington.

The Supreme Court is meeting and likely to hand down more decisions as it heads toward the conclusion of its yearly term at the end of the month.

10 a.m. TEEN DRIVERS — The AAA Foundation holds a news conference to release new research showing safety measures that significantly lower death and injury crash rates for teen drivers.
Location: National Press Club.

The Senate Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee holds a hearing on the AT&T-Bell; South merger. 3 p.m.

Posted by Michael Tackett at 8 am CDT

CAIRO--It was a Tuesday with Mufti.

Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, a wise man of the Muslim world, was holding forth in a rare interview with American journalists, on the campus of al-Azhar University, a 1,000-year-old college of Islamic doctrine. Lean and standing more than 6-foot tall, with a serious and authoritative mien, he is one of the most important religious figures in Egypt and his views are respected throughout the Islam.

Posted by Michael Tackett at 7:05 a.m. CDT

CAIRO -- A half an hour's drive from downtown Cairo, on what used to be desert, Egypt's version of Silicon Valley has risen.

There are palm trees and fresh sod grass along the concrete walkways and the new roads are lined with gleaming government and private sector buildings. One even has a glass pyramid entryway, as a metaphor for the old and new Egypt.

Posted by Michael Tackett at 6:17 a.m. CDT

CAIRO -- The six young men sat in the corner eager to talk. They were students at the al-Azhar Shari'a College, budding scholars of Islamic law.

They were making the case that Americans badly misunderstood their faith. Their elders seated nearby said they were "saddened" that Islamists were seen as terrorists by the western media.

The students were an eclectic mix -- a South African and a Nigerian among the Egyptians.

The university has been considered a leading authority on Islamic law for 1000 years. It is also an incubator for thought among young Muslims. Their smiles and niceties soon gave way to harder edged more pointed views about the United States.

Posted by Michael Tackett at May 2, 2006

CAIRO-Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, the man who oversees the Pyramids, the Sphinx and other major sites in Egypt, knows his history. Though he is emerging as a world figure for his aggressive efforts to retrieve stolen antiquities from museums and private collections around the world, he also had some thoughts about the war in Iraq.

"When you went into Iraq, I said Mr. Bush, you will never make a democracy," Hawass told a group of reporters on fellowship here sponsored by Johns Hopkins University's International Reporting Project. "You need dictatorship."

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:15 am CST

NEW DELHI -- Reader beware: I am about to take you shopping on the streets of New Delhi.

If you have no interest in what I bought for my wife and children, how much I paid for it, how I fended off the street-beggars who spotted an easy mark but wouldn't take 50 rupees as a gesture of goodwill, then move on to another blog, baby. If you're game, read on.

Posted by Mark Silva at 10:15 pm CST

NEW DELHI -- The agreement between President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Singh on the sharing of nuclear technology is "a deal.... a very big deal.''

So says The Times of India in a banner headline this morning -- yes, it's Friday morning in New Delhi, and there's got to be a morning after any deal such as the one that Bush and Singh announced here.