Edward Girardet is a journalist, writer and producer who has reported widely from humanitarian and war zones in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. As a foreign correspondent for the and US News and World Report based in Paris, he first began covering Afghanistan several months prior to the Soviet Invasion in 1979. Since then he has traveled throughout much of the country, often by foot. Girardet has written and edited several books, including "Afghanistan-The Soviet War." An avid outdoors-man, he has produced numerous television current affairs segments and documentaries on subjects ranging from the war in Angola to lost tribes in Western New Guinea and conservation in Africa for major North American and European broadcast networks, such as the BBC and PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. Girardet is currently editor of Crosslines Global Report and President of the International Centre for Humanitarian Reporting, a Geneva-based media foundation.