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Come here for my thoughts on places in the headlines, people who live behind or beyond front lines and who live ordinary lives in extraordinary ways
02:25 UK time, Saturday, 19 January 2013
In every war, the battle to control the narrative can be as fierce as the conflict on the ground.
That's been the story of Syria, and a growing war which has seen all too many horrific massacres.
20:13 UK time, Wednesday, 16 January 2013
The fabled city of Damascus, the sweet "City of Jasmine", is now being squeezed by an ever-encroaching war.
Queues for the basics of life - bread and fuel - grow ever longer.
22:50 UK time, Monday, 14 January 2013
The new buzz word when it comes to finding a political way out of Syria's crisis is "transition". That's what major external actors including the United States and Russia talked about when they met in Geneva last spring - "a Syrian-led transition".
The problem is, no-one agrees on what it means and where it goes.
05:24 UK time, Monday, 14 January 2013
Not a single Syrian refugee child we met in northern Lebanon was dressed for winter. None had warm coats, or mittens. Some didn't even have shoes.
Tiny hands were pink with cold in temperatures near zero. Like children anywhere, their hands still stretched out to greet us when we trudged up a hillside in the Bekaa Valley to reach the snowbound concrete blocks they now call home.
16:51 UK time, Friday, 11 January 2013
It's hard to go anywhere in the Middle East these days without hearing mention of Qatar.
The oil-rich Gulf state is putting its vast wealth behind an ambitious assertive new foreign policy. At home, one of the world's richest countries is trying to diversify away from oil and gas to develop what it calls a knowledge-based economy.
18:59 UK time, Wednesday, 9 January 2013
When President Bashar al-Assad spoke defiantly on Sunday about a Syrian political solution without "foreign interference", many asked what was left of international mediation led by the UN and Arab League's envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.
"I don't know about my job," Mr Brahimi told me in Cairo. "But I don't know what it has done to his job."
17:14 UK time, Sunday, 6 January 2013
No sooner did the loud effusive chanting inside the Damascus Opera House subside, than an angry chorus rose from other capitals. A rare presidential speech in the midst of a dangerously deepening crisis only widened the divide.
"Allah, Souria, Bashar ou Bas!" (God, Syria and Bashar are enough) they shouted in a packed hall as President Bashar al-Assad ended a live televised address in which he mocked a revolution that plunged his country into war, and called for dialogue only with those who "have not betrayed Syria".
11:56 UK time, Friday, 4 January 2013
As 2013 gets under way, I've been thinking about some of the people I met over the past year. One conversation I particularly enjoyed was with one of India's greatest historians, 81-year-old Romila Thapar.
When she was a young woman her father gave her a choice - he could afford a dowry or pay for her degree, but not both. Prof Thapar chose the degree - and has never looked back.
11:39 UK time, Friday, 14 December 2012
Egypt's draft constitution has 63 pages and 236 articles on everything from individual rights, religion, and the role of the state. It's hard to read, harder to understand, but it's easy to see why it's causing such a storm.
And the people of Zagazig seem to take it seriously.
15:24 UK time, Monday, 10 December 2012
Two years ago this month, Mohammad Bouazizi, a young fruit and vegetable seller in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, made headlines around the world when he set himself alight, sparking a revolution in his country and a wave of Arab uprisings.
The Tunisian town of Siliana is just as poor, and resident Hamdi Garmzi just as desperate. But no-one is taking much notice.
09:37 UK time, Monday, 10 December 2012
A warm welcome to my new page here on the BBC News site. This will be the home for my thoughts on events and issues in the worlds I cover from Cairo to Kabul, New Delhi to New York, as well as highways and byways in between and beyond.
It's also a place where you can see my television reports, hear my radio stories, find out about my fellow travellers. And you can also post your comments too - please do.
Lyse has been reporting for the BBC for nearly 30 years, with posts in Abidjan, Kabul, Islamabad, Tehran, Amman and Jerusalem. In 1999 she joined the BBC's team of presenters but most of her time is spent going back to regions where she lived, and also discovering new ones too.
Lyse often presents from the field for BBC World News, and the BBC World Service's flagship Newshour programme, as well as the News Channel. She works as a correspondent too, reporting across the BBC's global and domestic TV and radio outlets. She also writes for BBC online and posts - judiciously! - on Twitter and Facebook.
Lyse feels at home in many places but is still Canadian. She was educated in Canada, at Queen's University, and the University of Toronto, and has been awarded several honorary doctorates as well as major journalism awards.
Katty Kay
Presenter, BBC World News
The power plays in Washington and beyond
Damian Grammaticas
China correspondent
The people, power and politics of China
Andrew Harding
Africa correspondent
Reports, updates and analysis from across Africa
Mark Urban
Diplomatic and defence editor, Newsnight
Insights into the the global struggle for peace and security
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