Global Affairs Correspondent, News Anchor, Producer and Consultant
The former Czech President, playwright and poet Vaclav Havel died on December 18, 2011 at the age of 75. He’d been in ill-health for several years. A prominent dissident who at one point spent 5 years in jail for his beliefs, he led the 1989 Velvet Revolution that saw Soviet dominance of Czechoslovakia come to end, and went on to choreograph the...
On August 19th 1991, the Soviet people woke to news of an attempt to overthrow President Mikhail Gorbachev, the architect of “glasnost” and “perestroika”. The coup, led by the so-called “Gang of Eight”, brought Red Army tanks onto the streets of Moscow. Russian leader Boris Yeltsin led attempts to rebuff the coup plotters, and...
In 2012, Simon will be covering his 5th US Presidential election and his reports from the campaign trail and the Democratic and Republican Party conventions will be seen and heard around-the-world. Back in 2004, Simon covered the Bush-Kerry campaign for FSN’s clients including FM4 Radio in Austria. On February 4th, he appeared on the station’s...
In March 2001, the British farming industry was battling to contain a widespread outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that was devastating the rural economy. More than 2,000 cases of the disease were identified, leading to the slaughter of more than 10 million sheep and cattle. The outbreak not only threatened the livelihoods of farmers and their employees...
At the end of a dramatic year that witnessed an attempted coup against his rule, and the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party’s authority, President Mikhail Gorbachev bowed to the inevitable on December 25, 1991. In a ten minute address to the nation, he officially resigned from his position as Soviet President, and by the end of that...
In August 1990, South Africa’s democratic dispensation still seemed elusive. Nelson Mandela, now freed from prison, found himself battling not only the National Party government led by President F.W. De Klerk, but also the Inkatha Freedom Party led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. On August 24th, the government declared a State of Emergency in 27 townships,...
