Where in the world?

Moldova.

That's where I am this week. It's for an investigative reporting training seminar and some promotion of investigative reporting in a place where government is not enamored of it -- and this is a far piece away. Moldova used to be part of Romania, then it was part of the old USSR, but since 1991 it's been an independent republic,itself subject to ethnic division. A breakaway region called Transdniestria has declared independence but it did not have the support of Kosovo breaking away from Serbia and no one's recognized it. The place has it's own money and army, but is essentially an organized crime enterprise. Moldova is mostly known in Europe as a center of trafficking in woman and smuggled cigarettes. Ripe area for investigative reporting.

So here is Moldova -- a little landlocked place between Romania and Ukraine.