Against the odds, Team USA tied the Italian powerhouse in tonight's World Cup match. Italy had been overwhelmingly favored to win by something like 3-0.  I watched the game in the hotel lobby with a British chap from BBC and a few Iraqis who were rooting for Italy (boo!). 

But one thing that hasn't changed is Baghdad. You can always bet on bombs. Seven car bombs went off within 5 hours today. And we just barely missed one.  I was with my team going to a travel agent so I could buy an airline ticket to get the hell out of dodge. Within a few minutes of leaving our compound, a car bomb exploded near the Baghdad National Theater. We were a good mile away when it went off but that caused chaos in the streets. Within minutes, the Iraqi police and Army had closed down all the roads and caused a bottleneck of traffic. We couldn't go forward or backward. And sitting still makes you a, well, sitting duck.

Finally my drivers found some side roads and down we flew, making so many turns that I thought we were going in circles. I have a mediocre sense of direction as it is so now I was totally lost until I saw some familiar sights. Two hours of traffic nightmares behind us, we gave up and went "home" to our fort.

Finished two stories today. And a job application.  More details TK.