NEW DELHI, India – It's not every day that one gets to follow the Dalai Lama as he makes his presence felt in eight different places of prayer in Delhi as a tribute to India on the occasion of his 50 years in exile.

The Dalai Lama sits down with muslim elders at the Nizamuddin Chilla shrine.

We have the list of places that the Dalai Lama is visiting and our very first stop is the Gandhi Smriti - the place where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life. 

He took his last breath on the same grounds after being assassinated while on his way to the daily prayer meeting. It's a piece of history that every Indian has read in school, myself included.

As we make our way inside the well-kept premises, devotional Indian music floats through the early morning sunlight and hazy blue skies. Despite the early hour and it being a working day, there is more than a smattering of people to witness the Dalai Lama's presence in this revered place.

The Dalai Lama's arrival creates a slight frenzy as media folks rush to capture his every move and visitors eagerly crane their neck to take a look. After paying tribute at Gandhi's memorial, he sits down on the sheet spread over the grass to enjoy a few minutes of the music.

Despite us rushing to get the right shots and the correct sound, one can't help but notice how peaceful this place feels amidst all the greenery. After the Dalai Lama graciously thanks the musicians, he heads for his next stop - an Ashram devoted to the cause of non-violence.

Meanwhile, we drive down to a Muslim shrine known as Nizamuddin Chilla located in central Delhi, the third stop on the Dalai Lama's tour. Named after a Sufi saint, this place is nestled right behind another famous monument, the Mughal emperor Humayun's tomb. Walking up the stairs the place feels lost in time, like we just stumbled back into a different century. A reminder of our current situation comes in the form of tight security.

We are frisked and our equipment is checked. As a mark of respect everyone has to remove their shoes before entering this holy place.

When the Dalai Lama arrives, he is greeted by the shrine elders and presented with the Islamic prayer cap. As the media crowds around the leaders to get a good shot, Sanjiv, our cameraman, mounts a short ladder we usually carry with our gear to get a bird's eye view.

In a sit down with all the visitors and the religious leaders, the shrine elders heap praise on the spiritual leader for promoting peace. The Dalai Lama praises Islam as an ancient religion which has much to contribute to the world. In a sit-down interview with our correspondent Sara Sidner yesterday, the Dalai Lama was quick to offer his views on the religion. Dalai Lama thanks India for 50 years in exile

Our fourth stop for the day is the Judah Hyam Synagogue. The Synagogue is crowded with worshippers and the Dalai Lama is given a warm welcome and a prayer is offered. Our next stop is the Sikh Temple, also known as the Gurudwara Rakab Ganj. Again, we leave our shoes at the entrance as a mark of respect and also cover our head with a scarf.

As we hurry to our next stop, Sara forgets to wear her shoes!  With little time left we make a dash to cover the Dalai Lama at The Cathedral church of Redemption.

Our final stop is at the Buddhist Society and the Laxmi Narayan Hindu Temple, both situated side-by-side. Security at the temple is more stringent than any of the other place of worship.

Covering the Dalai Lama as he visits different places in the city in quick succession has been tricky but we just had to make sure we made it on time, despite the Delhi traffic. No easy task.

One can't help but marvel at the Dalai Lama's energy. Watch Sara Sidner's exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama

LONDON, England – I have to admit I had no idea there was such as thing as "riot training" for journalists. To be sure, CNN and many other news organizations pay to put their frontline folks through "Hostile Environments" training and I had a week in the woods back in 2003.At that time, we spent one session on riots and what struck me at the time was the instructor saying we were all more likely to get caught up in crowd trouble while working in the field then we were to experience a terror attack.

So now, fast forward to this week and preparations for the G-20 summit in London. CNN paid for myself and several of my colleagues to attend riot training at a police facility east of London. Those at the facility prefer it to be known as "Public Order Training."

As soon as we arrived it was obvious this was a serious place; one sign in the cafeteria read "No firearms allowed in the canteen."

Others there were doing their weapons training (few police are armed here; those that are belong to the Metropolitan Police's CO19 branch). There were also ambulance teams and mounted police doing their own training.

It should be no surprise that our little team stuck out. One of the trainers hinted that we, as journalists, might not be given the friendliest reception.

The afternoon started with a classroom session. But what sticks in my mind were the shouts and gunfire coming from the street below as CO19 officers went through a drill trying to entice bad guys out of a car.

Soon enough, we were introduced to the mean streets of London - Hollywood style. This I was not expecting. The facility has four square blocks or so of a typical London neighborhood, complete with false-fronted shops, plus a tube stop (with an original underground train inside), and a 1950s-style housing estate with its own grim walkways, yards and courtyard.

As we walked around the streets, the police were busy practicing car chases - we had to look out for the cars and the police had to look out for journalists getting in their way.

Then we suited up for our first riot. We had been warned to expect "demonstrators" (actual police taking turns as troublemakers) throwing petrol bombs (Molotov cocktails) around - and we would be caught in the middle.

So, we put on what can only be described as "Robocop" outfits; with shin guards, helmets and groin protectors. Then we were marched down a street as others threw petrol bombs at our feet. The point of this was to show us how to put the fire out if our clothing catches fire.

Next it was riot time. The point of this was that the police have to train for public disorder, as do we, and we have to deal with each other. The trainers said the best thing for us to do in a riot situation was not to be there in the first place - but our jobs demand we not only get video of the riot but also interviews with those involved on both sides.

Both sides could - and at some point did - refuse to talk to us or, in the case of the demonstrators, target us. Petrol bombs where thrown consistently at my camera during the 20-minute exercise.

The next morning we practiced how to back out of an angry crowd (stick together is the main theme here) and then it was time for three day-time "public order" scenarios involving football fans getting out of hand as they are being moved from a tube station to a stadium and police calling in mounted units to break up the group. Few people will stand in front of a horse as it charges down the street.

Then, it was a full-on riot again. We broke into three groups and attempted to interview the top policeman on the scene and also one of the troublemakers. We each had a different strategy. My team stayed behind the police. But because of the (dummy) camera, one of the protesters again targeted the cameraman and he was pelted with fake bricks, wooden blocks and real petrol bombs with glass flying everywhere.

Another team chose to be behind the crowd and one member was grabbed by a protesters and thrust to the front line between the police and rioters.

My team also followed a group of police into the grim courtyard with the smell of burning petrol all around. It became clear to us that this police unit was in a vulnerable place (balconies above and only two open escapes) so we got out of there. The key is to be the extra eyes for the camera person who is clearly the most exposed of the team.

While it was just training, and the whole thing would soon enough stop at the sound of a whistle, it was real enough for me.

When it comes to any disruption in London during the G-20 or elsewhere, we as journalists cannot be dressed like the police in protective suits. We will be dressed somewhere in the middle and cannot count on either side to watch out for our safety. And there will be no whistle to stop the action.

The Khmer Rouge trial has been a harrowing story to cover. The unimaginable magnitude of the killing is breathtaking: 1.5 million, 2 million, some even put it as high as 3 million - an abstract and unfathomable number.

But it's when I'm confronted with men like Norng Champhal that the horror and terror are really drawn into sharp, brutal focus. He told me through tears of raw grief, how he was separated from his mother 30 years ago at the most notorious of the 189 torture and detention camps, Tuol Sleng or S-21.

Norng Champhal was just 8 or 9 when he was taken to Tuol Sleng prison. He is one of the few survivors.

He never saw his mother again and spent several days hearing the haunting screams of people being tortured to death. Then finally the Khmer Rouge fled, as invading Vietnamese forces approached. He frantically ran from room to room looking for his mother.

In each, he found iron bed-frames with blankets thrown over the mutilated corpses the KR had hurriedly abandoned.

He told me he peeked under one blanket, trembling as he looked. A nine-year-old boy, checking corpses to see if they were his mother. He never found her, but he thinks it's impossible she survived. He says those memories are still so fresh and clear they are still profoundly painful.

More than 14,000 people died in S-21. Only a few survived, among them Champhal.

His story is repeated across this violated land. At least a quarter of the population died between 1975 and 1979. It would be the equivalent of approximately 70 million Americans being slaughtered in just three years, eight months and 20 days.

Historians argue about the extent to which the U.S. secret bombing of Cambodia contributed to the rise of the fanatical Maoist regime.

Certainly the U.S., U.K. and others continued to back the KR long after they were ousted from the capital. But this trial will not initially dwell on U.S. involvement or the causes of the Khmer Rouge rising to power.

It will begin simply with the story of S21 and the man that put so many, including Champhal's mother, to death.

Duch, or Kaing Guek Eav, is charged with crimes against humanity and has admitted his role as Commandant of S21. Now finally Champhal may begin to get some answers about the nightmare that still casts its long and dark shadow over this traumatized country.

Watch my report on notorious Tuol Sleng and survivor Norng Champhal's recollection of the torture camp.

My last blog was about people like me who, having had our basic food needs met, are now thinking about the quality of the food we eat.

But this weekend I was reminded that many people go to bed hungry and was struck by a creative idea to help those in need.

More than 200 European football teams played matches across 11 countries. The winner? The world's hungry.

The European teams played to raise awareness of the problem, which affects one in seven people.

The players are donating their own money to help the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's efforts to fight hunger around the world.

They adopted the number 963 as a symbol of their cause, to draw attention to the 963 million people who go to bed hungry every night.

The FAO's Edgardo Valenzuela told me the idea really took hold when two soccer stars joined him on a field trip.

Italy's Paolo Rossi and Germany's Hans Mueller went to Egypt with Valenzuela to see how the FAO would use their donations to help the needy.

Valenzuela watched the two players come face to face with hunger. Since that visit, the footballers have used their time and celebrity to raise awareness.

FAO's projects focus not on providing rations but on helping the neediest by subsidizing them to grow, sell and buy food.

This way the recipients can sustain themselves without being dependent on others for basic needs. For example, some of the money helps destitute people buy tools and seeds to grow food for their families and sell the surplus to cover other needs.

At the weekend hunger met its match – on the football field at least.

KANCHANABURI, Thailand – This job takes me to all sorts of interesting places and I meet all sorts of fascinating people, but it's not often that I come home and tell my wife that I met a tiger.

When I say I met a tiger, I don't mean I looked at it through the bars of a cage in a zoo. No, I mean, I actually took it for a walk, like a impossibly large lumbering dog.

I stroked it like a cute kitty and nervously patted its head, which alone was the size of your average poodle.

It was easy to be lulled into thinking this huge beast was a gentle pet – but my brain and tens of thousands of years of evolution were screaming "PANIC".

This animal is a potential killer. One swipe from its tail would be enough to floor me. A playful scratch from its claw would have severed a major artery.

We were filming at Thailand's so called "Tiger Temple" near Kanchanaburi. The story was about new ID cards being introduced to try and prevent these magnificent animals being smuggled. But all I could think about was the sudden panic, as it decided it didn't like my aftershave or the color of my shirt.

We'd been told not to wear red, as that can "excite" the felines. But what if they just didn't like appearing on camera?

I stupidly presumed the tigers had already been fed... but no they hadn't. And there wasn't just one; we were in a small quarry surrounded by half a dozen hungry man-eating beasts.

I started to think back to some of the "hostile training" we'd been given for going into war zones. Check your exit routes... erm, a 200 yard sprint to the quarry exit. Mmmm, what would be the chances of out-running 6 tigers over 200 yards?

Oh yeah, and then there was the part of the course about potentially dangerous animals to avoid... snakes, scorpions, mosquitoes, but no-one mentioned TIGERS. I thought back to "Apocalypse Now" when the guy on the boat says "I didn't come to 'Nam to get eaten by no friggin' tiger man".

Well, I definitely didn't come to Thailand to get eaten by one either. But it soon became apparent that the animals were not limbering up for the morning "maul the CNN correspondent" game. In fact they seemed much more interested in each other, than us.

After 20 minutes the fear began to subside and I actually began to enjoy this incredible experience. Their grace and agility was mesmerizing. They were playful, affectionate and stunningly beautiful to watch. But don't get me wrong: the thrill of seeing these animals up-close was tempered with fear and respect.

At no point was I under any delusion that these tigers, although born in captivity and used to humans, were still the top of the food chain... and I was but a walking snack. Humbling and certainly not "just another day in the office."

I've done quite a few stories on the Indian Premier League and always enjoyed doing them - after all, I am Indian. Cricket is in my blood.I have to say, though, that I never saw this one coming - the Indian Premier League, to be played outside India? Like many other cricket fans across the country, I went, "what?"

Did it have to come to this? Could the government and the organizers of the IPL reach no other solution?

The stumbling block is security. The IPL games are scheduled to take place while India holds general elections.

The government says it's not in a position to provide security for both these mammoth events and asked the IPL organizers to reschedule the tournament.

There's too much at stake and too much to lose by doing that, said the IPL folks. The games must go on as scheduled - but with one key difference. They will be held outside India.

The IPL organizers say the government was left with no choice. Are they right? Or do you think the IPL folks should have rescheduled the games so that millions of fans in India could have enjoyed the games here?

Do you think India's government have been more accommodating? Since the IPL is a private event, should the government play a part in providing security at all - or should security be the concern of the IPL only?

Now that the games are going to be held outside India - where do you think they should be held?

Like many cricket fans in India, I am disappointed the games won't be held here. I'll watch them on TV - it wont be the same, but I hope the tournament will be a safe one for players and for fans.

I know cricket enthusiasts around the world have an opinion on the IPL and where it should be held - do write in. I'd love to know what you think!

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A year ago I filmed supporters of Pakistan's top judge Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with their faces red from tear gas as they protested for the ousted chief justice - sacked by former President Pervez Musharraf - to be restored to his post.

Pakistanis celebrate Sunday in Islamabad.

On Sunday, as their wish was granted, their faces were red with laughter.

"Today is a day of celebration," said human rights activist Tahira Abdullah, one of hundreds who had gathered outside the chief justice's house for a flag-raising ceremony. "And a day of dancing," she added, breaking into a jig.

Even against a chaotic backdrop of rising militancy and crippling economic instability, this is a moment that has restored hope for many Pakistanis.

Whether they took part in the protests or not, many here believe Chief Justice Chaudhry's return signals real democratic change in the country. Chaudhry, the man who has come to symbolize democracy and fairness, carries a lot of expectations on his shoulders as he goes back to work.

One member of the lawyer's movement said Sunday's ceremony recognized that the office of chief justice was untouchable, either by a military dictator or any other government. She called it the most momentous occasion in Pakistan's 61-year history.

While critics question whether Chaudhry is a suitable vessel for such hopes, the fact is that people rallied behind the lawyers' movement and rallied for the supremacy of law and order in the face of authoritarianism. At the end of the day, it isn't about the man as much as the office he represents.

Sunday's festivities were as chaotic as the marches and demonstrations had been. Over the years, the lawyers have attracted political parties, activists and anyone with a cause. Today was no exception.

Political parties clamored to break through the gates and police barricades to take part. There were arguments and scuffles. A microcosm of Pakistani politics played out on the chief justice's doorstep as I saw one woman fighting a man twice her size.

Black-suited organizers tried to cajole the crowd, thanking political groups for their support, pleading with attendees to maintain an apolitical presence and scolding those who chanted party slogans. The chief justice himself was not present at the festivities.

Whether they like it or not, the lawyers' movement has now become politicized. Unlike mainstream political groups, the lawyers weren't driven by an individual or an individual's agenda, so people rallied behind them across party lines and sectarian divides.

With this political powerbase, the lawyers are now setting their sights on a new target: dissatisfaction with President Asif Ali Zardari's government.

"Watch out Zardari!" said one lawyer Sunday. "We're free now."

What gives Taro's history away is not a look in his eye or the shuffle in his walk. It's the slashes across his wrist, wounds that one year after his suicide attempt appear to still be healing. He pulled up his sleeve to show me, saying he still thinks about killing himself as the job offers never come.

Aokigahara Forest near the base of Mount Fuji.

"I'd lost my identity," 46-year-old Taro said, explaining how he'd been fired from his job as a driver for an iron manufacturing company.In Japan, where your job is your identity, that made him worthless in his own eyes. Taro had heard about Aokigahara Forest, known in Japan as the suicide forest. He decided to go there and disappear into the sea of trees.

He wandered for days, waiting for death to come. But the cuts into his wrist weren't deep enough and the weather not quite harsh enough. He eventually stumbled into some bushes, dehydrated, starved and suffering from frostbite on his toes. He would eventually lose some of the toes because of that frostbite. He would have died, had a hiker not stumbled across his nearly dead body. The hiker called paramedics and the police.

The hospitals didn't want to take him, Taro explained. Since he had no job and was homeless, he kept getting rejected. The police finally connected Taro with a credit counseling organization that found him a hospital that would treat his injuries.

For four months, Taro stayed in the hospital. When he was well enough to leave, the same credit counseling agency found him a shelter where he could live and try to look for work. So far, he hasn't found a job - a challenge in Japan's deepening recession.

There's not a lot of help for people like us, Taro says. By us, he means the unemployed and the bankrupt. Taro believes as Japan's corporations cut tens of thousands of workers, most of them temporary workers who already are considered the working poor, the suicide problem will escalate.

National statistics show that's indeed the case; January 2009 saw a 15 percent increase in successful suicides from January 2008.

Japan also has a cultural history that embraces suicide. Seppuku is a form of Japanese ritual suicide originally reserved only for samurai. Seppuku was part of the samurai honor code, where warriors killed themselves rather than fall into the hands of their enemies or for reasons that shamed them. It's a notion that still persists in a culture that doesn't adhere to a religious notion of spending an eternity in hell if you commit suicide.

Taro says he still thinks about suicide but that the will to live is stronger, for now. What would erase those thoughts, he says, is a job.

BEIJING, China - I think I had a shared experience this week with millions of Chinese netizens who try to avoid, fool or stick it to Beijing's censors. It all centers on the "Grass Mud Horse."

So this is what happened. Chinese netizens as they're called here, have been speaking in code, and sticking it to censors by calling them a "Grass Mud Horse," because in Chinese when you say those words but slightly change the tone it actually is a profane insult involving something to your mother. Watch more about the 'Grass Mud Horse' phenomenon

And this is where the shared experience came in. I was trying to explain something, without saying what it was, because obviously those kinds of words are best left to a few standup comedians, or action films involving Bruce Willis.

To be honest, trying to say something while not saying it, while trying to not lose the meaning of what your not allowed to say is incredibly difficult, which may explain why the netizens here are so annoyed with the censors, even if the can't say it.

ST. POELTEN, Austria - We're waiting to be allowed back into the courtroom at the St. Poelten state court. The jury are still deliberating - in a few hours we'll know for sure what their verdict is, how long Josef Fritzl will go down for.I can't imagine there's a single journalist here or indeed a single person in the whole of Austria who doesn't hope it's for the rest of his life.

Josef Fritzl hides his face as he arrives at court for his trial this week.

Josef Fritzl's crimes are monstrous. We journalists and the public have been excluded from much of the trial out of regard for the privacy of his victims - his own daughter Elisabeth and her six surviving children.

But the very existence of those children bears witness to the crimes committed. The state prosecuting attorney said Thursday he had raped his daughter more than 3,000 times in the 24 years she was holed up in a dank, dark, airless dungeon. There are gruesome details we now know about her years of abuse which we cannot write for fear of litigation.

In court on Thursday CNN's correspondent Fred Pleitgen said Fritzl's voice broke when he said how sorry he was. Sorry? Now?

Many journalists here have complained at being shut out of the proceedings: many have suggested this is an example of Austria not wishing to confront its dark secrets. On the dustcover of a book detailing Fritzl's crimes which I found lying in the press tent here, reference is made to the "Nazi Austria" Fritzl grew up in. I find those suggestions that this is somehow an Austrian phenomenon grossly unfair, as I know the Austrians do themselves. We are not allowed into the court because to document the obscene acts Fritzl inflicted on his daughter might curtail any fragile recovery she and her family might ever hope to make.

Does the public have a right to know every horrendous detail that happened in that underground cell? I personally believe not.

The family are in a safehouse somewhere in Austria. Their identities have been changed, authorities are doing their utmost to make sure that the press do not track them down. Amazingly Elisabeth we now know did appear in court on Tuesday to watch her father's reaction to the evidence she gave on tape. A brave woman.

In our evenings here in St. Poelten, Fred Pleitgen, Claudia our amazing camerawoman and I have debated at length what we would do if we for some reason stumbled on Elisabeth Fritzl, discovered the safehouse, found one of the children. Theirs are obviously the unknown voices in this huge media story. But besides the sure knowledge we'd be sued to distraction if we were to publish anything, we all agreed we would prefer to leave them be. Once the verdict comes down, once Fritzl goes down, there should be at least the opportunity for the family he so heinously wronged to find some peace.