Correspondent / behind the news

A picture taken on May 26, 1981 shows French President-elect François Hollande, then a public servant at the "Cour des Comptes", a quasi-judicial body of the French government charged with conducting financial and legislative audits of public institutions. On May 6 Hollande was elected France's first Socialist president in nearly two decades, promising change in Europe after dealing a defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. In the photo, Holland is seen crossing the street in front of the headquarters of Agence France Presse. (AFP Photo/Michel Clement)

A US war correspondent fired from his job for breaking a military embargo and scooping the world on the German surrender in World War II finally got an apology Friday, 67 years after the fact. The Associated Press offered the mea culpa to reporter Edward Kennedy, who defied military censors and filed a dispatch May 7, 1945 on the surrender ending the war in Europe.

To get around a tough French law banning the broadcast on any public media of election results before the closing of voting urns, people on Twitter resorted to coded language -- such as used during broadcasts from London during World War II on “Radio Londres” – to transmit exit poll figures from the first round of presidential elections on Sunday. AFP's Charles Onians explains. (AFP PHOTO/BBC)

Welcome to AFP blogs!  Correspondent, one of three blogs launched today by Agence France Presse, looks behind the camera to see how news is made.  It will also tell stories, some of them funny, others moving, a few that are grim.