Edith M. LEDERER

Associated Press

During her four-decade career with The Associated Press, Edith Lederer has worked on every continent except Antarctica covering wars, famines, nuclear issues and political upheavals.  The first woman assigned full-time to he AP staff reporting the Vietnam War, Ms. Lederer also covered the 1973 Middle East war, the war in Afghanistan, the first Gulf War, the conflict in Northern Ireland, the end of the war in Bosnia, the civil war in Somalia and the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda.  She was also AP’s first female bureau chief overeas, based in Lima, Peru.  She helped cover the downfall of communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the Romanian revolution.  While based in London (1982-98), she wrote about military and international security issues and global problems ranging from population growth to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.  Since 1998 she has been AP’s chief correspondent at the UN, reporting on the diplomatic side of conflicts in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Darfur, Kosovo, Congo and Sierra Leone and major global issues from the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korera to climate change, combating poverty and women’s rights.  She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Women’s Media Foundation Lifetime Achievement Awards and co-authored “War Torn,” a book by nine women who covered the Vietnam War.