Tom Popyk is a freelance Canadian journo who has done a couple stints in Baghdad (just finished one, actually).

On his blog, he has some tips he found from NYT columnist Thomas L. Friedman on covering the Middle East (if you ever get a chance, read Friedman's book From Beirut to Jerusalem, about his period there in the early 1980s as Middle East corro for the NYT).

Here's the top three:

Rule 1: Never lead your story out of Lebanon, Gaza or Iraq with a cease-fire; it will always be over by the time the next morning's paper is out.

Rule 2: Never take a concession, except out of the mouth of the person who is supposed to be doing the conceding. If I had a dime for every time someone agreed to recognize Israel on behalf of Yasir Arafat, I would be a wealthy man today.

Rule 3: The Israelis will always win, and the Palestinians will always make sure that they never enjoy it. Everything else is just commentary.