From The Boston Globe:
NEW YORK – Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin threw herself into a crash course in diplomacy at the United Nations yesterday, beginning her first of two days of meetings with foreign leaders, including Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe, Pakistani president Ali Asif Zardari, and Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.
The meetings with Palin, who had never met a foreign head of state before and who traveled outside North America for the first time last year, were designed to bolster her foreign policy credentials and introduce her to close US allies with whom she would work if she became vice president.
But the carefully orchestrated visits also highlighted the degree to which John McCain’s presidential campaign will go to shield the first-term Alaska governor from the press. Until CNN threatened to withdraw its pool camera crew, Palin’s aides initially banned reporters, who are traditionally allowed to briefly view private diplomatic meetings that are being photographed, and are sometimes allowed to ask questions.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
