06/29/2005

Marcus Kabel named correspondent for NW Arkansas, SW Missouri

NEW YORK -- Marcus Kabel, chief correspondent for Reuters in Vienna, Austria, has been named The Associated Press' correspondent for northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri.

Kabel, who has worked for Reuters the past 15 years, also will cover Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville, Ark., the world's largest retailer.

The appointment was announced Wednesday by AP chiefs of bureau Randy Picht in Kansas City, Mo., and Robert Shaw in Little Rock, Ark.

Kabel will be based in Springfield, Mo., and have an office at a site to be determined in northwest Arkansas.

Kabel joined Reuters in Bonn, Germany, in 1990 before moving to Zurich, Switzerland, in 1994. He covered four U.S. states from Dallas in the late 1990s before returning to Europe.

He is from St. Louis and Chicago and graduated from Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., where he also worked for WKBV radio. He also has worked for the City News Bureau in Chicago and the German wire service DPA.

Contact: Jack Stokes, AP Corporate Communications, 212.621.1720