Kate Webb, reporter on front lines

SYDNEY, Australia - Kate Webb, 64, a journalist whose powerful reputation was forged on the front lines of the Vietnam War and who roamed Asia for nearly 35 years covering strife from India to the Philippines, died Sunday.

Ms. Webb, who made the news instead of writing it in 1971 when she was captured in Cambodia and held prisoner by North Vietnamese troops, died of bowel cancer in Sydney, her brother Jeremy said yesterday.

The New Zealand-born Ms. Webb first went to Vietnam in 1967 and spent more than six years covering the war for UPI.

After the war, covered some of Asia's biggest stories, including the first Gulf War.

She retired in 2001, saying she felt "too old to keep up with frontline reporting, and that was the only kind I liked."

In April 1971, she was among six people captured while covering a battle in Cambodia. She was given up for dead after officials said a body they had found was probably hers, prompting an obituary in the New York Times.

After more than three weeks, she emerged from the jungle.