Today's Story Line

Attention Wal-Mart shoppers: You may soon be able to buy a diamond without any feeling of guilt. Among the gems in today's story about efforts to curb the sale of "blood diamonds" (stones sold to fund civil wars in Africa) is the factoid that the biggest US buyer of diamonds is the discount department store. Like genetically modified corn, it's not always easy to confidently trace the origin of diamonds. But progress is being made to establish an effective tracking and certification system (See story).

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

The RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME: The Monitor's Scott Peterson knows that serendipity, divine guidance, whatever you want to call it, often plays a role in getting a story. He showed up in the Kosovo city of Mitrovica on a Saturday with a very short list of sources to contact, but no phone numbers. He went to a couple of political offices hoping to locate someone. The offices were closed. Exasperated, Scott asked his translator to ask someone on the sidewalk if he knew Skendar Hoti. "As a matter of fact, that's him right there," said the pedestrian. "He's the one walking toward us with a tie on."

FOLLOW-UP ON A MONITOR STORY..

CONCORDE CRASH INVESTIGATION: The head of the investigation into the July 25 crash of an Air France Concorde near Paris told France-Inter, a French radio station, that he was "certain" that the metal strip that led to the accident had fallen from a US Continental DC-10. The aviation magazine Flight International also reported in its latest issue that the metal strip fell because of a sloppy repair job. Investigators say that the metal strip, found on the runway after the Concorde took off, punctured one of the aircraft's tires, leading to a chain of failures that caused the supersonic jet to crash after take-off, killing 113 people. As reported in the Monitor on Aug. 17, all Concorde aircraft have been grounded pending the outcome of the investigation.

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