Reporters on the Job

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"In 1999, the Lebanese sentenced him to death in absentia for forming armed groups, a cooked up charge by Syria to pressure Fatah at the time. Mr. Abul-Aynayn spent the next six years holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon, unable to do anything," says Nick.

"But the sentence was lifted last month as a sign of the new relationship between the Lebanese government and the Palestinians. Since then, Abul-Aynayn has been very active meeting politicians, religious leaders, diplomats, etc. When I saw him last week, he looked 10 years younger, eyes shining with excitement and full of energy."

• A Tale of Two Towns: Correspondent Monica Campbell had just been on a reporting trip to a small town in Guanajuato where most of the men had left to work in the US. "My photographer and I were struck by the bleakness of the situation. It seemed this place was on the way to becoming another Mexican ghost town," she says.

The next day, they arrived in Indaparapeo, to report today's story about Mexicans in the US sending cash back to this town in Michoacán to fund scholarships (see story). "The contrast between the two towns was extreme. The outlook of the kids was so much more positive. You could feel the influence of the program. Wherever these kids go, there will be a benefit for the town," she says.

David Clark Scott
World editor

		STOP-THE-LAVA DANCERS: Javanese dancers wearing masks wait to perform during an offering to appease Indonesia's percolating Mount Merapi. Villages on its slopes were evacuated ahead of an expected eruption. ED WRAY/AP More cultural snapshots

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