Reporters on the Job
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Yoga in Fatigues: Staff writer Scott Baldauf stumbled onto today's story about yoga classes for Indian paramilitary troops (
see story)during a conversation with a local reporter in Srinagar, India. He told Scott that the suicide rate among soldiers was high. When Scott asked what the military was doing about it, he learned about the yoga classes.
The Indian military, says Scott, graciously allowed him to visit the base camp near Dal Lake to report the story. Not surprisingly, he notes, it wasn't quite the same as visiting an ashram. "Some of the meditative qualities associated with yoga were lost when the sergeant barked the orders to change positions. 'Butterfly pose! Now!' It seemed a little more like calisthenics than yoga."
Scott was invited to show the troops his "downward dog" pose, but instead chose to take photos for the story.
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Wake-Up Call: Staff writer Scott Peterson wasn't surprised when the resumption of the Israeli pounding of Beirut began early Monday morning. Most journalists, indeed, most Lebanese, expected a military response after Hizbullah rockets killed 12 Israeli reservists Sunday in northern Israel and three civilians in Haifa.
"The first bomb dropped at 5:20 a.m., and must have woken up the entire city," says Scott. A dozen or more blasts came in the next hour (
see story). Scott turned on the television. He heard and felt each blast, then watched live footage of the smoke plume billow over the city. "You've got live television on every front, so correspondents here can see Katyusha rockets being launched, while their colleagues can track their path overhead, and others can watch them land in Israel, all in real time."
- David Clark Scott
World editor
Cultural snapshot
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INTRODUCING RONG CHENG:
This robot, built by the Institute of Automation at the Chinese Academy of Scientists, will serve as a museum receptionist. It's China's first humanoid robot, but is still playing catch-up to Asimo, the world's most advanced robot of this type, built by Honda.
CLARO CORTES IV/REUTERS
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