Reporters on the Job
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Que? Sorting out the facts behind a massacre in Colombia proved challenging for correspondent Danna Harman (see story), as the only witnesses to the crime were people in an psychiatric home.
One of her first interviews with an older woman was (mostly) incomprehensible. "I tried to understand what she was saying, but could not catch anything at all. I thought this might be because of my Spanish, or perhaps her regional accent. But then the photographer working with me - who is a native Spanish speaker - admitted he couldn't understand anything either," says Danna. "Finally, some other residents passed by and said to me, 'Oh, don't mind her - she is incoherent.' To which the woman said, completely clearly, 'Oh yes, I am totally incoherent' and returned to the gibberish."
Overall, Danna's visit to Mi Casita left a deep impression on her. "The people living there seem to be well taken care of, but they are lonely and sensitive, and I think the massacre and the ensuing hoopla surrounding their home has rattled them badly."
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Concerned community : Reporter Adam Piore says that the arrests of suspected pedophiles in Cambodia has hit many in the ex-pat community there hard (see story). "It's upsetting and pretty disturbing for a lot of people when they realize that the people they know are pedophiles," Adam says. He says that the tightening of immigration controls in Thailand has some worried that more pedophiles will seek refuge in Cambodia. But the country is taking steps to prevent that. On a recent trip to a part of Cambodia that's "as remote as you can get," Adam came across one of the new "Turn a sex tourist into an ex-tourist" posters. "It shows how far they've gone with this campaign," says Adam.
- Ben Arnoldy
Asia editor
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World editor
Cultural snapshot
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BEAUTIFUL SWARM:
Diana Rubi Pech Dzu walks among a cloud of locusts in the resort city of Cancun, Mexico. A plague of locusts has invaded the outskirts of the city.
DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS/AP
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