• Where There's Smoke: When reporter Joshua Mitnick arrived in the West Bank village of Al Walajeh (see story), he wasn't sure where the demonstration would be. "We asked some people, and they pointed to the smoke rising in the hills," he says.

The Palestinian and Israeli protestors had set fire to tires along the route where Israel plans to erect a security barrier. But when that failed to provoke a response from Israeli soldiers watching from a distance, the group moved to another spot.

They removed an Israeli roadblock. But that didn't draw tear gas or rubber bullets either. "For civil disobedience to work, apparently you need a confrontation that makes good photos or video," notes Josh. "It was rather anticlimactic without it."

– David Clark Scott

This week's look ahead

• Monday, Sept. 24:
New York – UN General Assembly opens with leaders from 81 nations and a focus on climate change.

• Wednesday, Sept. 26:
London – Transparency International releases Corruption Perceptions Index 2007, a ranking of 160 countries by their perceived levels of domestic corruption.

• Sunday, Sept. 30:
Khartoum, Sudan – Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu and other Elders visit to find a solution to the Darfur conflict.
Kiev, Ukraine – Parliamentary elections.
Quito, Ecuador – Election of 130-member constituent assembly to write a new constitution.