Reporters on the Job

A Change of Heart: Staff writer Tom A. Peter found today's story about an Iraqi hotelkeeper because he actually stayed in the hotel in 2004 when there were still Westerners there. During Tom's stay there, he says that he was often at odds with the innkeeper over his bookkeeping.

But he wanted to revisit the hotel because he "remembered that Osama, the innkeeper, was a real character. Everyone who stayed there felt as if he was always finding ways for you to pay for something extra. It seemed as if he wasn't the most reputable of characters."

But upon returning to the hotel, Tom changed his opinion of the innkeeper. "To be certain he wasn't a saint, but I don't think anyone staying in the hotel back in 2004 realized the extent of Osama's difficulties. He could be stingy to a fault, but a lot of that came from the dire circumstances he was facing."

– David Clark Scott

World editor

This Week's Look Ahead

Wednesday, Oct. 8:
Nicosia, Cyprus –
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former President Jimmy Carter and former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi visit Cyprus in support of renewed reunification talks.
Paris - E.U.-Russia energy forum.

Friday, Oct. 10:
Washington –
The G-7 financial ministers and central bank governors from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States to meet to discuss global credit crisis.

Sunday, Oct. 12:
Baikonur, Kazakhstan
– Soyuz launch to the International Space Station. American computer game developer Richard Garriott will be on board.

– Associated Press

Cultural snapshot
WORLD’S TALLEST LEGO TOWER : The 29.48-meter- (almost 97 feet) high tower was assembled by children in Vienna, and completed with a crane on Sunday.
Leonhard Foeger

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