Reporters on the Job
• Great Minds: Looking around a day-care center for earthquake refugees in China's Sichuan Province this weekend (see story), Peter Ford was impressed by how quickly the prefabricated housing and tents had been erected. Seven days ago, the place had been a wheat field, he was told.
"As I was introduced, over the course of the afternoon, to the Chinese volunteers from the non-governmental organization that had built the site, I began to understand how it had happened," Peter says. "The boss is a Harvard Law School graduate, one of his colleagues went to Yale, and another was at Oxford University. Goodwill is energizing the tens of thousands of volunteers working in the earthquake zone, but concentrated brainpower seems to help, too."
– Matthew Clark
Americas/Africa editor
This Week's Look Ahead
• Monday, June 2:Bonn, Germany – United Nations climate meeting.
• Tuesday, June 3:Rome – UN hosts summit on food security. San Salvador – US Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte visits to discuss trade, security, and development.
• WEDNESDAY, June 4:London – Charles Dickens' writing desk and chair to be auctioned by Christie's.
• THURSDAY, June 5:Frankfurt – European Central Bank's governing council meets to set interest rates for the 15-nation eurozone.
• FRIDAY, June 6:Athens – French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Greece as part of a European tour.
