Reporters on the Job

• Expecting Heat: When you're expecting a third child, you run through the usual preparations. Crib? Check. Stroller? Check. But a space heater? Correspondent Michael J. Jordan in Slovakia says that his daughter is set to arrive next Tuesday via C-section. But the natural-gas crisis roiling Central-Eastern Europe has now come home to roost. "My wife is from neighboring Hungary, where the country's factories have already seen the gas taps shut off. Meanwhile, it's well below freezing here," says Michael. "So my wife, understandably, wants an electric heater – now – before panic buying erupts. This afternoon, she read me the latest headline off the wires: 'No progress in European gas talks.' 'That's it,' she says, 'I'm buying the heater.' "

• Hurry Up and Wait: Israeli officials aren't allowing reporters to enter Gaza from their side, and the Egyptian authorities are limiting access through the Rafah border crossing. Reporter Lina Attalah went to Rafah for two days on a promise from Egyptian officials that they'd let her into Gaza (see story).

She was there when a convoy of trucks filled with aid was sent in Wednesday and Thursday. Wounded Palestinians were transferred out of Gaza some hours later. She was the only journalist who followed them to a hospital in Al Arish, Egypt. "But the doctors were too nervous to let me interview those who were less severely wounded," says Lina.

In the end, Egyptian authorities told her she would not be granted access to Gaza.

– David Clark Scott

World editor