Reporters on the Job

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Yusuf Ahmad/Reuters
Ramadan rest: A boy in Makassar, Indonesia, sleeps at a mosque while waiting to break the fast. The Islamic holy month began Sept. 1.

Marching in Mexico: Staff writer Sara Miller Llana was overcome with nostalgia covering Saturday night's peace protest in Mexico City. Two years ago, during the hotly disputed presidential election, she spent a lot of time on Reforma Avenue interviewing residents supporting leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

"It has been a long time since I spent a Saturday night downtown at a rally. But if the route was the same, the crowd couldn't have been more different. López Obrador drew the masses," she says. This crowd was decidedly more upper class. They were protesting crime, particularly the kidnapping that terrorizes and impacts the rich more here. One of her colleagues noted jokingly: "I think the dominant brand here is Ralph Lauren."

"Walking down the streets covering politics is pretty easy: Everyone wants to talk to you. But this crowd was less eager to talk, the mood was more somber. Many were carrying signs of relatives who had been kidnapped or are missing. I had to strike a balance between respecting their mourning and getting the story," says Sara.

David Clark Scott

World editor

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