Reporters on the Job

• Principles in Conflict: Correspondent Ben Lynfield set off Thursday on a tour of Israeli outposts with Dror Etkes, a member of "Peace Now" as his guide. Mr. Etkes monitors the removal and expansion of the settlements (page 7). "It was a really hot day. We'd been walking around in the blazing sun," says Ben. "After taking a look at the Givat HaTamar outpost on the West Bank, we we were thirsty, and Dror was struggling a bit with his principles," says Ben.

The conundrum: If he buys a drink from a settler outpost, he is contributing to the economic well-being of a project that he's opposed to.

On this day, thirst won out. "We stopped at a little store in Efrat, a nearby settlement, and he emerged with bottles of mineral water and orange juice," says Ben. [Editor's note: The original version mischaracterized Efrat as a settler outpost.]

• Huffing and Puffing: The smell of rebellion rose across Ireland as a handful of pubs vowed Thursday to defy the government's ban on puffing tobacco in workplaces. Associated Press reported that Health Minister Micheal Martin promised to punish the owners of a Galway pub that was the first to rebel against the three-month-old ban.

Some of the owners of Ireland's 10,000-plus pubs complained that roughly half of their customers were smokers. Until now, no pub had defied the government, partly because opinion polls show strong support for the ban.

As reported in "Europe's smokers feel the heat (Oct. 24)," the European Union is considering a similar ban. So far, only Norway has followed Ireland, with Sweden set to do likewise next year.

David Clark Scott
World editor