Today's Story Line:

Poverty often forces hard choices. Two stories today look at efforts to reverse the exploitation of women and children. Morocco - where carpets made with "little hands" are prized - has one of the worst child labor records in the world, says the UN. But international pressure to change the practice is growing (page 1).

In Colombia, women are trying to escape civil war and poverty. But they are being lured unwittingly into prostitution in Europe (page 1).

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

INTERVIEW VICTIMS: Journalists face a difficult dilemma in some countries: If they talk to local citizens, they risk endangering the people they interview. While reporting today's story on child labor in Morocco, Nicolas Pelham saw a small example. He was talking to some of the 50 young girls working on looms in a carpet factory. "But there's a madame who patrols the shop floor to make sure the girls don't work too slowly or visit the loo too often. She rapped several of the girls on their knuckles with a stick when they tried to talk to me."

BOMB-CHALANCE: After several years of living and working in the Middle East, the Monitor's Ilene Prusher was struck by the reaction to recent bombings in Manila. "In Israel, in the aftermath of a bombing, there was a collective feeling of great loss and mourning. The funerals and stories about the victims were on TV for days afterward. Security tightened, and the malls were a little emptier," says Ilene. Perhaps it's the charged political and religious atmosphere. But in Manila, after five bombings last week, "the malls seemed packed as usual, and except for a few extra soldiers around town, nothing seemed very different. One politician explained to me that for a country of 75 million, losing 22 people was not that big of a deal. I'm not sure that I believe that," says Ilene.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Publishing Society