Reporters on the Job

• Tales of Torture: Today's story about torture in Iraq didn't start with the information provided by a US military doctor. Staff writer Dan Murphy says that he's been hearing allegations of torture by Iraqi police for over two years now.

Generally, however, those allegations were made by Sunni Arabs, and since they're the group most unhappy about the current political balance in Iraq, Dan felt he had to take their claims with a big grain of salt. But during the course of this year, Dan has been provided documentation of torture and police mistreatment, not only from Sunni Arabs, but from friendly Iraqi doctors with digital cameras at Baghdad hospitals - andnow, from a US officer who served in Iraq. "As a reporter, if you hear something once or twice you're skeptical," says Dan. "But when you get the same story from many directions, your confidence in the credibility of the claims grows," says Dan.

• Hong Kong Numbers: In our Dec. 5 article "Major Hong Kong Protest" organizers said the protest march drew 250,000 people. Police put the turnout at 63,000. Since then, an independent count by the University of Hong Kong said that between 81,000 and 98,000 people took part - double the turnout expected by the march organizers.

David Clark Scott
World editor