Reporters on the Job

• Now That's Security: To reach the office of Colombia's chief prosecutor Mario Iguarán (see story), says correspondent Sybilla Brodzinsky, you have to pass through a maze of winding stairs and stone-walled passageways. "Every so often there's a security desk where you have to register your fingerprint. In the last stretch, there are a series of blast-proof steel doors. One has to close before you open the next."

"Now I understand why they call it the bunker," Sybilla told the prosecutor's press officer who led her through the maze. She says that it's probably a good thing that all of that security is in place, since Mr. Iguarán is stepping on powerful toes as he looks into the crimes of right-wing paramilitaries and the politicians who supported them.

Sybilla says that after making it through all the intimidating security measures, it was refreshing to emerge into Iguarán's light-filled offices. "I found him peeling off a cable-knit sweater and putting on a suit coat," she says. "He seemed embarrassed that I had caught him in lounge mode."

• No Need to Demonstrate: With President Bush due to arrive nearby on Friday, Jeff White expected a real buzz to be in the air in Gdansk, Poland (see story). "What I learned is that while Poles have strong opinions on plans for a US missile base, they are more likely to discuss the issue among themselves rather than take to the streets en masse. I asked a Polish journalist why this is so, and he said, 'We are not the type of people who will go to the street. We are not Germans or French.' "

Indeed, Jeff says, "On the eve of Bush's arrival in Gdansk, I was with some students at a barbecue near the city's outskirts. I asked why no one was demonstrating. 'Why would we do that?' a student replied. 'We all have our opinions. That's enough.' Then he flipped a sausage."

– Amelia Newcomb
Deputy World editor