Reporters on the Job

• Remember Our Last Interview? Correspondent Sibylla Brodzinsky got much of her information about Ingrid Betancourt's plans for a presidential run in Colombia from a former fellow hostage, former Sen. Luís Eladio Pérez (see story).

It wasn't her first interview with him. She'd spoken to him in March, shortly after he'd been released by the FARC, the Colombian rebel group. Even then, Mr. Pérez was talking about Ms. Betancourt's political plans.

"At the time, he was talking about Ingrid, about her big political project. 'You wait and see,' he said. I laughed. First, at the idea that she'd be released anytime soon, and second at the idea that she could come back with any sort of political force," says Sibylla.

When Sibylla called him Tuesday, he remembered her scorn. "He laughed at me," she says. "He's a firm believer in Ingrid.

"Sibylla says that Perez hopes to be a part of any presidential run, possibly as her running mate. But he has just fled the country.

Two of the FARC rebels arrested in the July 2 rescue mission were officially charged with being his kidnappers. Pérez gave a deposition in the case and has since received death threats.

• Obama to Berlin? Reagan did it. Clinton did it. Now presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama wants to join the list of notable Americans who have addressed Germans at the iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Organizers of Senator Obama's campaign have contacted Berlin officials, the Associated Press reports. He plans two foreign trips this summer, including stops in the Middle East and European capitals.

Obama is popular in Germany. A poll of 501 Germans conducted Thursday for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper found that 72 percent would like to see Obama win the presidency, with just 11 percent preferring Sen. John McCain.

– David Clark Scott

World editor