Today's Story Line:

Violence by extremist adherents is not limited to any one religion. In South Africa, attacks by local Muslim vigilantes became one of the topics of discussion at an international conference on religion with 7,000 attendees.

In Kosovo, the vigilante violence isn't based on religion as much as recent - and distant - history. The challenge for community leaders is how to give young Albanians - who have mostly negative experiences with Serbs - another paradigm.

Quote of note: "What the Serbs did to us was state-sponsored violence.... What's happening today is the work of individuals and a consequence of the pain they carry." - an Albanian human rights activist.

In this next story, we're not talking Bambi or Lassie or even Skippy (the kangaroo). It's hard to get a lump in one's throat over the killing of sharks for $120-a-bowl shark-fin soup. But a surge in shark fishing may be dangerously depleting this cartilaginous order.

Quote of note: "You know how big the Pacific Ocean is? There are plenty of blue sharks out there." - a shark fisherman in Hawaii.

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

*SAFE AS AN UGLY AMERICAN Since a Bulgarian UN worker in Kosovo was mistaken for a Serb and murdered in October, foreign aid workers and journalists have become careful about what language they speak. When reporter Michael Jordan arrived to do today's story on Albanian youths, he was warned not to speak Serbo-Croatian, not even "hello" or "thank you." "Some young Albanians would approach people on the street and ask what time it was in Serbian. They hope to trick Serbs into revealing themselves," says Michael. It's one of the few reporting trips, he says, where knowing little of the local language and talking loudly in English was considered a protection.

CULTURAL SNAPSHOT.

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