Today's Story Line
Europe's Airbus Industrie got its first orders this week to build what might be described as the Queen Mary of the skies. This huge aircraft is touted as having features more common to a cruise liner than a jet: beds, boutiques, and, did they say "a bowling alley"? The project is worth watching because bigger jets would reduce the need for more airports (air traffic is growing at 5 percent per year). It could also mark the end of Boeing's dominance of the jumbo-jet market. Boeing currently employs 190,000 workers .
At press time, a Concorde supersonic jet had just crashed near Paris reportedly killing all on board. In tomorrow's edition, look for more about this incident and this aircraft, which has had one of aviation's best safety records, but only limited appeal to the airlines.
Also you can expect coverage of where the Israeli-Palestinian peace process goes from here. At press time, it was announced that the two sides left Camp David Tuesday without an agreement after 14 days of negotiations under President Bill Clinton's personal mediation.
David Clark Scott World editor
REPORTERS ON THE JOB..
JOURNALISTS AS CHEMISTS: As part of her preparations to cover this week's mega-protest march, Peru-based reporter Rachel Hays, decided to purchase one of the ersatz plastic and mattress-pad gas masks being hawked in the downtown plazas. But none were to be found. What's a reporter to do?
"My friends and I are getting together this afternoon to make our own masks," Rachel says. Although she has no blueprints, the local march-organizers had a number of sample masks on display at their headquarters. "You cut a Coke bottle in half, snip out two holes for strings, and then stuff the spout with foam soaked in vinegar." What does the vinegar do to counter tear gas? "I don't know what the exact chemistry is - but they say it's supposed to be 80 percent effective, and that's better than nothing!"
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