Reporters on the Job

CROUCHING REPORTER, HIDDEN STORY: To cover the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic (page 1), reporter Alex Todorovic spent Saturday night and early Sunday morning hiding from police in a wooded park across the street from Mr. Milosevic's residence. "The police tried to keep the journalists away from the scene. But several of us stayed, each crouched behind his own tree," says Alex. With a good view of the back gate, they saw a few cars coming and going, and the silhouettes of guards.

At about 4 a.m., a bus pulled up right in front of their hiding place, and riot police emerged. "We thought they were there to drive us out of the park. But they just stood at the park's edge, facing us. Minutes later, we heard five shots, and then a convoy of cars sped out of the back gate," says Alex. "We weren't sure what had happened." Two minutes later, Alex got a cellphone call from a television journalist with a source at the interior ministry: "They've got him. It's over." The shots were reportedly fired by Milosevic's daughter, who ran out of the house waving the gun wildly after her father turned himself in. No one was hit.

FOLLOW-UP ON A MONITOR STORY

SEEDS OF DISSENT: How long do the patent rights last on genetically modified seeds? The answer is not blowing in the wind, ruled a Canadian court last week. As reported June 26 in the Monitor, Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser argued that he didn't want Monsanto's bio-engineered canola seeds, they blew onto his property. Monsanto sued Mr. Schmeiser for growing the seeds without permission or paying a $10 per acre "technology fee." The court ordered Schmeiser to pay a minimum of C$15,450 (US$9,900), plus an as-yet undetermined share of the profits from Schmeiser's crop, C$105,000. The farmer says he is considering a counter-suit against the company for damaging varieties of canola he developed.

Let us hear from you.

Mail to: One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115 via e-mail: world@csmonitor.com

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor