Today's Story Line

Catching the culprits who make cyber-surfing dangerous is being addressed for the first time this week in Paris by techies, law-enforcement officials, and CEOs from around the world.

President Vladimir Putin is at it again - first clamping down on critical media, now taking the risky move of curtailing the powers of local governors.

Not to mention the fact that Putin is making overtures to Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic, who just shut down the last of the big independent media in Belgrade yesterday.

Faye Bowers Deputy world editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB

LOVE LETTERS IN GIGABYTES: The Monitor's Paris bureau chief, Peter Ford, has been brought up to speed on internet security by his wife, Edith, who works for a French dotcom involved in e-commerce.

Every now and again, as he works, he gets an e-mail from her warning him not to open any mail with such and such a word in the subject line, because it carries a virus.

But he says he really did not need her warning about the latest global worm. Did his wife honestly think he would open a love letter from a stranger?

UPDATE ON A MONITOR STORY

REBEL LEADER CAPTURED: Government troops from Sierra Leone captured rebel leader-cum-government minister Foday Sankoh in the capital, Freetown late Tuesday. Yesterday, he was flown by a British helicopter to a "safe location" in nearby Lungi, where British soldiers have secured the international airport. Mr. Sankoh had been missing for 10 days, following a shootout at his house on May 8 (see May 9 and 10 Monitors).

British troops were deployed in Sierra Leone, a former British colony, as an evacuation force after rebels took UN peacekeepers hostage and started advancing on the capital.

The news of Sankoh's detention spread quickly around Freetown. Thousands of people came out into the streets, cheering and celebrating. Many had been fearing a return to the country's brutal, eight-year civil war.

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