Today's Story Line

Politics knows no borders. How else do you explain two candidates for the Mexican Congress who live in the US?

Rural tensions make campaigning in Zimbabwe difficult and dangerous. But with elections less than a week away, parliamentary opposition candidates are making headway against President Mugabe's ruling party.

Summer vacation, what's that? Today's middle-class Indians are following in British colonial footsteps, heading for the cool Himalayan foothills.

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

*KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE: Mexico's cities on the US border are booming, with hundreds of migrants arriving daily from other parts of Mexico to share in economic growth fed by NAFTA and the maquiladora (assembly plant) industry. The Monitor's Howard LaFranchi was in Ciudad Jurez this week and was reminded at a political rally that newcomers make up 45 percent of the city's population of 1.5 million. "It was a rally welcoming presidential candidate Francisco Labastida, and the emcee was having a little trouble warming up the crowd," Howard says. "Then he asked how many people in the audience were from Veracruz, Oaxaca, or other Mexican states, and the crowd went wild."

FOLLOW-UP ON A MONITOR STORY..

*BISHOP GOES FREE: A Roman Catholic bishop accused of helping orchestrate the 1994 slaughter of more than 500,000 Rwandans was cleared of genocide charges last week and set free. As reported on Sept. 21, 1999, Augustin Misago was the highest ranking church official - out of 21 on trial - charged with failure to provide assistance to people in danger and incitement to murder. A Rwandan court ruled the prosecution failed to prove that Bishop Misago had participated in meetings during which Rwanda's former extremist Hutu government formulated plans to kill minority Tutsis. Two priests have already been convicted and sentenced to death.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society