St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Women faint when they meet him. Men create stampedes to keep up with caravans he leads through impoverished cities where prior generations of leaders have not dared tread.

"When you see him in person, it's something that cannot be explained," said Susana Fonseca, craning her neck for a better view of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as he worked his way through a mob of admirers here earlier this month.

"We've never had men like him in our history," said Fonseca, 43, a public accountant.

A central feature of changes being brought about by President Hugo Chávez is the new, civilian branch of the Venezuelan military called the "territorial guard."

About 100,000 citizens, mainly from poor communities where support for Chávez burns hottest, have joined the guard during the past three years, according to members who participate in weekly training sessions at more than a dozen camps set up around the country.

Critics say there's no better example of Hugo Chávez's suave egomania than his weekly television talk show, in which he takes calls from viewers across the country.

But they can't argue with the show's popularity.

"Alo Presidente" — "Hello President" — appears on state television every Sunday and typically runs for as long as six hours.

The show is taped from a different location each week, usually at the site of one of the government's social welfare programs, where Chávez appears with a telephone to take calls from viewers.

The Mushangi area is nested high in eastern Congo's mountains, far from the capital, Kinshasa, on the border with Rwanda. The hills are barren, stripped of their lush vegetation both by erosion and by a seemingly never-ending conflict. While the rest of Congo prepares for the second round of presidential elections scheduled for Oct. 29, the people of Mushangi worry about one thing: survival.

They have made a difference in Darfur, Sudan. But understaffed and underfunded—rarely able to halt aggressive attacks, the African Union peacekeeping force is becoming a target of violence themselves.

Take a dozen journalists, half from the United States and half from countries throughout the Middle East. Put them together for a week of workshops and reporting in war-scarred, volatile Lebanon.Then watch the sparks fly -- and assumptions die.

Karen Hughes says that when she agreed earlier this year to become America's point person on public diplomacy, with a special emphasis on reaching out to Muslims, she read every report on the subject she could find.

Randall “Ismail” Royer grew up in Manchester and is a graduate of Parkway South High School. A Muslim convert, he pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of helping a pro-Pakistani Muslim group fight Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir.

As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stumbled through an awkward pre-Thanksgiving defense of the administration's counter-terrorism legal strategy, he couldn't know that a jury in an Alexandria, Va., federal court was about to give that strategy a boost.

As Sheikh Shaker el Sayed stood before his congregation for the start of Friday prayers last month at Dar al-Hijrah Mosque, he looked out upon a community that was in distress but strong in faith.

When Ruqqayah Collector led a protest march last month through the downtown streets of this old industrial city, she was making a stand for justice, for her faith and, not least, for her hometown.

On paper, Ahmed Abu Ali is among the most dangerous of al-Qaida terrorists. A federal jury convicted the Virginia man last month of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.