1.   Most of the year, this abandoned colonial capital, with its fading but still fine buildings and sandy streets, resembles nothing so much as a ghost town.

2.   So few cars move about that schoolchildren think nothing of strolling down the middle of its sandy streets.

3.   Palestinian mourners scattered in panic, with women and children running barefoot through the sandy streets, many seeking shelter in abandoned buildings.

4.   In Timbuktu, Tuaregs and Moors find their shops smashed, looted when rampaging townsfolk colored the sandy streets with blood.

5.   The smell of sewage hangs in the warm air, and debris litters the sandy streets.

6.   To the beat of African drums, they collapse on the sandy streets three times to pay homage to Jesus Christ.