Foreign diplomats, dispairing of getting the truth from official sources, gather the gossip of the bazaars and distill a version of events that becomes the received wisdom in the foreign sector.

As the midnight deadline approached in Nigeria, where the peace talks were held, the diplomats and heads of state gathered in a plush conference room on the grounds of the presidential villa.

The American diplomat, with his time sometimes severely limited by the Iraqis, gathers personal details about the men, takes messages for their families, and seeks information on medical problems.

In February 2004 scholars, diplomats, and Princeton alumni gathered at the university's campus to celebrate Kennan's 100th birthday.

Neither did he realize that, thousands of kilometers away, white European diplomats were gathering at the Berlin Conference, where they intended to devise a scheme for sharing Africa among the European powers.

The American and Soviet foreign ministers customarily meet in September, when diplomats gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

Guineans, expats, and diplomats gathered one afternoon for paella and wine.

There was a lull in the drinking now, as the diplomats gathered around the periwigged chief of state and his courtiers.

Here is where the diplomats, aid workers and reporters drawn to the disaster of Liberia gather to discuss, over drinks and dinner, the death and destruction around them.

There is perhaps no more beautiful place to enjoy this than at the University of Khartoum, where European diplomats gathered recently in the Faculty of Law to mark International Human Rights Day.