Deleted Desktop directory

[Todd Thomas <toddt dimensional com>]

I accidentally deleted ~/Desktop on a Fedora Core 3 machine. 

(Specifically, I fumble-fingered something like 'rm -rf foo *' in my
home directory when I meant to type 'rm -rf foo/*'. Very scary, but
thankfully it was on a machine I use for experimentation.)

Immediately after the deletion I noticed the "factory-supplied" icons
that were on my desktop (Computer, Home, and Trash; I hadn't added
anything else) had disappeared. That did not surprise me initially, but
then I logged on as another user and noted that ~/Desktop is empty even
when those factory icons are visible.

I created a new ~/Desktop, then tried logging out and even rebooting,
but my desktop is still empty. Furthermore, clicking and dragging on the
desktop fails to produce a selection rectangle, and right-clicking fails
to bring up a context menu.

How can I repair this? Out of curiosity, what entity creates ~/Desktop
during the installation process?

Thanks much,

Todd Thomas