USA TODAY:
U.N.: Gap between rich, poor growing

GENEVA (AP) - Technology advances may be improving life for many people around the world, but they are also widening the gap between rich and poor, according to a U.N. report released Monday.

An international effort is needed to meet the needs of poor people in areas of medical research, communications and information technology, according to the 1999 Human Development Report.

Researchers with the U.N. Development Program examined income, education, life expectancy and health care in assessing the quality of life in 174 countries.

Among their findings were that purchasing a computer would cost the average Bangladeshi eight years' income, while the average American would pay one month's wage.

Eighty percent of all websites are in English, but only one person in 10 worldwide speaks English, the report continued. Even in more established means of communications the researchers found a gap between rich and poor.

In the principality of Monaco in 1996 there were 99 telephone lines per 100 people, while in Cambodia the figure was one. People in Switzerland make an average of six hours of international telephone calls per year, but in Pakistan the average is one minute.

''This (technology) is a two-edged sword - it is cutting many people in, but it is increasingly cutting many people out,'' the report's author Richard Jolly told reporters.

Jolly said people using the Internet were increasingly young, white, male and well-educated.

The report also ranks the countries and territories in a human development index based on real income, life expectancy and educational standards.

Canada tops the list for the sixth year running, followed by Norway and the United States. The bottom 22 countries on the list are all in Africa, with Sierra Leone coming last.

The top 20% of the world's population earned 74 times as much as the bottom 20%. In 1960 it was 30 times as much.

''The 200 richest people in the world have more money than the combined income of the lowest 40% of the world's population,'' said Jolly.

Globalization did not necessarily make the situation worse, but Jolly said governments should take into account more than just trade issues when they consider international policy.

The report says international policy making must balance a concern for profits with a concern for people who have been affected by turmoil in the global marketplace.

It is also important to find a comprehensive approach to global threats such as HIV infection, international crime, human rights abuses by multinational corporations and transnational pollution such as acid rain.

''The aim is to put human concerns at the center of the globalization debate, to focus on the global interdependence of people and not just of financial flows,'' added Jolly.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwsmon02.htm

THE AUSTRALIAN:
S. African bid to stop gold sale, save jobs

IN a bid to save up to 80,000 miners' jobs, South Africa yesterday launched a last-ditch offensive to persuade Britain to halt its gold reserve sell-off.

A high-powered delegation of South African politicians, and union and business leaders arrived in London overnight for meetings with the Treasury and the Bank of England to discuss the damage done by the sales.

Gold prices have fallen 10 per cent, to a 20-year low, since the Bank of England revealed in May plans to dispose of about 400 tonnes of gold.

The gold slump has already forced the closure of the East Rand mine, South Africa's oldest gold producer, which, during World War II, was one of the main contributors to funding Britain's war efforts.

The shutdown is expected to cost 5000 miners their jobs. A total of 17,000 job losses have already been announced in the industry. The closure came after President Thabo Mbeki's Government announced it could no longer subsidise the mine, having propped it up since 1990 to the tune of £48 million ($120 million).

There are now nearly a dozen mines classified as marginal that are being subsidised by the Government.

Economists calculate that every job lost in the mining industry costs at least six more in companies that supply it, and that every miner, recruited mainly from rural areas of South Africa and neighbouring countries, supports an average of 10 dependants.

Mr Mbeki is under heavy pressure to try to resolve the gold issue, with up to 80,000 jobs in the industry believed to be at risk.

Mr Mbeki is facing up to a major jobs crisis in a country where unemployment is estimated to be running at 30 per cent.

A further 50,000 jobs are under threat in other industries. The main unions are threatening nationwide political action unless the Government calls a halt to the job cuts.

The London talks come as opposition builds in the US to an International Monetary Fund plan to sell 10 million ounces of gold to fund debt relief in developing countries.

A cross-party group from the US Congress – including the Black Caucus, right-wing Republicans and representatives from gold-producing States – have threatened to block the sale, claiming that it would further depress the price of gold and harm many small producer nations.

The US has a 17 per cent share in the IMF and, since the gold sales require an 85 per cent approval, failure to secure the backing of Congress would effectively veto the IMF's plans.

IMF officials met at the weekend to discuss the sale but refused to say whether any further progress had been made.

While the bank comfortably covered this month's auction of 25 tonnes, anti-sale campaigners are hoping to halt the next auction in September.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/home/

CNN:
Six killed in Atlanta family shooting

ATLANTA (Reuters) -- A gunman walked into an Atlanta home Monday and opened fire, killing two women and three children before shooting himself, police said.

A fourth child, an 11-year-old boy who sustained a gunshot wound to the arm, hid in a closet for more than eight hours before coming out to find the carnage, police said.

"The child indicated the shooting started sometime after 6 a.m.," spokesman C.B. Jackson said. "He hid in a closet and was able to leave the closet after 2 p.m."

The deceased, who were not identified, were described by police as a mother, three of her children, and the woman's sister. The gunman also shot to death a guard dog.

Atlanta police said the wounded boy ran to a neighbor's home for help. He was taken to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment and told police the gunman was his step-father.

Jackson said the police investigation was hindered because there were two guard dogs still alive inside the house and the animals prevented officers from entering.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9907/12/BC-CRIME-FAMILY.reut/

RUSSIA TODAY:
Russians Expect Delay Of Space Launch To Mir

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Jul 12, 1999 -- (Reuters) Russia expects the launch of a rocket carrying vital equipment to the Mir space station to be delayed this week because of a row with Kazakhstan over use of its cosmodrome, a Russian space official said on Monday.

"Our forecast is very pessimistic," Sergei Gorbunov, press secretary to Russian Space Agency head Yuri Koptev, told Reuters by telephone.

"Preparations for the launch are being made, but we do not expect the Progress (cargo ship) to take off on time."

The launch of the Progress cargo craft by a Soyuz booster rocket is scheduled for Wednesday.

The three-man French-Russian crew is due to leave Mir in late August and a guidance system which is due to be delivered by the Progress is intended to help prevent the station crashing to earth while Moscow finds the cash to send up a new team.

Mir is also dogged by a problem which has caused a fall in air pressure, the latest in a long series of hazards.

Kazakhstan stopped all launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which Moscow rents, after a Russian Proton-K rocket crashed to earth last week and scattered debris over the Kar-Karalinsk region in central Kazakhstan.

The vast Central Asian state is demanding compensation for the costs of the clean-up operation. Moscow has agreed to pay but experts are still assessing the damage and it could take time for the costs to be fully paid.

Kazakh Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev accused Moscow of negligence on Sunday, saying Russia had failed to react quickly enough to the accident, sent only a low-level delegation to investigate and ignored previous environmental warnings.

"Unfortunately, we do not feel that the Russian side is particularly concerned," he said in a statement.

Russia has said Kazakhstan's reaction is exaggerated.

Kazakhstan said it was checking the local water supply and soil for traces of a highly toxic fuel component called "giptil," known to have powered the failed Proton.

"There was a minimal level of damage," said Gorbunov, speaking from Moscow. "We did not find as much damage as we were expecting, and the specialists found no traces of giptil."

The two countries have enjoyed generally good ties since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but the Proton accident shows how sensitive Kazakhstan remains to the treatment it receives from its more powerful northern neighbor.

The sides signed an agreement in 1994 on Russia's use of Baikonur for an annual rent of $115 million, since when Moscow has run up arrears of more than $300 million.

Previous agreements could be up for review as a result of the rocket row after Balgimbayev said Kazakhstan might enforce a "permission" system for future launches.

Gorbunov said the launch of a Ukrainian-Russian survey satellite, due to have blasted off from Baikonur last Thursday, had been suspended because of the dispute.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=78341