Africa

Several factors are endangering stability on the African continent. One in every six Africans suffers from mental disorders resulting from ongoing strife, political chaos, poverty, disease and genocide. On average two South African farmers a day are murdered in military-style attacks by heavily armed bandits. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe may soon be a mere 30 years due to AIDS, whereas a decade ago it was 60 years.

Civilian Internment Camps In America

Civilian prison camps, more commonly known as concentration camps, have been a subject of speculation the past few years among Americans. Congressman Henry Gonzales (D-Texas) answered the question of the civilian detention camps' existence in a recent interview: "The truth is—yes, you do have these standby provisions, and the plans are here . . . whereby you could, in the name of stopping terrorism, . . . evoke the military and arrest Americans and put them in detention camps."

Financial

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest commercial bank, has announced a preliminary merger agreement with New York-based Banker's Trust. If the merger is consummated, it will bring Deutsche Bank's total assets to $1.3 trillion and make it the world's largest financial firm.

Health

» A recently discovered substance called telomerase is being hailed as an "immortality enzyme," since it encourages cells to divide indefinitely rather than dying with age. Though it might slow the aging process, fears exist that it will cause cancer by allowing cell division to run amok, creating "immortality with cancer."

» A New York blood bank is notifying 40,000 Chicago-area residents that their 1994-1996 transfusions may have contained blood improperly tested for viral infections, including HIV and hepatitis. The New York Blood Center has known about the problem for two years, but has waited until now to notify Chicago "because of the logistics of simultaneously notifying the four cities affected." The center alerted New York last year and Pittsburgh and Memphis last month.

» A flesh-eating microbe that causes incurable skin ulcers is spreading across Victoria, Australia. The microbe, which has killed many in Africa, is normally associated with tropical climates, and experts are baffled by the incidents in Victoria's more temperate climate.

Weather

» According to a team of British scientists, 1999 may be the warmest in the past 1,000 years. By using tree rings and ice cores as indicators, the scientists compared temperature peaks during the past millennium. They found AD 1106 was approximately one-half percent warmer than average and predict 1998 will turn out to be slightly warmer.

» The past few months have been the driest in Israel in more than 58 years with some areas receiving only 0.33 inches since April. The Sea of Galilee, the country's main reservoir, has only two months' water supply left. Without significant rainfall soon, stringent water rationing is forecast.

Y2K

John Koskinen, chairman of President Clinton's council on the millennium bug computer problem, told a UN conference that the shipping industry lags well behind other industries in attending to the problem, even though 95% of all goods coming into the U.S. arrive by sea.