Continent

While much of the world's attention is focused on conflicts of the Middle East, a growing competition is under way for influence in Africa - another leading source of oil with rising strategic importance. Chinese President Hu Jintao recently completed a 12-day, eight-nation tour of the continent, during which he sought to strengthen economic, political and military ties developed during an aggressive courtship of African leaders over the past decade. Partway through his visit, U.S. officials announced they, too, were taking a heightened interest in Africa, to be reflected in a new military command President Bush said would not only advance peace and security but also promote "development, health, education, democracy and economic growth."

No matter how bad the weather gets in Baltimore, it's an evening in Tahiti compared with Titan, Saturn's largest moon. A paper in the journal Science last week described a global overcast of frozen methane clouds, floating atop an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen. Clouds of ethane (a component of natural gas) drift near the poles. Mornings bring a drizzle of liquid methane off methane oceans and onto the foothills of the moon's main continent, Xanadu. The day's high? A chilly minus-297 Fahrenheit.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Can a white be an African?The question is at the heart of a national debate here over what makes an African. Is it color of the skin, place of birth, or history and cultural background?The furor, filtered through newspaper columns and radio talk shows for the past three months, started when a prominent white journalist, Max du Preez, a white Afrikaner by birth, declared himself an African.He objected to the way politicians, including Nelson Mandela and his successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, talked of "whites, coloreds, Indians and Africans" in a context in which "Africans" was synonymous with "blacks."

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- For all the talk of an "African Renaissance" -- suggesting a time of peace, progress and enlightenment -- this continent is as war-ravaged as ever.No fewer than eight major conflicts and dozens of tribal feuds are adding new chapters to Africa's awful record of bloodletting.From the Horn of Africa in the northeast, through the central Great Lakes region, to the Cape of Good Hope in the southeast, regional stability is threatened.Escalating clashes between Ethiopia and Eritrea in recent weeks have provoked a warning from the United Nations Security Council of full-scale war with "devastating effect" on the entire area.

WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton embarks on the longest overseas journey of his presidency today, a 12-day, six-nation African marathon that will tout the continent's dynamic prospects and touch on its horrific experiences.The trip will be the first sustained presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa in 20 years and the most extensive ever, highlighting the variety and texture of a region that usually appears on American television in episodes of ethnic war, famine and disease.It will be the first time a sitting president has stopped in any of Clinton's six destinations -- in order, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Botswana and Senegal.

PRESIDENT Clinton's epochal tour of Africa is a welcome reminder of the importance of that continent, its hopes and problems.The trip is primarily symbolic. Even the bits of aid promised are more token than substance. But symbolism is one of a president's more effective tools.The most important gesture so far has been Mr. Clinton's promise in Rwanda of a more aggressive U.S. stance in behalf of human rights where American policy can make a difference. He was at his most eloquent in condemning his own refusal to intervene in the genocide of 1994.

LILLE, France -- Chantal Dabin's heart lies in Europe. The 16-year-old French schoolgirl studies Spanish and English, travels widely and is certain that tomorrow's birth of the euro currency heralds a new age for her continent and generation."

GABORONE, Botswana -- President Clinton traveled yesterday from Africa's youngest democracy to its oldest, where he praised the government and people of Botswana as a model for the rest of the continent for 30 years."

SOWETO, South Africa - Outside the Queen of the Earth church in this black township, where President Clinton will attend Mass today, Africa's potential and its impoverishment sit side by side for all to see.The solid brick homes of the emerging middle class of Lake View and, beyond, the squalid shacks of the hapless squatters of Kliptown give focus to the promise of Clinton's six-nation, 12-day tour of this continent - a brighter future for all Africans.Four...

OF ALL THE world's continents, Africa has the least-developed press and electronic media. That's why a 24-hour satellite television channel exclusively devoted to its news and development is such a breakthrough.So fragile is Africa's information infrastructure that in most cases even its own media rely on reporting from the large Western news agencies. In contrast, SABC Africa will have "Africans reporting Africa to Africa," editor Allister Sparks promises.Launched by the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corp.

If you are the parent of teenagers, you have to feel for Pope Benedict XVI. On his trip to Africa last week, he made one of those outrageous statements about sex and birth control that brought down on him the kind of incredulousness and ridicule that only a 16-year-old can inflict on a clueless parent. The pope said - after landing on a continent that might not only have spawned HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, but is more devastated by it than any other - that the epidemic can't be resolved through the distribution of condoms.

The documentary India begins tonight on MPT. And the six-hour miniseries will tell you more about India than you probably wanted to know. But the sub-continent is laid out, probed and oohed and ahhed over with such enthusiasm by host Michael Wood that viewers may just be swept up in the whole enterprise. One of the great pleasures in this series is that India is so un-American. There is simply very little about India that is comparable to this country or continent. And this production is beautiful.

During the late 20th century, human rights campaigns led by Western progressives helped to liberate two nations on the tip of the African continent from brutal whites-only rule. In 1980, the apartheid regime of Rhodesia gave way to a black-led Zimbabwe. And in 1994, the first multiracial elections in South Africa delivered the presidency to a black man, the longtime anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. In the years since, the two nations have traveled very different paths. South Africa has enjoyed stability, a free press, international investment, an independent judiciary and democratic elections - helped by the graceful exit of Mr. Mandela, who retired after one term.

ACCRA, Ghana -- After crossing Africa from west to east and back, the central issues that President Bush brought on his tour came together yesterday in the white stucco Osu Castle, Ghana's seat of government. With gusto, Bush declared "that's baloney" to the notion that the United States was preparing to establish military bases in Africa. "Or, as we say in Texas, that's bull," he said at a news conference with Ghanaian President John Kufuor. Bush defended the foundation of his program to combat HIV and AIDS, which emphasizes premarital abstinence, fidelity and the use of condoms.

No matter how bad the weather gets in Baltimore, it's an evening in Tahiti compared with Titan, Saturn's largest moon. A paper in the journal Science last week described a global overcast of frozen methane clouds, floating atop an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen. Clouds of ethane (a component of natural gas) drift near the poles. Mornings bring a drizzle of liquid methane off methane oceans and onto the foothills of the moon's main continent, Xanadu. The day's high? A chilly minus-297 Fahrenheit.

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany -- The world's leading industrialized nations pledged $60 billion yesterday to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis mainly in Africa, a gesture that drew criticism from human rights groups that called it insufficient and part of a pattern of unfulfilled promises. The agreement on African aid, half of which would be provided by the U.S., came as the Group of Eight's three-day summit concluded at this Baltic Sea resort. The money is part of a series of measures to reduce disease and spur economic growth on a continent racked by poverty and corruption, where more than 2 million people die each year of AIDS.

While much of the world's attention is focused on conflicts of the Middle East, a growing competition is under way for influence in Africa - another leading source of oil with rising strategic importance. Chinese President Hu Jintao recently completed a 12-day, eight-nation tour of the continent, during which he sought to strengthen economic, political and military ties developed during an aggressive courtship of African leaders over the past decade. Partway through his visit, U.S. officials announced they, too, were taking a heightened interest in Africa, to be reflected in a new military command President Bush said would not only advance peace and security but also promote "development, health, education, democracy and economic growth."

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA -- Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to boost his country's booming relationship with Africa yesterday, as he brought a 12-day Africa tour to the continent's economic powerhouse. Hu's trip, in which he has lavished promises of economic partnership on a half-dozen nations but steered clear of controversial political issues, has become a symbol of China's intense courtship of Africa. The growing relationship has been viewed with trepidation by many in the West. U.S. officials, who see Africa as an alternative source of oil to the Middle East, are worried particularly about competition with China for the continent's resources.

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ-- The highest mountain system in the Southern Hemisphere is on which continent? (Answer below) Quiz answer (FROM ABOVE) South America. Source: National Geographic Bee

Cats are notorious for roaming far from home, and it turns out that trait played a very important role in their evolutionary past, spreading new lineages around the world as the cats roamed from continent to continent with apparent ease, researchers said yesterday. The 37 modern species of cats evolved from a single ancestor in Asia 10.8 million years ago and spread by crossing land bridges connecting the continents - often several times in each direction, according to the first comparison of DNA from each of the species.