News In Brief

WE DON'T TALK THAT WAY HERE

If you'll be in San Diego any time soon, be careful how you use "minority" in conversation. It long has been official school department policy to avoid the word. Now, by unanimous vote, City Council has banned it as well, on grounds that it's disparaging. One councilor maintained that people often expect less of those classified as being from a minority group. Added Mayor Dick Murphy: "When you see all people as children of God, you see ... your brothers and sisters."

HEY, IT'LL DO YOU GOOD

There was good news and bad news for Annaguli Dzhumagy-lydzhov - yes, that's really his name - earlier this week. First the good news: He was appointed deputy industry minister in the government of Turkmenistan. Unhappily for him, President Saparmurat Niyazov ordered him to work in a factory for the first three months to learn "the ins and outs of each link in the industrial chain" and thus better prepare himself to be one of "the leaders of the new epoch."

'Child porn' ranks as No. 1 worry on Web, survey finds

Half of all Americans see child pornography as the worst danger in cyberspace - far more heinous than any other crime online, results of a new survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project show. Their other greatest concerns: credit-card theft and cyberterrorism. To combat potential crime, 62 percent of the respondents to the survey said new laws should be passed to further protect privacy. But if someone is suspected of breaking the law, most said they approve of the FBI secretly monitoring his or her e-mail. The Internet crimes that Americans say they are "most concerned" about (and the percentage for each) from the survey of 2,000 adults:

Child pornography 50%

Credit-card theft 10%

Organized terrorism 10%

Computer viruses 5%

Hackers attacking government 5%

Wide-scale fraud 2%

Hackers attacking businesses 1%

Other, miscellaneous crimes 13%

- Associated Press

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor