Today's Story Line

In sub-Saharan Africa, the education system is being eroded by a disproportionately high number of AIDS cases among teachers.

A post-Yeltsin power struggle is under way in Russia. Business barons are being investigated for illegal gains.

Indonesia seeks new ways to douse the smog-producing forest fires.

Emeralds are the financial fuel for Afghan rebels' military machine.

David Clark Scott World editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

*NO THANKs, JUST LOOKING: Few foreigners bother to make the trek to Afghanistan's emerald mines. But reporter Lucian Kim wasn't deterred. A two-hour bumpy car ride brought him to a rushing river. The only way over: a rickety bridge that Lucian says looked like "the builders forgot to nail together." After the bridge came a two-hour climb into inhospitable terrain that only mountain goats would find amusing. During the climb, Lucian was lapped by men who marched past him bearing large water canisters and jackhammers. The miners must have been impressed by his persistence. Lucian was offered an ownership share in the mine for $14. Doubtful of international money transfers out of Afghanistan, Lucian graciously declined.

PRESS CLIPPING..

*NO PEACE? NO COOKING, NO CLEANING: Former South African President Nelson Mandela urged the married women of Burundi last week to pressure their husbands to sign a peace deal he has been trying to broker. "It is for you, the women, to say to your husbands, 'If you don't agree to sign the agreement on the 28th of August, then I am not going to talk to you, I am not going to cook for you,' " Mandela said, according to Reuters.

In the ancient Greek comedy, "Lysistrata," the women of Athens refused to do anything for their men until they stopped fighting the Spartans.

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