Around the World

AIDS may claim 70,000 in Zimbabwe

Evaristo Marowa blamed the spiraling death toll on the continuing refusal of young, sexually active adults to use protective measures.

"The crisis continues to deepen with little or no sign of behavioral changes in the young and economically active age groups," he said.

By the end of 1999, Zimbabwe's death toll from AIDS-related illness since 1985, when the first AIDS case was reported, is expected to reach 400,000, Marowa said.

Marowa talked to reporters after a three-day visit from Sandra Thurman, director of President Clinton's White House Office on AIDS policy.

An estimated 1.6 million of the country's 12 million citizens are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. In 1998, the disease killed about 100 people a day, Marowa said.

Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of heterosexually transmitted Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in southern Africa.

In Africa, where traditional polygamy and promiscuity persist, AIDS is spread mainly by heterosexual contact. Intravenous drug use and homosexuality are comparatively rare.

Health officials estimate that 25 percent of sexually active urban dwellers are infected with the AIDS virus, with a lower rate in rural communities.

A recent report by Harare maternity services said more than 30 percent of pregnant mothers tested positive for the AIDS virus and many of their babies, infected in the womb, would die before reaching four years of age.

Thurman said the United States was looking at ways of increasing AIDS awareness worldwide.

Mir to shine light on former Soviet cities

The Znamya experiment, which is scheduled to start at around 5 a.m. today, envisages unfolding a mirror made of a membrane covered by a metal layer.

The mirror is supposed to work like an artificial moon, reflecting sunlight onto regions in Russia and other former Soviet republics before reaching Germany and the Czech Republic, said Mission Control spokesperson an Valery Lyndin.

The mirror, 83 feet in diameter, will send a beam of light illuminating a spot five miles in diameter in each of the designated regions, provided the sky is clear, Lyndin said.

Mir cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev will steer a Progress cargo ship to hold the spot of light steady for about 15 seconds in each area of the experiment. They will try to film the experiment through the station's windows.

The sunbeam is expected to hit Bonn, Germany and Plzen, Czech Republic between 12:45 p.m. and 12:47 p.m. EST Thursday.

Before that, it is expected to illuminate the following cities:

Karaganda and Aktyubinsk in Kazakstan; Saratov, Russia; Gomel, Belarus; and Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The mirror's designers say it will serve as a prototype for much larger models that may be used to illuminate sun-starved northern cities. In the more distant future, such devices may act as ''solar sails,'' using solar wind to help push spaceships through space.

The folded membrane is now attached to a Progress cargo ship docked to the station. At the start of the experiment, the crew will jettison the Progress, guide it to a position some 1,312 feet away from the station, and then send a signal to unfold the mirror.

After the experiment, the garbage-filled cargo ship will be allowed to burn up in the atmosphere.

Russia ran a similar experiment six years ago, but the crew then didn't try to maneuver the mirror and it was barely visible only to those who knew its position.

02-04-99