World digest 06/08/02

U.N. food agencies issue new call for assistance

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Two U.N. food agencies warned Friday that southern Africa will experience a severe food crisis without immediate international assistance.

Nearly 13 million people in six southern African countries are at risk of starvation, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement.

Meanwhile, about 100 aid officials, representatives of donor countries and government leaders from the affected countries met in Johannesburg for a second day Friday in an urgent effort to formulate a plan to prevent the crisis from becoming a famine.

About 4 million tons of food are required to feed those in desperate need, the agencies said.

The WFP planned to ask donors for $350 million to $400 million, said James Morris, the WFP's new executive director.

Iraq forced to trim illegal oil surcharges

LONDON -- Iraq is reducing the surcharges it makes customers pay for its oil as the United Nations intensifies pressure on Baghdad to forego the illegal source of cash, energy analysts said Friday.

Hurt by plummeting sales of crude, Iraq also is believed to have halved the surcharges in an effort to lure back wary traders and avoid further pain for its long-battered economy.

Since its defeat in the Gulf War, Iraq has sold the bulk of its crude under close U.N. supervision. The U.N. oil-for-food program is designed to keep Iraq from using its oil revenues to pay for imports that it could put to military use.

The Iraqi government introduced surcharges as a way of partially circumventing U.N. control.

The country has illegally earned at least $2.3 billion in illegal surcharges on oil and commissions from commodities contracts, according to a report released last month by the U.S. General Accounting Office.

Development talks in Indonesia deadlocked

BALI, Indonesia -- Key talks on how to raise living standards worldwide and protect the environment broke down Friday over several issues, including a U.S. demand that countries do more to fight corruption before receiving more Western development aid.

More than 6,000 delegates, including 118 environment and economic ministers, met on Bali to debate a development blueprint to be voted on at a U.N.-sponsored summit in August in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The failure of Friday's talks raised questions about the effectiveness of the summit.

"The meeting has failed to reach a compromise on related time-bound measures," chairman Emil Salim said. "We have tried until the last hour to bridge the gap."

He said wealthy nations were blocking proposals to commit to binding agreements for implementing environmental programs.

Salim said the unresolved issues would have to be debated further in Johannesburg.

Jerusalem sees its first gay pride parade

JERUSALEM -- Under heavy police guard, about 2,500 people marched Friday in the first gay pride parade in this holy city, despite fierce opposition from Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders.

Participants waved rainbow flags and held aloft arches of colored balloons. Some men wore the skullcaps of devout Jews, while others dressed in tight leather shorts and stiletto heels.

"We don't care what people say about us. They speak out of fear and ignorance," said Liad Geller, a 24-year-old security guard from Tel Aviv.

Public acceptance of gays has grown in recent years, but Jerusalem is more conservative than other Israeli cities, in part because of its large number of residents from more traditional communities -- ultra-Orthodox Jews and Palestinians.

-- From wire reports