How to make the web go worldwide

Statistics show that Africa lags behind in net use

Only one billion people out of the six billion-strong world population have internet access. So what is being done to connect up all the world's citizens?

In South Korea more than 70% of homes have a high-speed broadband connection. It is probably one of the most connected areas on earth, with the possible exception of California and other localised parts of the US.

Contrast that with Africa where out of a population of close to a billion people about 3.6% have net access and only 0.1% have broadband speeds.

Often people say Africa needs food and water more than it needs broadband access and that may be true, in part, but the global economy is becoming reliant on the net and without access how can countries ever hope to be able to clothe, house and feed their citizens?

It has taken a few decades for the net to reach a billion people, but how long will it take to reach two billion and where will those new net users be found?

Jim Dempsey, of the US Center For Democracy and Technology, said: "The next 500 million will be easy because it will all come from China."

Speaking at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens, he said: "The other 500 million will be spread around the world. I worry particularly about Africa being left behind here.

"The hard problem, in my view, is Africa."

Line noise

Africa is not alone in struggling to keep pace with the online world - there are similar problems in parts of Asia, South America and the Middle East.

And often the problems are common: lack of technical infrastructure, telecoms monopolies who do not have the financial means or motive to invest in technology, lack of competition, inequality of access compared with the Western world and a lack of local compelling online services.

Craig Silliman, of network provider Verizon, said: "The number one factor in improving quality and price of access to networks is competition.

"Why is there not more competition in many countries? What are the barriers?"

Some at the conference felt access was needed to local loops - the local exchanges which effectively connect areas to the global net.

Interest in the net is growing fastest in Africa

Vincent Waiswa Bagiire, director of CIPESA, an initiative to educate Africans about telecoms policy, said: "How can we get independent regulation to unbundle monopolies to increase competition?"

Professor Milton Mueller, of the Internet Governance Project, said the key to closing the infrastructure gap was the mobilisation of "local capital" so entrepreneurs on the ground could be helped to fund the much-need technology if big business was turning away.

Sam Paltridge of the OECD agreed: "Get a commercial core network built-out with competitive principles and then the government can, in an economical way, provide connectivity to schools and health centres."

But should net access be left to private enterprise at all? Should national governments or international bodies like the United Nations step in?

Kishik Park, president of the IPv6 forum in South Korea, said: "The net should be treated as food or housing. Because the net today is not just a means to communicate ideas. It is a kind of daily infrastructure for every citizen."

He argued that competition alone is not the answer.

"We must think about collaboration before competition."

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BBC NEWS | Technology | EU calls for net address upgrade

Work to migrate Europe to the net's new addressing system must speed up, says the European Commission.

The call to action is contained in a plan sent to the European Parliament urging governments and top websites in the region to head the migration.

It warns that internet-based innovation could be derailed as the current pool of addresses is used up.

The plan sets a target of 25% of net users in the EU to be using the new system by 2010.

Aiding innovation

"This is very much a case of a stitch in time saves nine," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the information society, in a statement unveiling the plan.

Ms Reding said futuristic technologies already being adopted, such as smart tags, intelligent street lighting and heating systems, were already projected to boost demand for IP addresses 1,000-fold - perhaps beyond the current system's ability to cope.

Europe could face a "crisis" when the older system ran out of addresses, she warned.

Currently, Version 4 of the Internet Protocol (IPv4) is used to ensure that data travelling across the net reaches the right destination.

The IPv4 scheme makes available about 4.3 billion addresses - a total predicted to run out in 2011.

By contrast, Version 6 of this scheme (IPv6) provides, in effect, an unlimited number of addresses.

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BBC NEWS | Americas | Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil

The photos are being used to prove the tribe's existence
Image: Gleison Miranda, Funai

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One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.

The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows.

More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says.

Stephen Corry, the director of the group - which supports tribal people around the world - said such tribes would "soon be made extinct" if their land was not protected.

'Monumental crime'

Survival International says that although this particular group is increasing in number, others in the area are at risk from illegal logging.

What do the pictures tell us? In pictures: Brazil tribe

The photos were taken during several flights over one of the most remote parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Acre region.

They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera.

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," the group quoted Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, an official in the Brazilian government's Indian affairs department, as saying.

"This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

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Angelina Jolie: I love being pregnant

Patrick Demarchelier exclusively for Vanity Fair

Click for a gallery of famous post-partum breasts.

Angelina Jolie may not have given birth - yet. But Vanity Fair gives readers a glimpse of Angie's other twins on this month's cover as the buxom actress discusses why boyfriend Brad Pitt makes her love being knocked up.

"I'm fortunate," she said. "I think some women have a different experience depending on their partner. I think that affects it. I happen to be with somebody who finds pregnancy very sexy so that makes me feel very sexy."

Jolie, who stars in both this summer's action flick "Wanted" and cartoon comedy "Kung Fu Panda," says she doesn't even mind waddling around for nine long months.

"I love it. [Pregnancy] makes me feel like a woman. It makes me feel that all the things about my body are suddenly there for a reason. It makes you feel round and supple, and to have a little life inside you is amazing."

For more on Jolie, visit VanityFair.com.

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China angry over Sharon Stone quake karma remark | Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Luxury retailer Christian Dior has pulled advertisements featuring Sharon Stone from stores across China after the actress suggested the country's earthquake was "bad karma" for Beijing's policies in Tibet.

At least 68,000 people died in the May 12 quake in southwest China, which came months after unrest in Tibet that sparked an international outcry over Beijing's handling of the predominantly Buddhist region, which Communist troops entered in 1950.

"Due to some customer reaction we have decided to pull her image from all of the department stores and from all of China," Christian Dior China said in a statement.

Stone has a modeling contract with the cosmetics arm of the luxury retailer for which newly rich China is a fast-growing market.

"We just want our customers and fans to realize that her personal comments are not related to the company and of course we don't support any type of commentary that will hurt the feelings of our customers," Dior said.

The Beijing Times reported that Chinese cinemas would not show Stone's films, though China already strictly limits the number of foreign movies it distributes in theatres.

Her movies include "Basic Instinct" in 1992 and "Casino" and "The Quick and the Dead", both in 1995.

Stone apologized for her comments in remarks carried in Chinese media on Thursday.

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The 'Sex and the City' movie becomes a girls' night out - Los Angeles Times

Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times

Friends gather for a cocktail before the midnight screening of "Sex and the City" at the ArcLight Theater.

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Some of the show's fans are making an event out of it, gathering large groups of friends, donning outfits that would make Carrie envious and drinking cosmos, of course.

MOCK them at your own risk. They have heels and they know how to use them.

They're showing up in droves, in posses, in very well-dressed tribes. Worshipers of "Sex and the City" may not look like Comic-Con fans but they're every bit as tenacious -- and they smell better. Tickets for the ArcLight Hollywood's 12:01 a.m. Friday show of the movie based on the HBO series sold out so quickly that the theater added a 12:02 show. Then 12:03. And so on, for seven post-midnight shows, and 1,800 tickets sold.

And they aren't just there for the flick; they're making an event of it. By 10:30 Thursday night, the bar and restaurant were full of groups of women, and the occasional man, downing cocktails and awaiting the midnight hour. "If you see a cosmo on a table, they're going to 'Sex and the City,' " said waiter James Warfield as he carried a tray bearing the show's signature drink. "I have a lot more ladies than usual."

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