To the Point

Blair Lobbies Bush on African Aid

President Bush has tripled US aid to Africa to $3.2 billion a year. British Prime Minister Tony Blair wants that figure doubled, partly as payback for supporting the war in Iraq, and to bolster his leadership of the G8 Summit meeting this summer. The most he-s likely to get is $674 million for Africans threatened by famine. Blair and Bush are meeting today in Washington, with a lot at stake for countries facing AIDS, famine and ethnic divisions. What about Africa-s rampant corruption? Should aid be conditioned on evidence that governments have cleaned up their acts? We speak with journalists, economists, and former State and Treasury Department officials about Bush and Blair's different approaches as well as the problems facing 48 different countries in the only continent that-s become poorer in the past 20 years. Making News: GM to Cut 25,000 Jobs Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of General Motors, told stockholders today that GM will reduce its labor force by 25,000 and close a number of factories over the next three and a half years. Jeffrey McRacken, automotive reporter for the Detroit Free Press, considers what the cuts will mean to GM employees and its corporate investors. Reporter's Notebook: Global Military Spending Reaches $1 Trillion for First Time World spending on weapons last year reached a record $1 trillion, with the US accounting for 47% of the total. The figure comes within 6% of the all-time peak reached in 1987-1988, the last gasp of the Cold War. That's according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI. Elisabeth Sk-ns, SIPRI Project Leader for Military Expenditure and Arms Production, has more.