Out of South Africa came the news that an expensive new soccer stadium had been built in a city where drinking water is often dirty and many people have neither electric lights nor toilets.

Strong leadership is missing. A few members of Congress have been working on the water problem and Matt Damon, the actor, has made it his cause. But the issue is not getting traction.

Greg Allgood will do almost anything to draw attention to the huge number of poor people - more than 1 billion - whose only drinking water is loaded with bacteria and viruses.

Tom Friedman distorted Al Gore's new energy challenge, which called for an energy policy based on 100 percent renewable sources, by including the role of coal. Isn't coal a nonrenewable fossil fuel?