Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:The Buffalo News, on retirement funds:

<$>We know many American families struggle financially after retirement, but an eye-opening new report pegs the future figure at more than 40 percent. If that is not cause for alarm, it is certainly cause for action, personal and governmental.

It is hard to be especially troubled that Washington has yet to attend to the coming problems with Medicare and Social Security, though not because the issues aren’t pressing. The Medicare trust fund is now scheduled to be depleted in 2018, while the Social Security trust fund will be emptied by 2040. ...

President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security was a disaster in the making, and it is only the fear of constituents that kept the Republicans who control Congress from moving on it. This faction of the Republican Party has always been hostile to Social Security and Medicare, seeing them as the twin emblems of the useful government they despise. ...

Even with repairs to those programs, many baby boomers and even Gen Xers face difficult retirements unless they save more and work longer. ...South Florida Sun-Sentinel, on using Internet research on job candidates:

...Turns out some companies and recruiters doing homework on employment candidates are ... “Googling” their candidates, and sifting through Web pages on popular online gathering places like MySpace and Facebook. A story this past weekend in The New York Times even cited companies that dropped applicants when they found postings suggesting drug use and promiscuity. ...

Companies point out the online records reveal clues about a job candidate’s maturity level and professionalism. ...

So it all points to yet more reason for those in high school and college to think carefully, and with foresight, about the words and photos they post online. ...

Both young people and adults need to be reminded that the Internet is largely a public venue, and that much of what people circulate can be seen and read by others. Common sense and discretion are necessary to make sure reputations and prospects aren’t damaged. ...

On the Net: www.sun-sentinel.comStar Tribune of Minneapolis, on Africa pledge:

<$>Think of Africa, and what word comes next to mind? For many Americans, the answer is “hopeless.” ... The one way to guarantee Africa’s disintegration is to consider it a foregone conclusion.

The world’s wealthiest countries don’t consider it so. Meeting in Scotland at last summer’s G8 summit, industrialized nations representing two-thirds of the global economy vowed not to let Africa founder. Extending aid to its struggling countries, the G8 leaders agreed, is essential to fulfilling the United Nations’ acclaimed Millennium Development Goals — which seek to cut world poverty in half by 2015. The meeting thus ended with pledges to help quell Africa’s excruciating poverty...

Making good on those promises, the G8 concluded, would require investing $25 billion per year more in Africa by 2010 — more than doubling aid to $50 billion —and upping the figure another $25 billion by 2015.

... As is lamentably common, generous words have yet to translate into generous deeds.

... Among G8 members, Britain alone has managed to fulfill its first-year commitment to the Africa action plan. The seven laggers include the United States, which has a history of promising much and delivering little to Africa. ...

Only the shortsighted would shrug off this quest to help Africa — even if they don’t care at all about the millions of lives it would save. The alternative is allowing an entire continent to collapse into poverty and anarchy, the disastrous and costly effects of which would soon be felt in the industrial world.