CNN suspends commentator over anti-gay tweets

LOS ANGELES: Cable TV network CNN said on Wednesday it has suspended commentator Roland Martin over a series of Twitter remarks during the Super Bowl game that offended America’s gay community.

“Roland Martin’s tweets were regrettable and offensive. Language that demeans is inconsistent with the values and culture of our organization, and is not tolerated. We have been giving careful consideration to this matter, and Roland will not be appearing on our air for the time being,” the TV news network said in a statement.

Martin on Sunday made a series of Twitter remarks that poked fun at British soccer player David Beckham’s new underwear ad for fashion retailer H&M and at a New England Patriot football player for wearing a pink suit.

Martin tweeted: “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl”, as well as, “Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from #teamwhipdatass”

His remarks provoked protests by gay and lesbian activist group GLAAD, which said Martin was advocating violence against gay people.

“CNN today took a strong stand against anti-LGBT violence and language that demeans any community,” GLAAD spokesman Rich Ferraro said in a statement following CNN’s decision to suspend Martin.

Malaria toll far higher than thought: study

 

Malaria kills more than 1.2 million people a year, nearly 50 percent more than previously thought, and inflicts a high toll among adults and older children and not just toddlers, a new investigation says.

 

But there is also good news: deaths from the mosquito-borne disease have in fact been falling sharply thanks to access to better drugs and insecticide-treated nets.

 

Published in The Lancet on Friday, the study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle, says malaria killed at least 1.2 million people worldwide in 2010.

 

The estimate will be a likely shock for health policymakers. Only last September the UN-backed Roll Back Malaria (RBM) calculated mortality in 2009 at 781,000.

 

The higher figure, say the US researchers, derives from wider and more reliable data, including use of a technique called “verbal autopsy”.

 

Under this, investigators interview relatives of someone who has recently died in order to help pinpoint the cause of death. In many poor countries which lack medical infrastructure, mortality is often poorly probed or misidentified.

 

The new study skewers the belief that the overwhelming majority of malaria deaths occur among the under-fives.

 

In 2010, more than 78,000 children aged five to 14, and more than 445,000  aged 15 or older, died of malaria, together accounting for 42 percent of the total.

 

From 1985, says the paper, malaria deaths grew every year, peaking at 1.8 million in 2004.

 

But from 2004, the toll fell every year. Between 2007 and 2010, the decline has been particularly acute — more than seven percent every year — and the big beneficiary has been Africa.

 

Among the stars are Tanzania and Zambia, which saw deaths fall by more than 30 percent between 2004 and 2010.

 

The source of the decline lies in the increased use of artemisinin drugs, replacing medications to which the malaria parasite has become resistant, and the widening distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, says the probe.

 

The major players in this campaign are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, RBM and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Funding rose from less than 250 million dollars annually in 2001 to more than two billion in 2009.

 

The study warns of the dangers if the momentum is lost, especially in the shortfall of support for the Global Fund.

 

In last September s estimate, RBM said mortality from malaria fell from 984,000 in 2000 to 781,000 in 2009, a decline of 38 percent if the world s population growth over this period is factored in.

 

The new study was funded by the Gates Foundation; however, the IHME is an independent research institution and The Lancet is a peer-reviewed journal.
 

ABBA to launch revamped final album, with new track

STOCKHOLM: Swedish pop group ABBA are to release a new version of their last album, featuring a previously unreleased track for the first time since 1994, the group’s website said yesterday.

ABBA remain one of the world’s most popular bands and their music got a new lease of life with the “Mamma Mia” stage show and film. The band’s website said a deluxe edition of their final album, “The Visitors,” would be released in April.

“For ABBA fans, the most sensational inclusion in the package will be the previously unreleased track, ‘From A Twinkling Star To A Passing Angel (demos)’,” a statement said.

“This is the first time since the ‘Thank You For The Music’ box set in 1994 that ABBA have opened the doors to the tape vaults to release previously unheard music from the group’s heyday,” it added.

The release will also feature bonus selections along with a DVD of rare and previously unreleased material from the archives.

The Visitors album was originally released in 1981.

ABBA, made up of Agnetha Faltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, racked up a string of hits in the 1970s and ’80s, and their cult following has transformed them into some of Sweden’s most recognizable figures. AGENCIES

Elizabeth Taylor, Movie Legend Dies at 79

Hollywood icon, Elizabeth Taylor passed away on Wednesday at the age of 79. Taylor had been hospitalized in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for the last six weeks where she died of congestive heart failure. Her publicist Sally Morrison stated that.

“All her children were with her.”

She was a larger than life character both on and off camera. Taylor, famous for her beauty and grace, won three Oscars during her long career. Although her personal life was also the source of tabloid fascination, her real life was plagued with heartbreak and personal tragedy.

Elizabeth Taylor was born in London and starred in over 50 movies, she began her movie career as a child, she was already a star by the age of twelve. Taylor married an astonishing eight times, twice to Richard Burton who she starred with in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966), this was one of her Oscar winning roles.

Elizabeth Taylor was awarded a special Oscar in 1993, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. This was to honor Taylor for her humanitarian work for AIDS research, she helped to raise more than $200million for the cause.

Her son Michael Wilding said in a statement;

“Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts.”

Priyadarshan is set to make film on subject of AIDS with Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan will be doing a stark real-time film on AIDS with the prolific Priyadarshan, probably at the end of the year. Priyan who has worked with the other two Khan superstars, Shah Rukh and Salman, met Aamir who has given his verbal approval for the project.

Priyan’s other Hindi project Tezz is now on hold. The large-budget action thriller featuring Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Sunil Shetty, Kangna Ranaut, Tusshar Kapoor and Zayed Khan is waiting for the sun to shine on its fate…quite literally. The makers are waiting for the sun to come out in Scotland where the rest of the film is to be shot.

Explains Priyan, “About 40 percent of the film remains to be shot. I will complete it in one stretch in Scotland. But we cannot shoot it before summer when the sun comes out. I hope to complete and release Tezz by year-end.”

Provided Devgn has the dates.

“So for now I’m back in Kerala writing a Malayalam film. It a comedy with my favourite actor Mohanlal called The Arab Camel & Madhavan Nair to be shot in Abu Dhabi,” informs Priyan.

The comedy will also be made in Hindi.

Abu Dhabi has a large Malyali population. Says Priyan, “Even the traffic cops and taxi drivers in Abu Dhabi speak Malayalam. I haven’t directed a Malayalam film in seven years, so I’m very excited.”

For now Priyan has gone back to Kerala and his roots in Malayalam cinema. And is very happy about it.

Says the director, “I haven’t gone to Mumbai for three months. I was getting very uncomfortable with what was required of me in Mumbai. Now I’ll return only to complete Tezz and to direct the AIDS film with Aamir Khan.”

Aamir has heard and liked Priyan’s idea. Says the director, “I met Aamir and narrated my idea. He loved it. I now need to complete the script.”
The film on AIDS will have no songs, no comedy and no commercial trappings at all. It’s likely to be produced by Aamir.

In fact the only comedy that Priyan is committed to doing is the sequel to Malaamal Weekly for Percept Pictures. Entitled Malaamal Robbery it will be about a group of people robbing a bank only to discover it has no money.

“But no more comedies like De Dana Dan for me,” promises Priyadarshan.

Sindh AIDS Programs – Trend Pk VIDEO

Sahar Afshan from Karachi highlights the performance of Sindh AIDS Programme. (December 2, 2010)

‘One million’ on anti-AIDS drugs in South Africa

DRIEFONTEIN: A million people are now receiving anti-AIDS drugs in South Africa, a country with the world’s heaviest HIV infections, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Wednesday.

“More than 200 000 new patients have been initiated on ARV’s since April this year, bringing a total number to one million,” Motlanthe told a public gathering to mark World AIDS Day in the eastern province of Mpumalanga.

Motlanthe said more public health institutions were now providing treatment, with more nurses trained to administer ARV (anti-retroviral) drugs.

“It is important to emphasize that even as we continue to make headway with our treatment programme, prevention remains the mainstay of our response to the dual epidemic of HIV and TB,” he said.

South Africa has 5.6 million people who are HIV-positive out of a 50-million population, according to UN

HIV positive cases increase in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Health specialists expressing the concerns over the issue on Wednesday said that 16 HIV positive cases are being confirmed in Khbyer-Pakhtunkhwa by each month.

During a seminar held at the Government Frontier College for Women Peshawar, they said that according to the statistics, 620 AIDS positive cases were confirmed in 2010 in the provinces including the tribal areas. They said that the figure increases by each month.

Provincial Minister for Higher Education Qazi Asad also addressed the seminar. Trend Pk

Lady Gaga, Keys to sign off Twitter for charity

CALIFORNIA: Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga take charity work seriously, and they’re going offline to prove it.

Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher and other celebrities have joined a new campaign called Digital Life Sacrifice on behalf of Keys’ charity, Keep a Child Alive. The entertainers plan to sign off of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, which is World AIDS Day. The participants will sign back on when the charity raises $1 million.

“It’s really important and super-cool to use mediums that we naturally are on,” Keys said in a phone interview from New York last week.

For the campaign — which also includes Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Elijah Wood, Serena Williams, Janelle Monae and Keys’ husband, Swizz Beatz — celebrities have filmed “last tweet and testament” videos and will appear in ads showing them lying in

Philippines reports rise in HIV-AIDS infections

MANILA: The Philippines on Thursday reported a sharp jump in HIV-AIDS cases which runs against a global trend of declining infection rates, with young homosexual men most at risk.

There were 1,305 confirmed new HIV infections in first 10 months of the year, compared with 835 for the whole of 2009, the health ministry said.

Sex between men accounted for nearly 80 percent of all cases this year, and more than half of those infected were aged between 20 and 29.

“From 2007 there has been a shift in the predominant trend of sexual transmission from heterosexual contact to males having sex with males,” a health ministry report said.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the human body’s immune system, rendering it defenceless against infections and leading to AIDS.

Teresita Marie Bagasao, country coordinator of the UNAIDS programme, said

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