So. AFRICA PHARM. LAWSUIT DROPPED
In a stunning victory for grassroots AIDS activists, 39 multinational pharmaceutical companies dropped their legal effort to prevent South Africa from importing or producing generic copies of patented AIDS drugs on April 19. The lawsuit had become a public-relations nightmare for the companies.
"We hope our experience has contributed in some way to the larger debate on access to affordable health care for developing countries and for the poor in wealthier nations," said South African Health Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
However, even generic AIDS drugs sold at close to cost are believed to be too expensive for mass distribution in most African nations, including South Africa, officials cautioned.
Tshabalala-Msimang also said the drugs are too toxic and that it is nearly impossible to achieve patient compliance with complex drug regimens in a nation without a First World medical infrastructure.
GAYS PICKET MASS
About 40 gays picketed Easter Sunday mass and conducted a "die-in" in front of Melbourne, Australia's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
They chanted, "George Pell, Go to Hell." Pell is archbishop of the diocese.
"We're here today because over many, many years George Pell and the official rhetoric coming from the Catholic church condemns homosexuals as invalid human beings," protester Jonathan Wilkinson told The Age newspaper.
"A significant number of suicides by gay and lesbian people are due to a non-reconciliation of sexuality with the kind of religious beliefs, ... discriminatory social values and ... the awful rhetoric that discriminates against people for no other reason than their sexual orientation that is spewed forth by the kind of people like George Pell and the Catholic church."
The protesters also hung nooses on the fence surrounding the cathedral.
REPORTS: GUINNESS HAD A GAY SIDE
Actor Alec Guinness "had a homosexual side" and was arrested in 1946 for having gay sex in a public toilet, London's The Guardian reported April 16. Guinness died last August at age 86.
The paper said the incident never became public knowledge because Guinness didn't tell police his real name.
ACTIVIST MURDERED
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and gay bookstore owner Leung Wah was found murdered in Shenzhen, China, last November, local papers reported last week.
Hong Kong legislators and human-rights activists are rejecting the Shenzhen police's determination that the killing was a simple homicide and are calling for a new inquiry.
"He died mysteriously," said Leung Kwok-hung, head of Hong Kong's April Fifth Action Group.
GAY MARRIAGE BILL INTRODUCED IN SPAIN
The opposition Socialists introduced a bill in Spain's parliament to legalize gay marriage April 18.
Socialist parliamentary spokesman Javier Barrero said the 1978 Spanish constitution does not specify that one's spouse has to be of the opposite sex.
" [ Marriage ] is a right of everyone," he said.
The Netherlands on April 1 became the first nation to let gays marry under the ordinary marriage laws. Belgium has said it will follow suit. Several other European nations have registered-partnership laws for gays, which grant up to 99 percent of the rights of marriage. A few other nations recognize gay couples via common-law marriage statutes.