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         =  INTERNATIONAL NEWS #174 - Aug 27, 1997   =  
         =             (c) Rex Wockner               =  
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--> GLAXO WELLCOME MAKES $2.4 BILLION IN SIX MONTHS

Britain's Glaxo Wellcome, maker of the AIDS drugs AZT (Retrovir)
and 3TC (Epivir) as well as the herpes drug acyclovir (Zovirax)
showed profits of $2.4 billion in the first six months of 1997 on
gross sales of $6.4 billion, reported London's The Pink Paper.

AZT sales more than doubled over 1996 while 3TC sales rose 36
percent. The drugs are common components of the new protease-
inhibitor-based anti-HIV "cocktails."

The company expects to further increase profits in the near
future thanks to a new treatment for chronic-active hepatitis B
and yet another anti-HIV substance.

Glaxo Wellcome's good fortune comes as health-care budgets in
industrialized nations are being stretched thin to pay for the
anti-AIDS cocktails -- and while people with AIDS in the Third
World simply go without. A year's supply of HIV treatment costs
more than double an average salary in Mexico -- which is far from
the world's poorest nation.


--> 1,000 AT BRIGHTON PRIDE

About 1,000 people turned out for Brighton, England's pride
parade Aug. 9.

The march was followed by a party and canine beauty contest in
Preston Park.

"It started off with a procession along the seafront and the
floats seemed to stretch almost to Cornwall. It was fabulous,"
organizer Sue Nicholls told the BBC.


--> DUBAI EXPELS HIV-POSITIVES

The wealthy Gulf emirate of Dubai is deporting around 40 
foreigners each month because they are HIV-positive, reported
Agence France-Presse.

A blood test is required whenever a visa is renewed.

In June, 36 HIV-positives were expelled along with 179 other
people charged with "involvement in immoral activities and
dealing in alcohol," said a police spokesman.

Similar laws are in effect in the other states of the United Arab
Emirates federation.


--> B.C. PREMIER'S WEB LINKS ATTACKED

British Columbia Premier Glen Clark's official World Wide Web
site for young people was discovered last month to include a link
to a link that offers sexually explicit contact ads for gay
youth.

Clark's "Youth and Sexuality" page featured a connection to the
U.S. Web page "Youth Assistance Organization," which, in turn,
was linked to "Elight," a publishing forum for gay teens.

"It was a link from a link, so it's a bit of an obscure argument
[that my office did something wrong]," Clark told reporters.
"It's disturbing, but that's one of the challenges of the
Internet."

Even though the link was promptly severed, fundamentalist
Christian groups have called for the bureaucrats responsible to
be fired and for Clark to resign if he knew about the situation.


--> NEW SOUTH WALES NIXES GAY ADOPTION

Ron Dyer, community services minister of the Australian state of
New South Wales, where Sydney is, has rejected only one of 110
proposed alterations to the 1965 Adoption Act -- the suggestion
that homosexual couples be permitted to adopt children.

He said the wider community would not support the change.

The proposals were drafted by the state's Law Reform Commission.


--> AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT REJECTS ANTI-SUICIDE POSTER

Australian Family Services Minister Judi Moylan has rejected a
federally funded anti-suicide poster that shows young gays and
lesbians kissing and urges them to "trust your feelings."

"I think it has leant a little bit too much towards the promoting
of a gay and lesbian lifestyle ... and not enough about suicide,"
Moylan said. "My job as minister is to ensure the funds for this
campaign are used in a way that has wide community acceptance."

Moylan asked the West Australian AIDS Council and the West
Australian Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service to rework the
poster, which they developed with a $200,000 (US$148,000) grant
from the federal government's $18 million (US$13.3 million)
National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy.

"All we can hope for is the campaign is not sanitized to the
point where it is so bland ... that it's a complete waste of
money," commented Brian Grieg, spokesman for the Australian
Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

The poster will appear in youth magazines. The original version
informed kids: "These feelings are a natural and healthy thing,
they are one more part of who you are. It's OK to question your
sexuality, it's OK to be unsure and it's OK to take your time
finding out. Many young people feel the same. You are not alone."


--> NEW ZEALAND PROPOSAL SUPPORTS GAY COUPLES

New Zealand's Law Commission, which makes recommendations for law
changes, has suggested that Parliament recognize gay
relationships, reports correspondent Brett Sheppard.

The proposal, announced Aug. 18, would grant de facto couples --
gay and straight -- the same legal status as heterosexual spouses
with the exception that de facto couples would have to be
together three years to be considered legitimate.


--> SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE COME OUT

The South Africa Police Services Gay and Lesbian Network has
grown to over 300 members, says Sgt. Dennis Adriao in
Johannesburg, one of the group's leaders.

In the apartheid era, cops discovered to be gay were fired.


--> DESIGNER DUMPS MAGAZINES OVER VERSACE COVERAGE

German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop has cancelled $1 million in
advertising in the Burda company magazines Bunte, Focus, Freundin
and Elle because of Bunte's coverage of the murder of Gianni
Versace.

The magazine reported extensively on what it called the "decadent
and perverted world of high-class homos" such as, allegedly,
Versace. It also said gay men commonly have over 3,000 lifetime
sexual partners.

Bunte Publisher Christian Hirsch dismissed Joop's move as "a
personal view expressed ... because he was deeply affected by the
death of Mr. Versace, who was a friend."


--> INS GRANTS ASYLUM TO BANGLADESHI GAY

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has granted
political asylum to a 28-year-old Bangladeshi gay man who was
threatened with stoning by Islamic fundamentalists in his home
city of Dhaka, reported the Washington Blade.

But the man, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, still fears
for his life.

"The militant Islamic fundamentalists in the political
organization Jamaat-e-islaam know that I am gay and have warned
my sister that I will be stoned, in accordance with the Koran's
traditional punishment for homosexuals," he told the Blade.

In his INS affidavit, the man also reported being raped by
police, forced into electroshock treatment and ordered by his
family to enter into an arranged marriage.

A spokesman for the Embassy of Bangladesh called the man's story
"concocted," saying there is no such thing as execution by
stoning in Bangladesh.

At least 136 other gay/lesbian foreigners have won asylum in the
U.S. based on anti-gay persecution in their homelands, according
to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

                          -end-