Singapore Lifts Ban on HIV-Positive Visitors

The Guardian, Singapore, 8/31/2015

Singapore has lifted its two-decade-long ban on people living with HIV entering the country, but will limit their stay to a maximum of three months. The health ministry said on August 31, 2015 that the ban was lifted on April 01, 2015, 'given the current context with more than 5,000 Singapore residents living with HIV and the availability of effective treatment for the infection’. The three-month restriction is apparently aimed at preventing long-term residence by foreigners, such as those looking to work in the island-nation or to accompany a child studying here.

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Panel For Sex Workers on the Anvil

The Hindu - New Delhi, India, 8/31/2015

The Delhi Commission for Women plans to set up a panel for sex workers of GB Road to look into their rehabilitation and grievances. 'The panel will mainly look into their rehabilitation and take up their cases to provide legal and monetary aid,' said sources in the commission. The panel after going through the cases will award monetary packages for them.

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You & the Rest of Pakistan Should Have Been Tested For HIV Years Ago

The Express Tribune, Pakistan, 8/30/2015

UNAIDS, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, has classified Pakistan as a country at high risk of developing a generalised HIV epidemic. Pakistan has all the ingredients required for developing such an epidemic: widespread drug addiction, thriving sex work, a large migrant population, use of non-sterile medical equipment, low levels of health literacy, socially and culturally ingrained taboos, and - perhaps most importantly - denial that all of the aforementioned exist in the country. Social taboos and illiteracy limit the willingness of people to get themselves tested for the disease. Even after the diagnosis is made, patients prefer to hide it out of fear of discrimination.

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Nepal Gay Parade to Enshrine LGBT Rights in Constitution

BBC - Kathmandu, Nepal, 8/30/2015

Gay right activists have taken part in a parade in Nepal's capital Kathmandu to press their demands for gay rights to be enshrined in the constitution. They are demanding same-sex marriage be guaranteed in the new constitution, gay couples' rights to adopt, buy joint property or inherit from one another. Nepal decriminalised homosexuality in 2007. It remains illegal in many South Asian countries.

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HRW Calls for Release of 7 Men Convicted of Homosexuality in Senegal

Latin American Herald Tribune - Dakar, Senegal, 8/29/2015

Human Rights Watch, or HRW, demanded on August 28, 2015 the acquittal and release of seven men convicted of homosexuality in Senegal last week, describing the ruling issued against them as a clear 'violation of their basic rights.' HRW noted that a court in Dakar convicted the men under 'article 319(3) of Senegal’s penal code' which prohibits acts against nature between persons of the same sex, and sentenced them to six months in prison and an additional 18-month suspended sentence.

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All-Women Police Station in Gurgaon

The Hindu - Haryana, India, 8/29/2015

A police station solely for women and to be run by women police personnel was formally inaugurated in Sector 51, Gurgaon on August 29, 2015. On the occasion, Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk said the police station would house many facilities to aid empowerment of women. These are expected to include operation of the women helpline (1091), setting up of a Protection Officer’s office for solving cases of domestic violence, a legal aid clinic for offering legal help and counselling to women, among others.

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Birth Rate Dips, Sex Ratio Up in Delhi

The Hindu - New Delhi, India, 8/29/2015

Released by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, the annual report on Registration of Births and Deaths in Delhi 2014, which was prepared by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, found that the birth rate worked out to 20.88 per thousand population in 2014 as against 21.07 in 2013. The number of births registered in Delhi in 2014 was 3.74 lakh compared to 3.7 lakh in 2013 and 3.6 lakh in 2012. Of the 3.74 lakh births, about 1.97 lakh (52.74 per cent) were males and 1.77 lakh (47.26 per cent) females.

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HIV and AIDS Cases on the Rise

The Standard - Butuan City, Philippines, 8/28/2015

The number of HIV and AIDS cases and deaths related to HIV went up in Caraga Region since Government of Philippines started its official recording of the cases in 1995, the office of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of the DOH-13 said on August 29, 2015. The office claimed that persons affected with HIV and AIDS are getting younger and younger.

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Ashley Madison Hack: Leaking Personal Email Addresses Puts Gay Lives at Risk Around the World

The Independent, UK, 8/28/2015

Gay and bisexual users of the Ashley Madison infidelity website have been left in fear for their lives after it emerged that the identities of users living in countries where homosexuality is illegal and even punishable by death have been posted online. Homosexual relationships or sex remain illegal in around 75 countries around the world, including many states in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and almost all of the Caribbean. Equal rights campaigners said the publication of such sensitive information was putting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people at risk worldwide.

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Sex Education Not Holistic: Study

The Times of India - Vadodara, India, 8/27/2015

A majority of adolescents in the district lack knowledge about reproductive health, a latest study by the Department of psychiatry and Department of Community Medicine at the SSG Hospital shows. Over 2,200 adolescents across urban and rural schools were surveyed during the research. The study pointed out that most of the respondents could only comprehend visible external changes in the opposite sex as compared to the changes not seen outwardly.

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