By Christopher Cappiello

India to Distribute 3.5 Billion Condoms

In a dramatic announcement aimed to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, India’s National AIDS Control Organization announced that it will expand the number of vending machines distributing condoms fivefold over the next three years, IBNLine, the online component of India’s Global Broadcast News, reports.

“Our aim is to distribute 3.5 billion condoms in three years time,” a NACO official told IBN. The agency aims to expand from 600,000 condom machines at present to 3 million.

More than three-quarters of the agency’s $4.5 billion budget over five years will be devoted to HIV/AIDS prevention programs, including the condom distribution as well as interventions targeting at-risk groups and initiatives to ensure blood safety. Both urban and rural areas will be targeted.

NACO estimates that 5.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in India. UNAIDS has reported estimates as high as 5.7 million people, suggesting that India has more people living with HIV than any other country.

Halliburton Moves HQ to Homophobic Dubai

In a move that took the international business community by surprise and raised a range of questions about financial and public relations motives, Halliburton, the multinational Houston-based oil services corporation, announced March 11 that it would move its corporate headquarters to Dubai, one of seven city states that make up the United Arab Emirates, a country with a deplorable record on gay rights.

While the company will maintain its corporate offices in Houston and will remain officially incorporated in Delaware, its chief executive, David J. Lesar, will operate out of Dubai.

Halliburton’s move could make it dangerous for any gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender employees to work at the new corporate headquarters. Gay sex is illegal in the UAE, punishable by prison sentences up to 10 years.

In 2005 the State Department condemned the UAE for an incident in which 26 men were arrested when police raided what officials called “a gay wedding.” In addition to five-year prison sentences for some of the men, officials were said to be considering subjecting the defendants to forced hormone treatments. The UAE Ministry of the Interior eventually denied such plans. “Sadly, anti-gay sentiments are present in many Arab states,” openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said at the time in a statement, “but even by that low standard, this is particularly outrageous.”

While Halliburton announced the move as part of a long-term strategy to focus efforts on the Middle East, many wondered if it was intended to avoid investigations by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged improprieties in dealing with Kuwait, Nigera and Iraq.

“I think it’s disgraceful,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) said at a March 11 news conference, according to the New York Times, referring to Halliburton’s willingness to move its headquarters out of the United States after receiving $16 billion in government contracts to support American military operations in Iraq. “Does this mean they are going to quit paying taxes in America?” Clinton asked. “Is this going to affect the investigations that are going on? Because we have a lot of evidence about their misuse of government contracts and how they have cheated the American soldier, cheated the American tax payer.” Experts are not yet sure what the tax implications of the move are for the company or the chief executive.

Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton’s chief executive from 1995-2000. In 2006 the company posted record revenue, net income and profits of $2.3 billion.

Canadian Shock Jock Suspended Over Gay Slur

Corus Quebec, the company that owns Quebec radio station CKRS, announced that it was suspending controversial radio host Louis Champagne while they investigate an incident in which he used an anti-gay slur on the air while discussing Andre Boisclair, the openly gay leader of the Parti Quebecois, Canada East reports.

In an interview with another PQ candidate, Champagne said that local factory workers might not like the fact that the party looks like “un club de tapettes,” roughly translated as “a club of fags.”

Boisclair took the offensive by coming to the defense of factory workers in the Saguenay area approximately 155 miles north of Quebec City. “Is he saying on the radio that the people in Saguenay and Lac-St.-Jean are more homophobic than other people elsewhere in Quebec?” he said, according to Canada East. “Homophobia exists, but I feel that these words are very insulting for the people of [the area].”

Champagne proudly boasts of being sued dozens of times and told Tele-Quebec that he estimates he has faced more than $50 million in lawsuits over the years for his vulgar and often personal attacks.

French High Court Annuls Gay Couple’s Marriage

France’s highest court annulled the country’s first and, to date, only marriage between a gay couple, declaring the union to be illegal in a March 13 decision, The Associated Press reports.

Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier have suffered a number of legal setbacks since their highly publicized civil wedding ceremony on June 5, 2004, in the Bordeaux town of Begles. No other same-sex couple has had an official wedding since.

The high court ruled that “under French law, marriage is a union between a man and a woman.” The decision supported a 2005 appeals court ruling in Bordeaux. Lower court rejections of the marriage have pointed out that same-sex couples enjoy a range of benefits through France’s civil partnership legislation that applies to any unmarried couple.

In the past, Charpin and Charpentier have said they will take their appeals all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. Their lawyers have not announced whether they will make that appeal. The European Court is generally regarded as liberal on social issues like marriage equality.