Reports

One in five gay and bisexual men in the United States is infected with HIV and almost half of those infected are unaware of their status, the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found. Each year about 56,300 Americans become infected with HIV and about 18,000 die from AIDS. The CDC findings fall close to the third National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness Day being observed in the US on Monday. Nineteen percent of "men who have sex with men" are HIV positive and 44 percent of...

People in OECD countries are becoming fatter by the day. One in two people is now overweight or obese in almost half of OECD countries. Rates are projected to increase further and in some countries two out of three people will be obese within ten years. The findings are from a new report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which examines the current obesity epidemic, giving new comparative data, trends and projections across OECD countries and outlining causes and...

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio will visit India soon to see tigers in the wild and promote global awareness about their dwindling numbers. The Titanic star, who is an ambassador of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), met India's minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh in New York on Friday to discuss ways to get involved in tiger conservation, the Press Trust of India news agency has reported. In fact, DiCaprio teamed up with the WWF in May to launch a campaign called Save Tigers Now...

As children read less and fail to build up a vocabulary, the author of a new book says in an interview the vocabulary deficit is a worrying trend that threatens confidence, future job prospects, relationships, and even the ability to understand jokes. "Every child should have a dictionary. Just by looking up a new word, the process mentally glues it into the memory. Words are slippery customers – you need a definition and understanding of the various contexts it might be used in," asserts...

Over 90 percent surveyed workers believe it is the employer‟s responsibility to create a healthy working environment, and a third feel their workplace actually hinders their ability to lead a healthy lifestyle, according to the World Heart Federation. The findings are from a survey released on Sunday on occasion of World Heart Day, the largest global awareness campaign on heart disease and stroke. The survey, conducted by Opinion Health for the federation, compared responses from employees...

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a copyright violation plea of US-based Archie Comic Publications, saying that that the company does not have any office in India. A division bench said, "This Court has no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the (com)plaint." It said, "Where a Court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit, the order passed would be a nullity." The Division Bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Vikramkjit Sen was hearing the petition of Archie Comic...

There is hope yet for the orangutan in forest plantations and sustainably logged forests. Selectively logged forests and timber plantations can serve as habitat for orangutans, and populations of the ape may be more resilient than previously believed. A team of researchers led by Erik Meijaard of Jakarta-based People and Nature Consulting International has found roughly equivalent population densities between natural forest areas and two plantation concessions in East Kalimantan, Indonesian...

European countries have agreed to create six marine protected areas (MPAs) in the northeast Atlantic to step up the protection of the region's environment. They have defined six zones or MPAs over 285,000 sq km where human activity should be limited. The decision was taken at a meeting on Friday in the southwestern Norwegian city of Bergen of the OSPAR Commission, a body through which 15 regional countries, along with the European Union, work to protect the environment of the northeast Atlantic...

Two-thirds of US cities and counties consider the environment and energy conservation a priority, but far fewer have taken steps to address those issues. And four out of five people do not consider climate change to be a high priority. The findings are from a survey of 2,176 local governments by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). When asked to what extent different elements were a priority for them, 46.3 percent said it was "no priority". Another 34.6 percent said it...

England's nature reserves, national parks and protected areas are failing in four out of five key quality benchmarks, a major year-long government-sponsored review has concurred. Around £1.1bn is needed to help rebuild nature in England. A 14-member team of wildlife experts has warned that England's wildlife protection areas are not effective enough at preserving species due to poor management, small size, ease of reach by the wider public (especially in urban areas) and lack of inter...