Hollywood actor Richard Gere today attended a three-hour AIDS awareness workshop in the Indian capital, New Delhi, stroking his Buddhist prayer beads as he listened to speeches and watched street plays and a puppet show.

Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong action film star known for his daredevil stunts, has been named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ Children’s Fund and UN Aids agencies.

China today began offering free Aids tests to anyone who wants one and free treatment for infected people who cannot afford it, amid growing official urgency about stopping the spread of the virus.

SINGER and third world campaigner Bob Geldof and Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be in Dublin later this month for the largest-ever conference on the escalating HIV/AIDS problem in Europe and Central Asia.

In another grim report on the evolution of the global Aids pandemic, experts estimated today that the number of children in the developing world orphaned by the disease will increase from 13.4 million today to 25 million in the next eight years.