YANGON, MYANMAR - If new major donors don t come forward to help Myanmar , UN officials say thousands of people could die of disease and malnutrition. Myanmar has one of Asia s worst AIDS epidemics and suffers 60 percent of malaria deaths in Asia, UN officials say, but it receives little foreign aid. The Global Fun
Illinois residents wondering if they have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, may find themselves facing difficult decisions next month when the state begins tracking the virus using patients names instead of anonymous codes. People still will be able to get an anonymous HIV test with an assigned number through which the
TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor at the center of intense international negotiations won a reprieve Sunday when Libya s highest court overturned their death sentences on charges they deliberately infected children with AIDS. The United States and the European Union have made it clear that
PARIS, FRANCE - Libya , Bulgaria , the U.S. and the European Union have agreed to set up a fund to support hundreds of Libyan children who were infected with HIV while in the hospital, Bulgarian officials said Friday. While the agreement made no mention of six Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been sen
BEIJING - Police in central China detained 29 underground church leaders who allegedly held an illegal meeting to discuss helping local peasants with AIDS, a U.S.-based monitoring group and a police official said. We had a report that 70 or 80 people were having an unauthorized gathering, said a man who answered the p
JOHANNESBURG - For a time, Fana Khabzela Khaba lived the life many South African boys fantasize about. A hugely popular radio personality, he drove flashy cars, frequented the most exclusive dance clubs and bragged on the air about the legions of young women who flocked to his side and his bedroom. Then in early 2003,
Before we get too wound up in gratitude and wonderment that the sheepish Chicago City Council has discovered democracy by actually debating and deliberating, and then enacting, a compromise smoking ban, some observations are required: - Chicago s democracy isn t the sort that Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams had in mind.
Kenneth Cole rarely uses his shoes for dancing around tough subjects. So maybe his new public service platform, kicked off on World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, shouldn t shock those who have read the provocative ads he uses to sell footwear, clothing and social awareness. But the reaction to new T-shirts he created--reading W
By the dozens, they came in from the cold. Some were looking for a bite to eat, others for a place to sleep, while a few were hoping to change their lives. More than 150 homeless men and women descended upon the Salvation Army building at 1 N. Ogden Ave. Thursday to take advantage of a service fair that offered assista
OAK PARK - A Diversity Health Fair targeting the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities will be held 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at 222 Lake St. in Oak Park. Free health screenings including cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, bone density, BMI, HIV and STD tests will be available. In addition, a panel wil
Whether sex education should be taught in the public schools is not a new debate. But what is becoming more and more apparent is that a lot of young people just aren t getting the message about the perils of sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs. More importantly, many are lacking the skills necessary to protect thems
JOHANNESBURG - Six months after Zimbabwe s government tore down the homes and businesses of hundreds of thousands of city dwellers it considered potential political opponents, at least 570,000 people remain homeless, many living outside with little or no shelter, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. Worse, Zim
Remember when newscaster Gwen Ifill was moderating the vice presidential debate last year and she asked Dick Cheney and then-Sen. John Edwards what they proposed to do about the growing number of African-American women infected with HIV? Both candidates faces turned ghostly white. Clearly, neither had a clue that black
NORTH SIDE - The Howard Brown Health Center, which provides care for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, has scheduled free HIV testing and counseling from 1 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, World AIDS Day. The testing will be done at Howard Brown, 4025 N. Sheridan Rd., and at the Broadway Youth Center, 3179
A pretty good film version of a pretty great stage phenom, Rent is Jonathan Larson s 1996 musical, in which the starving artists of Puccini s La Boheme became denizens of Manhattan s AIDS-era Alphabet City neighborhood. Director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky maintain the original s setting and era and
Before Rosario Dawson became a movie star, the native New Yorker lived the Bohemian lifestyle depicted in her latest movie, Rent. So it was appropriate that Dawson, a former squatter in Manhattan s Lower East Side, play Mimi in the film version of the musical about a group of artist friends struggling with drug addicti
David Greising, dgreising@tribune.com, Chief business correspondent
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - In street-side stalls outside Muhimbili National Hospital, vendors hawk hand-built caskets side by side with quick food and knockoff designer clothes. Outside the hospital s nearby morgue, families queue to collect the remains of their relatives, many of them AIDS victims. Across the way s
David Greising, dgreising@tribune.com, Chief business correspondent
MARAMBA, Tanzania - The drug Kaletra goes bad if it is not kept cold, so getting it to a 3-year-old AIDS patient named Juraji Bakari in this sun-baked African village 300 miles south of the equator is no mean feat. The pills start their journey in Italy , where
An effort to turn home computers into a research tool is joining the battle against AIDS. A project backed by IBM Corp. called the World Community Grid links individual computers in what amounts to one humongous supercomputer. For the past year, this virtual supermachine has been crunching numbers to simulate proteins
HARARE, Zimbabwe - When police arrested Monica Nzou for selling fruit on a slum corner, they taunted her about her AIDS. Nzou, 34, a shy, painfully thin street peddler and one of 700,000 Zimbabweans uprooted by a government crackdown on informal settlements, begged to be released. She had two young daughters to take ca
The mood-elevating Stella McCartney for H&M fall 2005 collection will land at 400 H&M stores in 22 countries worldwide on Thursday, including 840 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. Inspired by previous collections from Stella McCartney s main collection, every item is a Stella staple reinterpreted for the H&M cus
PHOKENG, South Africa - When the women of Freedom Park squatter camp die during the wet season, their emaciated bodies must be carried out by hand through the oozing black mud, past the rusting tin shacks and open sewers and scrubby trees covered in windblown trash, to the nearest road for a pauper s funeral. The c
Angelina Jolie wants to adopt again. I m planning on it, she told People.com while at the Worldwide Orphans Foundation Benefit in Manhattan this week. It s a very special thing, said Jolie, who is Mom to Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 9 months. There s something about making a choice, waking up and traveling somewhere and find
A mentally retarded man is suing an organization renowned for its work with the developmentally disabled after he was refused residential and employment services because he is HIV positive. The organization, Lambs Farm in Libertyville, said it is following state regulations and looking out for the well-being of residen
SOWETO, South Africa - Moali Mthombeni was only a toddler when her mother died of AIDS. An uncle she was sent to live with raped her repeatedly when she turned 10. Now living in a foster home, she goes to school in a torn and threadbare school uniform, without money to pay required school fees. On Friday, when her
A conservative Illinois Christian group is once again chastising a corporation for sponsoring the 2006 Gay Games in Chicago. The Illinois Family Institute in Glen Ellyn is squaring off against Walgreen Co. for its $100,000 contribution to Olympic-style games to be held in July. Walgreens joins PlanetOut Inc., which run
More than 600 Illinois social workers gathered in Chicago last week for a three-day conference sponsored by the Chicago Sister Cities International Program and the Illinois chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. One of the 18 international delegates was Fikile Mazibuko, a professor and head of the colle
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA -- A South African AIDS expert Saturday advocated male circumcision as the best available vaccine against the virus in his country, where an estimated 6 million people are infected and more than 600 people die every day. Francois Venter told a congress of health activists in the Treatment Action
Mary Robinson was the United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 1997 to 2002. During her tenure, the former president of Ireland worked to recast health care, education and economic development as basic human rights. But after the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., Robinson redirected her energy toward halting
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Leaders of Zimbabwe s Vapostori groups, which blend traditional African reverence for ancestors with Christianity, have asked their followers to abandon polygamy to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, a state-run newspaper reported. The nation s government hailed the news as a historic breakthrough. An e
Shortly after taking their seats, a group of eager volunteers were brought to silence when a Red Cross trainer asked if any of them had ever been in a federal disaster area. It s not pretty, the veteran trainer said, pacing the floor in her trademark red and white Red Cross vestment. The conditions are terrible. You ha
Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Thursday that he will increase state funding for efforts to educate and test African-Americans about HIV and AIDS to $2.5 million. The governor also announced that he had filed an emergency rule to implement rapid HIV/AIDS testing statewide. The rule, filed with the secretary of state s o
MOSCOW -- The Russian Orthodox Church launched a program Tuesday to help stem Russia s snowballing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Government and UN officials praised the initiative while others criticized the church, saying action was long overdue. The church prevention program calls for teaching to discourage sex with multiple pa
The Oak Lawn boys cross-country team will go a long way to make a difference. On a recent Friday, the Spartans were at Kankakee River State Park, about 50 miles from home. In two groups of 10, they spent a couple of hours during a two-day preseason retreat cutting and clearing branches and brush from around the cabins
Several Chicago-area bars--including Bar 13, Cherry Red, Tequila Roadhouse, Spin and the Note--will donate a percentage of their receipts on Sept. 22 to benefit AIDSCARE as part of Bar AIDS. AIDSCARE assists children, families and adults living with advanced HIV/AIDS. A list of all participating bars can be found onlin
BUENOS AIRES - Argentina and Brazil pledged this week to join forces in producing generic drugs to treat AIDS, the latest step by the South American neighbors to cut costs and expand care for people infected with HIV. Officials provided few details of the agreement, such as how soon production might start.
When a six-figure job came calling, Tom Moore couldn t resist. He quit his graduate studies in medieval art at the University of North Carolina and moved to Washington, D.C., to work in information technology. When he moved to Chicago about eight years ago, Mr. Moore continued working with computers even though they we
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to sign a bill Friday that would focus on preventing HIV among African-Americans. Believed to be the only legislation of its kind nationwide, the African American HIV/AIDS Response Act targets the link between disproportionately high incarceration rates among blacks and the transmission
TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Libya called on the Bulgarian government to negotiate a payment to win amnesty for five Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus. Libya has come under intense pressure from European nations and the United
CHICAGO - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to sign a bill today that would focus on preventing HIV among blacks. Believed to be the only legislation of its kind nationwide, the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Act targets the link between disproportionately high incarceration rates among blacks and the trans
Drew 1,000 to the Chicago Hilton and Towers July 8-12. WE JUST HAVE to be willing to accept that breasts are for babies, said Cathy Carothers, a board member of this organization of nurses who advise women about breast-feeding. That societal premise-far from accepted by Hollywood or teenage boys-is at the root of the l
Thousands of flu vaccines Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered from Europe in anticipation of a shortage last year have expired over the summer, and the administration is now trying to give the shots away to treat AIDS patients in South Africa . The matter has opened a political rift as the state comptroller and attorney gener
NAIROBI, KENYA - Former President Bill Clinton launched a program Saturday that will nearly double the number of children receiving treatment for HIV infection in Kenya by the end of the year. Some 100,000 children are infected with HIV, but only 1,200 receive treatment. The Clinton Foundation s Pediatric HIV/AIDS Init
Abbott Laboratories said Wednesday that it plans to cut 700 jobs in Lake County, about 5 percent of its workforce there, to reduce expenses so it can put more money into researching new, high-margin products. The move is a rare retrenchment by one of the Chicago area s biggest employers and one of the largest Abbott
African-American men who were sexually abused as children by a Roman Catholic priest demanded Wednesday that church officials take steps to find other victims who may be suffering in silence. Rev. Victor Stewart, who died in 1994 at age 54, abused at least 22 boys during the 1980s, some as young as 7, according to an a
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Laura Bush praised HIV-positive mothers for working to erase the stigma attached to their disease and urged African women to take control of their sexual lives, talking candidly about sensitive topics Tuesday during her visit to Africa. Bush s day took her from her luxury hotel in downtown Cap
It wasn t so much the heat or the dozens of abandoned children that got to Margaret Fleming during her visit to the orphanage in Vietnam three years ago. It was the overwhelming silence in one small room where listless babies languished in cribs. And it was the three black letters written on the backs of their T-shirts
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL -- Brazil and a U.S. drugmaker reached an agreement late Friday on a reduced AIDS drug price, prompting the Latin nation to end plans to break the company s patent, the Health Ministry said Friday. The agreement, reached after 10 days of negotiations, calls for A
Rev. Doris Green believes the Lord and donors will provide. As community affairs director for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and coordinator of its year-old Faith in Prevention program, Green is confident funds will be raised not only to sustain but to expand the church-based initiative. The program has 12 churches and
Who could find anything negative to say about a movement to aid Africa that brings together President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brad Pitt and Madonna? Well, there s always Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi. Madonna, Coldplay and other stars performed at Bob Geldof s Live 8 concert to urge the world s weal
WASHINGTON -- Who could find anything negative to say about a movement that brings together stars as diverse as President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brad Pitt and Madonna? Well, there s always Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi. Madonna, Coldplay, Elton John, Mariah Carey and other superstars performed at B
Two illegal and counterproductive tactics--extortion and theft--threaten to taint Brazil s otherwise successful campaign against HIV/AIDS. The Brazilians have given Abbott Laboratories of North Chicago an ultimatum to cut nearly in half the price of an AIDS drug. If Abbott doesn t comply by Thursday, Brazil might break
Brazil on Monday encouraged other countries to join it in pressuring drugmakers like Abbott Laboratories to lower prices on Kaletra and other AIDS drugs. Brazil s health minister, Humberto Costa, encouraged other countries to use the World Trade Organization s ru
Some of the world s sexiest women are getting naked for a worthwhile cause. Paris and Nicky Hilton, Christina Aguilera, Rebecca Romijn, Elle MacPherson, Heidi Klum and Kimora Lee Simmons are among the 44 beauties exposed in a new coffee-table book titled 4 Inches, which will feature the women donning only Cartier jewel
In the shadow of a Chicago Park District maintenance garage, ground will be broken Tuesday in Lakeview for a $20 million first-of-its-kind center dedicated to serving Chicago s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Scheduled for completion as early as next spring, the 135,000-square-foot facility will be th
TROMSOE, Norway - Nelson Mandela teamed with dozens of music-world stars over the weekend to urge the richest nations to take increased action against AIDS and poverty. Let every child be a healthy child, Mandela told a crowd of almost 18,000 at a benefit concert held under the midnight sun in Norway s Arctic. We now
Representatives of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility routinely raise questions about drug prices, particularly those charged to poor countries in Africa where large populations have been ravaged by AIDS. While Abbott Laboratories and other brand-name makers of AIDS drugs have been hailed around the worl
JOHANNESBURG -- Ernest Darkoh saw early what was wrong with Africa. In Kenya , where he spent his teenage years, he watched as government mismanagement and corruption sometimes left his parents, both university professors, without paychecks for a month or more. Neighbors lived in abject poverty, and crime was a constan
Ray Long, rlong@tribune.com and Christi Parsons, cparsons@tribune.com.*
SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Democrats who control the legislature pushed through a roughly $55 billion state budget just hours ahead of their midnight Tuesday deadline, but Republicans complained the deal was loaded with Chicago pork-barrel projects to win crucial votes. Exasperated Republicans were left la
A former shoe department manager at a J.C. Penney Co. store in Niles is asking for more than $7 million in damages in a suit alleging he was fired because he is HIV positive. The action comes more than a decade after a wave of suits by AIDS patients hit the federal courts, and the issue was spotlighted by the film Phi
YOU VE GONE TOO FAR if you pass the Parliament building on the hill, its facade scarred by bullets from a decade ago, and the nightmares from last night. Turn around, get off the paved highway and take the red-clay side street with no name as you bump and rattle through a neighborhood called Remera near the internation
-- South Africa s national hero is fed up with thieves--allegedly even his former lawyer--cashing in on his image, especially at the expense of charitable trusts that support his favorite causes JOHANNESBURG -- Nelson Mandela may be one of the most revered men in the world, but that hasn t stopped the greedy from tryin
Black women are twice as likely to die from cervical cancer as are white women. So The Balm in Gilead, a New York-based AIDS awareness group, recently came to Chicago to launch a national health initiative to educate black women about human papillomavirus, or HPV , which causes cervical cancer. We want
A man accused of running over a Chicago cabdriver with his own taxi will stay in jail for now after a DuPage County nurse told a judge Tuesday how he allegedly tried to punch her and spit on her last month in a hospital. Michael L. Jackson s bail in his murder case had been reduced by Cook County Circuit Judge James Sc
NEW YORK - The election of the fiercely dogmatic Pope Benedict XVI dashed the dreams of many moderate American Catholics for a softening of the Vatican s staunch opposition to female ordination and artificial contraception, two of the most challenging and divisive issues involving women and the church. At the same time
Asked for a best-case wish-list for the new German pope, Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, ticks the items off: That he sanction artificial birth control, approve condom use, welcome women into the Vatican hierarchy and give his blessing to such scientific advances
Less than a week after posting bail, a Chicago man charged in the death of a taxi driver spit on an emergency room nurse and threatened to infect her with HIV, police said. Michael L. Jackson, 37, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless conduct for trying to hit a nurse and spitting bloody saliva at her while
A beauty pageant earlier this year symbolized Botswana s progress against AIDS as well as how the epidemic has ravaged this small southern African country. At a hotel in the capital of Gaborone, a dozen young women primped and fussed as they readied to compete for an unusual title-- Miss HIV Stigma Free. No, you wouldn
JOHANNESBURG - U.S.-supported anti-AIDS policies that promote abstinence and discourage condom use among the young are likely to lead to rising HIV infection rates in Africa, a U.S. human-rights group warned Tuesday in a report. In a study focused on Uganda , Human Rights Watch said that African youths are increasingly
Every now and then the circumstances of a life converge into an obsession. That s what s happened to Joe English. Circumstance one: English spent 29 years with a partner who eventually died of AIDS. Circumstance two: His partner was African-American. Three: One day last month, he was standing outside the Magic Johnson
Before she became an adult, Princess Kasune Zulu of Zambia was an AIDS orphan, caregiver to nine younger siblings and cousins, a wife to a much older man, a mother and a high school dropout. From those sad and, perhaps, inauspicious beginnings, Zulu, 29, transformed herself into an HIV/AIDS educator, radio personality
To combat the problem of substance abuse within Chicago s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, drug-treatment services should become more sensitive to issues of sexual orientation, according to a report released Thursday by the city s Health Department. The first-of-its kind report, which took three years
Sex education in Illinois schools is too often glossed over in health classes and taught with materials that offer teens incomplete or inaccurate information, according to a statewide survey released Monday. Middle and high school teachers averaged 12 hours of sex-education instruction in all, and 60 percent of health
Judith Graham, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Johnathon Briggs contributed to this report
Keith O Brien was damaged goods. That s how the former bank executive felt for years after learning he had the AIDS virus. Until, at last, a powerful drug temporarily took the psychic pain away. The drug was methamphetamine, and it erased the heartache of AIDS in a rush of euphoria. But judgment evaporated with memory,
To the beat of pounding techno music, thousands of sweaty, bare-chested men gyrate in the shadow of Corinthian columns in the cavernous Great Hall of Union Station. Bartenders serve a pink energy drink labeled Gay Fuel. It s 2 a.m., the Sunday after Valentine s Day, and the three-day marathon of parties known as Fireba
Clean-needle programs have been shown to be effective in controlling the spread of HIV, hepatitis and other diseases by protecting intravenous drug addicts from contaminated syringes. Illinois has had needle-exchange programs since the 1980s, and in 2003 legalized the over-the-counter purchase of hypodermic needles. Bu
MAHALAPYE, Botswana -- The first AIDS patients to seek drug therapy at this dusty small-town hospital arrived near death, collapsed on stretchers or hanging on the shoulders of resigned family members. A year later, most are nearly unrecognizable. One terribly wasted man, racked with tremors and forced to use a wheelch
A former Roman Catholic priest has been accused of molesting a minor 25 years ago when he was an assistant pastor at Holy Name Cathedral. A lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court this week accuses James V. Flosi of sexual assault, battery and negligence stemming from an encounter with a Quigley Theological Seminary
GABERONE, Botswana - Five years ago, when Cynthia Leshomo discovered she was HIV positive, she swallowed a bottle full of the anti-retroviral pills her doctor prescribed for her and slipped into a coma for two days. I thought I was cursed, a black sheep in the family, said the young business school graduate, who had an
Last week I wrote about a group of students on the South Side who are working on a project dealing with men in their community--guys in their 30s and 40s--who have been trying to pick up, date, or have sex with 13-, 14- and 15-year-old girls. Many of you were outraged that this is happening. You asked why parents and t
GABORONE, Botswana -- Five years ago, when Cynthia Leshomo discovered she was HIV-positive, she swallowed a bottle of the anti-retroviral pills prescribed for her and slipped into a coma for two days. I thought I was cursed, a black sheep in the family, said the young business school graduate, who had an AIDS-related t
Judith Graham and Frank James, Tribune staff reporters.
Safeguards designed to protect Americans from potentially dangerous medications are being eroded by conflicts between federal bureaucrats who approve new drugs and those who oversee their safety, according to former and current officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA regulators rush to review applicat
The news last weekend that a New York City patient had contracted a rare strain of HIV--one that resisted several drugs and was linked to rapid onset of AIDS--had a familiar ring to Dr. Julio Montaner of Vancouver. In 2001 Montaner made news in British Columbia by announcing he and colleagues had identified a potential
SURAT, India - He was a handsome, young diamond polisher. She was shy, with a crooked smile and an easy blush. They had a typical Indian love story: Boy meets girl through an arranged-marriage bureau. Boy and girl decide to marry, once their families agree. But this arranged marriage was unusual in one major respec
Tom Rybarczyk and David Heinzmann, Tribune staff reporters.
A 54-year-old man who police say screamed at them and attempted to bite an officer s arm in a standoff on the 26th floor of a Lakeview apartment building died Thursday after police used a Taser stun gun to subdue him. The medical examiner s office had not reported a cause of death late Thursday, and police would not pr
Jeff Coen and Johnathon E. Briggs, Tribune staff reporters.
A quarrel on a North Side street that allegedly ended with a Chicago city worker using a taxi to repeatedly run over and kill its driver apparently started over an $8 cab fare, authorities said Monday. Police and prosecutors said Michael L. Jackson has not told them how such a common dispute allegedly escalated into an
Angela Rozas and Tom Rybarczyk, Tribune staff reporters.
Update: A Cook County judge today denied bond for Michael L. Jackson in the killing of a Chicago taxi driver. A Chicago Department of Public Health employee who founded a group that raised money to help combat HIV and AIDS was charged with murder Sunday for allegedly running over a cabdriver with the man s taxi after a
For 30 years, foreign aid has trickled into Africa with little noticeable effect. The continent today has the dubious distinction of being the only place in the world that is actually getting poorer, even as the United Nations pushes to halve world poverty by 2015. Nearly eradicated diseases such as polio are returning
In 1989, photographer Nicholas Nixon had an exhibition in Chicago that presented images of 16 people in the Boston area with AIDS. Nixon recorded each of them in extended photographic portraits that beautifully and with remarkable delicacy traced their downward curve. The most touching image was of Tom Moran, a former
DURBAN, South Africa - A young mother in remote rural South Africa doesn t feel well. She makes the long trek on foot to an overcrowded rural health clinic where she eventually finds out the truth: Her migrant mineworker husband has given her AIDS, and their precocious young daughter will soon be an orphan. That si
Those who have questioned President Bush s commitment to implementing his five-year, $15 billion plan to fight AIDS in developing countries were rebuffed twice this week. The Food and Drug Administration early in the week approved the first generic drug cocktail, giving hope to those in poor nations who couldn t afford
NASHVILLE -- Tired of seeing America s moral agenda hijacked by debates over gay marriage and abortion rights, thousands of black Baptists met this week in a bid to define new priorities, including health care, education, new jobs and voting rights. The historic gathering was a first for delegates of four black Baptist
Preliminary laboratory tests have ruled out tuberculosis--a disease that can be transmitted between humans and animals--as cause of death for the two Lincoln Park Zoo elephants who died in recent months, according to results released Tuesday. Zoo officials had suspected that Tatima, a 35-year-old female African elephan
Bruce Japsen, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune news services contributed to this report
Buoyed by sales of its rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira and a painkiller marketed with another company, Abbott Laboratories fourth-quarter profits rose 3.2 percent. The North Chicago-based medical product giant said Tuesday that net income increased to $974.6 million, or 62 cents a share, compared with $944.4 million,
Carolyn Kasprowicz s joy over the passage of Illinois gay rights bill was tempered by the lingering hurt of being forced from a North Side restaurant late last year, simply because she gave her partner an innocent peck on the lips. It s a shame that we need this, she said of the new anti-discrimination law. But we do,
A few months ago, my father gave me a news tip that I quickly filed in the maybe someday stack: Josh Gottlieb, one of his former physics students at the University of Michigan, had just quit a teaching job at Downers Grove North High School to devote his life to battling the worldwide scourge of malaria. Malaria? Yes.
Chicago police continued searching Wednesday for a man who robbed a beauty shop on the Northwest Side by brandishing a hypothermic needle and claiming he had AIDS. The robbery occurred about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, when police responded to a burglary alarm at the store at 3065 W. Armitage Ave., Officer Matthew Jackson said.
Geneva Hayden, a community educator for Planned Parenthood in Chicago, was going over the intricacies of the female anatomy with a half dozen women in a workshop at the Homan Community Center in North Lawndale recently. As usual, she had to clear up some misconceptions, such as the belief that a birth control patch pro
COOK COUNTY -- Bail was set Monday at $350,000 for an Elgin man charged with attempted murder after police said he used a baseball bat last month to beat an Arlington Heights resident as he talked to his mother on a cell phone. Sergio R. Lagunas, 22, of the 500 block of Willard Avenue, was charged Saturday after the 24
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.