Indian doctor appointed director of Robotics Institute in Florida

NEW YORK, Feb 19: A noted Indian expert in minimally invasive robotic prostatectomy, the removal of prostate or its issues, has been appointed director of Florida Hospital's Global Robotics Institute.

Dr Vipul Patel, the expert, who has performed about 2,000 robotic prostatectomy operations so far, assumed the director's position at the institution. He also has been named an associate professor of urology at the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine. He will also participate in medical conferences with a view to teaching his expertise.

''At the Global Robotics Institute, we have assembled the top surgeons and staff in ultramodern facilities, and equipped them with state-of-the-art technology. This unrivalled combination delivers the most sought after robotic prostate surgery treatment in the country. With Dr Vipul Patel's national and international reputation, the Global Robotics Institute has become a destination program, serving international, domestic and local patients,'' a statement released by the institute said, shortly after Dr Patel was appointed to his position last month.

The statement noted that Dr Patel is one of the two persons in the world who have performed so many such operations.

Dr Patel grew up in England, attended college in California and has taught physicians at medical centers across the US, including Duke University, Cornell University and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He shared his expertise with clinicians in countries like Germany, Italy, Greece and Turkey. He helped organize robotic surgeries in Malaysia and India.

Aside from cancer treatment, robotic prostatectomy has features that could minimize the possibility of impotence and incontinence.

Dr Patel, who worked with the Ohio State University Medical Center till last year, has written two textbooks on laparoscopic and robotic surgery. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Robotic Surgery, a quarterly. He earned his medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and had his residencies done in surgery and urology at the University of Miami_s School of Medicine.

He drew praise from Ray Gilley, chief executive of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, based in Florida.

''Central Florida_s ambitious bid to become a biomedical magnet needs heavy hitters such as Patel,'' Gilley was quoted as saying by the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.

At the end of the day, it is top-notch talent that delivers high-quality health care, medical technology and new solutions, he added.

(UNI)

Girl with four kidneys plans to donate two

LONDON, Feb 18: The problem of illegal organ transplant and trade would not have been there, had mother nature endowed all of with four functional kidneys just like a British girl.

The 18-year-old Laura Moon was now considering to donate the extra organs for transplant operations.

''I hope I can help somebody else while I am young. I will do everything in my power to become a donor,'' the Daily Mail quoted Ms Moon as saying.

Her two kidneys measure 14 cm and the other two 9 cm each.

It is not known why people develop multiple, or duplex, organs but one in 125 people have one extra kidney, normally a partial organ. Though the patient has no problems but they could be more prone to urinary infections.

Transplant surgeon Niaz Ahmad said parts of the kidney system could be duplicated but having completely duplex kidneys on both sides was extremely rare.

Surgeons have given green light on Ms Moons's ability to donate her extra kidneys.

(UNI)

Refugee crisis, internal tensions, dog East Timor

DILI, Feb 19: Delvina da Costa complained of squalid conditions and a shortage of food in the refugee camp where she has lived for almost two years, but the prospect of returning to her old neighbourhood in Dili fills her with dread.

Her house in East Timor was burned down in 2006 during a wave of violence that killed 37 people and forced 150,000 from their homes, prompting the dispatch of international troops and United Nations police to restore order in the young impoverished nation of 1 million people.

''We feel it's not safe. There's no guarantee we will be protected from attacks,'' da Costa, 26, said, holding her naked one-year-old son in a refugee camp near Dili's largest hotel.

East Timor's government and the United Nations have started a programme to relocate some 30,000 refugees living in camps that dot the capital. Starting this month, food rations for the displaced have been reduced by half in an effort to prevent refugees from becoming too reliant on handouts.

Under the 15 million dollar programme, the government will give 4,500 dollar to each family whose home was destroyed as well as a two-month food ration and transport stipend, said Jacinto Gomes, state secretary for social affairs.

Those whose homes were damaged but which can still be repaired will get 3,000 dollar and houses will be built in suburbs for people unable to return to their former dwellings for security reasons.

Gomes admitted that solving the refugee problems is not an easy task.

''They have legitimate security concerns but the sooner they can be relocated the better,'' Gomes told Reuters, adding that he hoped the programme could be completed this year.

ETHNIC VIOLENCE

Allison Cooper, a spokeswoman for the United Nations mission in East Timor, said that in addition to genuine fear, confusion over land ownership was also making it difficult for the refugees to return home.

''It's very difficult for people who have become dislocated to actually establish legally that they have land,'' she said.

The violence two years ago was triggered by the dismissal of 600 soldiers who complained that they had been discriminated against because they were from the western part of the country.

The soldiers' sacking by the previous government prompted protests that degenerated into ethnic violence and fighting between factions in the security forces.

Ethnic divisions and conflict in the security forces are in the spotlight again following last week's attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta by army renegade Alfredo Reinado and some of the sacked soldiers who joined his revolt against the government.

Ramos-Horta was shot and seriously wounded in the February 11 attack on his house. Reinado was killed while leading the attack.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped a separate attack on his convoy the same day which was believed to have been carried out by Reinado's followers.

Reinado became a powerful symbol of East Timor's east-west divide after he deserted to join the sacked soldiers and launched an armed revolt against the government. Many in the west of the country saw him as a hero defending their rights and some politicians in the governing coalition also supported him.

He escaped from jail in Dili in August 2006 and evaded a military operation by Australian troops to capture him in his jungle hideout, where he enjoyed protection from local people.

CRISIS SITUATION

The conflict in the predominantly Catholic nation is more complex than a divide between the east and west of the country, said Sophia Cason, an East Timor analyst for the International Crisis Group thinktank.

''Within the east there are so many divisions between groups there. It's not like a cohesive east and a cohesive west,'' she said.

She stressed the need for reform in security forces and for accountability for past crimes, saying that nobody had gone to jail for murders committed in 2006.

''None of these has been dealt with effectively, so hopefully the recent incidents will renew focus on those issues,'' she said, adding that the government should also address poverty, improve education and create investment opportunities.

Refugees in the Dili camp, who are from the east, said the death of Reinado did not mean the threat against them was over.

''He may be dead but there are still others. As long as they are still around, we won't sleep well,'' said one man, who gave his name as Mariano. His friends nodded in agreement.

Jose Luis de Oliveira, director of East Timor's leading human rights group Yayasan HAK, alleged that some opposition politicians were trying to sabotage efforts to resolve the refugee problems to maintain a situation of crisis even after the death of Reinado in the attack on the president's home last week.

''People say once the Alfredo (Reinado) question is resolved, the refugee problem will be over, but as long as these politicians have not achieved their goals, they will continue to perpetuate the problem,'' he said, noting that flags of the opposition party, Fretilin, can be seen in most camps.

People in the districts who have to eke out a living have started to become jealous of refugees receiving food handouts and this could create new tensions, he said.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, opted to break away from 23 years of Indonesian rule in a violence-marred vote organised by the United Nations in 1999. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of UN administration but remains one of the world's poorest nations.

(AGENCIES)

Kenyan negotiators resume talks to end crisis

NAIROBI, Feb 19: Kenya's feuding parties resume talks today after a calls from home and abroad to solve a post-election crisis that has killed 1,000 people and jeopardised the east African nation's reputation.

Foreign powers and the majority of Kenya's 36 million people are impatient for President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga to find a political solution to their country's darkest moment since independence in 1963.

Their dispute over who won the December 27 election unleashed protests and ethnic attacks that have traumatised the population, displaced 300,000 people, and hurt Kenya's reputation as a stable democracy and peacemaker in the region.

''The time for a political settlement was yesterday,'' US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the end of a lightening trip to Kenya on Monday to push for a power-sharing accord as the best way out of the impasse.

Apart from hardliners on either side, a similar message is reverberating around Kenya from businessmen, clerics, civil society groups and ordinary citizens, who are increasingly angry with the political class.

''Where are the leaders who will put selfish gains aside and accede to the higher commitment to serve and honour a country's craving for peace?'' said Daily Nation columnist Mildred Ngesa.

KENYA ''TRAUMATISED''

Officials of Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) have agreed on principles to end violence and help refugees.

They also agree in principle the opposition must be brought into government somehow -- but are stuck on the details of that.

A deadline set by mediator and former UN boss Kofi Annan for a mid-February political deal has passed.

But the veteran Ghanaian diplomat has promised not to depart until the mediation has reached an ''irreversible point''.

He again urged negotiators to hurry up yesterday.

''The people are tired. They've been traumatised. Some live in fear and they want to see this issue resolved,'' he said.

The negotiating teams have been meeting throughout February, but broke up for a long weekend on Thursday after a trip to a secluded safari lodge failed to bring a breakthrough.

While the government is prepared to give ODM some representation in cabinet, the opposition wants a virtual 50:50 arrangement with a strong position like a new prime minister's post for Odinga. It also wants a new vote within two years.

On the ground, the crisis has produced unprecedented population flows among communities terrified of more violence.

Thousands of members of Kibaki's Kikuyu group, Kenya's largest, have been trooping back to their heartland in the central highlands. Many Luos of Odinga's community, and people from other tribes deemed pro-opposition, have been heading in the opposite direction back to their ancestral homelands too. (AGENCIES)

Scientists capture giant Antarctic sea creatures

SYDNEY, Feb 19: Scientists studying Antarctic waters have filmed and captured giant sea creatures, like sea spiders the size of dinner plates and jelly fish with six metre (18 feet) tentacles.

A fleet of three Antarctic marine research ships returned to Australia this week ending a summer expedition to the Southern Ocean where they carried out a census of life in the icy ocean and on its floor, more than 1,000 metres (yards) below the surface.

''Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters -- we have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates,'' Australian scientist Martin Riddle, voyage leader on the research ship Aurora Australis, said today.

''Many live in the dark and have pretty large eyes. They are strange looking fish,'' Riddle told local radio.

''Some of the video footage we have collected is really stunning -- it's amazing to be able to navigate undersea mountains and valleys and actually see what the animals look like in their undisturbed state,'' Riddle said.

''In some places every inch of the sea floor is covered in life. In other places we can see deep scars and gouges where icebergs scour the sea floor as they pass by,'' he said.

The Australian Antarctic Division expedition will help scientists monitor how the impact of environmental change in Antarctic waters, such as ocean acidification caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, will make it harder for marine organisms to grow and sustain calcium carbonate skeletons.

''It is predicted that the first effects of this will be seen in the cold, deep waters of Antarctica,'' said Riddle.

''What we saw down there were vast coraline gardens based on calcareous organisms and these are the ones that could really be lost in an increasing acidic ocean,'' he said.

The three ships, the Aurora Australis, France's L'Astrolabe and Japan's Umitaka Maru docked in Hoabrt on Australia's southern island state of Tasmania, with their decks full of an array of sealife including unknown species of sea creatures collected near the eastern Antarctic land mass.

Some creatures, which were retrieved from between 200 - 1,400 metres (yards) below the surface, weighed up to 30 kgs (65 pounds), while some 25 per cent of the sealife chronicled was previous unknown.

The census of life in the Southern Ocean is known as the Collaborative East Antarctic Marine Census (CEAMARC). The French and Japanese ships examined the mid and upper ocean, while the Australian ship studied the ocean floor.

''This research will help scientists understand how communities have adapted to the unique Antarctic environment,'' said Graham Hosie, leader of the census project on Umitaka Maru.

''Specimens collected will be sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and bar-coding of their DNA. Not all of the creatures that we found could be identified and it is very likely that some new species will be recorded as a result of these voyages.''

CEAMARC is part of the international Census of Antarctic Marine Life, coordinated by the Australian Antarctic Division, which will see some 16 voyages to Antarctic waters during this, the International Polar Year (2007-2009).

The census will survey the biodiversity of Antarctic slopes, abyssal plains, open water, and under disintegrating ice shelves. It aims to determine species biodiversity, abundance and distribution and establish a baseline dataset from which future changes can be observed. (AGENCIES)

Young and bored in small town US? Try 'looping'

JENA, LA, Feb 19: If you're young and bored at night in a small town in the United States, you can always jump in the car, switch on the radio and go ''looping.''

On weekend nights in Jena, a conservative, rural area of around 3,000 people in central Louisiana, the main street is full of teenagers driving slowly through the center of town, Saturday Night Country Gold playing loud on the radio.

In the parking lot at Mitch's restaurant at one end of town, the cars turn round and drive back until they reach Untamed Outdoor Products at the other end. They circle round in that parking lot and return, making a loop.

''You can loop all night, or until you run out of gas,'' Seth Deville said behind the wheel of a pick-up truck.

Looping has been a pastime for young Americans in small towns since the 1950s, though elsewhere it's called ''cruising'' and in parts of Kansas they call it ''dragging Main'' -- Main Street being the central avenue in towns all across America.

In many parts of the country it's accompanied by elaborate dating rituals, understood by teenagers but incomprehensible to outsiders and, crucially, parents.

Meg McGuffee, a high school senior in Jena, said she once looped for an hour without meeting friends but usually they stop in the town's darkened parking lots to chat. Better still, they park one car, pile into another and go looping together.

All the while, they await word of a party or a hog roast going on nearby, teenagers said.

Jena hit the news last year when thousands of marchers came to the town to protest what they said were excessive charges against six black youths accused of beating a white high school student. The town has faded back into itself since.

Instead of honking their car horns to greet friends, Jena teenagers ''rack their pipes,'' flicking the car into neutral and gunning the accelerator. They install special exhaust pipes so that the big engines let out a deep, throaty growl.

''It's manly,'' said McGuffee, with a touch of irony.

It's also illegal. Teenagers said the police sometimes give tickets if they hear a car racking its pipes.

BLUE LIGHT GAME

Driving in the vast country has long been a symbol of American freedom. But writers have used driving up and down in a small town as a metaphor of the kind of aimlessness that makes young people long to escape.

But in Jena there's never a dull moment. Stumpy yellow fire hydrants dot the sides of the road, each one marked by a blue reflector in the middle of the road to tell fire fighters where to find water.

One looping game is to divide the car's occupants into teams and see who can spot the blue reflectors amid the yellow reflectors. Then it's a race to slam your fist against the car ceiling and shout ''blue light''.

Television plays a big part in the lives of US teenagers but young people in Jena said they spend much of their spare time fishing, camping in the woods and hunting. Many of the young in rural areas own guns and know how to use them.

If looping gets boring, there's always pushing cows over. Cows doze standing up and young people said one game is to creep up on them as they sleep and heave them over.

Some doubt it is possible to do but the game is called ''cow-tipping'' and the trick is to get out of the field before the cow, befuddled and angry, wakes up and comes running. (AGENCIES)

Violence strains Kenyan coffin-makers' friendship

NAKURU, KENYA, Feb 19: Business is booming for friends Bob Otieno and James Maina, but they have little cause to celebrate.

Since ethnic violence erupted in Kenya after the disputed December 27 election, the coffin-makers from rival tribes have struggled to meet demand, toiling away in a tiny wooden shack beside the municipal morgue in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru.

Profits have soared but their relationship is strained every time a body turns up of a victim hacked to death, burned alive or shot with an arrow.

''We are both angry but we try not to talk about it,'' said Maina, hammering nails into a piece of wood. ''It's better that way.''

Their relationship is just one example of how tribal bloodshed has torn apart people who lived side by side and worked together before the closely fought vote thrust the country into one of its darkest moments since independence in 1963.

Some Kenyans have watched mobs turn on their relatives in the name of tribal affiliation.

Others long to know the fate of loved ones weeks after more than 1,000 people were killed, mostly in ethnic clashes and some by police during protests.

The turmoil has displaced 300,000 people and hurt Kenya's reputation as a stable democracy and regional tourism and trade hub.

DUMPED ON ROADSIDES

The morgue in Nakuru, a trading town 160 km northwest of Nairobi, has dealt with 170 victims of the violence. Thirty have not been claimed by relatives.

Morgue officials cannot identify them because the victims, all males, were too badly burned or mutilated. Others were shot by arrows and their bodies had decomposed.

Police found them dumped in fields or on roadsides, said a morgue official who asked not to be identified.

All he can do is stare at empty forms, hoping mothers, fathers or sons will show up before the morgue is forced to move the bodies to a mass grave if too much time elapses.

Twenty are lying on the floor in numbered white plastic bags, others are behind the doors of the morgue's freezers.

''I think most of their relatives ran away for fear of their lives when the problems started. They are too scared to come back and search for their relatives,'' said the official.

''The best we can hope for is that the relatives will eventually show up. Then we will have to remove the bodies from the mass grave. Maybe then they can identify their relatives from clothes they were wearing or eyeglasses.''

The employee, in the business for more than 10 years, said he was unprepared for this. ''I just pray and ask my family and friends for help,'' he said.

Outside the building, a white face mask used to protect pathologists and morgue staff from the smell of death hangs from a branch, a potent symbol of bloodshed that was unthinkable for many Kenyans before the election which returned President Mwai Kibaki to power.

A few feet away, Otieno and Maina are busy putting the final touches to a coffin. Prices range from 4,000 Kenyan shillings to 30,000 shillings.

If the government and opposition to do not agree to a lasting political settlement, they may be busy for some time. (AGENCIES)

Toronto museum opens artifact galleries devoted to South Asia

NEW YORK, Feb 19: The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has reopened its galleries devoted to South and West Asian art and artefacts.

The Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery that opened on saturday, has works from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet, the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (CBC) reported.

Another two galleries in the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal are set to open in April, completing the historic museum_s renovation.

A series of nine exhibit areas in the galleries present the stories of the region, beginning with 3,500 B C in the Indus Valley and extending to modern times with an exhibit of contemporary art.

The exhibits tell the story of civilisations that formed in what are now Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen, CBC said.

Among the thousands of artifacts are a 10th-century stone sculpture of the goddess Yogini, stucco head of a Boddisattva dated to the 4th or 5th century and lavish luxury items from the Mughal and Rajput courts.

(UNI)

Men, please note: 'Smoking, drinking can affect your progeny'

LONDON, Feb 19: Science has long been clear that smoking or heavy alcohol consumption causes cancer. But, a new study has found that babies could inherit genetic damage from a father who puffs or drinks too much.

A team of international researchers has found that smoking or drinking alcohol can cause chemical changes in the semen in men and the alterations could be potentially inherited by their progenies and their future generations.

The researchers came to the conclusion after they analysed the effects of smoking and heavy drinking -- both toxic in nature -- on a group of rodents. They gave pregnant female mice daily injections of pesticide vinclozolin during the period when the sex of embryos is determined.

Male offspring had abnormalities, including prostate and sperm development problems, and genetic changes that the researchers found were passed on through four generations when the males were mated with healthy females.

The researchers have also identified specific genes involved in the production of sperm that were permanently altered by the exposure to the pesticide.

"In addition to the spermatogenic and prostate abnormalities, trans-generational effects on numerous disease states were observed including tumour development and kidney disease," 'The Daily Telegraph' quoted Dr Matthew Anway of the University of Idaho as saying.

According to Dr Anway, the doses used in the experiment far exceeded the levels that humans could expect to be exposed to in the environment, but the study was designed to demonstrate how toxins lead to inheritable abnormalities.

"Studies have shown significant associations between male toxic exposures and increased rates of infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth and childhood health problems. We need to open our eyes and look at the evidence.

"When you harm the male reproductive system you can see multi-generational harm transmitted through the male gamete (sperm). This research has human implications as it suggests an avenue of harm and a model of trans-generational effects," said co-researcher Dr Cynthia Daniels of the Rutgers University. (PTI)

Artefacts of Stone Age discovered

DUBAI, Feb 19: Artefacts, including an axe and tools to crack open animal bones, dating back to more than 150,000 years have been discovered in Abu Dhabi.

The team from the Department of Historic Environment found the Levallois, a type of tool whose one of the many functions was to split animal bones to extract the marrow, which was a nutritious food resource.

Dr Ganim Wahida, a specialist in Stone Age archaeology, invited by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) to study and evaluate the artefacts said, ''The discovered assemblage belongs to the techno-typologically Middle Stone Age Period, well over 150,000 years ago.''

Dr Walid Yassin, Manager of the Archaeology Division at ADACH, who discovered the sites and had previously discovered other artefacts, said the Levallois technique was first discovered in the nineteenth century at the archaeological site of Levallios, near Paris.

''The significance of this discovery lies in the fact that it alters our understanding of the beginning of the first human activities in Abu Dhabi Emirate, which seem to have gone back well into the Old Stone Age,'' he said.

''The discovery does contradict an earlier claim made by archaeologists during the late twentieth century that the earliest occupation of the Arabian Gulf was during the New Stone Age, some 7,500 years ago. This discovery complements earlier findings made last year at the same area,'' Mr Yassin was quoted by the Gulf News as saying.

(UNI)

Painting the Forth bridge -- an end in sight

LONDON, Feb 19: For over 120 years the job of painting the colossal Forth railway bridge has famously been a never-ending task.

So much steel is involved in the 1.5-mile long rail bridge over the Firth of Forth that, the legend goes, by the time the painters finish, they need to start over again at the other end.

Now, however, a date has been set for completion -- 2012.

British engineering firm Balfour Beatty has been blasting off layers of paint from the bridge since 2002 and replacing them with a special coating designed to last 20 years.

It said yesterday it had been awarded a 74 million-pound contract by Network Rail to complete the remaining restoration by 2012.

''The contract is set to mark the end of a modern myth,'' the firm said on its Web site.

(AGENCIES)

Gay Africans and Arabs come out online

KHARTOUM, Feb 19: When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realise he was joining a band of African and West Asian gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online.

But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.Blogspot.Com.

''Keep up the good work,'' wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. ''Be proud and blog the way you like,'' wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco.

Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and West Asia, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment to execution.

''The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality,'' he told Reuters in an e-mail. ''To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response.''

In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation.

''If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,''' Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers.''I'm Sudanese and Proud Gay Also.''

His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start of the blog ''Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man'' that stated: ''The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the pysche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented.''

NEWS AND ABUSE

That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails.

''Faggot queen,'' wrote a commentator called 'blake' on Kenya's 'Rants and raves'. ''I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation,'' referring to the country's post-election violence.

Some are more measured: ''The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural,'' a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog.

Some of the bloggers use the diary-style format to share the ups and downs of gay life -- the dilemma of whether to come out to friends and relatives, the risks of meeting in known gay bars, or, according to blogger ''...And then God created Men!'' the joys of the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.

Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing on reports of persecution in their region and beyond.

The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq.

Kenya's ''Rants and Raves'' reported that gay people were targets in the country's election violence, while blogger Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots. Afriboy organised an auction of his erotic art to raise funds ''to help my community in Kenya''.

There was also widespread debate on the comments made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about homosexuals in his country.

The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene.

''It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect,'' said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.Com which tracks gay news and Web sites throughout the world.

''There are a number of people from the community who are blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still quite sporadic,'' said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on her own Web site Black Looks.

WAYS TO MEET

The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay blogging activity are starting to emerge.

There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east. There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay Nigerians.

And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come wholly into the open.

''I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ... There is nothing wrong that I am doing,'' said Matuba Mahlatjie of the blog My Haven.

Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile society.

''That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for others until I found others,'' said Gug, the writer behind the blog GayUganda.

''Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our villages and realise that the parish priest's homophobia is not universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!'' (AGENCIES)

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