Five of them, from Wenlou village, had travelled to the provincial capital Zhengzhou to ask the government to carry out its promise of repairing AIDS patients' dilapidated homes, said Zhang Qiao, the wife of Cheng Fudong, one of the people arrested.

"Our home is broken down. Rain pours down from the roof. The government had repaired some of the homes in the village, but neglected the others," said Zhang, who has AIDS, along with her husband.

Another villager, Kong Wanli, was detained because he was among the most outspoken farmers in the village and had previously demanded government help," his wife Wei Hong told AFP on Friday.

She said her husband was held because Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was planning to visit the village on Saturday.

"Everyone in the village knew Wen Jiabao will be coming here. The word has been spreading. The local officials are afraid Kong Wanli will speak out," Wei said.

Wen is scheduled to begin a five-nation European tour on Sunday and it could not be immediately confirmed whether he was scheduled to visit Wenlou.

In December, when Health Minister and Vice Premier Wu Yi paid a first-ever visit by a high ranking Chinese leader to Wenlou, around 20 villagers were forcibly kept inside their homes, forbidden by local police to meet her.

A police officer at the Shangcai county jail confirmed six people, including Kong, were being detained.

"Six people including Kong Wanli were detained together ... They are being detained for disturbing government organizations and disturbing government office work," said the officer, Yuan Xinmin.

"They will be detained for four to five days."

Yuan said they were brought to the jail by the AIDS prevention and control department of the Shangcai police department.

He said he was not sure whether Kong or the other men were arrested to prevent protests during Wen's reported visit.

Kong, whose parents and elder sister died from AIDS after donating blood, had demanded the government provide effective medicine to treat former blood sellers with the disease.

China last July launched a program to provide free anti-retroviral drugs to thousands of AIDS-stricken farmers, but health officials admit the drugs are old, less effective versions.

New York-based Human Rights Watch denounced the arrests.

"The international community is now giving significant funding to China to combat HIV/AIDS. Locking up people who are demanding access to treatment is just outrageous," Sara Davis, researcher in the group's Asia Division, told AFP.

Lee Jong-wook, the WHO's director general, said China has made "remarkable" progress in improving health over the last 50 years and life expectancy has now reached 71, similar to that of many more economically developed countries.

"With increased life expectancy comes the health transition, in which communicable diseases are replaced by non-communicable ones as the dominant cause of death," said Lee, who is on a two-day visit.

In 2002, there were 10 million deaths in China from all causes.

Of these, seven million were due to chronic, non-infectious diseases, particularly stroke and cancer, Lee said in a speech at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences at the Peking Union Medical College.

Tobacco consumption, unhealthy diets and lack of exercise have become major risks to public health in China, Lee said, urging the problems be addressed before they become overwhelming.

"These and other risk factors for chronic diseases are still in an early stage of development in China," said Lee.

"Investment in preventing these diseases will be less costly if it is done now rather than left till later ..."

Another one million people died from injuries, Lee said, highlighting traffic accidents as a major cause.

On the whole China, the world's most populous country, was achieving targets on tackling poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health, Lee said, but it was not meeting targets on fighting tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

China's goal is to detect 70 percent of the estimated number of TB cases, but by the end of 2003 it was still only detecting 39 percent, Lee said.

One of the problems was China has a "very high" rate of drug-resistant TB, affecting 40 percent of people with the disease, he said.

"The main cause is inadequate or inappropriate treatment of TB patients," Lee said. "This is a problem in urgent need of attention."

For HIV/AIDS, the number of people in China was increasing rapidly. The government says there are an estimated 840,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.

"This number could become 10 million by 2010 unless decisive action is taken now," Lee warned.

On Monday, the China Daily quoted a Chinese official saying preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS has become "one of the most significant" human rights tasks in China.

Some 53.6 percent of China's carriers are aged between 20 and 29, said Yang Zhengquan, vice president of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development.

If the number of cases was allowed to rise to 12 million, China would suffer GDP losses of as much as 40 billion yuan (4.82 billion dollars), he added.

In a candid admission, China's vice health minister Gao Qiang told Lee the biggest problem for China was that the medicine the government began providing for free last summer to thousands of poor farmers who got HIV/AIDS from selling blood was not effective enough.

The drugs used are older and less effective versions of anti-retroviral therapy whose patents have expired, the only kind of treatment China can afford to give, health officials have told AFP.

As many as 20 percent of patients have stopped taking the medicine due to severe side-effects.

Lee also said that while China succeeded in controlling the deadly respiratory disease SARS, which spread from China to more than 30 countries beginning late 2002, SARS and bird flu remain "major issues."

"Unfinished tasks include clarifying the origin and epidemiology of the infection and finding an effective treatment and vaccine," he said.

The group's statement coincides with a visit to the United States by Chinese Vice Premier and Minster of Health Wu Yi.

"The vice premier has made some good statements about a new approach to China's HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Sara Davis, researcher in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "But China should be judged on whether it really implements those promises."

In the past month, China has offered to pay for voluntary AIDS testing in areas worst-hit by the disease and announced plans to distribute free condoms at entertainment venues.

The William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation's HIV-AIDS Initiative will also help China develop better systems of care for the disease.

"I congratulate China for undertaking this aggressive and timely effort to address the AIDS epidemic," Clinton said in a news release. The former president has made treatment of AIDS around the world a central aim of his post-presidency.

Clinton spoke at the Tsinghua University Summit on HIV-AIDS in China last November. His foundation works to buy equipment, train medical personnel and funnel medicine into 18 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Ira Magaziner, chairman of the foundation's Boston-based HIV-AIDS arm, signed an agreement Thursday with Chinese Vice Minister of Health Wang Longde in Beijing, the foundation said.

"I am very unhappy to report that as of today, Nigeria is still one of the countries worst affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world, next only to South Africa and India, in terms of the number of people living with HIV/AIDS," he told a news conference Friday.

"HIV/AIDS has now become the most nagging health problem affecting individuals, families and communities" in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, with about 130 million people, said the minister.

The 62-page report, "Lessons Not Learned: Human Rights Abuses and HIV/AIDS in the Russian Federation," particularly cited police harassment of intravenous drug users, impeding their access to syringe exchange programs available in other countries.

"Instead of learning the basic lessons of how to fight AIDS from countries that have older epidemics, the Russian government is endangering the broader population by putting up barriers to HIV-prevention services for those most at risk," said Joanne Csete, director of the HIV/AIDS Program at Human Rights Watch.

Although 85 percent of the more than one million Russians living with HIV/AIDS were infected through narcotics use, drug addicts suffering from AIDS are excluded from anti-retroviral treatment.

Russia is also out of step with other countries in banning methadone for heroin-substitution therapy.

Due to policies prescribing detention for drug possession -- even tiny quantities -- Human Rights Watch said many users choose not to shop for clean syringes lest they be taken into custody.

"There are problems in the drug stores. Sometimes the staff of the store signal the police, or there are police hanging around, inside and outside," the report quoted one twenty-five year old drug user in Saint Petersburg as saying.

Arrest carries the further risk of detention in the Russian prison system which, the report said, has become fertile ground for spreading HIV due to the absence, not only of syringe exchanges, but also lack of access to condoms.

A former inmate who contracted HIV in prison told Human Rights Watch that he was given no information on prevention.

"Someone came to the cell to tell me (I was HIV-positive), and I had to sign a statement that said I was aware of the law, that I would get three to eight years in prison if I infected someone," said the inmate, identified as Viktor B.

"But I was told nothing about the disease," he said.

A UN study released in February showed that Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic state of Estonia were suffering from some of the fastest growing rates of HIV/AIDS in the world.

"If the Russian government wants to show that it takes AIDS and human rights seriously, it should reject overly punitive measures for small-time drug users and ensure that all drug users have access to a full range of HIV-prevention services," said Csete.

"Russia's continued ban on methadone is completely unjustifiable given the strong track record of substitution therapy in fighting both AIDS and heroin addiction," she added.

OTTAWA (AFP) - The Canadian government said it was amending planned legislation aimed at supplying cheap generic drugs to developing countries plagued by HIV/AIDS and other epidemics.

Ministers have faced fierce pressure over the issue, and last month an Africa action group founded by U2 frontman Bono, warned an earlier version of the bill was too soft on brand name drugs firms.

Canada claims to be more advanced that any other country in pushing through a World Trade Organization (WTO) pact to allow generic drug manufacturers to supply cheap versions of medicines patented by major pharmaceutical companies.

But despite changes to the bill, some leading international aid groups criticized it as being too friendly to commercial pharmaceutical giants.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network said one proposed change in the law would actually invite commercial pharmaceutical companies to engage in "lengthy and vexatious litigation" if they believed so-called generic drug firms were making a profit from supplying patented drugs to developed countries.

A commercial drug company, according to Legal Network director Richard Elliott, "can initiate this process merely by alleging" a generic firm was making an undue profit.

David Morley, executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres, said "the bill has come a long way" and, in general he welcomed changes in the planned legislation.

But he was concerned about a new clause which would include a specific list of medicines for which the government could override a patent held by a commercial pharmaceutical company.

Morley told reporters even the WTO had not demanded that and, because medicine was changing so rapidly, there should be more flexibility for the government to authorize new drugs for the aid programme.

Bono's group DATA warned last month in a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin on the issue "that the world needs Canada to shoulder its commitments."

"Canada made the solemn millennium promises along with other richer nations to help the poorest help themselves develop." he wrote.

"The richest nations must keep these promises to the poor."

Other changes in the government's proposed legislation include expanding the list of eligible developing countries so they do not have to be members of the WTO to benefit, banning developing nations from using generic drugs otherwise covered by a patent for "commercial purposes," and clarifying rules so that a recognized non-governmental organization may purchase the cheaper generic drugs in developing countries.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gymnast fired by Cirque du Soleil for being HIV-positive has been awarded $600,000 in an employment discrimination case, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said on Thursday.

Matthew Cusick, 32, who has been HIV-positive for 10 years, lost his job in the internationally renowned Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas production of "Mystere" last year despite having told the company that he had the virus and having passed their medical exams.

His dismissal prompted petitions, protests outside Cirque shows in California, and a campaign by celebrities including Nathan Lane, Rosie O'Donnell and playwright Tony Kushner.

Cusick, who described working for Cirque as a "dream job" for any gymnast, filed a discrimination complaint under U.S. disabilities legislation and the EEOC said on Thursday it had reached a voluntary resolution of the case with the Montreal-based company.

"When I was fired by Cirque du Soleil, it was the worst day of my life. Today is nearly the exact opposite because I stood up for what I knew was right...." Cusick said in a statement.

Cirque du Soleil spokeswoman Renee-Claude Menard said on Thursday the settlement was the "finale to a very long and painful process. It has been heart-wrenching. We made a mistake but I don't think we have a pattern of being discriminatory."

Under the EEOC-mediated settlement Cirque du Soleil will pay Cusick $600,000 in damages, lost wages, and legal fees. It is also required to conduct anti-discrimination training for all its employees.

Cusick was employed as an aerial catcher for an acrobatic act, in which he hung by his legs from a swinging bar to catch other performers. He was sent a letter shortly before he was to begin performing saying that his medical condition "will likely pose a direct threat of harm to others, particularly in the case of future injury."

The gay rights group Lambda said there were many cases of HIV discrimination across the United States. "This is a huge victory for working people with HIV," said Hayley Gorenberg, director of Lambda Legal's AIDS project.

Menard said Cirque du Soleil had since offered Cusick four jobs but he had decided not to return to work for the company. "We do wish him well," she said.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

OSLO (Reuters) - The spread of the deadly HIV virus is a threat to world peace like terrorism, the chief the United Nations AIDS agency said Monday.

Calling AIDS "an earthquake in slow motion," the UNAIDS head also slammed the European Union for failing to cope with the fast-growing epidemic in Eastern Europe as the EU expands.

"Millions of orphans, children with no future -- it's enough that there is a warlord who puts a Kalashnikov in their hands," UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot told Reuters on the sidelines of a speech in Oslo.

"It's as big of a threat as terrorism," he said, referring to massive poverty as a result of AIDS, sparking political unrest which could even lead to cross-border conflicts, as well as a weakening of defense forces in heavily infected countries.

More than half of the military forces in some poor African states are infected with HIV, children have been orphaned, many schools have no teachers and companies no staff because of HIV and AIDS, he said.

AIDS is the number one killer in Africa, the home of at least 70 percent of the world's 40 million HIV-infected people, but the fastest growing epidemic is in Eastern Europe.

The former Soviet bloc has seen a 50-fold increase in HIV infections in the past eight years, to around 1.5 million -- the most dramatic rise in the world.

"The EU has failed in dealing with AIDS at its borders, at its doorsteps, including in some of the new enlargement countries," Piot said.

When Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, along with Malta and Cyprus, formally join the EU from May 1, they will raise its population to 450 million from 380 million.

Speaking at a seminar organized by the Red Cross in non-EU Norway, Piot also called on the EU to designate one commission to manage the fight against AIDS, saying there was so far no clear definition of responsibility within the Union.

"Some of the enlargement countries have done very well, like Poland, but the Baltic states have big problems," Piot said.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Despite grim facts about the spread of AIDS last year, a leader of a global AIDS program said there is hope, pointing out that most nations list the virus on political agendas, bringing resources that could turn the tide of the deadly pandemic.

Dr. Peter Piot, the Belgian physician who heads UNAIDS, the AIDS program run by the United Nations and the World Bank, said there is great opportunity when it comes to AIDS.

He said nations have come to realize that AIDS is a security issue, not just a medical problem among marginalized people.

"It's become clear to me that this is a problem with a solution, that this is something that can be stopped, that it's not hopeless," Dr. Piot said Friday at the opening of a Brown University symposium on the virus.

The weekend series of lectures and panels also features Stephen Lewis, the U.N. envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; Ira Magaziner, of the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS program; and Dr. Suniti Solomon, the microbiologist who diagnosed the first case of HIV in India, in 1986.

Magaziner was to deliver the keynote address on Saturday. He was expected to describe ways in which the Clinton Foundation is helping developing countries set up systematic changes to improve their health care infrastructure and provide a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention and treatment.

Piot's message of hope Friday was interspersed with grim statistics, reported The Providence Journal. Despite all that is known about preventing AIDS, every Western nation saw an increase in HIV infections last year, he said.

Last year, 5 million people became infected. That's a failure of prevention," he said. "Last year 3 million people died of AIDS, more than ever before. That's a failure of providing treatment."

Meanwhile AIDS is spreading rapidly in Asia. In China, the number of new infections is increasing by 30 percent each year.

"We are still in the early phases of the epidemic," Piot said. "We're also in the early stages of the full impact of AIDS on society."

Still, a watershed moment came in 2000, when the U.N. Security Council met to discuss AIDS. Once that happened, many heads of state saw the epidemic as important for the first time, even though some already had millions of infected people in their countries. A second watershed was President Bush's pledge of support for the fight against global AIDS in his state of the union address last year.

Today, Piot said, "When global leaders meet, AIDS is on the agenda."