Celebrities leading tattoo demand

The social stigma attached to a tattoo is disappearing, say the organisers of a major convention.
As celebrities like David Beckham show off their body art, the popularity of the once-maligned tattoo increases. The Tattoo Jam, organised by Skin Deep magazine at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, brings together about 150 tattooists from more than 20 different countries. Skin Deep editor Neil Dalleywater said celebrity culture played a part in the increased demand for tattoos. "You do tend to see a lot more ink on pop stars and film stars in the media," he said.
"The social stigma of tattoos is breaking down although you still come across it in places but it's becoming far more socially acceptable. Several Welsh tattooists are taking part in the three-day convention alongside others from as far afield as New Zealand and Singapore. "The number of studios in Wales is phenomenal for the size of the country," said Mr Dalleywater.

US HIV rate 'higher than thought'

The number of Americans infected with the HIV virus each year is much higher than current government estimates, US health officials have said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 56,000 people had become infected with the virus that causes Aids in 2006. That is substantially more than the earlier annual estimate of 40,000. However, the CDC said the rise was due to improved detection methods, rather than an increase in infections. For the first time, new blood tests can tell how recently an HIV infection occurred, allowing researchers to pinpoint the year it happened. The increase is also thought to be due to new statistical methodsThe CDC's Richard Wolitski said the 2006 incidence estimate "reveals that the epidemic is, and has been, worse than previously estimated". The group added that the annual number of new infections was never as low as 40,000, and that it has been roughly stable since the late 1990s. The CDC described the findings as a "wake-up call that the US HIV/Aids epidemic is far from over". "The new estimates underscore the need to expand access to HIV prevention to gay and bisexual men, especially younger men, and to expand access to African-American men and women as well," Dr Wolitski added. The executive director of the National Alliance of State and Territorial Aids Directors, Julie Scofield, told the Associated Press news agency: "This is the biggest news for public health and HIV/Aids that we've had in a while." The revised estimated and the methodology behind it are due to be presented at the opening of an international Aids conference in Mexico City on Sunday. Ahead of the meeting, thousands of activists marched through the city to protest at discrimination against people with HIV.

Freedom to travel in China

As international journalists jet in to Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games, Hugh Sykes takes a rather slower route on the overnight train from the west of China.

"What time is it?""Twelve o'clock." "Beijing time or Xinjiang time?" You hear that a lot in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the far west of China, near Pakistan and Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. A long way west, in other words, but officially, it is the same time zone as Beijing in the far east, near North Korea. Imagine the US having the same time zone right across the country, from Miami to Los Angeles. But in hotels and offices in Xinjiang there are sometimes two clocks, because Xinjiang does have its own unofficial time zone, two hours behind Beijing.
This makes sense, it means it gets dark at 2030 not 2230 at this time of year, and light at 0600 not 0800. But it is confusing. "What time is the flight to Urumqi?" "One o'clock." "Beijing time or Xinjiang time?" "Beijing time, of course. Planes and trains stick to Beijing time but buses run on Xinjiang time." "What time do you start school in the morning? "Eight o'clock." "Beijing time or Xinjiang time?" "That depends. If it is a Han Chinese school, it is 0800 Beijing time. If it is a Uighur school, it is 0800 Xinjiang time, which is two hours later. And if it is a mixed school, they stick to Beijing time."