It’s stunning to read that in San Francisco, gay men are open targets for hate:

A video made by three cousins from Hayward charged with an alleged anti-gay shooting with a BB rifle last month in San Francisco shows 11 other attacks in a single night, authorities said Friday.

The men have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle Feb. 26 at the face of a man they believed was gay. The man, who was walking on 16th Street near Guerrero Street, was not badly hurt and later identified the three suspects.

The three were freed on $50,000 bail soon after their arrest. But on Friday, Mohammad Habibzada, Shafiq Hashemi and Sayed Bassam, all 24, appeared in court and were immediately rearrested. They were all being held late Friday on $450,000 bail.

They were returned to custody after prosecutors viewed a video that police found in the three men’s car when they were arrested.

Brian Buckelew, spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, said the video showed the 16th Street attack and BB rifle shootings aimed at 11 other men. Police say the video depicts the suspects laughing as they fire.

Investigators say they have been unable to find any of the additional alleged victims. Still, Buckelew said prosecutors may file additional charges against each of the three defendants.

The defendants’ attorneys would not comment outside court Friday. The defendants, who have not entered pleas, are scheduled to return to court April 8.

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Here is the Monday, January 4th, 2010 edition of what’s making news and interesting reads from around the world. Also please note that off to the left there are two widgets with updates on news from Asia and the world in a separate page: Around Asia & Around the World New Feeds.

Japanese PM Hatoyama Wants a More Equal Relationship with the US
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan said Monday he wants to press for more equal ties with the United States. In a televised speech on New Year’s Day, PM Hatoyama said it is important “for both sides to be able to firmly say what needs to be said, and increase the relationship of trust.”

Hatoyama also reiterated his determination to find a mutually acceptable solution to a row with the United States over the relocation of a U.S. Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa within the space of several months. Not only are Okinawans opposed to a plan to move the Futenma base to a different part of the island, but the tiny pacifist Social Democratic Party has threatened to leave Hatoyama’s ruling coalition if the plan goes ahead unchanged. More from Agence France Presse.

Abbas Visits Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh
The President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas will visit with Egyptian Hosni Murbarak on Monday in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on the tip of the Sinai peninsula. It is expected that President Mubarak will encourage the Palestinian leader to restart peace talks with Israel. On Sunday, the Qatar-based news network Al-Jazeera reported that Obama’s administration supported Egypt’s vision for a Middle East peace plan that would include a complete halt of construction in West Bank settlements as well as the release of senior Palestinian officials from Israeli prisons. More this part of story in Haaretz.

The other relevant development is that Egypt and Saudi Arabia have quietly working behind the scenes to effect a reconciliation between the Hamas and Fatah. Hamas and Fatah have been feuding since March 2007 when Hamas took over control of the Gaza Strip. More on the joint Egyptian-Saudi diplomatic effort from Al Jazeera.

Gordon Brown Bets £100 Billion on Wind
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will launch a £100 billion green power revolution when he awards a raft of development contracts to build a new generation of offshore wind farms. The hope is to provide at least a third of the UK’s energy from wind power by 2020. The plan is also critical component of Brown’s plan to cut British carbon emissions. The full story in the Times of London.

US Lifts HIV Travel Ban
The US has lifted a 22-year immigration ban which has stopped anyone with HIV/Aids from entering the country. President Obama had said when he announced the lifting of the ban that such a restriction was not compatible with US plans to be a leader in the fight against the disease. The new rules come into force on Monday and the US plans to host a bi-annual global HIV/Aids summit for the first time in 2012. More from the BBC.

South Korean Firms Win UAE Nuclear Deal
Nuclear Power Daily reports that South Korea won a landmark deal to build four nuclear reactors in the United Arab Emirates. A South Korea-led consortium beat U.S. and French rivals and clinched a $40 billion deal to build and operate four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, in one of the world’s biggest nuclear power contracts, Seoul’s energy and industry ministry said Monday. The deal marks South Korea’s first export of a nuclear power plant and its single largest overseas construction project in terms of value, it said. With the deal, South Korea becomes the world’s sixth exporter of nuclear power plants.

Angola’s State Oil Company Wins Rights to Develop Two Iraqi Oil Fields
Energy Daily reported that Angola’s state oil company, Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola (Sonangol), had won the rights to develop the Qayara and Najmah fields, which between them contain an estimated 1.66 billion barrels of oil, in Nineveh province. The agreement is a 20-year deal.

It’s a remarkable development when you think of it. Previously, most oil development projects were the province of major oil companies in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Italy but now Angola, which recently became Africa’s largest oil produce,r is making a bid to become a global player in the energy field. Sonangol is a parastatal firm. Sonangol said the move to drill abroad was part of a strategy to bolster Angola’s global image. The oil company is also eyeing exploration opportunities in Brazil, Ecuador and the tiny African island state of São Tomé and Príncipe.

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The Chilean presidential campaign is in full gear pitting the conservative Sebastián Piñera who polled 44.05 percent of the vote in the first round against Eduardo Frei, a Christian Democrat that forms part of the governing left of center La Concertación por la Democracia alliance, who polled just 29.6 percent in the first round given a split in the alliance that saw a Socialist candidate, Marco Enríquez Ominami, take 20.13 percent. Jorge Arrate, the candidate of the Chilean Communist Party (PCC), trailed with 6.21 percent.

Frei, a former President and the son of a President, now has the task re-uniting his electoral coalition that is composed of his economically left but socially conservative Christian Democratic party (DC), the Socialist party (PS), the Partido Radical Social Demócrata (PRSD) and the Partido por la Democracia (PPD). Frei is clearly trying wrap himself up as the historic heir to the center-left alliance that has governed Chile since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.

This first ad is entitled Vamos a Vivir Mejor or “We Are Going to Live Better.” In the ad, the four presidents – Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), Eduardo Frei (1994-2000), Ricardo Lagos (2000-2005) and Michelle Bachelet (2005-2010) that have ruled Chile appear together to reinforce that message of continuity. The ad runs as “We are going to keep on growing, we are going to live better, we know that we stick together we are going to live better, today I reflect on everything that we have built as of now, it has been during these years that I learned that I could advance, and looking back we remember the path we have traveled, today I will again follow my heart.”

This second ad, what spurred me to write this post, is simply remarkable. I had to do a double take and ask myself this is Chile we are talking about? Chile is a modern country and was just earlier this month invited to become the 31st member of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, a grouping of the world’s most industrially advanced countries. Chile thus becomes the first member from South America and the second from Latin America (México is the other). But Chile has long been a rather socially conservative country even by South American standards. Issues like divorce (only legalized in 2004), abortion and sexual orientation have long been taboo. Santiago is a very pleasant city but a vibrant nightlife akin to other large cities in South America it does not boast. So this ad is from the Frei campaign is surprising and a measure of perhaps that change is indeed coming to once sleepy Chile. It needs no translation really.

Again the ad features the Frei campaign motto as in the above ad Vamos a vivir mejor, “we are going to live better.” After the kiss by the lesbian couple, the line is simply “we all deserve the same rights.”

But nothing could prepare me for this next ad, a web only spot. The ad is from the Sebastián Piñera campaign, the billionaire conservative who is making his second consecutive attempt to win the presidency and the former head of the right wing Renovación Nacional party. The spot is entitled La Voz de los sin Voz, or the “voice of the voiceless.” The ad runs five minutes but at the 40 second mark Piñera who speaks in the ad is shown next to a gay couple holding hands saying “today people accepts us, now we need the country to respect us.” Piñera is pledging to support civil unions for same-sex couples and to allow gay Chileans to serve in the military. But I will also note that Rolando Jiménez of the Movimiento de Liberación Homosexual (Movilh), or the Homosexual Liberation Movement, while applauding the inclusion of gay men in the Piñera campaign also found that Piñera has yet to articulate a specific plan on how he will structure gay civil unions. If you read Spanish, here is more background.

Piñera’s campaign slogan is Bienvenido el cambio, or “welcome change.”

Both campaigns are also making use of social media using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to get their message out.

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In Jamaica, anti-sodomy laws are still punishable for up to 12 years in prison. And society is not ready to tolerate openly gay lifestyles. Correspondent Lisa Biagiotti, producer Micah Fink and director of photography Gabrielle Weiss report on the dark side of Jamaica’s anti-gay violence and attitudes and explore the ideological beliefs that perpetuate a culture of homophobia.

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An experimental vaccine being tested in Thailand has shown signs of protecting people from infection by the virus that causes AIDS.

US military and Thai health officials announced in Bangkok that for the first time ever, an experimental vaccine prevented infection from the HIV virus. Thai authorities say the treatment given to healthy volunteers cut the number of expected HIV infections by almost a third.

“It is found that the vaccine has 31.2 per cent efficacy in reducing the risk of HIV infection,” Withaya Kaewparadai, the Thai health minister, said.

The world’s largest AIDS vaccine trial included more than 16,000 volunteers in Thailand.

It is the first time any HIV vaccine has even partially succeeded in a clinical trial.

Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV. Scientists say the study used strains of HIV common in Thailand. Whether such a vaccine would work against strains in the US or Africa is unknown.

Al Jazeera’s Aela Callan reports from Bangkok.

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Jamaica may be on the very of losing its battle against the AIDS epidemic because of deeply entrenched anti-gay attitudes and laws.

Correspondent Lisa Biagiotti, producer Micah Fink and director of photographer Gabrielle Weiss report from the front lines of Jamaicas battle against HIV and AIDS, a war waged in the shadows.

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Indian gay rights activists have heralded a landmark court decision that has legalised homosexual sex.

But the decision, a milestone in a decades-long battle for acceptance by the India’s gay community, has angered religious leaders, some of whom are calling for the ruling to be repealed.

Al Jazeera’s Prerna Suri met one gay man celebrating the move towards equality.

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Yemeni government forces have been fighting Houthi loyalists in the country’s north for weeks, vowing to crush them with an “iron fist”.

Ali Abdallah Saleh, the president, now speaks exclusively to Al Jazeera, saying the recent lull in fighting was not a truce and blaming Iran for supporting the rebels. He says the military operations were halted only to allow aid agencies into the area where civilians are caught between the two sides.

Tarek Bazley reports on the conflict which some fear could develop into a regional war.

It should be note that the Houthi are Shia Muslims and live in northern Yemen near the border with Saudi Arabia.

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After the decision of Delhi High Court on Section 377 of Indian Penal Code, a new debate has evolved. Here’s a short overview of the debate over homosexuality now occurring in India.

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Reaction is generally positive except among some of the usual suspects. Two key moments, in my view, he talked about Palestine and broached the subject of American involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran.

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