World Scene

Critics tell President Zuma 20 kids too many

South African opposition parties accused President Jacob Zuma yesterday of a cavalier attitude to safe sex that is hurting the HIV/AIDS campaign after news that a woman not one of his wives had had his 20th child.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said Zuma, 68, was sending the wrong message to South Africans, among the world's worst sufferers from HIV/AIDS.

"There are some people who may argue that Jacob Zuma's sex life is a matter of private morality or 'culture', but this is not so. His personal behaviour has profound public consequences," DA leader Helen Zille said in a statement.

At least 5.7 million South Africans are infected with HIV and AIDS kills an estimated 1,000 people a day.

The African Christian Democratic Party said Zuma was undermining the government's drive to persuade people to practice safe sex. "(H)is conduct undermines his own government's message on HIV/AIDS, because they are talking about safe sex and the president is continuing without using condoms," said ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe.

A source close to Zuma said that the president, a traditionalist who practices polygamy and has three wives, had acknowledged in a legal document being the father of a child with Sonono Khoza, 39.

Britain wants to cut number of smokers by half

The government launched plans yesterday to halve the number of smokers in Britain by the end of the decade and said it would consider removing branding from cigarette packets and banning cigarette vending machines.

At the moment, 21 percent of the population smoke and ministers want to reduce that figure to 10 percent by 2020, with a particular focus on young people.

"We've come so far and now we'll go even further," said Health Secretary Andy Burnham.

"One day, in the not too distant future, we'll look back and find it hard to remember why anyone ever smoked in the first place."

Reuters

(China Daily 02/02/2010 page10)