Oukouk Buddy

A Thai blog reported that Thai university students, office women and highschool girls use social network website such as www.hi5.com to sell their bodies on Internet. A method of broadcasting is that they create profile of themselve, post picture and the cost. Not just women, men also use Hi5 to sell their bodies, too.

An office worker, Nong Fah, 21 years old, 32-24-35, 167cm, 50Kg charged 1,500 a fling. Miss Ladda Tangsuphachai from the Mistry of Culture said that they had found more than 1,000 girls selling sex on the Internet, and the average price were between 1,500-3000 baht depending on lenghth of time and servicing.

Read orginal post at Thai Blog

By The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia is considering opening the famed Angkor Wat temples at night to draw more tourists to the impoverished country, an official at the archeological site said.

Similar night tourism efforts have been introduced at other sites in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia already has installed some lights at the network of centuries-old temples, said Bun Narith, who leads the agency responsible for managing the Angkor park.

Tourism is a major foreign currency earner for cash-strapped Cambodia. More than a million foreign tourists are expected to visit this year, with most from South Korea, Japan and the United States. More than half of tourists visit the Angkor temples, by far the country’s biggest draw.

Visitors are now ushered out of Angkor at sunset, but authorities are considering extending visiting hours to as late as 8:30 p.m. local time.

“We want tourists to see all views of the temple, even in the dark places where they may have not have seen some of the sculptures and statues,” Bun Narith said.

But conservationists have long expressed concerns about tourism’s impact on Angkor. They say the uncontrolled pumping of underground water to meet the rising demand of hotels and residents in the nearby town of Siem Reap may be destabilizing the earth beneath the temples.

PHNOM PENH, May 22 (Xinhua) — Cambodian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) here on Friday issued a joint statement claiming there is no confirmed cases of Influenza A/H1N1in Cambodia.

“The ministry of Health would like to advise that as of May 22 2009, no cases of Influenza A/H1N1 virus have been confirmed in the country,” the statement said.

Cambodian Health Ministry received an urgent letter Wednesday from South Korean Embassy warning that three Cambodian- Americans were on the same flight from the United States to South Korea with a passenger who was later confirmed to have Influenza A/H1N1. The three individuals subsequently flew on a separate flight to Phnom Penh on Sunday.

At the time of their arrival to Cambodia, the three passengers did not display influenza symptoms, according to the statement. The ministry officials are now seeking to locate these passengers to assess their well-being and to offer them testing.

“The Ministry of Health is working closely with all relevant authorities to continue to monitor the situation closely,” it added.

The ministry also strongly advised people who has traveled from an affected area in the past seven days and has developed fever …to contact with the ministry.

Source from english.sina.com

A US biotechnology company has been giving details of a vaccine against Aids, which it hopes could be available by 2005, to delegates attending the International Aids Conference in Barcelona.

The head of VaxGen, Donald Francis, said the vaccine worked on chimpanzees and he was optimistic about the results of trials on humans, due to be published next year.

VaxGen’s vaccine will be part of the biggest-ever HIV vaccine trial due to begin later this year in Thailand with the involvement of 16,000 people.

Reports of scientific progress were accompanied by warnings that rich nations needed to spend more to help bring the epidemic under control.

Malaysian activist Irene Fernandez told the conference that North American and European countries were not meeting their targets for foreign aid set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

If they did, she said, there would be enough money to fund Aids-prevention programmes.

The six-day conference is organised by the United Nations agency UNAids and is being attended by 15,000 delegates.

Licence conditions

In the Thai trial, VaxGen’s product will be tested in combination with another vaccine, designed to produce a different type of immune response. Scientists hope this will result in a higher level of protection than either vaccine would induce on its own.

But VaxGen is optimistic that its product will also work as a sole vaccine.

“I think we will get protection [from the virus], but I don’t know what level we’ll get,” Mr Francis said.

“If all goes well, [the vaccine] could be available by the end of 2004 or early 2005.”

Campaigners have given a cautious welcome to VaxGen’s announcement, but say it is necessary to wait for the analysis of clinical trials.

BBC health correspondent Chris Hogg says that 21 years after the fight against Aids began, only eight vaccines are currently being tested on humans to any significant degree.

Most of these are still in the early stages. VaxGen is the only company testing its products on humans in an end-stage trial.

To be granted a licence, however, it will have to show the vaccine is effective in at least one-third of patients.
Immunisation hopes

Jose Esparza, co-ordinator of the UNAids HIV vaccine initiative in Geneva, said VaxGen’s announcement was “premature”, although he praised the company’s commitment to developing a vaccine.

“If the vaccine is effective then we will have a cause for celebration, but even then it will not be the end of the epidemic,” he said.

The umbrella body promoting research, the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), warned that preparations needed to begin now for the distribution of a successful vaccine to the countries most in need.

Most importantly, it eould have to be made affordable.

IAVI president Dr Seth Berkley told the BBC that vaccination would initially be targeted at high-risk groups such as intravenous drug users and commercial sex workers.

But he said it was hoped one day that a vaccine would be available for everyone.

“We would hope to use it as part of immunisation for every child so we can put an end to this terrible disease.”

Blocking out HIV

The conference also heard about a drug which tests have shown cuts the levels of HIV in patients by stopping it entering blood cells.

The injectable T-20 drug, made by Roche Holding AG of Switzerland and US biotech firm Trimeris Inc is due to go on to the market early next year.

It is said to offer hope to patients with serious drug resistance problems.

Existing treatments attack HIV only after it has entered cells.

A study presented to the conference showed three quarters of gay and bisexual men in US cities who were infected with HIV did not know they had the virus.

Source from BBC News