World News

France Prime Minister Orders Far-right Group Dissolved After Student's Murder

Clement Meric

By Brody Levesque & Mark Singer | PARIS -- French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault Saturday ordered his interior minister, Manuel Valls, to take steps "immediately" to ban the Revolutionary Nationalist Youth. The group was linked to the death of 18-year-old Clement Meric, a gay rights activist and a student at the prestigious Sciences-Po university, was killed by members of JNR in the heart of Paris’ shopping district last week.

A French Interior Ministry official told LGBTQ Nation Monday that the JNR is the militant wing of a far-right group called the Third Way. The spokesman for Interior Minister Manuel Valls acknowledged that JNR's leader, Serge Ayoub, had been questioned by Parisian police however is not considered a suspect. Ayoub denied the group had anything to do with Meric's murder again on Saturday.

Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, told LGBTQ Nation Monday that five people detained over the death went before a judge on Saturday and the main suspect, named Esteban, was being investigated on suspicion of murder. The five suspects are aged between 19 and 32 and include one woman.

Several of the suspects are known to have links to far-right groups, Thibault-Lecuivre said, adding that Esteban, suspected of having dealt the fatal blow, told investigators he did not intend to kill. She added that the suspect, who is in his 20s, is a known skinhead.

IRELAND

Irish Health Service Warns There Is 4 Times Greater Risk Of HIV Infection Among 25-34 Age Males

Tiernan Brady via Facebook

By Mark Singer | DUBLIN -- Figures released Friday by the government run Irish Health Service Executive's (HSE) Health Protection Surveillance Centre showed a four times average increase in new HIV diagnoses among young gay and bisexual men between the ages of 25 and 34.

Director of Gay HIV Strategies at the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) of Ireland, Tiernan Brady, in an interview with LGBTQ Nation Monday insisted that raising awareness and promoting testing among gay and bisexual men can lead to a reduction in infection rates.

"For a new generation of young gay and bisexual men, the risk of contracting HIV has grown significantly," Brady said. 

"Between 2005 and 2012 there has been a four-fold increase in the number of new diagnoses among those aged between 25-34 years. 

There is a critical need to educate young gay and bisexual men about good sexual health and about HIV and how they can protect themselves from contracting the condition." 

Brady said that in his opinion HIV is a preventable condition and his organisation's goal is to eventually achieve zero infections.

The new figures released showed there were 166 newly diagnosed cases of HIV among gay and bisexual men in 2012. The HSE figures also showed that diagnosis rates increased by 160-percent between 2005 and 2012. This represents 48-percent of all new HIV diagnoses. The age group most at risk of HIV is also getting younger, with the average age of those contracting the virus falling to 32 in 2012.

"Implementation of sexual health education and HIV prevention strategies and campaigns targeting groups which are most at risk are critical in effectively responding to the ongoing high levels of HIV diagnosis among gay and bisexual men," Brady said and added; 

"Such campaigns, working in conjunction with wider strategies addressing the need for testing and tackling the discrimination and stigma which is experienced by people living with HIV would represent an effective focusing and marshaling of the available resources."