NAPLES, Italy -- Marco L. has a memento of the late summer night when he and two friends were sprayed with gunfire by men on scooters, as the friends chatted near the Gate of San Gennaro in the heart of Naples: a bullet is still lodged near his hip. The ochre walls of the piazza are also scarred, with pockmarks from bullets gone astray. The security grate on the toy store has 80 bullet holes, the owner estimates. "They must have mistaken us for someone else," said Marco, a baby-faced 22-year-old in a red sweatshirt and jeans, who spent 15 days in the hospital. "They fired 12 or 13 shots, and all three of us were hit." He refused to give his full name for fear of retribution. [continues 817 words]
Marco L. has a memento of the late summer night when he and two friends were sprayed with gunfire by men on scooters, as the friends chatted near the Gate of San Gennaro in the heart of Naples. A bullet is still lodged near his hip. The ochre walls of the piazza are also scarred, with pockmarks from bullets gone astray. The security grate on the toy shop has 80 bullets holes, the owner estimates. "They must have mistaken us for someone else," said Marco L., a baby- faced 22-year-old in a red sweatshirt and jeans, who spent 15 days in a hospital. He refused to give his surname for fear of retribution. "They fired 12 or 13 shots and all three of us were hit," he said. [continues 926 words]
GUANGZHOU, China - They consider themselves a family, though they are not related by blood. Like any family, all they want is a place to call home. But for the last four months they have been forced to flee from house to apartment, from neighborhood to neighborhood, evicted from every temporary residence they have managed to rent. The problem is that all seven members of the group are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, and so no landlord in China's most cosmopolitan city (sometimes called Canton) is willing to take their money, no neighborhood willing to welcome them. [continues 1324 words]
KUNMING, China -- Li Bai's body is on the front line of the battle to prevent an explosion of AIDS in China. For the last seven years, the baby-faced 23-year-old with platform sneakers and blond-streaked hair has been using drugs -- a dangerous hobby in a city where an estimated 40 percent of intravenous drug users are now infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. She has long known about AIDS, at least in a general sense. But, she confesses, she has sometimes shared needles when shooting up. She has also sold sex on the street, she admits, and condoms have not always been a priority. Such behaviors put her at extraordinary risk of acquiring H.I.V. and of spreading it. [continues 1848 words]
In Butuo, A Town Of 10,000, As Many As 20 Die Each Year From Overdoses BUTUO, China -- By day, Butuo is an ethnic backwater, where women in long, embroidered blue skirts tote baskets filled with chunks of pork, and men in full-length capes carry bundles of twigs, fuel for indoor fire pits. It is a place populated by China's large but impoverished Yi ethnic minority, where donkey carts wind past simple red mud houses dressed for winter, hanging heavy with chains of red pepper and yellow corn. [continues 681 words]
BUTUO, China - By day, Butuo is an ethnic backwater, where women in long embroidered blue skirts tote baskets filled with chunks of pig, and men in full-length capes carry bundles of twigs, fuel for indoor fire pits. It is a place populated by China's large but impoverished Yi ethnic minority, where donkey carts wind past simple red mud houses dressed for winter, hanging heavy with chains of red pepper and yellow corn. But late at night, scenes of Butuo are drawn with a different palette. Small groups of young men weave past the town's only intersection - pitch black except for an eerie blue glow cast by incongruous advertisements for mobile phones. Visitors are warned not to venture outside. The frigid air is pierced by a cacophony of singing, shouting and arguments until 4 in the morning. [continues 1276 words]
LUOPING, CHINA A worried Dou Zhe rushed into Dr. Wang Yujia's storefront clinic carrying a precious bundle. "He's sick," announced Mr. Dou, unwrapping layers of colorful blankets from his 2-year-old son, a chubby, listless boy in a blue jumpsuit. "He's normally mischievous, but since tonight he's hot. He just wants to sleep -- he won't eat or play." Dr. Wang, a kindly weathered man in a long white coat, determined that the boy had a red throat and a fever of 102. He had a cold, one that would almost certainly pass on its own in a few days. [continues 1769 words]
BEIJING-For the first time, scientists have calculated the devastating toll of cigarette smoking in China and declared the country to be on the verge of a calamitous epidemic of smoking-related disease that could ultimately result in the deaths of 1 in 3 Chinese men. In a country where 70 percent of men smoke, there are now 2,000 smoking-related deaths a day, the researchers said. That will increase to 8,000 a day by the middle of the next century unless public health measures are taken. [continues 1135 words]
