■ MEXICO. Sex workers want place at AIDS conference

A global AIDS conference that opened in Mexico City yesterday is meant for people infected with HIV, but transsexual sex worker Elma Delea cannot get inside. She will be protesting on the fringes of the six-day biennial event.

?They (Mexican health authorities) said they had no money for everyone who wanted scholarships. We are very angry,? said Elma Delea, as she stood at the junction of Calle de Alfredo Chavero and Calzada San Antonio Abad, a stretch of road where transsexuals wait all night to be picked up by customers in passing cars.

Some 25,000 people are expected at the event, which draws scientists, international agencies, government officials, non-government organizations and the media.

But people most at risk of the disease, such as sex workers, homosexuals and intravenous drug users, are least visible. Most are poor and cannot afford registration fees. ?The conference is a place to exchange opinion but now, only those in power have a say,? said Elvira Madrid, an activist working for the rights of sex workers in Mexico City.

The AIDS virus infects 33 million people globally, 1.7 million in Latin America. In Mexico, $23 million was spent on keeping blood safe in 2005 and $5 million on prevention and care among men who have sex with men, but less than $1 million on sex workers.

Prostitution is illegal in Mexico but widely tolerated everywhere from grimy street corners to swanky brothels. Police can easily be bribed to turn a blind eye to sex workers.

Delea?s group wants to coach women on how they can protect themselves when customers refuse to use condoms.

■ USA. Texas set to defy World Court with execution

Texas is set to defy the World Court and anger Mexico tomorrow by executing a Mexican national who was not informed of his right to consular services after his arrest. Texas, by far America?s most active death penalty state, condemned Jose Medellin for the 1993 rape and murder of 16-year-old Elizabeth Pena in Houston. Another girl was killed in the vicious gang-related assault but Medellin was convicted only of Pena?s murder.

The World Court last month ordered the U.S. government to ?take all measures necessary» to halt the upcoming execution of five Mexicans until it makes a final judgment in a dispute over suspects? rights. Medellin is the first of those scheduled to be put to death and the only one so far with a 2008 execution date, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Alison Castle, a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Rick Perry, emphasized the brutal nature of the crime. «It?s very important for the citizens of Texas to remember that Jose Medellin ... brutally and viciously gang raped, stomped, kicked, slashed, strangled and murdered two teenage girls in Houston,? Castle said. ?The World Court has no jurisdiction here in Texas. We?re concerned about following Texas law and that?s what we?re doing.?

The row, which has strained relations between the United States and Mexico, centers on the fact that the United States failed to inform 51 Mexican citizens sentenced to die in U.S. jails of their right to consular assistance.

■ BARBADOS. World?s smallest snake is as thin as spaghetti

Scientists have identified the world?s smallest snake ? a reptile about 4 inches (10 cm) long and as thin as spaghetti that was found lurking under a rock on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The new species, named Leptotyphlops carlae, is smaller than any of the other 3,100 previously known snake species, according to Pennsylvania State University biologist Blair Hedges, who also had helped find the world?s smallest frog and lizard.

It is one of about 300 different species of threadsnake and is a dark brownish gray with two yellow stripes, Hedges said. It was determined to be a newly identified species due to genetic differences from other snakes and its unique color pattern and scales, he said.

The snake, which is not venomous, eats termites and termite larvae but little is known about its behavior, including whether it is nocturnal, Hedges said. It was found in 2006 in a forest on the eastern side of Barbados.

?It was under a rock. We got two of them,? Hedges said in a phone interview. ?It?s about as wide as a spaghetti noodle.?

The biggest and smallest types of animals often are found living on islands where species over time can fill ecological niches in habitats without competition from other creatures not living in the isolated locations.

The world?s longest snake is the reticulated python, which grows to 33 feet (10 metres) long and lives in Southeast Asia. Snakes have lived since the time of the dinosaurs. The oldest known fossil snakes date from around 100 million years ago. The first snakes ? thought to have evolved from lizards ? actually had very small limbs.