Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi told a conference of African leaders Saturday that "straight" Africans have no need to fear AIDS. Spoken through a translator, Gadhafi's reference to AIDS only affecting homosexuals drew some laughter. "All you have to do is observe the rules. If you are straight, you have nothing to fear from AIDS," said Gadhafi during the closing session of the eight-day annual African Union conference. In his address to 40 African heads of state, Gadhafi also said that mosquitoes and tsetse flies, which carry malaria and sleeping sickness, were "God's armies" protecting the continent from its enemies -- apparently foreigners. Each year, malaria kills 5 million Africans, and sleeping sickness kills more than 25,000. AIDS has already claimed the lives of more than 17 million people in sub-Saharan African and is the leading cause of death among South African women. More than 11 million African children have lost at least one parent to the pandemic.

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