CHICAGO (AP) – President-elect Barack Obama praised the Bush administration’s effort to combat AIDS and pledged to continue to fight the deadly disease when he takes office in January.

Obama discussed AIDS in videotaped remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health held in Washington.

In the video, Obama noted advancements since the first World AIDS Day 20 years ago. Among the accomplishments was Bush’s initiative of giving lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to people in sub-Saharan Africa.

“I salute President Bush for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa and backing it up with funding dedicated to saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease,” Obama said. “And my administration will continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world.”

He also urged people to recommit themselves to addressing AIDS in the United States with a strategy involving prevention, treatment and a focus on at-risk communities. Obama said everyone must help address the disease because “in the end this epidemic can’t be stopped by government alone, and money alone is not the answer either.”

More than one million people in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

STANTON, Mich. (AP) – A man accused of molesting two underaged girls and having unprotected sex with two women who did not know he carries the AIDS virus has pleaded no contest to four felony sex charges.

Thirty-two-year-old Gerald Campbell Jr. of Crystal entered the pleas Dec. 4 in a Stanton courtroom. Crystal is about 45 miles northeast of Grand Rapids.

A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated by the court as such at sentencing.

Campbell pleaded no contest to two counts of AIDS sexual penetration with an uninformed partner and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

He faces up to life in prison when sentenced.

Defense lawyer Dennis Moore declined to comment when contacted at his Edmore office.

NEW YORK (AP) – Sean Penn and Milk, Gus Van Sant’s biopic about gay rights leader Harvey Milk, continued to gain awards momentum Dec. 5, winning best film from the New York Film Critics Circle.

Penn was chosen as best actor for his performance in the lauded film about Milk, the openly gay San Francisco politician who was assassinated in 1978. Josh Brolin won best supporting actor for his performance in the film.

On Tuesday, Penn was chosen as best actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Milk also leads the Broadcast Film Critics Association with eight nominations, tied for the most with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Like their West Coast brethren, the New York critics picked Sally Hawkins for best actress for her performance in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky. Best director went to Leigh.

The New York circle, which last year chose No Country for Old Men as best film, is a group of 33 New York-based critics. Their picks are one of the early film honors in Hollywood’s long awards season, which continues Thursday with nominations for the Golden Globes.

Best supporting actress went to Penelope Cruz for her role in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Jenny Lumet, daughter of Sidney Lumet, won for her screenplay of Rachel Getting Married.

Man on Wire won best documentary, WALL-E won best animated film and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won best foreign film. Anthony Dod Mantle won for his cinematography in Slumdog Millionaire. Courtney Hunt (Frozen River) won for best first film.

The awards ceremony will be held Jan. 5 in New York.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – School officials say the South Carolina high school principal who said he would resign because of a gay club at the school has changed his mind.

Irmo High School principal Eddie Walker had said he would retire in May because his values conflicted with a proposed Gay-Straight Alliance.

Lexington-Richland District 5 spokesman Buddy Price told The State newspaper Thursday that interim superintendent Herbert Berg got a letter from Walker that said he wanted to stay. Price says Walker’s contract will be up for renewal in the spring.

Walker wrote last May that he believed the club would be somewhat sexual in nature and that conflicted with his religious beliefs.

The school board in June refused to ban the club, but did approve guidelines that allow parents to opt their children out of any club.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is launching a new Web site to promote global health initiatives.

Frist says the Web site for the nonprofit organization Hope Through Healing Hands will serve as a resource for people interested in both global and domestic health issues, including ways to prevent child mortality, AIDS and extreme poverty.

First is chairman of the organization that promotes health care as what he calls “a currency for peace.”

Frist was a transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt before being elected to the Senate in 1994. The Republican has said he will make up his mind about whether to run for Tennessee governor early next year.

PROVO, Utah (AP) – Portraits of gay Brigham Young University students taken by a photography major for a class project are back up at the school’s fine arts building after school officials removed the display.

Senior Michael Wiltbank of Eagar, Ariz., photographed students who said they were gay, then paired them with portraits of friends or family members who supported them.

The display debuted with other class projects in the Harris Fine Arts Center on Dec. 1. It was removed on Dec. 5 and the exhibit was rearranged.

BYU spokesman Michael Smart said a miscommunication between administrators in the College of Fine Arts and Communication led to the removal.

“When the action became apparent after the weekend, college administrators reviewed the decision,” Smart said. “Because the project does not violate BYU’s honor code, the project was rehung Tuesday afternoon.”

Wiltbank’s artist statement about the photos said he hoped “this body of work can be a vehicle for tolerance, support, love and change.”

He said he welcomed the restoration of his work.

“I feel great about it,” he said. “It’s admirable of them to do that. While it was frustrating it was taken down, I’m impressed they put it back up.”

BYU is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The school admits gay students who sign the school’s honor code, which prohibits sex outside of marriage.

“One’s stated same-sex gender attraction is not an honor code issue,” Smart said. “Homosexual behavior is a violation of the honor code.”

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – A federal appeals court is denying a request to reconsider a decision that keeps alive a challenge to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that was brought by a former Air Force nurse from Spokane.

Major Margaret Witt was suspended from the Air Force after a military board found she had practiced and declared her homosexuality. She was honorably discharged in October 2007.

The U.S. District Court for Western Washington tossed out a 2006 lawsuit challenging her suspension as a violation of her rights under the Constitution’s “equal protection” clause. She appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – A top evangelical leader has resigned his post following an uproar over a recent interview when he said he supports civil unions for gays.

The National Association of Evangelicals says the Rev. Richard Cizik quit Thursday as the group’s representative in Washington.

The announcement follows Cizik’s Dec. 2 interview on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” program. Cizik said on the show that he backs same-sex civil unions and made other comments that the evangelical group says don’t reflect their values.

Cizik had already made enemies of some evangelical leaders because of his high-profile fight against global warming.

The National Association of Evangelicals is an umbrella group for thousands of churches .