DENVER (AP) — Federal officials say more signs of “prevention fatigue” are reflected in the latest report on AIDS — a 17 percent increase in new HIV cases among gay men over the past three years.

“HIV is not over in the United States,” said Robert Janssen, director HIV/AIDS prevention division for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The fight is as urgent as it was 20 years ago.”

During 1999-2002, the CDC reported 18,843 men with new diagnoses of the virus that causes AIDS, an increase of 7.3 percent over the previous three-year period.

The CDC said the infection rate among heterosexuals and intravenous drug users did not change significantly. But the increase in HIV among gay men was worrisome.

Earlier this year, the agency launched a campaign repeating the safe sex message of condom use and discouraging needle-sharing. And, officials urged people at risk to be tested for HIV.

“To some extent, there is some prevention fatigue,” Janssen said. “It’s driven by a sense that HIV has become a chronic and treatable disease.”

Among ethnic groups, Hispanics showed the largest increase of HIV cases at 26 percent, while HIV among whites increased by eight percent.

Officials reported no significant increase in HIV infection among blacks or Asian-Americans. However, blacks continue to account 55 percent of all new HIV cases, even if their rate of infection has not increased.

Janssen said that while HIV remains primarily a black and Latino infection in the United States, the data shows lifestyle is more an issue than ethnicity.

The numbers came from 29 states participating in the analysis, but they did not include many of the largest states, including California, New York and Texas among others. Officials said more states gradually will be included in subsequent reports.

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — A third man was charged in the beating of a gay couple at a Greek restaurant in what police are calling a hate crime.

Michael Kitsos, 21, of Tarpon Springs turned himself in to police. Kitsos, along with John A. Himonetos, 21, and Stamatios N. Kannis, 22, punched and kicked two men as they tried to leave Zorbas Restaurant and Lounge with friends, police said

Peter Malamoutsis, 22, and R. Gregory Hall, 31, both of Bartow, were with a group of about 10 friends when Malamoutsis was approached by Himonetos, whom he knew. When the group started to leave, they were attacked in the parking lot, where they were called a derogatory name and told not to come back to Tarpon Springs, police said.

Police said the attackers hurled insults in both Greek and English.

Mary Klimis Coburn, attorney for Kitsos and Kannis, wrote in a statement that the two men did “not hate anyone.”

“This case has been overcharged and now sensationalized by the media,” she said.

Kitsos was being held at Pinellas County Jail on $70,000 bail on three counts of battery and two counts of aggravated battery.

Himonetos and Kannis were being held on $41,500 bail and each on two counts of felony aggravated battery and three counts of misdemeanor battery.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — The national gay fraternity Delta Lambda Phi has established a colony at Syracuse University, inducting eight students from the university and the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

After three more pledge classes are inducted, the colony becomes eligible to be a nationally chartered chapter. The fraternity has one other colony in New York state, a community-based group in New York City that draws from New York University but isn’t affiliated with any campus, said James Kaechele, the Syracuse colony president.

Paul Mercurio, the group’s mentor and a graduate student at the forestry school, said they have received an open reception at the university.

Joseph Oravecz, associate dean of students, told The Post-Standard that one of his staff members has been assigned to help the members through the colonization and chapter recognition process.

The fraternity was founded nationally Oct. 15, 1986, in Washington, D.C., and calls itself the only national gay fraternity. The fraternity’s mission is to enhance “the quality of life among gay, bisexual and progressive men by providing dignified and purposeful social, service and recreational activities,” its Web site says. It lists 18 chapters nationwide and nine colonies.

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A former correctional officer who alleges he was falsely accused of being gay and forced to leave his job has filed a $9 million lawsuit against the state of Tennessee and his former colleagues.

Alfred Roberts of Mountain City filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greeneville.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit are Howard Carlton, warden of the Northeast Correctional Complex; officers David Black, Eric Cunningham, Carl Hatley and Roger Bailey, and the state of Tennessee.

Roberts started work at the prison in 1999. He claims he was harassed and assaulted by the four officers based upon a false belief that he’s gay.

Roberts alleges that he suffered a work-related injury in 2001, including broken bones, which forced him to walk with a limp.

Roberts returned to work and was placed on light duty in September 2001. Three months later, he was transferred to the central control desk due to his physical limitations.

In January 2002, Roberts said the four officers began to harass him and said he was gay. He said the four men also started a rumor that he was planning to undergo a sex change operation.

Jennifer Johnson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — An Elkton man pleaded guilty two counts of indecent exposure for his part in sexual activities that police discovered during an investigation at a local adult bookstore.

Carl Herring, 44, originally faced one charge of solicitation to commit sodomy and two misdemeanor charges of indecent exposure. He had faced a trial on the solicitation charge, but instead entered a plea agreement that reduced the felony charge to a third indecent exposure charge.

Circuit Judge John J. McGrath sentenced Herring to 30 days in jail, with 15 days suspended, and fined him $550. Herring also will be placed on one year of supervised probation.

Herring was one of 26 men indicted on charges of sex crimes that police allege occurred at Harrisonburg Adult News. The men face charges of indecent exposure, sodomy and solicitation to commit sodomy.

Herring will be back in court on Jan. 28 to face a remaining charge of indecent exposure, said his lawyer, Danita S. Alt.

Alt said the sting unfairly targeted homosexuals, and that heterosexuals aren’t persecuted for engaging in public sex.

“If you’re going to do it, you do it to get everyone. You don’t single out people because they’re gay and prosecute them for it.”

Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst has said that the police would have cracked down on the activity just as strongly if heterosexuals were having sex in a public place such as a bookstore.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University’s College of Law has established a scholarship for minority students funded by a donation from the family of a gay black man whose murder drew national attention.

The Arthur “J.R.” Warren Social Justice book scholarship will be used to buy law textbooks for minority students “who express and demonstrate, by words and deeds, commitment to social justice for all through the practice of law,” a law school official said.

Warren, 26, of Grant Town, was beaten and then crushed under a Camaro in July 2000 by two teenagers. Both are now serving prison terms for the murder.

Warren’s family donated $10,000 to establish the scholarship. The money came from a settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit the family filed against Warren’s admitted killers, Jared Matthew Wilson and David Allen Parker, a teenage witness who helped conceal evidence and Parker’s father, William, who later filed for bankruptcy.

The total amount of the settlement has not been disclosed.

“We want to see something positive come out of J.R.s murder,” said Warren’s mother, Brenda. “We want to help a law student who wants to make a difference in society.”

John Fisher, dean of the law school, said the Warren family’s gift is “obviously a very singular and touching thing.”

“Most of the donations to our scholarship fund typically come in the form of memorials to lawyers or from their families,” he said. “Here we have a donation from a family whose connection with the law grew out of a tragedy.”