Home HIV Test — No ‘Live’ Counselor

Dan Nainan had never heard of a home test for HIV until a prospective girlfriend insisted that he take one. Apparently, she didn’t trust him.

“I’m not some sleaze bag, but she’s really suspicious,” said Nainan, 31, who works as a comedian. “I’m like, ‘Come on, you’re kidding me.’”

The test became a sticking point in their budding relationship. “I didn’t feel I had anything to be worried about,” Nainan said, “but she didn’t want to proceed.”

He finally gave in and took the test his girlfriend foisted on him, certain he’d test negative. He swabbed his gums — the test works on saliva — put the test swab in a test tube and waited as his girlfriend grilled him about his sexual history.

“It was a bit uncomfortable,” Nainan said.

Ten tense minutes passed as he watched a deep-pink line appear slowly in a tiny window on the testing device. He prayed it wouldn’t be joined by a second line signaling a positive result, and wondered what he’d do if it did emerge.

“I felt like I was taking a pregnancy test,” Nainan said.

Do-it-yourself home testing for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has arrived.

The OraQuick In-Home HIV Test — the only one approved for over-the-counter use by the Food and Drug Administration that captures testing and results in one sitting — hit drug-store shelves two months ago. An earlier HIV home test — called Home Access — required a user to prick a finger with a spring-loaded lancet, collect a drop of blood on a test card, mail it to a lab and call in a week for the results.

“This was actually quite easy and painless,” Nainan said of the OraQuick test. “It’s so much better than what you used to have to do.”

Aimed at those who might have avoided getting tested in the past either out of, fear, stigma, worries over confidentiality or inconvenience, the new home test has been hailed as a breakthrough.

“It’s hard not to be fully enthusiastic about the test,” said Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Everything we do to increase testing has to have some degree of benefit. By identifying and treating people early, we preserve normal life span and excellent health and reduce contagion.”

But the new home test, which sells for about $ 40 and can also be bought online, has generated its share of hand-wringing, too.

“We generally like this thing,” said Dan Tietz, executive director of the research and advocacy group AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, or ACRIA. “It decreases some of the barriers to testing. It kind of puts HIV in front of people, but there’s a bunch of cautions.”

For one, there’s what Tietz called the “freaking out by themselves problem” — for the first time, there’s no live counselor present — not even a voice over the phone — to deliver the results, offer support and make referrals.

Nainan tested negative for HIV, as he expected he would. Despite some sweat as he waited out the 20 minutes staring at the test window, “I really wasn’t nervous,” he said.

But for home-testers less certain of their HIV status, or who receive an unexpected result, the do-it-yourself route could be overwhelming, Tietz said. “I think about a young person with very little experience with the health care system who might pick up this test,” he added.

Tony Martinez, 40, who works in New York’s fashion district, took the home test as an “experiment.” “If I didn’t know I wasn’t HIV positive, the test would be a different ballgame. I put myself back many years ago when I went to a clinic and took the test and was terrified. [The home test] was a lot of steps. I don’t think I would have followed the directions in that [terrified] state. Am I really going to read the manual “What Your Results Mean” if the test is positive? It’s like asking someone to read a drivers’ ed manual after an accident.”

In lieu of an in-person counselor, OraSure Technologies, which makes the OraQuick test that the FDA approved in July — has set up a toll-free 24/7 customer support center with bilingual reps (English-Spanish). They’re not certified counselors but have been trained to answer questions about HIV/AIDS, explain how the test works and what the results mean. They can also hook up callers to counseling and care, using the CDC National Prevention Information Network and the HIV Medicine Association, and can also transfer callers directly to a health care professional or agency, said Ron Ticho, senior vice president for corporate communications at OraSure.

“Our representatives go through more than 160 hours of training,” Ticho said. Test kits come with instructions, warnings and precautions. Home-testers can find the same test information on OraSure’s website, along with the same referral databases the call center uses.

But handing concerns about HIV over to a toll-free number has raised questions.

Much is made of the fact that without a counselor present, even with warnings on the box and inserts and brochures written for a seventh- to eighth-grade reading level, home-testers might not understand that, as with all HIV tests, regardless of the testing method, a positive result is preliminary and needs to be confirmed by a more specific test given at an HIV test site.

This is especially worrying with the home test because although the OraQuick test is the same rapid test that medical professionals have used at testing sites since 2004, it loses some of its accuracy in the hands of consumers: The percentage of results that will be accurately positive drops from 99.3 at a testing site to 92.9 when do-it yourselvers test themselves at home: This means that about one person in 12 could get a false negative.

Another stumbling block is the “window period” — the time it takes, usually 12 weeks, for the body to develop the antibodies the test detects after exposure to HIV, giving some people a “false sense of safety” that they’re HIV negative when they are in fact HIV positive and at their most contagious.

“That’s always a huge, really important piece of counseling,” said Barbara Adler, manager of HIV counseling and testing at the AIDS Alliance Project at the University of California at San Francisco, where the first HIV test was given 27 years ago.

But, Adler said, sometimes people who received a preliminary positive result didn’t return for the results from the confirming test.

“So I don’t know if sitting with another human being when they’re getting a result is going to help that. I think the person who wants the physical presence of someone else probably won’t do the home test.

“There’s reasons, though, for wanting to test alone in your home. While the stigma is not like it was 30 years ago,” Adler said, “it’s still there and can be heavy. It’s a disease around sex, or around needle use. Who wants to talk about those things? It’s not like we’re talking about cholesterol, or something you got because you ate certain foods or got too much sun.”

OraSure emphasizes that its HIV home test is simply an additional option to the testing already available — which often comes free — at public health clinics, community service organizations and doctors’ offices.

“We know that there’s a lot of individuals who should be getting tested but aren’t, and this is another opportunity for them to do so,” OraSure’s Ticho said. “Is it the right option for everyone? Probably not.”

Nevertheless, with an HIV diagnosis no longer sounding a death knell, it could be a test whose time has come.

“The tide has really turned on HIV testing,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, co-director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center and an AIDS researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“It’s a lot more streamlined, and there’s not a lot of counseling required now. Treatment is available, and there’s a lot of literature that says that life expectancy is up to near normal if people engage in care early and take care of themselves.

“There are cancers, and many, many other diseases that have far worse outcomes than HIV that people deal with on their own without a lot of counseling.”

Of the 1.2 million Americans living with HIV in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 percent don’t even know that they’re infected and account for more than half of the 50,000 new infections a year in the United States.

Whether people most at risk — African-American gay-bisexual men, especially those between the ages of 13 and 24, according to the CDC — will have the money and motivation to go to the drug store and pay $ 40 for the home test is another question, Walensky said.

Even if they have the $ 40 to spend on an HIV home test, many won’t be able to buy it anyway, because the OraQuick home test cannot be sold to anyone younger than 17, and requires ID.

“Any availability of any test anywhere is a good thing,” Walensky said. “Whether this is going to be an epidemic game-changer is where I have to opt out.”

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Classes resume in Newtown

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — With security stepped up and families still on edge in Newtown, schools are opening for the first time since last week's massacre, bringing a return of familiar routines — at least, for some — to a grief-stricken town as it buries 20 of its children.

Two 6-year-old boys were laid to rest Monday in the first of a long, almost unbearable procession of funerals. A total of 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S history.

While classes resume Tuesday for Newtown schools except those at Sandy Hook, some parents were likely to keep their children at home anyway. Local police and school officials have been discussing how and where to increase security, and state police said they would be on alert for threats and hoaxes.

Suzy DeYoung said her 15-year-old son is going back to the high school.

"I think he wants to go back," she said. "If he told me he wants to stay home, I'd let him stay home. I think going back to a routine is a good idea; at least that's what I hear from professionals."

On Monday, Newtown held the first two funerals of many the picturesque New England community of 27,000 people will face over the next few days, just as other towns are getting ready for the holidays. At least one funeral is planned for a student — 6-year-old Jessica Rekos — as well as several wakes, including one for teacher Victoria Soto, who has been hailed as a hero for sacrificing herself to save several students.

Two funeral homes filled Monday with mourners for Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both 6 years old. A rabbi presided at Noah's service, and in keeping with Jewish tradition, the boy was laid to rest in a simple brown wooden casket with a Star of David on it.

"I will miss your perpetual smile, the twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that would be the envy of any lady in this room," Noah's mother, Veronique Pozner, said at the service, according to remarks the family provided to The Associated Press. Both services were closed to the news media.

"Most of all, I will miss your visions of your future," she said. "You wanted to be a doctor, a soldier, a taco factory manager. It was your favorite food, and no doubt you wanted to ensure that the world kept producing tacos."

She closed by saying: "Momma loves you, little man."

Noah's twin, Arielle, who was assigned to a different classroom, survived the killing frenzy.

At Jack Pinto's Christian service, hymns rang out from inside the funeral home, where the boy lay in an open casket. Jack was among the youngest members of a youth wrestling association in Newtown, and dozens of little boys turned up at the service in gray Newtown Wrestling T-shirts.

Jack was a fan of New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz and was laid to rest in a Cruz jersey.

Authorities say the man who killed the two boys and their classmates, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot his mother, Nancy, at their home and then took her car and some of her guns to the school, where he broke in and opened fire. A Connecticut official said the mother, a gun enthusiast who practiced at shooting ranges, was found dead in her pajamas in bed, shot four times in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.

Lanza was wearing all black, with an olive-drab utility vest with lots of pockets, during the attack.

As investigators worked to figure out what drove him to lash out with such fury — and why he singled out the school — federal agents said that he had fired guns at shooting ranges over the past several years but that there was no evidence he did so recently as practice for the rampage.

Debora Seifert, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said both Lanza and his mother fired at shooting ranges, and also visited ranges together.

"We do not have any indication at this time that the shooter engaged in shooting activities in the past six months," Seifert said.

Investigators have found no letters or diaries that could explain the attack.

Whatever his motives, normalcy will be slow in revisiting Newtown. Classes were canceled district-wide Monday, though other students in town were expected to return to class Tuesday.

Dan Capodicci, whose 10-year-old daughter attends the school at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, said he thinks it's time for her to get back to classes.

"It's the right thing to do. You have to send your kids back. But at the same time I'm worried," he said. "We need to get back to normal."

Gina Wolfman said her daughters are going back to their seventh- and ninth-grade classrooms tomorrow. She thinks they are ready to be back with their friends.

"I think they want to be back with everyone and share," she said.

Newtown police Lt. George Sinko said whether to send children to school is a personal decision for every parent.

"I can't imagine what it must be like being a parent with a child that young, putting them on a school bus," Sinko said.

The district has made plans to send surviving Sandy Hook students to Chalk Hill, a former middle school in the neighboring town of Monroe. Sandy Hook desks that will fit the small students are being taken there, empty since town schools consolidated last year, and tradesmen are donating their services to get the school ready within a matter of days.

"These are innocent children that need to be put on the right path again," Monroe police Lt. Brian McCauley said.

With Sandy Hook Elementary still designated a crime scene, state police Lt. Paul Vance said it could be months before police turn the school back over to the district.

The shooting has put schools on edge across the country.

Anxiety ran high enough in Ridgefield, Conn., about 20 miles from Newtown, that officials ordered a lockdown at schools after a person deemed suspicious was seen at a train station.

Two schools were locked down in South Burlington, Vt., because of an unspecified threat. A high school in Windham, N.H., was briefly locked down after an administrator heard a loud bang, but a police search found nothing suspicious.

Lanza is believed to have used a Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle, a civilian version of the military's M-16. It is similar to the weapon used in a recent shopping mall shooting in Oregon and other deadly attacks around the U.S. Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in this country under the 1994 assault weapons ban, but the law expired in 2004.

Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced Tuesday it plans to sell its stake in Freedom Group, maker of the Bushmaster rifle, following the school shootings.

Cerberus said in a statement Tuesday that it was deeply saddened by Friday's events, and that it will hire a financial adviser to help with the process of selling its Freedom Group interests.

The outlines of a national debate on gun control have begun to take shape. At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said curbing gun violence is a complex problem that will require a "comprehensive solution."

Carney did not offer specific proposals or a timeline. He said President Barack Obama will meet with law enforcement officials and mental health professionals in coming weeks.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, flanked by shooting survivors and relatives of victims of gunfire around the country, pressed Obama and Congress to toughen gun laws and tighten enforcement after the Newtown massacre.

"If this doesn't do it," he asked, "what is going to?"

At least one senator, Virginia Democrat Mark Warner, said Monday that the attack in Newtown has led him to rethink his opposition to the ban on assault weapons.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is an avid hunter and lifelong member of the National Rifle Association, said it's time to move beyond the political rhetoric and begin an honest discussion about reasonable restrictions on guns.

"This is bigger than just about guns," he added. "It's about how we treat people with mental illness, how we intervene, how we get them the care they need, how we protect our schools. It's just so sad."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Helen O'Neill, John Christoffersen and Katie Zezima in Newtown; Christine Armario in Miami; and Julie Pace in Washington.

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Iran media: Son of ex-president released on bail

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian media say the son of influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been released on bail.

Several papers, including the pro-reform Etemad daily, say Mahdi Hashemi was released late Sunday and immediately went to his father’s home.

Authorities arrested the younger Hashemi in late September, a day after he returned to Iran from Britain.

He is held on charges of fomenting unrest in the aftermath of Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election that brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in office. Hashemi also faced corruption charges.

His arrest came days after his sister, Faezeh, was taken into custody to serve a six-month sentence on charges of making propaganda against Iran’s ruling system.

Since Rafsanjani backed Ahmadinejad’s reformist challenger in 2009, his family has come under pressure from hardliners.

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Modern Etiquette: A bit of netiquette will keep Christmas real

LONDON (Reuters) – Christmas is a convivial time of year when people get together for celebrations and conversation. It’s all about human contact so it’s important that you’re discriminating about how you use your digital devices.

It’s fine if they’re used to facilitate get-togethers and spread seasonal cheer. But Christmas is a real, not a virtual event, so it’s important to discard the phones, tablets and computers and enjoy festive celebrations in the real world.

Christmas cards are still an invaluable and personal way of keeping in touch with far-flung friends and relations.

In these straitened times, however, you might want to cut down the number of cards you send, so it’s fine to explain to your nearest and dearest that you won’t be sending them cards – a personalized seasonal message by text, phone call or email, sent out to individuals, is quite acceptable.

Avoid sending out generic e-cards. They’re lazy and impersonal, and many people will find them lacking in Christmas spirit or just baffling.

If you’re emailing instead of sending a Christmas card, make sure that you send out unique – and individual – messages to each of your recipients. Group emails, like round robins, are to be avoided.

It’s fine to put general seasonal messages on social networking sites, but avoid posting compromising photos.

This is the time of year when we all let our hair down, but not everyone will appreciate the evidence being posted for all to see in cyberspace.

Don’t get too carried away with seasonal cyber-cheer. Spamming your friends and followers with endless Christmas wishes and updates will soon get tedious.

Christmas Day is all about socializing with family and friends, and enjoying good food and good conversation. So don’t spend the big day glued to your phone, rather than interacting with your family.

Ban all phones from the Christmas table.

Eating together is all about sociability and it’s a real insult to the host and/or cook to be transfixed by your texts rather than the turkey and table talk.

Be a good digital host.

Technology is part of our everyday life and Christmas is no exception. If you have friends or family staying in your home, make sure that you have your WiFi password to hand. Offer them access to your network, and hope that everyone adheres to good festive netiquette.

Christmas is the perfect time to make a video call, but choose your timing carefully. Nobody wants to be talking to virtual visitors during lunch or present opening.

Remember the power of the written word.

If you are the lucky recipient of a generous present or lavish hospitality, then hand-writing a proper thank you letter is a much more elegant gesture than texting or emailing, and will be noted and appreciated. It is fine to email or text your thanks for small presents.

(This story has been refiled to fix dateline)

(Jo Bryant is an etiquette advisor and editor at Debrett’s, the UK authority on etiquette and modern manners (www.debretts.com). Any opinions expressed are her own. Debrett’s “Netiquette” is a definitive guide to digital dilemmas and outlines a code of manners for modern communication.)

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Amy Winehouse inquest to be heard again

LONDON (AP) — Officials in London say the inquest into the death of soul singer Amy Winehouse was overseen by a coroner who lacked the proper qualifications and will be re-heard next month.

Camden Council says a new hearing will take place on Jan. 8.

Winehouse was found dead in her London home in July 2011 at age 27. An inquest in October 2011 found the “Back to Black” singer had died of accidental alcohol poisoning.

Assistant deputy coroner Suzanne Greenaway, who oversaw the inquest, resigned the next month after her qualifications were questioned. She had been appointed by her husband, Andrew Reid, the coroner for inner north London.

Reid was suspended, and resigned earlier this month.

Winehouse family spokesman Chris Goodman said Monday that family had not requested a new hearing.

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Draft EU rules open door to plain cigarette packs

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union‘s executive Commission will propose larger health warnings on cigarette packs and a ban on flavorings such as menthol, a draft revision of EU tobacco rules seen by Reuters on Monday showed.

The proposals stop short of forcing all cigarettes to be sold in plain packets carrying graphic health warnings, as required in Australia from the start of this month. But individual EU governments will be free to impose plain packaging if they so wish.

“The proposal foresees that combined warnings (picture plus text) of 75 percent should be displayed on both sides of the packages of tobacco products,” the draft legislation from the European Commission said.

“However, a member state may maintain more stringent national provisions… in areas covered by this directive, on grounds of overriding needs relating to the protection of public health,” it added.

The proposals, due be published on Wednesday, must be jointly approved by EU governments and the European Parliament before they can become law, in a process that could take up to two years.

(Reporting by Charlie Dunmore and Claire Davenport; editing by Rex Merrifield)

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As school resumes, security increases in schools across the nation

Teachers and students across America are confronting the issue of safety and security in the classroom today after a weekend of grappling with the deadly massacre at a grade school in Newtown, Conn.

"It's very important that we address their concerns [about safety]," teacher Lauren Marrocco of New Jersey said. "I think my students will have a lot of questions and, as adults, we don't have answers to those questions."

Near Newtown, one teacher's weekend homework for students was simple: Go home and hug your loved ones. In California, another educator wrote, "I'll be locking my [classroom] door this week to make my students feel safer."

For many, this morning's school drop-off will be a difficult but necessary start to the day.

"I'm not too worried about her, I'm more worried about how I feel and how I'm going to let go of her hand when she gets on the bus," a parent told ABC News.

In Fairfax County, Va., schools sent notice that they would be upping security, not for any specific threat but to alleviate anxiety.

Dr. Steven Marans, head of the National Center of Children Exposed to Violence at Yale University's Child Study Center, said that falling into normal routines can provide comfort.

"One of the ways of demonstrating that their lives are secure and reliable is to have them disrupted as little as possible," he said.

Marans says it is also important not to avoid discussing Friday's events, where 20 children and seven adults were killed before Adam Lanza took his own life.

"We need to acknowledge that we all have big feelings," he said. "This is very sad. This is an opportunity for kids to put into words what their thinking about."

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Nigeria governor, 5 others die in helicopter crash

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A navy helicopter crashed Saturday in the country’s oil-rich southern delta, killing a state governor and five other people, in the latest air disaster to hit Africa’s most populous nation, officials said.

Nigeria‘s ruling party said in a statement that the governor of the central Nigerian state of Kaduna, Patrick Yakowa, died in the helicopter crash in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The People’s Democratic Party’s statement described Yakowa’s death as a “colossal loss.”

The statement said the former national security adviser, General Andrew Azazi, also died in the crash. Azazi was fired in June amid growing sectarian violence in Nigeria, but maintained close ties with the government.

Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, said four other bodies had been found, but he could not immediately give their identities.

The crash occurred at about 3:30 p.m. after the navy helicopter took off from the village of Okoroba in Bayelsa state where officials had gathered to attend the burial of the father of a presidential aide, said Commodore Kabir Aliyu. He said that the helicopter was headed for Nigeria’s oil capital of Port Harcourt when it crashed in the Nembe area of Bayelsa state.

Aviation disasters remain common in Nigeria, despite efforts in recent years to improve air safety.

In October, a plane made a crash landing in central Nigeria. A state governor and five others sustained injuries but survived.

In June, a Dana Air MD-83 passenger plane crashed into a neighborhood in the commercial capital of Lagos, killing 153 people onboard and at least 10 people on the ground. It was Nigeria’s worst air crash in nearly two decades.

In March, a police helicopter carrying a high-ranking police official crashed in the central Nigerian city of Jos, killing four people.

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The Surface might be even more overpriced than the iPad

Everyone knows that Apple (AAPL) gets away with charging a premium for its wares because its fans have shown they’re willing to pay more money for their favorite products than fans of, say, Samsung (005930) and Amazon (AMZN) are willing to pay. This practice has led to enormous gross margins for Apple products but has not spawned many imitators because few companies command the sort of loyalty that Apple does. But Microsoft (MSFT) apparently believes it can pull off the trick with its Surface tablet, which is actually priced higher relative to its component costs than Apple’s iPad.

[More from BGR: Has the iPhone peaked? Apple’s iPhone 4S seen outselling iPhone 5]

Fortune uses some data from IHS iSuppli to show that the 32GB Surface’s screen, processor, battery, RAM and storage cost $ 271, or $ 22 less than the same components of a 32GB version of the new iPad. What this means is that based solely on the cost of its components, the Surface would haul in a profit of $ 315 for every 32GB Surface sold while Apple would make $ 296 for every new iPad sold. This doesn’t take into account manufacturing and marketing costs, of course, so we can’t look at it as a definitive count of each tablet’s gross margin.

[More from BGR: Sony’s PlayStation 4 could lose to the next Xbox before it’s even released]

All the same, Microsoft’s belief that it can grab iPad-like margins for the Surface stands in stark contrast with Amazon and Google (GOOG), who are making little if any money selling the Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7, respectively.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Actor Depardieu hits back at French PM over tax exile

PARIS (Reuters) – Actor Gerard Depardieu, accused by French government leaders of trying to dodge taxes by buying a house over the border in Belgium, retorted that he was leaving because “success” was now being punished in his homeland.

A popular and colourful figure in France, the 63-year-old Depardieu is the latest wealthy Frenchman to seek shelter outside his native country after tax increases by Socialist President Francois Hollande.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described Depardieu’s behavior as “pathetic” and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt.

“Pathetic, you said pathetic? How pathetic is that?” Depardieu said in a letter distributed to the media.

“I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned,” he said.

An angry member of parliament has proposed that France adopt a U.S.-inspired law that would force Depardieu or anyone trying to escape full tax dues to forego their nationality.

The “Cyrano de Bergerac” star recently bought a house in Nechin, a Belgian village a short walk from the border with France, where 27 percent of residents are French nationals, and put up his sumptuous Parisian home up for sale.

Depardieu, who has also inquired about procedures for acquiring Belgian residency, said he was handing in his passport and social security card.

Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti said she was outraged by Depardieu’s letter, adding that he had for years been supported financially by public money for the film industry.

“When we abandon the ship and desert in the middle of an economic war, you don’t then come back and give morality lessons,” she told BFM-TV. “One can only regret that Gerard Depardieu doesn’t make a comeback in silent movies.”

He said he had paid 145 million euros ($ 190.08 million) in taxes since beginning work as a printer at the age of 14.

“People more illustrious than me have gone into (tax) exile. Of all those that have left none have been insulted as I have.”

The actor’s move comes three months after Bernard Arnault, chief executive of luxury giant LVMH and France’s richest man, caused an uproar by seeking to establish residency in Belgium – a move he said was not for tax reasons.

Belgian residents do not pay wealth tax, which in France is now levied on those with assets over 1.3 million euros ($ 1.7 million). Nor do they pay capital gains tax on share sales.

“We no longer have the same homeland,” Depardieu said. “I sadly no longer have a reason to stay here. I’ll continue to love the French and this public that I have shared so much emotion with.”

Hollande is pressing ahead too with plans to impose a 75-percent supertax on income over 1 million euros.

“Who are you to judge me, I ask you Mr. Ayrault, prime minister of Mr. Hollande? Despite my excesses, my appetite and my love of life, I remain a free man.”

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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