Doonesbury By Garry Trudeau Grab Bag

Jun 25, 07:28 AM

Current Headlines: Actress Cameron Diaz appears to have committed a major fashion faux pas in Peru.

The voice of Princess Fiona in the animated "Shrek" films could have inadvertently offended Peruvians who suffered decades of violence from a Maoist guerrilla insurgency by touring here Friday with a bag emblazoned with one of Mao Zedong's favorite political slogans.

While she explored the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru's Andes, Diaz wore an olive green messenger bag emblazoned with a red star and the words "Serve the People" printed in Chinese on the flap, perhaps Chinese Communist leader Mao's most famous political slogan.

The phrase has particular resonance in Peru, where the Maoist Shining Path insurgency brought Peru to the edge of chaos in the 1980s and early 1990s with a campaign of massacres, assassinations and bombings. "We're not trying to keep people from dying. We're trying to keep people from dying this way."

The actor is helping start a campaign against Alzheimer's Peru is popular with the geeks, too Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates visited the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco in Peru and is expected to attend a re-enactment of the historic Festival of the Sun.

Gates explored the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu on Saturday, and on Sunday he was to attend a re-enactment of Inti Raymi - or the sun festival - a colorful celebration of the winter solstice that is the most important Incan holiday, local media reported.

Microsoft worked with several universities to develop a Windows version in Quechua, the language of the Incas. It was launched in Peru . actors try to raise awareness of hiv Regina King, Howard Hesseman and Jimmy Jean-Louis of NBC's "Heroes" are among a group of performers getting HIV tests to raise awareness of the spread of the virus in black communities.

They will be screened today in Los Angeles as part of a new campaign called "1 in a Million." The goal is to motivate 1 million black Americans to get tested for HIV/AIDS by Dec. 1, 2008.

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