DHAKA: Rock star Elton John teamed up with the Obama administration to launch a new US$7 million fund to provide access to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services in South Africa.

The fund will be established for men who have sex with men and transgender people in the nation, the only African country where same-sex marriage is legal.

The British pop music icon lent star power to the State Department when he met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in his private offices to discuss the roll out of the project, part of efforts to create a world free of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (Aids).

‘We all work together to ensure that in this day and age, nobody gets left behind no matter what their sexuality, their colour, or whatever. It’s important,’ John told reporters, according to The Straits Times.

BDST: 2052 HRS, OCT 25, 2014