Finnish media expose black HIV carrier.(Originated from Knight Rider Newspapers)

HELSINKI, Finland _ In this land of white summer nights and butter-yellow blondes, the black man's photograph on the front page of the afternoon tabloid was likely to attract notice. The headline guaranteed it: ``This man has HIV.''

Now, two months after Steven Thomas' face first became a staple feature in the Finnish press, there is hardly a person in Finland who has not heard of the charming 35-year-old American expatriate, an aspiring rap singer, habitue of the Helsinki club scene, and the first person in Finland charged with attempted manslaughter for knowingly spreading the AIDS virus.

With all its racial, sexual, moral and legal complexities, the case has riveted this traditionally tolerant Nordic country, which happens to have the lowest incidence of AIDS in Europe. The Finnish media not only published Thomas' name and picture _ forgoing the common practice of shielding the identity of people infected with HIV _ but they also have chronicled in lurid detail his romantic exploits in Helsinki's free-and-easy nightclubs.

Thomas' sexual habits are now a topic for dissection and debate by talk-show psychiatrists. His television debut as rap artist ``Doggy Steve from Harlem'' has been rebroadcast, and a racy magazine just published a big spread about Thomas' noticeably pregnant Finnish girlfriend, including a full-page shot of Thomas that dwells on his heavily muscled, bare chest.

``For a while, you ...