Don't enter your PIN number in an ATM machine or you'll get the HIV virus. Shshsh..

Are newspaper editors really any good? One expects them to have an advanced knowledge of the language of the newspaper, but the editors of Gulf News, the paper that I love to hate, don't seem to have that.

In an article on the reasons for decline of the Muslim world, the writer, Hussein Haqqani writes,

and the melons were contaminated with the HIV virus, which causes Aids. No one paid any attention to the fact that the HIV virus cannot be transmitted by eating melons.

What is it with people saying 'HIV virus'? Do they even know what the abbreviation 'HIV' stands for? It's Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Saying 'HIV virus' is redundant. In fact, it's saying 'Human Immunodeficiency Virus virus'.

Other examples that I've heard include ATM machine [Automated Teller Machine machine] and PIN number [Personal Identification Number number.]

Are the editors of Gulf News way too busy munching on bakhlaweh and gahwah to actually do their job and edit out the mistakes of the writers?