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Philippines' Duterte says drugs war will go on, despite criticism
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday vowed to forge on with his controversial war on drugs and said no amount of criticism or international pressure would deter him. Delivering his annual State of the Nation address, Duterte said his critics at home and abroad should focus on using their influence to educate Filipinos of the ills of illicit drugs.
Hopes for future HIV cure revived as South African child becomes third in remission
A South African child born with HIV has surprised experts by appearing to be effectively cured of the AIDS virus after just a year of treatment followed by eight and a half years drug-free. Patients with HIV would normally need to stay on antiretroviral (ART) drugs for the rest of their lives to keep AIDS at bay. But this child, still off treatment and now almost 10 years old, has no signs of the disease. This and other recent, isolated cases of remission have given additional hope to the 37 million people worldwide infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Yet experts urged caution, saying the case is extremely rare does not suggest a simple path to a cure. Prince Harry and Rihanna get tested for HIV 00:52 "It's a case that raises more questions than it necessarily answers," said Linda-Gail Bekker, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), which is holding a conference in Paris this week. "It does raise the interesting notion that maybe treatment isn't for life. (But) it's clearly a rare phenomenon." The child, whose name and gender were not disclosed, was part of a clinical trial in which researchers were investigating the effect of treating HIV-positive babies in the first few weeks of life, and then stopping and starting the ART medicines whilst checking whether their HIV was being controlled. The United Nations HIV/AIDS agency said last week that 19.5 million people - more than half of the 37 million patients with HIV - are now on treatment. The vast majority of patients with HIV suffer an increase in the amount of the virus circulating in the body if they stop treatment, but this child was different, the South African researchers said. Naomi Campbell 'stands in solidarity' with millions of women on World AIDS day 00:27 "To our knowledge, this is the first case of sustained virological control from a randomized trial of ART interruption following early treatment of infants," they said in a summary of findings presented at the IAS conference on Monday. The baby contracted HIV from its mother. Treatment with ART started when it was almost nine weeks old but was interrupted at 40 weeks when the virus had been suppressed, and the child was monitored regularly for any signs of relapse. "At age 9.5 years, the child was clinically asymptomatic," the researchers said. Sharon Lewin, an HIV expert at the University of Melbourne and co-chair of the IAS's HIV Cure and Cancer forum, said the case threw up possible insights into how the human immune system can control HIV replication when treatment is interrupted. Yet in terms of the scientific search for a cure for HIV and AIDS, she told Reuters, it appeared only to confirm previous reports of similarly rare cases. "We know that very rarely, people who have had treatment and stopped it are then able to control the virus." The HIV/AIDS pandemic has killed around 35 million people worldwide since it began in the 1980s.
How many people are killed by terrorist attacks in the UK?
London has been rocked by a fourth terror attack in three months, when a man drove a van into a crowd of Muslim worshippers in Finsbury Park. Prime Minister Theresa May has chaired a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee in response to the attack, condemning the "terrible incident". But despite this latest attack, relatively few people have been killed by terrorist attacks in the UK in recent years. Victims of terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom Previously, a senior Whitehall source revealed the security services have foiled five attacks in the two months since the Westminster attack. Defending against accusations that MI5 had been repeatedly warned the Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, was dangerous, the source outlined the scale of the job facing counter-terrorism officials. Partly because of this, the number of people killed by acts of terrorism has remained low compared to other countries - with 13 people dying because of terrorism in the UK since between 2010 and 2015. Terror is killing far fewer people in the UK now than it was in the 1980s Between 2000 and 2015, 90 people have been killed in the UK in terrorist attacks, according to figures from the Global Terrorism Database. Although not on British soil, a further 30 British people were killed in Tunisia when a gunman attacked a hotel popular among Western tourists. This compares to 1,094 deaths in the 15-year period before that, between 1985 and 1999, and a further 2,211 between 1970 and 1984. The worst year for terrorism-related deaths in the UK was 1988, when 372 people died. The majority of these died in the Lockerbie disaster, when 270 were killed as a Pan Am transatlantic flight was destroyed by a bomb. Since 1970, Northern Ireland has seen the most terrorism-related deaths out of any nation in the UK, with IRA-related terrorism plaguing the nation for decades. 1972 saw the peak of this violence, with 353 people killed in Northern Ireland - out of a total of 368 in the whole of the UK. How does the UK's terror threat compare with the rest of Europe? Since 1970, the UK has faced the most deaths as a result of terrorism in Western Europe - totalling 3,395. Spain is the next worst-hit, with 1,261 deaths since 1970. 2004 was the country's worst year for terrorism, when 192 people died as Madrid bombings. Victims of terrorist attacks in Western Europe 1988 was the worst year for terror in Western Europe, when 440 people in total were killed in attacks - the majority being killed in the Lockerbie bombing. In 2015, France saw its worst ever attack in Paris when nine terrorists killed 130 people at multiple locations across the capital. Over the last 10 years there have been 1.4 deaths per year in the UK due to terrorism - which, according to research from BuzzFeed, means you're more likely to be killed by dogs (18 deaths per year), hot water (100 deaths per year) or using your phone while driving (2,920 deaths per year). UK terror threat timeline Despite public concern, the terror threat in Europe is relatively low Terrorism is becoming an increasing concern for Europe's people, with the UK's own threat level set at "severe" - but the figures show that Europe is one of the safest areas in the world for terrorist-related incidents. While there have been several large attacks in Western Europe in recent years, the number of people killed by terrorism in this region is relatively low compared to other parts of the world. The Global Terrorism Index found that 38,422 people were killed in terrorist attacks across the world in 2015. The majority of these were in the Middle East and North Africa, where 17,752 died in terror attacks. Sub-Saharan Africa was the next worst-hit, followed by South Asia. Since 1970, the Index has counted 106,539 deaths in this region, out of a worldwide total of 348,759 - compared to 6,400 deaths in Western Europe.
California crews hold wildfire in check, let more residents go home
California authorities battling a massive wildfire near Yosemite National Park lifted evacuation orders on Sunday for more residents but said firefighters may need almost two more weeks to fully contain the blaze. The Detwiler Fire was 45 percent contained, a slight improvement from Saturday, after burning 76,250 acres (30,857 hectares) and more than 130 structures, including 63 homes, since it broke out on Monday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. Evacuation orders were lifted by midday Sunday for much of the historic gold rush era town of Coulterville and nearby areas as firefighters completed firelines to contain the blaze, Cal Fire said in a statement.
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