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Corruption and poor oversight have undermined South Africa's fight against HIV/ Aids, a new report says . The authors, the Institute of Security Studies and Transparency International, say there has been a "potentially lethal cocktail of mismanagement". They blame South Africa's president for questioning the link between HIV and Aids and say his stance has had an impact on the whole health system. South Africa has the highest incidence of Aids in the world. The report, titled A Lethal Cocktail, says 30% of the population is infected. 'Lives endangered' Politicisation of the disease has created numerous channels for abuse and is undermining attempts to counter it, the report says. The authors conclude that it has become difficult to disentangle corruption from mismanagement and system failure as the root causes of the poor response to Aids. Much of the responsibility is laid at the door of President Thabo Mbeki, whose well-known questioning of the link between ...

Mice carrying a gene which appears to make them invulnerable to cancer may hold the key to safer and more effective treatments for humans. The new breed, created with a more active "Par-4" gene, did not develop tumours, and even lived longer, said the journal Cancer Research. University of Kentucky researchers said a human cancer treatment was possible. Cancer Research UK said that more research would be needed to prove it didn't just work in mice. We are thinking of this as a holistic approach that not only would get rid of the tumour, but not harm the organism as a whole Dr Vivek Rangnekar University of Kentucky Par-4 was originally discovered in the early 1990s working inside human prostate cancers, and is believed to have a role in "programmed cell death", the body's own system for rooting out and destroying damaged or faulty cells. The Kentucky team used an existing mouse breed known to be more vulnerable to cancers to test whether Par-4 could be used ...

US stocks have closed up strongly on Wall Street after comments from a Federal Reserve official boosted hopes of an interest rate cut next month. Banks and other financial stocks led the gains after Fed vice-chairman Donald Kohn said the central bank needed to be "flexible and pragmatic". Mr Kohn said this was required as the recent credit market squeeze was worse than previously thought. The main Dow Jones index ended up 2.6% or 332 points to 13,290. Taken together with the Dow's rise on Tuesday, it represents its biggest two-day gain in five years. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq index added 3.2% or 82 points to 2,663. The markets were further boosted by further falls in global oil prices. Sub-prime debt A further interest rate cut from the Fed would help ease the credit markets by making it cheaper for banks to lend and borrow money. The Beige Book report indicates the economy is deteriorating, though not falling off a cliff Doug Roberts, Channel Capital Research The Fed last l...

The US dollar slid to a new record low against the euro, as investors bet that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates to help the economy this week. The dollar hit a record low against the euro in early Monday trading at $1.4438 - before pulling back to $1.4423 by late trade in New York. Lower interest rates can weaken a currency as investors move funds to assets that enjoy a higher return. The dollar's slide helped drive oil prices to a new record above $93. It also contributed to gold prices rallying to a 28-year high. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, is widely expected to cut interest rates by at least a quarter of a percentage point to 4.5% on Wednesday to limit economic damage from the housing market downturn. Dollar 'heading south' The dollar has been sliding since the Federal Reserve slashed rates from 5.25% to 4.75% in September in a bid to boost confidence in the world's largest economy. "Regardless of the size of the cut anticipated by the ...

Women living and working in the city have a higher risk of breast cancer, researchers say. The study of 972 women by London's private Princess Grace Hospital found city women had much denser breasts. Previous research has shown those with the densest breast were four times more likely to develop cancer. Researchers, presenting the study to the Radiological Society of North America, said air pollution was likely to be the cause of denser breasts. It is thought air pollution contains tiny particles that mimic female sex hormones and can disrupt the make up of breasts. Women who live or work in cities should pay greater attention to breast screening Kefah Mokbel, researcher Professor Kefah Mokbel, one of the researchers, said: "Women who live or work in cities should pay greater attention to breast screening. Ironically, uptake of breast screening is lower cities like London than in the countryside. "The other implication is that we have to focus on better traffic managemen...

Doctors must take body weight into account when reading test results for prostate cancer as obesity may distort the findings, a US study argues. Obese men have more blood so the concentration of antigen, a marker for the disease, is lower, a team found. The North Carolina study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 14,000 patients. It may explain why obese men seem to have more aggressive cancers, as tumours may initially be missed. The test for prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, is known to be notoriously unreliable. It's as if you dissolve a tablet in a cup of water versus a tub of water Dr Stephen Freedland About a third of men with raised PSA levels will not have cancer, and will undergo unnecessary invasive tests. Meanwhile, the test sometimes misses prostate cancer, as highlighted in this study. "We've known for a while that obese men tend to have lower PSA scores than normal weight men, but our study really proposes a reason why th...

Aids: A South African success story By Martin Plaut year ago, when I visited a squatter camp called Freedom Park, north-west of Johannesburg, I met a young orphan called Bongani.It's a rough, tough area, that is home to 20,000 people - and Aids has decimated this community. Half the women who come for antenatal tests are HIV positive. Bongani lived in a small yellow painted hut, with his grandmother. He had lost his mother, his father and his aunt in the past year. He was very sick with diarrhoea and had not been to school in two weeks. He was very small for his age but somehow they were struggling through. The plight of Bongani was not unusual - indeed I was told that he was lucky because he had a grandmother. Many children who lose their parents to HIV and Aids have no-one. Change Now on my return to Freedom Park, the transformation is remarkable. He looks and feels well and has grown a lot in the past year. Last Updated: Wednesday, 1 December 2004, 11:27 GMT E-mail this to a ...

The joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) has dramatically reduced its estimate of the number of people living with HIV around the world. According to the new statistics, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV globally, down from the 39.5 million estimate made at the end of 2006. Much of the reduction can be attributed to better surveillance techniques now being used in many countries, most notably India. Earlier this year, India reduced its HIV estimate by around 3 million people after numbers from a large household survey showed HIV prevalence was much lower than previous antenatal clinic and surveillance site data had suggested. This trend has been echoed in several other countries, and has led UNAIDS to adjust antenatal survey estimates downwards by an average factor of 0.8 for the 2007 report. Antenatal surveys are considered less accurate than more general population sampling, as many of the women that access antenatal clinics will be (by default) more sexual...

The US dollar tumbled to fresh lows against the euro as investors bet that the Federal Reserve will have to substantially reduce US interest rates. The dollar sell-off saw the currency slump to as low as $1.4966 against the euro, before rebounding to $1.4796. It also sank against the Japanese yen, reaching two-and-a-half year lows, and weakened against the Chinese yuan. Many analysts are expecting the Federal Reserve will cut rates in an effort to revive spluttering economic growth. Rates divide Interest rates are not expected to fall as quickly in the UK, Japan or Europe. Lower interest rates tend to weaken a currency because investors are typically looking for assets that offer high returns. There are worries that US interest rate cuts will be front-loaded while rate cuts in the rest of the world will take longer to materialise Mansoor Mohi-Uddin. UBS currency strategist On Friday, the dollar sank below 108 yen for the first time since 2005. It has lost about 3% against the Japanese...

The US dollar tumbled to fresh lows against the euro as investors bet that the Federal Reserve will have to substantially reduce US interest rates. The dollar sell-off saw the currency slump to as low as $1.4966 against the euro, before rebounding to $1.4796. It also sank against the Japanese yen, reaching two-and-a-half year lows, and weakened against the Chinese yuan. Many analysts are expecting the Federal Reserve will cut rates in an effort to revive spluttering economic growth. Rates divide Interest rates are not expected to fall as quickly in the UK, Japan or Europe. Lower interest rates tend to weaken a currency because investors are typically looking for assets that offer high returns. There are worries that US interest rate cuts will be front-loaded while rate cuts in the rest of the world will take longer to materialise Mansoor Mohi-Uddin. UBS currency strategist On Friday, the dollar sank below 108 yen for the first time since 2005. It has lost about 3% against the Japanese...

European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaus Liebscher said Monday he sees no risk of stagflation in the euro zone, since economic growth seems solid. Economists and analysts have voiced concerns that the U.S. economy could enter a phase of stagflation following the subprime credit crisis and the rise in the price of crude oil, but Liebscher dismissed a question on whether such a scenario could happen in the euro zone. "How can we talk about stagflation when we see growth in the euro zone of around potential?" Liebscher said to reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Vienna. Liebscher added, however, that "risks to economic growth are on the downside, and risks to price stability on the upside." He declined to flag whether the ECB governing council is looking to hike interest rates at its next meeting. "We have no precommitment on whether to raise rates," Liebscher said, adding that "everything is data related." Liebscher had said e...

The dollar slipped against the euro and the yen Monday as a major investment bank offered a grim outlook for major banks and a homebuilders' group delivered a bleak housing forecast. The 13-nation euro bought $1.4667 in late New York trading, slightly above its level of $1.4659 Friday. The dollar also declined against the Japanese currency, falling to 109.85 yen from 110.82 yen late Friday. But the dollar edged up against the pound, as the British currency slipped to $2.0497 Monday from $2.0515. The dollars also rose to 98.31 Canadian cents from 97.48 cents last Friday. This week's Thanksgiving break in the United States, along with a three-day weekend in Japan, led to thin trading. Goldman Sachs downgraded large banks and estimated Citigroup Inc. would have to write down $15 billion due to its exposure to risky debt over the next two quarters. Investors fear the housing market may finally prove a drag on consumer spending, which has buoyed the U.S. economy during the persisten...

UK patients are now eligible to receive a new type of HIV drug - the first new oral class of HIV/Aids treatment in more than a decade. Pfizer's Celsentri (maraviroc) blocks HIV's entry to immune system cells. Although it is not a cure, it can help patients who have not responded to other available HIV drugs. HIV charities welcomed the drug's arrival, which has taken Pfizer 10 years to develop at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Novel action A cocktail of three drugs collectively called HAART (highly active anti-retroviral therapy) has dramatically improved the life expectancy of patients with HIV, but resistance to these drugs is a problem. Maraviroc was approved in the US in August, where it is marketed under the name of Selzentry. It is taken in combination with other anti-retroviral drugs, but works in an entirely new way. It blocks a microscopic doorway - the CCR5 receptor - which HIV uses to enter and infect human cells called CD4-T-cells. All other currently...

Cannabis compound 'halts cancer' A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe. The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports. The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana. They added that it would be highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking cannabis. This compound offers the hope of a non-toxic therapy that could achieve the same results without any of the painful side effects Lead researcher Dr Sean McAllister CBD works by blocking the activity of a gene called Id-1 which is believed to be responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumour site - a process called metastasis. Past w...

Cannabis compound 'halts cancer' A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe. The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports. The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana. They added that it would be highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking cannabis. This compound offers the hope of a non-toxic therapy that could achieve the same results without any of the painful side effects Lead researcher Dr Sean McAllister CBD works by blocking the activity of a gene called Id-1 which is believed to be responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumour site - a process called metastasis. Past w...

Mexico's peso closed weaker against the dollar Monday as local stocks came under heavy selling along with other emerging markets. The peso was quoted closing in Mexico City at MXN10.9125 to the dollar, compared with MXN10.9285 at the opening and MXN10.8725 at Friday's close. Emerging market stocks were hard hit as investor worries about the economic fallout from U.S. financial sector problems led them to cut back on riskier assets. The Mexican stock market's IPC index was down 2.8%, despite gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. "The main factor acting against the peso in the short term is the perception of lower growth in the U.S.," the Invex brokerage said in its weekly outlook. With people still thinking the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut interest rates further, and the Bank of Mexico not expected to raise the local overnight rate again this year, the peso should find support, Invex said, but added that in "a moment of great nervousness, that condition...

Currency investors, wary of turmoil in the markets as write-downs blamed on the credit crisis accumulate, backed away from investing in high-yielding currencies with the yen and Swiss franc. The so-called yen-carry trade involves selling off the low-yielding Japanese currency in favor of currencies in countries with higher interest rates. The U.S. currency rose against the euro and the pound Monday. The dollar bounce was "a corrective upward move," said Ashraf Laidi, chief currency analyst at CMC Markets U.S. "This is not a reflection of an improving landscape for the U.S. dollar." The euro bought $1.4554 late in the afternoon, down from $1.4673 Friday and well below its all-time record of $1.4752, reached earlier in Friday's session. The British pound, which has been trading at its highest levels against the dollar since the early 1980s, sank to $2.0595 from $2.0909 The unwinding of the yen-carry trade sent the yen higher, with the dollar falling as far as 109....

Stock markets in the US and Europe saw mixed fortunes as the scale of the impact of the US sub-prime crisis on the banking industry dominated trading. After a volatile session, the Dow Jones closed down 55.2 points at 12,987.5, falling below the 13,000 mark for the first time since August. But shares closed up in London and Paris on suggestions that banks will be able to weather the credit crisis. Bank stocks have fallen in recent days on fears of further heavy losses. Market mood US banks Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have all revealed huge liabilities from mortgage-backed investments whose value has plummeted due to the US housing slump. Further gloomy news came from E-Trade Financial Corp whose shares fell more than 50% after it said the value of its mortgage-backed securities had reduced sharply. There is a fear that things are going to get worse rather than better Peter Cardillo, Avalon Partners The firm insisted it could absorb write-downs of up to $1bn and still c...

Al Gore is to become a partner of a US private equity firm with a history of supporting "green technology". The ex vice-president and environmental activist is to join the board of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers. He will lead investments in alternative energy sources and firms involved in areas such as recycling, alternative fuel and water purification. Mr Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his work as a climate change campaigner. Technological solutions Mr Gore won an Oscar for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth which warned of the imminent and catastrophic danger to the planet of global warming. Mr Gore is already heavily involved in supporting energy technology solutions through his investment fund Generation Investment Management (GIM). We are resolved to help business and government leaders accelerate the development of sustainable solutions Al Gore GIM is forming an alliance with Kleiner to discover and fund businesses with the "greate...

Flotation costs knock Blackstone Blackstone logo Blackstone said conditions were trickier for private equity buyouts Private equity firm Blackstone has reported a third-quarter loss, hit by flotation costs and lower income from property following sub-prime problems. Blackstone reported a loss of $113.2m (£54.8m) compared with net income of $372.5m in the same period a year ago. The loss stemmed partly from $802.6m worth of charges after the firm listed its shares in June this year. The housing slowdown contributed to a broader squeeze in the commercial property sector, said the firm. Revenue from its real estate business fell to $109.1m from $196.1m for the quarter, said Blackstone. However, overall revenue climbed to $526.7m from $461.5m a year earlier. Tougher climate In the wake of the credit crisis, financing deals had become harder, Blackstone said, and that had led to a "dampening effect" for new private equity buyouts. "It will be difficult to structure very large...

Flotation costs knock Blackstone Blackstone logo Blackstone said conditions were trickier for private equity buyouts Private equity firm Blackstone has reported a third-quarter loss, hit by flotation costs and lower income from property following sub-prime problems. Blackstone reported a loss of $113.2m (£54.8m) compared with net income of $372.5m in the same period a year ago. The loss stemmed partly from $802.6m worth of charges after the firm listed its shares in June this year. The housing slowdown contributed to a broader squeeze in the commercial property sector, said the firm. Revenue from its real estate business fell to $109.1m from $196.1m for the quarter, said Blackstone. However, overall revenue climbed to $526.7m from $461.5m a year earlier. Tougher climate In the wake of the credit crisis, financing deals had become harder, Blackstone said, and that had led to a "dampening effect" for new private equity buyouts. "It will be difficult to structure very large...

About 6,000 middle-aged or older women in the UK develop cancer each year because they are obese or overweight, a Cancer Research UK-funded study says. The study, which looked at 45,000 cases of cancer in 1m women over seven years, says this is about 5% of such cases. It is published online by the British Medical Journal and blames excess fat for 50% of cases of womb cancer and a type of oesophageal cancer. Last week an international study warned of the link between cancer and weight. 'Bigger impact' The World Cancer Research Fund warned that carrying excess weight significantly increased the risk of cancer. CANCERS LINKED TO OBESITY Womb Oesophagus Bowel Kidney Leukaemia Breast Multiple myeloma (bone marrow) Pancreatic Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Ovarian Figures indicate that about 23% of all women in England are obese and 34% are overweight. The latest study looked at how often cancers occurred in 1.2m UK women aged 50 to 64 over a seven year period. More than 45,000 cases of...

Scientists have uncovered a stem cell in dogs which could lead to new treatments for bone cancer in children, according to an Edinburgh study. The cancer stem cell makes copies of the disease, enabling it to spread around the body. It appears notoriously resistant to treatment. But by identifying it, it may be possible to work out how to target it. Osteosarcoma in dogs is molecularly similar to bone cancer in children, The Veterinary Journal study noted. The idea that faulty stem cells drive the development of some cancers is gaining momentum Henry Scowcroft of Cancer Research UK It is the most common form of bone tumour in young people, and more than 80% risk losing a limb as a result. "The rogue cancer stem cell is key in the whole process," said Professor David Argyle of the Royal Vet School at the University of Edinburgh. "We identified it by growing cells in particularly harsh conditions but whereas other cancer cells died off, this stem cell was able to survive....

A new type of HIV drug, designed for people who are resistant to other treatments, has been approved by the US authorities. Roche, the makers of Fuzeon are confident it will also win European approval within weeks. Fuzeon is the first of a new class of drugs known as fusion inhibitors. It is designed to combat the growing problem of resistance to older HIV drugs. However, the drug is likely to be very expensive - around $20,000 a year. This drug will extend treatment options for people who are in dire need Michael Carter And it is predicted that as few as 12,000 people world-wide will get the drug by the end of this year. Fuzeon, also known as T-20, has been eagerly awaited because it is the first real alternative treatment in seven years for Aids patients running out of options. Unlike existing drugs that work inside the cell, Fuzeon blocks HIV from entering healthy human immune cells. Impressive results Research published on the New England Journal of Medicine website found that HIV ...

A new type of HIV drug, designed for people who are resistant to other treatments, has been approved by the US authorities. Roche, the makers of Fuzeon are confident it will also win European approval within weeks. Fuzeon is the first of a new class of drugs known as fusion inhibitors. It is designed to combat the growing problem of resistance to older HIV drugs. However, the drug is likely to be very expensive - around $20,000 a year. This drug will extend treatment options for people who are in dire need Michael Carter And it is predicted that as few as 12,000 people world-wide will get the drug by the end of this year. Fuzeon, also known as T-20, has been eagerly awaited because it is the first real alternative treatment in seven years for Aids patients running out of options. Unlike existing drugs that work inside the cell, Fuzeon blocks HIV from entering healthy human immune cells. Impressive results Research published on the New England Journal of Medicine website found that HIV ...

A vitamin made when sunlight hits the skin could help slow down the ageing of cells and tissues, say researchers. A King's College London study of more than 2,000 women found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer ageing-related changes in their DNA. However, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study stops short of proving cause and effect. A lack of vitamin D has already been linked to multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. It's possible that the same sunshine which may increase our risk of skin cancer may also have a healthy effect on the ageing process in general Professor Tim Spector King's College London The genetic material inside every cell has an inbuilt "clock", which counts down every time the cell reproduces itself. The shortening of these strands of DNA called telomeres is one way of examining the ageing process at a cellular level. Snapshot measurement The King's team looked at white blood cells, which tend to experience fas...

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke has warned that the US economy will slow noticeably before the end of the year. He blamed the slowdown on the credit crisis, which has made it harder for banks and individuals to borrow money. He said that there was likely to be more "financial restraint on economic growth as credit becomes more expensive and difficult to obtain". In the longer term, he said that the greater premium attached to risk may lead to a healthier financial system. "Investors have also become more cautious and are demanding greater compensation for bearing risk," he said. Bernanke is in a box and it is getting smaller Christopher Low, FTN Financial The credit crisis, caused by an abundance of debt of questionable value, has made banks more reluctant to lend money. Mr Bernanke acknowledged that this was causing particular problems to homeowners who wanted to refinance their mortgages to offset the end of special offer rates. 'Sluggish growth' Some ...

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke has warned that the US economy will slow noticeably before the end of the year. He blamed the slowdown on the credit crisis, which has made it harder for banks and individuals to borrow money. He said that there was likely to be more "financial restraint on economic growth as credit becomes more expensive and difficult to obtain". In the longer term, he said that the greater premium attached to risk may lead to a healthier financial system. "Investors have also become more cautious and are demanding greater compensation for bearing risk," he said. Bernanke is in a box and it is getting smaller Christopher Low, FTN Financial The credit crisis, caused by an abundance of debt of questionable value, has made banks more reluctant to lend money. Mr Bernanke acknowledged that this was causing particular problems to homeowners who wanted to refinance their mortgages to offset the end of special offer rates. 'Sluggish growth' Some ...

Oral contraceptives increase the risk of developing cervical cancer, but the risk falls once women stop using them, an Oxford-led international study says. The Lancet study of 52,000 women found the risk increased with the length of time oral contraceptives were used. But after a 10-year break from the pill, a woman's risk was the same as if she had never taken it, it found. Experts said the additional risks were small but advised women to have regular cervical screening. Past work has linked the pill with a higher breast-cancer risk but a lower risk of ovarian and womb cancer. The international team of researchers looked at more than 52,000 women who had taken part in 24 studies around the world. The take-home message should be that all women must come for screening when invited Professor Ciaran Woodman, University of Birmingham They found that for those who had taken the pill for at least five years, the cervical cancer risk increased to twice that of women who had never taken i...

Alzheimer's cold sore virus link Evidence is building that the cold sore virus may be linked to Alzheimer's disease, an expert says. In lab tests, Manchester University found brains infected with the herpes simplex virus, HSV-1, saw a rise in a protein linked to Alzheimer's. Scientists believe the discovery could pave the way for a vaccine that may help prevent the brain disorder, New Scientist magazine reported. But such a breakthrough was a long-time off, experts said. The researchers infected cultures of human brain cells with the virus and found a "dramatic" increase in levels of the beta amyloid protein - the building blocks of deposits, or plaques, which form in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. A similar increase was seen in the brains of mice infected with HSV-1. In a separate experiment, the team stained brain slices taken from dead Alzheimer's patients and found DNA from HSV-1 attached to the plaques. Gene interaction Previous research has e...

Be thin to cut cancer, study says Even those who are not overweight should slim down if they want to cut their risk of cancer, a major international study has claimed. The World Cancer Research Fund carried out the largest ever inquiry into lifestyle and cancer, and issued several stark recommendations. They include not gaining weight as an adult, avoiding sugary drinks and alcohol, and not eating bacon or ham. Everyone must also aim to be as thin as possible without becoming underweight. People with a Body Mass Index (BMI), a calculation which takes into account height and weight, of between 18.5 and 25, are deemed to be within a "healthy" weight rang But the study says their risk increases as they head towards the 25 mark, and that everyone should try to be as close to the lower end as possible. There is no new research involved in this document: the panel examined 7,000 existing studies over five years. The result, they say, is the most comprehensive investigation ever int...