Girl’s HIV infection seems under control without AIDS drugs

A South African girl born with the AIDS virus has kept her infection suppressed for more than eight years after stopping anti-HIV medicines — more evidence that early treatment can occasionally cause a long remission that, if it lasts, would be a form of cure.

Her case was revealed Monday at an AIDS conference in Paris, where researchers also gave encouraging results from tests of shots every month or two instead of daily pills to treat HIV.

“That’s very promising” to help people stay on treatment, the U.S.’s top AIDS scientist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said of the prospects for long-acting drugs.

Cheetah numbers decline as African habitat shrinks

Amid population declines for many wildlife species in Africa, conservationists are sounding alarm bells for the cheetah, the fastest animal on land.

An estimated 7,100 cheetahs remain in the wild across Africa and in a small area of Iran, and human encroachment has pushed the wide-ranging predator out of 91 percent of its historic habitat, according to a study published on Monday.

Ashwin, Jadeja among wickets as India pushes for victory

Spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were among the wickets on Thursday as India pressed for victory in the third test after dismissing South Africa for a meagre 79.

South Africa was 32-2 in its second innings chasing 310 for victory after India's second innings folded in the interim for 173 in under two sessions.

Study: Bones in South African cave reveal new human relative

Scientists say they've discovered a new member of the human family tree, revealed by a huge trove of bones in a barely accessible, pitch-dark chamber of a cave in South Africa.

Nadine Gordimer, Nobel laureate, activist, dies

Nadine Gordimer was first a writer of fiction and a defender of creativity and expression. But as a white South African who hated apartheid's dehumanization of blacks, she was also a determined political activist in the struggle to end white minority rule in her country.