Notable dates in the AIDS epidemic

Key dates in the AIDS epidemic:

—June 5, 1981: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports five gay men in Los Angeles are suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with failing immune systems.

A world first: AIDS vaccine cuts the risk of HIV infection by 31 percent in large Thai study

BANGKOK — For the first time, an experimental vaccine has prevented infection with the AIDS virus, a watershed event in the deadly epidemic and a surprising result. Recent failures led many scientists to think such a vaccine might never be possible.

Jewish group and AIDS-awareness campaigners protest safe-sex video featuring Hitler

BERLIN — A German AIDS awareness group has come under fire for posting an online video that starts off with a young couple having sex in an apartment before revealing the male to be a grinning Adolf Hitler.

Top China official in volatile, protest-wracked Urumqi sacked amid public syringe attack fears

URUMQI, China — Chinese leaders bowed to public demands and sacked the head of a western city wracked by communal violence and a bizarre string of needle attacks, hoping to calm uneasy mobs and end protests that percolated for a third day Saturday.

Libya’s Gadhafi welcomes Lockerbie bomber, praises Scotland for decision to free him

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi welcomed with a hug the only man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and praised Scotland’s leaders for “their courageously right and humanitarian decision” to release him.

Residents demand answers in NC city where 6 women have been killed and 3 others are missing

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. — They spent their nights jumping in and out of strange cars, trolling otherwise empty streets lined with decaying storefronts and boarded-up homes. Many sold sex to support drug habits or children left in the care of worried, hardworking grandmothers.

South Africa tests AIDS vaccine its scientists developed with help from US

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africa is launching clinical trials of the first AIDS vaccines created by a developing country, a feat by scientists who forged ahead even when some of their political leaders shocked the world with unscientific pronouncements about the disease.

In South Africa’s evolving democracy, a white woman muscles in on black-dominated politics

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Helen Zille has a sharp tongue and a short fuse, and she doesn’t dodge a fight. In apartheid times she enraged South Africa’s white rulers, and lately she has ruffled South Africa’s black political establishment.

GlaxoSmithKline posts 13 percent drop in 1Q net profit as US pharma business slumps

LONDON — GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second largest drug maker by revenues, posted a 13 percent drop in net profit for the first quarter on Wednesday, as strong sales in Europe and emerging markets were offset by a poor performance in its U.S. pharmaceutical business.

Researchers for natural approach to HIV vaccine

WASHINGTON - For the past 25 years, researchers have tried and failed to develop an HIV vaccine, their entire focus being on a small number of engineered ’super antibodies’ to fend off the virus before it takes hold.

Spiritual kids tend to be healthier

WASHINGTON - Spiritual kids are more likely to be healthier, just like their adult counterparts, according to a new study.

Don’t criminalise our clients, say sex workers

NEW DELHI - A grouping of sex workers said Thursday that proposed changes in law that will treat clients as criminals will hit hard their earnings.