World News

Post links to articles about what is going on around the world. Since most of us will be on either Deathbatcountry, Youtube or 4chan all hours of the day, let's try to keep a reality check with this thread.

For instance:

Yesterday may be the day that scientists feel they have found a cure for AIDs.

http://www.aidsmap.com/page/1577949/?r=1

Doctors who carried out a stem cell transplant on an HIV-infected man with leukaemia in 2007 say they now believe the man to have been cured of HIV infection as a result of the treatment, which introduced stem cells which happened to be resistant to HIV infection.

The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells. The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection.

woke up this morning to the heartbreaking site of the city of Christchurch in New Zealand having been devastated by a second huge earthquake in just a few months. The last one measured 7.1 on the richter scale back in September and left the city weakend but thankfully no-one dead. This one was 6.3 and destroyed huge parts of the city and so far the deathtoll stands at 65. It also caused 30 million tonnes of ice to shatter off of the Tasman Glacier west of the city.

We spent 6 months in NZ and my bf and I pretty much adopted it as our second home, seeing the country in such a state, particularly somewhere we walked around and spent time and made friends, it's really hard.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected at the moment.