The number of people living with HIV in North America, Western and Central Europe rose to 1.9 million in 2005, with approximately 65 000 people having acquired HIV in the past year. Wide availability of antiretroviral therapy has helped keep AIDS deaths comparatively low, at about 30 000.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Herbert Lusk II used to walk the streets of Memphis as a self-proclaimed “angry black man.” Now he stands behind a Baptist pulpit and among fellow advisers to the nation’s president.