The number of gay and bisexual men contracting HIV rose over the past 20 years because of a rise in the number having unprotected sex, new research shows.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 20 million new STD cases are diagnosed every year

Sir Elton John and the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will today join forces to support a Valentine's Day campaign to raise awareness of Aids.

Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger have emerged in several US court cases, always protective of rapist priests

Mike Freer hesitated for a long time over whether to say anything at all when his fellow MPs argued over whether to legalise gay marriage. He is one of the newer MPs and it was not widely known in Parliament that he is gay.

After a turbulent history, stigma still surrounds Aids in the Rainbow nation

“Unsafe sexual behaviour” and a lack of testing is being blamed for a failure to cut the number of cases of HIV among gay and bisexual men in the last decade.

In the last 50 years our diet has been transformed. From boiled beef and carrots to a Big Mac and fries, we have moved from a world of shortages and post-war rationing to one of overabundance.

This week's questions are answered by Jared Diamond, an American scientist and the author of the bestselling ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel

Spencer Cox, who died in New York of Aids-related causes on 18 December aged 44, was an Aids activist who helped form an organisation to boost treatment research and recently appeared in a documentary about an Aids coalition.

Sir Ian McKellen has told how he feared the worst when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

If you find it hard to lose weight, be glad you're not an actor. Playing an emaciated waif can mean mad, bad and dangerous eating plans, says Gillian Orr

From art to sport, poetry to nature, travel to food, history to music: our writers select the best of the year’s books in a comprehensive guide to the highlights in every shade of the literary spectrum – except grey

Our writer, who saw an unlikely champion of gay rights fight for his beliefs in an African court, says that there are grounds for optimism in the battle for equality there